1906 



815 



American Hee Journal 



II 



Cjonfribufc 

 Articled 



Bee-Keeping vs. Other Rural 

 Pursuits 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE 



Picking up a farming paper lately, I 

 ran across an article which set me to 

 thinking along a little different line 

 from which I usually write for the bee- 

 papers. And as I thought, I said to 

 myself, " Why would it not be a good 

 idea to write out those thoughts for the 

 American Bee Journal?" The result 

 was this : 



A part of what I found reads as fol- 

 lows : "If bees are handled rightly, 

 there is a very big profit in them in 

 comparison to other stock on the farm." 

 That sounds very much as we used to 

 talk a third of a century ago, when 

 honey brought readily from 25 to 30 

 cents a pound. And because some of 

 us would talk that way, a few who did 

 not like such talk for fear of lowering 

 the price of honey, told us that we were 

 hired by the bee-papers so to talk that 

 their subscription list might be boomed; 

 but. if we had any sense at all, we 

 would stop that kind of boomerang, as 

 it would cause an over-production of 

 honey, and the result would be the 

 ruination of our business. And so we 

 stopped, but not because there was an 

 over-production of honey, for there can 

 be no over-production of honey as long 

 as millions of mouths are " watering " 

 for the same without being able to 

 .bring the honey in contact with their 

 mouths, for some reason which it seems 

 impossible for the apiarists of the 

 world to solve. 



If it were possible for these " water- 

 ing' mouths " to consume our product, 

 the shortage of supply would be twice 

 the amount now produced, for there is 

 not one pound at present produced to 

 where 3 pounds would be consumed 

 were the masses as free to eat all the 

 honey they desired, as they are to eat 

 meat, bread, butter, etc. And it seems 

 to me that they would thus consume, if 

 our product could be rightly gotten be- 

 fore the n. 



But now my thoughts turn, and I 

 want to look a moment at the profit in 

 bee-keeping as compared with other 

 kinds of farming. There are scores 

 and hundreds of farmers who are 

 worth from $50,000 to $500,000, say 

 nothing about some of the land mag- 

 nates who control millions of acres of 

 our land with an income from it of 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars a 

 year; but have we a single bee-keeper 

 in the United States who has accumu- 

 lated even the lowest of the figures 

 given, from his bees ? If we have such 

 an one, it has never so appeared before 

 the world. The most known to have 

 been accumulated by any one from the 



apiary was $22,000, which, it was said, 

 that pioneer in bee-keeping, Adam 

 Grimm, was worth at his death. No ! 

 No .' .' there is no " big profit " in the 

 bee-business. But when it comes to a 

 fascinating, health-giving, and enjoy- 

 able pursuit, which will give any en- 

 ergetic man or woman a comfortable 

 living, our pursuit need take no back 

 seat for anything in the world. 



At this moment my eyes chanced to 

 fall upon the following in one of the 

 bee-papers which I picked up while 

 meditating, and as the same is some- 

 what in harmony with my thoughts at 

 this time, I will give that, and my 

 thoughts thereon : 



" If you expect to make a success of 

 the business, you must have a real love 

 for it. If you don't think enough of 

 your bees to take and read a bee-paper, 

 and read one or more of the good text- 

 books that are published on bees, and 

 then put into practise what you read, 

 the sooner you get out of the business, 

 the better off you will be" — all of 

 which I suppose was intended to be 

 included by the writer above quoted in 

 the words, " If bees are handled right- 

 ly." This is just the way I have writ- 

 ten and talked for years, and I believe 

 every word of it, for unless such love 

 is at the bottom of the whole thing, 

 bee-keeping can not become a " fasci- 

 nating, health-giving, and enjoyable 

 pursuit," without which there is no 

 success. 



But suppose a man or woman has no 

 such love for bee-keeping, and so takes 

 the advice given, and "gets out," so 

 as to be better off. Where is such a 

 person going, and what business is he 

 going into to make a success? "To 

 one which he loves," is the answer 

 usually given. But thousands upon 

 thousands do not love any calling in 

 life. What is to be done with them ? 

 Will they not make as good bee-keepers 

 as they will anything else ? 



Further on this writer tells me that 

 "bee-keepers are born, and not made." 

 Well, if this is so, what is the use of 

 giving any instruction to any except 

 those who are " born " bee-keepers ? 

 Why was he writing about reading, 

 posting up, cultivating a love for our 

 pursuit, etc., if all bee-keepers are 

 always "born" instead of made or 

 cultivated ? 



I take the ground that if any person 

 will only put forth the energy neces- 

 sary to make a success of any calling 

 in life, that person will learn to love 

 that calling, whatever it may be. I be- 

 lieve it impossible to put forth a true, 

 manly effort on anything, without 

 learning to live the thing the effort is 

 expended upon ; and loving the same 

 will cause a greater effort to be put 



upon it, thus giving more love, and so 

 on till the thing is an assured success. 



The trouble is that we have so many 

 half-hearted people amongst us, and 

 those who seem to think that the 

 " world owes them a living " anyhow. 

 They start at something in a don't-care 

 sort of way, and when success does 

 not crown their half-hearted efforts, 

 they conclude that they have mistaken 

 their calling, or were not " born " for 

 such a pursuit, sochange to something 

 else which gives no better results for 

 their half-hearted service. Then they 

 change again, and keep changing, till 

 at the end of life the whole thing has 

 been a miserable failure. 



My advice is to choose some calling 

 in life, and then put forth enough of 

 the right kind of effort to cause a love 

 for the calling, when nineteen out of 

 every twenty will succeed. And if you 

 choose bee-keeping, the same will be 

 no exception to the rule. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Queens Entering 

 Hive 



the Wrong 



BY DR. G. BOHRHR 



Dr. Miller and Mr. Root recently dis- 

 cussed the above question in Gleanings, 

 and refer to language used on former 

 occasions in treating the same subject. 

 Without quoting the language of 

 either, I will state at once that, as far 

 as my observation extends concerning 

 young, as .well as old, queens entering 

 other than the hive to which they of 

 right belong, and being accepted or re- 

 jected by the inmates, is a matter that 

 does not seem to be governed by any 

 fixed rule. That some queens are ac- 

 cepted by strange bees on their return 

 from their bridal trip, whether the hive 

 be occupied by an old, middle-aged or 

 a young queen, is a fact ; and that a 

 fertile and laying queen at the head of 

 a colony has been accepted, and the 

 occupant superseded by her, I know to 

 be true. 



In 1869 (I think it was), I purchased 

 a fine queen from Mr. Langstroth, and 

 reared a few queens from her that sea- 

 son. I put her into winter quarters 

 with one of my strongest colonies, and 

 wintered them in the cellar. In April 

 following, after they had been returned 

 to the summer stand, I passed the hive 

 one day and found my fine queen lying 

 dead on the alighting-board of the 

 hive. On opening the hive I found 

 black bees and a black queen on perfect 

 terms of peace with the Italians. 



Upon enquiring of a neighbor, I 

 learned that a weak and starved-out 

 colony of his black bees had deserted 

 their hive on the day previous to the 

 discovery of the loss of my fine queen. 

 The black queen was, of course, not 

 burdened with eggs, while the Italian 

 queen she destroyed was laying eggs 

 quite freely. The bees in this case 

 left to the queen the matter as to which 

 should head the colony. The Italian 

 queen in this case was reared the year 

 before, so that she was not any older 

 than the black queen, and possibly not 

 as old, as I do not know just when the 

 latter was reared. Her being lighter 

 and more active than the Italian queen, 

 on account of not being burdened with 



