August, 1907. 



AmeFican fUm Journal 



Mrficle^jl 



'"Tis Sixty Years Ago"- 

 Apiarian Progress 



BV D. M. ^rACDONAI.D. 



The whirligig of time works many 

 changes. Sixty years ago Americans 

 could not boast a single volume on bee- 

 keeping. What small essays had ap- 

 peared "gave little or no information of 

 practical utility." These small works 

 were "simple compilations, serviley fol- 

 lowing through truth and fallacy. English 

 and Continental writers." Miner's work, 

 1849, claims to be even ahead of the 

 most popular European treatise. If so, 

 we can safely base on it some interestiny 

 comparisons, showing the difference be- 

 tween apiculture now and then. 



What would, for instance, some of 

 your most advanced queen-breeders say 

 to the following bold assertion as to 

 what makes the magic change which 

 produces a queen: "It is not in the pow- 

 er of man ever to go beyond a simple 

 conjecture on this point?" He speaks 

 of "large apiaries, say of 15 or 20 hives." 

 What a contrast to those hundreds now 

 numbering a thousand up. Of even this 

 limited number the best our author can 

 say is that "half of the hives in exist- 

 ence at the present time are not in that 

 condition that nature intended a family 

 of bees to be in." 



On the then vexed question of drones 

 American knowledge was quite at fault. 

 "What these drones are thus allowed to 

 live for, is a question that will never 

 be answered." But worse ignorance !•> 

 displayed when the question of egg-lay- 

 ing is considered. "In May the queen 

 deposits from 100 to 200 eggs a day." 

 And she produces only 25,000 workers 

 in a season ; counting her own produce 

 and that of any swarm, they will not 

 even total up to more than 40,000. These 

 assertions are marvelous to our modern 

 minds. 



"It is frohable that propolis is an 

 elaborated substance, and here the ques- 

 tion must forever rest. Where the bees 

 obtain it, or how they obtain it, must 

 be a secret not for man to unfold." 

 He falls foul of Huber for making the 

 assertion that combs are fixed up with 

 propolis, and maintains that his own 

 contrary opinion "can not be contro- 

 verted by all the apiarians of Europe." 



That no other substance was ever 

 brought into a hive but honey and pol- 

 len, is his firm opinion, after close ob- 

 servation. 



"Where," he exclaims, "are the rules 

 for the practical management of bees?" 

 and echo answers, "Where?" Yet he 

 instances Weeks, Thacher, and Townly 

 as American writers, and Bagster, Be- 

 van and Huish as English writers, but 



only to declare that on reading them 

 "you will tind nothing to satisfy — noth- 

 ing to fill the void." "A greater cloud 

 of darkness hangs over the manage- 

 ment of bees than over any other branch 

 of rural economy." If I might interject 

 an aside here I would give Saul's place 

 in the Israelitish women's song to Mr. 

 Miner's work, while I would assign Da- 

 vid's to any one of the three writers he 

 names. 



On the question of hives this writer 

 has ideas, of a kind. "We stand in the 

 same position we did a hundred years 

 ago relative to this important question." 

 His own ideal was a simple box 12 inch- 

 es by 12 inches. Large hives were an 

 abomination to him, and for the follow- 

 ing original reason; "When a family of 

 bees have enough laborers, more are 

 worse than useless, and they rather re- 

 tard than advance the labors of the 

 hive." 



He is severe on "patent" hives, but 

 rather takes the edge oflf his railing by 

 puffing several of his own. Hives even 

 about 14 inches by 15 inches he consid- 

 ers to be "entirely at variance with the 

 natural requirements of the bee." No 

 wonder swarms were a result of his 

 management, and he calculates that one 

 colony may increase the loth year to 

 512 families! 



"The size of the hive, sir, is evcry- 

 tliiiig," and so he proceeds to cut up 

 all his layer hives to his foot-square 

 ideal size, with the bees in them ! Re- 

 member, they had no frames, not even 

 bars. Indeed, he utterly condemns Dr. 

