AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



89 



new hive or frame or other contrivance 

 you have been planning so long — drop it. 

 And be a little wary of other people's 

 inventions. Your indorsement is not 

 encessary to save a good thing from ob- 

 livion, and your money can't save a 

 bad one. Don't waste time waiting for 

 some promised invention that is to work 

 wonders. The chances are a thousand 

 to one that it won't come, and like odds 

 that if It comes it will prove worthless. 



Don't get discouraged. Be neither 

 elated nor depressed. Don't give away 

 your bees nor don't destroy them. Crowd 

 them for all they are worth, but go slow 

 on increase. Add as few to the number 

 of your colonies as possible. Feel your 

 way till you know your ground and stick 

 close to your business. The horse with 

 the best staying qualities is the one to 

 bet on. 



Strike while the iron is hot. In bee- 

 keeping work must be don^^ at the right 

 time. To do otherwise is to give success 

 away. If you will do everything at the 

 right time, your work will not crowd 

 you at any period. Get everything ready 

 this winter for the honey season and 

 swarming, and then keep up with your 

 work. 



Finally, don't get excited about new 

 things or new ways. Follow present 

 plans until in your coolest moments you 

 decide a change to be the best. Let 

 others try novelties first. Exercise your 

 intelligence and keep your head level. 

 Sleep well at night, and keep wide 

 awake in the day time. — R. L. Taylok, 

 in Bee-Keeper's Review. 



Bee-Keeping as a Specialty. 



Bee-keeping as a specialty is all right 

 in exceptionally good localities ; but 

 there are but few localities in the United 

 States where it can be made a specialty. 

 In California, most of the bee-keepers 

 have some outside work or industry: the 

 fruit and bee business go well together ; 

 also, the raising of strawberries and 

 vegetables. For myself I have combined 

 the small fruit and nursery business, 

 with the bee business and find they go 

 admirably together. 



Bee-keeping is not worked here (Cali- 

 fornia), as it was a few years ago ; it 

 has kind of quietfed down, in one sense. 

 That is a good thing, for it will princi- 

 pally be conducted in the future by those 

 most eminently qualified to run such a 

 business. Bee-keeping will pay as well 

 as any other rural occupation if rightly 

 followed. No farmer at first depends 

 entirely upon one variety of grain, or 

 fruit, as his sole occupation, and there- 



fore bee-keeping must follow suit. I am 

 heartily glad that I commenced bee- 

 keeping ; glad that my vision has been 

 opened to a higher, greater, grander 

 range of thought concerning God's works. 

 Bee-keeping is an ennobling and elevat- 

 ing occupation. I have met with more 

 reverses than generally falls to the lot 

 of the average bee-keeper ; the whole 

 trouble was caused by investing too 

 heavily in bees and implements in a very 

 poor location. I am afraid I was too 

 ambitious and overdid the matter ; still, 

 I now see that I have greatly gained in 

 bee-culture and everything else by these 

 early reverses. 



I now have a splendid location and 

 have done well the past season ; but I 

 have learned one thing, and learned it 

 well — if bees do not pay for their care 

 and attention in surplus honey that 

 you must bestow on them, that is, enough 

 to pay for sections, crates, foundation, 

 cans, etc., and earn you a small per 

 cent., you had better not invest a cent in 

 supplies until they do. Make your bees 

 pay for everything needed in the apiary, 

 and you will be all right. — S. L. Wat- 

 kins, in American Apiculturist. 



Floating Bee-Houses on the Nile. 



In Lower Egypt, where the flower 

 harvest is not so early by several weeks 

 as in the upper districts of that country, 

 the practice of transportation is carried 

 on to a considerable extent. About the 

 end of October the hives, after being 

 collected together from different villages 

 and conveyed up the Nile, marked and 

 numbered by the individuals to whom 

 they belong, are heaped pyramidically 

 upon the boats prepared to receive them, 

 which, floating gradually down the river 

 and stopping at certain stages of their 

 passage, remain there a longer or shorter 

 time, according to the produce which is 

 offered by the surrounding country. 



After traveling three months in this 

 manner, the bees, having culled the per- 

 fume of the orange flowers of the Said, 

 the essence of roses of the Faicum, the 

 treasures of the Arabian jessamine, and 

 a variety of flowers, are brought back 

 about the beginning of February to the 

 places from which they have been 

 carried. 



The productiveness of the flowers at 

 each respective stage is ascertained by 

 the gradual descent of the boats in the 

 water, and which is probably noted by 

 a scale of measurement. This industry 

 produces for the Egyptians delicious 

 honey and abundance of wax. — B. B. J. 



