418 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



apiary to a Celtic graveyard, of which 

 the monk might be considered the 

 guardian Druid, accomplishing the 

 rites of his faith. I remember that 

 one day, while on a botanical excur- 

 sion, I found myself suddenly in the 

 midst of the forest, at one of these 

 apiaries belonging to the convent of 

 a small district of Kazan. I thought 

 myself suddenly transported, twenty 

 centuries back, to the Celtic epoch. 



As might be expected, these primi- 

 tive hives are steadily giving way to 

 better hives, especially the Dadant 

 hive, and in less number, the De Lay- 

 ens hive. As a rule each apiary is 

 placed under the protection of some 

 saint, whose image is fixed above the 

 gate of the enclosure, or sometimes 

 on a post. Often they place a small 

 "icon" or holy picture, under the roof 

 of a hive which needs particular at- 

 tention. 



While visiting a renowned apiary 

 once, I saw at the gate of the enclos- 

 ure, which was very low so as not in- 

 terfere with the flight of the bees, a 

 pretty little structure of brick in the 

 shape of a chapel, which contained an 

 image of St. Serge, protected with a 

 pane of glass. From this miniature 

 building a streamlet of water was 

 running upon a slanting board in 

 which gradins had been chiseled, to 

 spread the water upon the width of it. 

 It was the watering place of the bees, 

 and I recognized that this was much 

 more pleasing to them than the long 

 troughs upon which straws are laid. 

 Was it an invention devised by the 

 saint himself, or only by his deacon 

 who cared for the apiary? Did he 

 thus find out the secret of having the 

 greatest possible number of his bees 

 working under the eyes of their pa- 

 tron saint? 



This apiary was composed of about 

 100 colonies, with movable frames. 

 There was active work in that enclos- 

 ure. Overhead, on the basswood 

 trees, the bees were very busy; below, 

 near the ground, they passed in quick 

 flight, bolting out towards the woods, 

 the fields, the gardens, and coming 

 back swiftly. Woe to the intruder 

 who got in their way. Several times, 

 before reaching the pretty little house 

 of the apiarist, I had smarting tes- 

 timonials of their welcome. 



One day I was complaining of the 

 angry dispn^ition of the Russian bees. 



An apiarist answered with convic- 

 tion : "Russian bees are brave, but 

 if you fear their stings, go to the 

 hives that have Italian bees. Those 

 are mild, with the imprint of the ef- 

 feminate civilization of the Occi- 

 dent?" It is a fact that the temper 

 of the Italian bees, which I thought 

 cross in Switzerland, was angelic as 

 compared to the temper of Russian 

 bees. 



But let us return to that apiary, 

 with its little chapel, its waterfall, its 

 active work and its deacon, who was 

 lying in the hallway of his house on 

 a bundle of dry grass when I knocked 

 at the door. 



"Eh! Brother, wake up. I come to 

 see your apiary. Will you let me rest 

 a moment here? It is so hot!" "Will 

 you have something to drink?" said 

 he, at once. "It is very thirsty on 

 the road."' "With pleasure." As he 

 rose to go to the cellar, he turned to 

 me and asked me in a very solemn 

 way whether I was alone. "Yes, I am 

 alone." "Very well" He went out and 

 came back promptly with a bottle of 

 honey mead, on the surface of which 

 moisture was condensing. "Oh." said 

 I, "That bottle is too large. I told 

 you I was alone." "It was not on ac- 

 count of the drink that I asked you 

 whether you were alone. I was afraid 

 there might be a woman with you.' 

 "And what about it? are you afraid 

 of women?" "No, but I do not like 

 women in the apiary. I never let one 

 enter for fear of giving bad luck to 

 the bees." I was amazed. To be 

 afraid of a woman coming to an api- 

 ary is to carry Paulinism to an ex- 

 treme point. But our apiarist was a 

 deacon, and he perhaps had had some 

 personal experiences; unless it be just 

 a prejudice which is carried very far 

 in those backward regions. 



On the other hand, if there are 

 prejudices concerning the presence of 

 the fair sex in the apiary, we must 

 acknowledge that the "babas" or 

 peasant wives give the men to un- 

 derstand clearly that they should 

 have nothing to do with the cows. 

 One day, in a small village, where the 

 family which I visited owned an iso- 

 lated farm. I took upon myself to 

 show my ability in milking cows and 

 took possession of a milking stool. A 

 man, milking a cow: what a scandal! 

 What pleasure can that Franzoze find 



in milking? They must be Godless 

 people! While the cow was consci- 

 entiously switching the flies and 

 transforming my clean face into mo- 

 saics, the women and children were 

 approving hei However, when I 

 arose with a bucketful of milk, I felt 

 sure of securing the approval of the 

 witnesses. On the contrary, when I 

 attempted to empty the pail into the 

 receptacle which was used for that 

 purpose, the woman took possession 

 of it and handed it to a young girl. 

 "There, go give that to the calves." 

 Lucky if the calves don't refuse it, 

 also, thought I. 



However, as far as bees are con- 

 cerned, I once saw a very fine apiary 

 which belonged to the wife of a doc- 

 tor at Kliottschi, near Kasan. She 

 cared for them herself and demon- 

 strated that bees thrive even better 

 under the care of women than that of 

 men, for she harvested better and 

 larger crops than the neighboring 

 beekeepers. 



As to the methods followed for the 

 management, it is, in Russia as with 

 us, a matter of experience following 

 the experiences of others. I saw 

 with great pleasure that the writings 

 of Mr. Bertrand. of Nyon, were an 

 authority among them, that the 

 translation of his work was in the 

 hands of many advanced beekeepers. 

 For when the bee owner was a con- 

 vinced adept, he did not hesitate to 

 spend money, and one could see iii 

 his apiary all the modern improve- 

 ments. — Ph. Jeanneret (Bulletin de La 

 Suisse Romande). Translated by C. 

 P. Dadant. 



(To be continued). 



WHY WE NEED EXTENSION 

 MEN 



The picture tells the tale, biit I 

 will endeavor to explain it. I visited 

 the above back-yard and found the 

 bees had drawn the comb out across 

 the frames to an angle of 45 degrees, 

 and it was impossible to remove the 

 frames, so I removed one side of 

 the hive and cut the comb out with a 

 large knife. I found in one hive a 

 few bees and a queen; the bees had 

 dysentery and there were hundreds 

 of moths. The entrance to the hive 

 was seven-eighths inches high, win- 

 ter and summer. In the top of this 

 hive, which was a story and a half 

 (hive with a shallow super), on top 

 of the frames was a mouse nest with 

 seven young mice. The hive was an 

 old one and the comb showed signs 

 of mildew. This man was glad to 

 have a man visit him to show him 

 his errors, and now he is an up-to- 

 date back-yarder, with clean bees, 

 straight comb, and will get some sur- 

 plus honey this fall. 



ALTON L. LOGAN, 



Edwardsville, 111. 



Why wc need extension men 



HONEY AND ICE CREAM 



Albert Peglow, of Brillion, Wis., 

 writes to call our attention to the 

 fact that a teaspoonful of honey 

 mixed with a dish of ice cream great- 

 ly improves it. Beekeepers have not 

 paid sufficient attention to cultivat- 

 ing a market for their product 