 Bevan's hive chiefly because of its bars. 

 He had cross-sticks, though, fixed simi- 

 larly to what they used to be in old 

 straw skeps, which last Miner thought 

 worthy of being used only "in a state 

 of abject poverty." Yet "log-gums" are 

 good enough for him to recommend, 

 while, strange to say, "of all the styles 

 of hives used in England and on the 

 continent I can find none to recom- 

 mend." Patriotism, eh? 



He trots out a "Bee-House," artistic 

 no doubt, but scarcely practicable for 

 common use, and claims it is the first 

 of its kind laid before the public, where- 

 as I could produce as fine, and 200 years 

 older, the work of Winters, whose "ex- 

 ploded theories have been weighed in 

 the balance and found wanting," accord- 

 ing to the views of this "modern" bee- 

 keeper. 



Basswood. maple, and white clover are 

 names of 3 of the staple sources of sup- 

 ply for nectar, and where all 3 are to 

 be found together "is the apiarian's true 

 El Dorado." Red clover he sets down 

 as "perfectly useless." 



Tobacco moistened and rubbed on the 

 part stung he considers "acts like a 



charm." He rubbed honey inside his 

 hive when taking a swarm, and amongst 

 other articles indispensable when hiving 

 was a blanket — the only time I think I 

 h.ive ever known this "implement" 

 named as part of a bee-man's parapher- 

 nalia. 



Fifteen thousand bees he considered 

 a "strong colony," and 40 pounds a de- 

 cent surplus. "Very large apiaries were 

 those where from 25 to 100 colonies ex- 

 isted." The practise of "burying bees 

 or immuring them in cellars" he con- 

 siders all wrong. 



Apparently the more modern bee- 

 man's bete noir — foul brood — was un- 

 known in 1849, for it is not even named. 

 "If famine is kept from the door, all 

 diseases will vanish from our apiaries," 

 is his final conclusion. 



Many points in this book might be 

 named to be contradicted, but many 

 more showing good sound sense, and 

 the practical experience of a long se- 

 ries of years the author boasts he spent 

 among his bees, are even more worthy 

 of reproduction; but the chief aim of 

 my few short extracts and comments 

 is to show the great strides bee-keeping 

 has made during the past 60 years. 



Banff, Scotland. 



Transferring Bees from Box- 

 Hives 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A subscriber to the American Bee 

 Journal wishes me to give an article on 

 the old method of transferring bees from 

 box-hives into movable^frame hives. 

 As such transferring was exploited last 

 summer at a bee-meeting where there 

 were more than one thousand present, 

 it will hardly do to call such transfer- 

 ring an "old" method, but one right in 

 vogue at the present time in our apicul- 

 tural knowledge. At this meetiiig 

 strings were used to keep the combs in 

 the frames after transferring, but I 

 think 3 or 4 holes through each piece 

 to the frame in which wire-nails are to 

 be slipped, is much the better plan. 



There are only two really favorable 

 times for transferring, although it can 

 be done at any time by using care. The 

 first is during fruit or apple bloom, and 

 the second is 21 days after the first or 

 prime swarm. If done during fruit- 

 bloom, there will be little honey in the 

 combs, and not much brood will be near 

 the side of the box-hives, or gums, so 

 there will be little loss from either 

 honey or brood, while, as a rule, enough 

 nectar will be coming in from the blos- 

 soms to prevent robbing, as well as to 

 enable the bees to repair their combs 

 rapidly, which must necessarily be muti- 

 lated more or less. If done 21 days af- 

 ter swarming, there will be no brood 

 in the hives except a little drone-brood 

 or a few eggs or larvae from the 'newly- 

 laying queen, so there will be no loss of 

 brood from cutting, as all of the bees 

 from the eggs laid by the old queen 

 will now have emerged, while the young 

 queen will have just begun laying. 



Besides having the bars to the frames 

 all bored, with the wire-nails ready, 

 a board about 2 feet square will be 



