American Bee JouR^SiiS'*^ 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. v. 



OCTOBER, 1^60. 



No. 4. 



Practical Bee-Cult\ire. 



Translated for the Amertcan Bee Jour- 

 nal, FROM the German of C. J. H. Graven- 

 horst. 



If a prnrtical and progressive beekeeper, hav- 

 ing a well-appointed apiary in common hives, 

 came to me, expressing a desire to try the mov- 

 able comb system, and asking my advice as to 

 the best mode of proceeding, I should frankly 

 say to him : "It is very laudable on your part to 

 be unwilling longer to lag in the rear, but to 

 aim at improvement and progress. Still, I can 

 on'y consent to give you counsel and aid on 

 condition that you pledge y.-urself to follow 

 implicitly the instructions I give you ; not devi- 

 ating in the slightest, either to the right or" the 

 left,°rrom the course I prescribe. In return for 

 th's, however, I c-in guarantee that your exper- 

 iment fhall result in success ; that is, provided 

 you reside, like myself, in a district of country 

 offering; moderately good spring pasturage, and 

 the blessing of heaven be not wholly withheld. 

 But if the district in which you reside does not 

 present such spring pasturage, I must request 

 you not to apply to me for counsel. In such 

 case, there are o'hers who could serve you much 

 better than I.. Whether movable comb hives 

 are adapted to such a district, is, in my opinion, a 

 yet unsettled question ; and one which^ other 

 beekeepe's will doubtless have occasion tg 

 investigate and decide." 



Should my worthy bee-friend now inquire 

 how I accou'^t for the fact tliat movable comb 

 hives have thus far found so little favor among 

 ordinary beekeepers, I would simply reply : "If 

 the matter be somewhat more closely examined 

 than it usually is, the chief reason will soon 

 become apparent— that is, if we have an oppor- 

 tunity to scrutinize minutely the experiments 

 with movable comb hives which have been 

 made, in various places, by common beekeepers. 

 In the results of tliese experiments, precisely, 

 will be found the ground of the prevalent preju- 

 dice against the new system. I formerly con- 



ceived that the greater cost of movable comb 

 hives was the chief reason why they found so 

 liitle f\xvor with the mass of our beekeepers. I 

 am still of opinion that this is one of the reasons, 

 but by no means the chief. Common beekeep- 

 ers judge in this matter by the results attained,. 

 If in these their anticipations are realized, they 

 are quite ready to disregard the enhanced- cost 

 or the increased trouble attending the adoption 

 of a new system of pr ictice. But, on the con- 

 trary, if they are disappointed in results, they 

 will cleave all the more pertinaciously to their 

 old usages. This is rational, and quite natural. 

 The greater number ot ttie experiments made 

 with movable comb hives, furnished unsatisfac- 

 tory results ; and the disappointed beekeepers 

 attributed this to the new kind of hives em- 

 ployed. That, however, was an erroneous con- 

 clusion. The fault lay, in reality, with the bee- 

 keepers themselves. 



1 . They had not studied and of course did 

 not understand the new system, and managed 

 their bees in movable comb hives precisely as 

 they did when they kept them in the old- 

 fashioned straw and bos iiives. And they did 

 this under the impression that this new kind of 

 hive was of itself to produce the results desired. 

 Was it surprising, then, that the experiments 

 miscarried ? Tlie new system is essentially dif- 

 ferent from the old. It must be studied, that a 

 knowledge of it maybe acquired; but for a bee- 

 keeper of ordinary good seose and tact, tliere is 

 nothing mysterious or magical about it; and 

 proficiency in its processes may easily and 

 speedily be attained 



2. They generally construct their movable 

 comb hives according to their own whims and 

 notions, deviating from the model hives in var- 

 ious particulars, which they conceive to be 

 improvements; and then attribute their failures, 

 not to iheir misconstructed imitations and their 

 blundering management, but to the new system 

 and the movable comb hive. 



3. They commonly commence experimenting 

 with only a single colony, though an old adage 

 says truly, "One hive is no hive." No Uir 

 judgment can be deduced from a single colony 

 in a common hive— much less if it be in oue 

 with movable frames in the hands of a begin- 



