1884 



GLEAJ^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



r 



Jasper Hazen, Mrs. Cotton, and Mr. Quinby, 

 are, if I am correct, secured by having hon- 

 ey-boxes completely surrounding the brood- 

 nest. Now, when we have a powerful colo- 

 ny and a wonderful yield of honey, I am 

 pretty sure this arrangement will give a 

 larger crop than can possibly be obtained 

 with surplus arrangements only, above the 

 brood - nest. Of course, DoolittJe would 

 agree to this, and I should be very glad in- 

 deed to have the opinion of Capt. Ilether- 

 ington and L. C. Root in the matter, as they 

 doubtless use side-storing boxes, and I know 

 they have tested all these things pretty thor- 

 oughly. 



— ^ ■»■ m 



" WE BE BRETHREN." 



BEE CULTURE IN THE DARK (V) AGES. 



i-HILE considering a prominent point 

 in our Home Tapers for this month, 

 the following was received from one 

 of our bee -men, which he says was clipped 

 from the Statesman, of Concord, N. II.: 



WRITING ABOUT BEES. 



The honey-bee has been the subject of curiosity 

 for ages, and many books have been written about 

 them. Virgil in his day gave to the world some very 

 absurd i:leas, and the more we read about bees, the 

 more we are convinced that much penned is mere 

 nonsense. It would take a lengthy article to put 

 down all our doubts respecting the theories ad- 

 vanced by different writers. We will run over a few. 



We want more evidence to induce us to believe 

 that the " queen," so called, is a queen, a real fe- 

 male, and that the drones are all malrs. The oppo- 

 site would harmonize to the general principles of 

 nature. We can't help thinking that the queen is a 

 king; that the working bees are also males, and that 

 the drones are females. This would balance the 

 community much more in accordance with nature's 

 laws, as displayed in all gregarious animals. Again, 

 we call for more evidence to convince us that the 

 killing of drones by the workers in the fall is a mat- 

 ter of malice or calculation. Question: Do not the 

 drones begin to die olT, as many other species of in- 

 sects do, after having laid their eggs for new 

 swarms? The females, dying, are thrown out as 

 useless or foreign matter, and in their hurry to 

 clear the hive, many are helped out while living. 



What about bees' eggs? Who ever saw them? We 

 think they are viviparous, or as nearly so as some 

 flies. More facts and less guessing would put the 

 bee business into a more reliable shape. And on 

 the subject of hives, what lots of hives are present- 

 ed to the public, all the best! The most of them are 

 merely gotten up by Yankee speculators, whoHeece 

 the farmers out of live or ten dollars for one that is 

 not one whit better than a flour-barrel. Bees put in 

 them linger one or two years and die off, and the 

 hive and its wonders are thrown among the old rub- 

 bish. The old box hive was good enough for years, 

 and bees did well; but in this age of progress, bees, 

 to keep up with the times, must have new hives 

 with as much machinery as a cooking-stove, and the 

 bees just come out of them and go for the woods 

 and select one of nature's hives, a hollow tree, and 

 there store up their sweets, and are happy. 



Tuf tonborough. J. L. Hersey. 



As the above article was warmly com- 

 mended by the agricultural editor of the 

 above it would seem that he, too, didn't see 

 any thing wrong about it. The thought I 

 would call attention to is this: The sad want 

 of charity shown by the writer. Does he 

 think that bee-men are working and talking 

 and writing about something of which they 

 know nothing? that they are blind leaders of 

 the blind? or are they really brethren, who, 

 like himself, are honestly and earnestly striv- 

 ing for truth? Again, why did he not, be- 

 fore writing about bees, go and see some 

 genuine bee-man, and find out, by using his 



own eyes, whether "these things are so"? 

 lie innocently asks the question, " What 

 about bees' eggs? who ever saw them?" I 

 wonder if it Is indeed true, that we are as 

 uncharitable and as foolishly ignorant about 

 other people's industries as the world seems 

 to be of our own. If so, it is a burning 

 shame and a disgrace to this liith century, 

 that we should be so shockingly innocent of 

 what is going on in the world ; and, saddest 

 of all, so contracted and narrow (I am tak- 

 ing a part of it myself, dear friends) that we 

 can not open our hearts and take in the 

 great thought that " we be brethren;" and 

 as brethren, are seeking alike for truth and 

 wisdom, and looking upward toward the 

 great Father over us all. Let us have still 

 more fairs, conventions, and expositions, and 

 let us get liro. Ilersey and take him along. 



THE REASON WHY HONEY DOES NOT 

 SELL. 



BY MRS. L. H.*^RRISON. 



HAVE always been surprised at the low price 

 bee-keepers were willing to take for their ex- 

 tracted honey. My partner formerly opposed 

 its production, saying that honey lost its flavor, 

 when not sealed up in the comb. When I was in at- 

 tendance at the National Convention at Cincinnati 

 during the fall of 1880, 1 purchased a pound jar of 

 Muth's extracted honey, and took it home with me. 

 I heard my partner say, while eating some of it, 

 " How very nice it is !" 



During the convening of the convention at Lex- 

 ington,' Ky., in 1881, the ladies in attendance, and a 

 goodly number of gentlemen, were entertained in a 

 princely manner at the residence of Mr. Williamson. 

 Upon their table, at different times, was a bowl of 

 extracted honey, the like of which we had then nev- 

 er seen equaled, and rarely since. It was white 

 clover, of delicate flavor, very light and thick. Ever 

 since then we have been asking Lucinda Harrison 

 why she could not produce honey like Mr. William- 

 son's, and last spring we told her she had gat to do 

 it. So after white clover was fairly under way, the 

 honey was extracted from some combs, and given to 

 the bees to be filled with white clover, and nothing 

 else. The result was very gratifying. Whenever I 

 wish to sell any of that honey, I select a person 

 whom I judge would be a good customer, and give 

 him a jelly-cup as a sample, wasting no words, mere- 

 ly saying, " Will you please try a sample of our ex- 

 tracted honey?" The proof of the pudding is in the 

 eating; and when we have a customer, no one need 

 "poach on cur preserve," for it will do no good; he 

 is ours, as long as we have a supply. This honey wo 

 sold at 15 cents per pound, while choice white clover, 

 in pound sections, was retailing at two pounds for 35 

 cents. Buyers furnished jars or buckets, and it was 

 delivered to them in liquid form, ten, twenty, or 

 thirty pounds at a time. It seems as though retail- 

 ing half-pound sections was very little business, com- 

 pared to this. 



Last fall I inquired of a groceryman if he wanted 

 to purchase honej'. His reply was, "Oh, nol I've 

 six buckets I bought two years ago." I requested 

 to see them, and found that he had tin buckets hold- 

 ing Ave pounds apiece, and had sold only a very little 

 out of one. It was not very nice. Another dealer 

 said he would as soon sell " soap-grease " as a neigh- 

 bor apiarist's honey. 



