378 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Remember, we are talking about work- 

 ing for comb honey, or honey in sections, 

 not extracted honey. 



Some eight or ten years ago I was per- 

 suaded, through the urgency of a farmer 

 bee-keeper living five miles from me, to 

 purchase his bees, as he did not wish to 

 bother with them any longer, so offered 

 them to me for almost a song, and gave 

 me the privilege of keeping them where 

 they were as long as I wished, for 25 sec- 

 tions of honey a year. These bees were in 

 ten-frame L. hives, and I have kept them 

 in those hives, and at the same place, ever 

 since I bought them, and thus I have had 

 a chance to know about the workings of 

 these hives as compared to the nine- 

 frame Gallup hives of my own yard. The 

 result has been that I can, by giving 

 plenty of section room, hold these colo- 

 nies at the out-yard back from swarming 

 about a week later, on an average, than 

 where the nine Gallup frames are used; 

 but this out-apiary is no nearer being a 

 non-swarming apiary than my home yard; 

 and, in fact, I often consider them more 

 determined to swarm than those here; but 

 the swarming conies a little later in the 

 season. And this little later in the sea- 

 son has quite a bearing upon the problem 

 of comb-honey production, from my pres- 

 ent standpoint, for, when colonies are 

 managed by the caging of-queen plan, as 

 I gave last winter (I think in the January 

 1st issue of Gleanings, but I have no time 

 to hunt it up), this holding back a week 

 puts them in just the right condition to 

 take advantage of the honey harvest when 

 it conies, with the largest kind of work- 

 ing force all kept together, with no de- 

 sire to swarm after the manipulation. In 

 this is way I secured nearly 1 17 pounds of 

 comb honey on the average from each of 

 the 30 colonies there, this poor season, 

 while those all about me, and that apiary, 

 got little or nothing. But one thing I 

 find, no matter whafhiveis used, or how 

 many frames that hive contains, within 

 the bounds of reason, either way, toward 

 large or small brood-chambers, a given 

 amount of labor must be performed, so 

 that the "letting the bees take care of 

 themselves" part of our questioner's 

 query is nearly or quite a myth, if we ex- 

 pect to reap any great success from our 

 bees. This labor part has been harped 

 on so much that it has become a sort of 

 bugbear, and a desire seems to have sprung 

 up for a "holding of the pot to catch the 

 porridge" sort of apiculture. Let us away 

 with such a thought, for "in the sweat of 

 thy faceshalt thou eat bread" brings the 

 highest joy that is attained unto in this 

 life. To whom come the greatest joy 



and contentment in life ? Is it not to the 

 one who has labored and toiled patiently, 

 day after day, till at last the problem 

 worked upon has been fully conquered 

 and solved ? And are not the discontented 

 ones of our day those who are eating their 

 bread from the sweat of the faces of others ? 

 No, no ! there comes no real joy in roll- 

 ing around in luxurj^ while others toil to 

 supply that unearned luxury which we 

 are trying in vain to make ourselves be- 

 lieve is true happiness. 'Tis far more to 

 our usefulness and happiness to "wear 

 out instead of rusting out." 



The editor of Gleanings replies as fol- 

 lows: — 



[It appears to me, friene D., that you 

 have overlooked in the discussion above a 

 verj^ important factor in the problem, and 

 that is the one of locality, else perhaps 

 3-ou would not be so ready to pronounce 

 the opinions and practices of others "fal- 

 lacious." Last week I called upon Mr. 

 S. A. Niver, who is at present managing 

 the estate of the late Miles Morton. Said 

 he, "Doolittle's methods may be all right 

 for his locality, but they would not an- 

 swer at all in this vicinity. Miles Mor- 

 ton used to say that many a bee-keeper, 

 if he were to remove to Tompkins Co. , 

 would have to unlearn man}' of his old 

 methods and acquire new ones." In a 

 bee-line there is a distance of only about 

 17 miles from Borodino to Groton. What 

 must be the difference between other lo- 

 calities separated by hundreds or even 

 thousands of miles? You have no buck- 

 wheat worth mentioning, in and about 

 Borodino. Your main dependence is up- 

 on clover and basswood. In Tompkins 

 Co., later in the season, buckwheat is one 

 of the main crops. 



Even at our-yard only two miles north 

 of us, I can see a difference in the condi- 

 tions. Our north yard is near a river, 

 with an abundance of fall flora. Our 

 home yard has nothing of this sort to fall 

 back on. 



Now, if there is indeed so much being 

 said in favor of large colonies, and a con- 

 sequent reduction of swarms, there must 

 be some localities favoring such colonies. 

 There could hardly be so much smoke 

 without some fire. 



And there is still another factor I think 

 you have not fully considered. If you 

 were running a hundred or a thousand 

 colonies you would have to operate quite 

 a little differently from what you now do. 

 W. L. Coggshall, whom I also saw last 

 week, and who runs 1300 colonies, reiter- 

 ated a former statment, that he could not 

 afford to spend much time with individ- 



