1884 



GLEANmGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



271 



wood -tree, some seventy feet from the ground. 

 When I found the owner I showed him what I had 

 found, and he kindly told me that I'd better put the 

 Initials of my name on the tree to keep any other 

 party who might claim it as their " find," from cut- 

 ting it. He also said that I'd better let it remain till 

 the coming fall, when he would help me cut it for 

 what honey he could eac. 



I felt proud of my " find," I assure you, and also 

 grateful to the owner for being so kind to me. The 

 bees seemed to be very strong in numbers, as the air 

 was full of them all about the top of the tree. I was 

 loth to leave them, but did so, resolving that the 

 next pleasant day I would try going all through 

 those woods, and look for bees. When such a day 

 came I started out; and, to my great satisfaction, I 

 soon found another, which I marked in like manner 

 as I did the first. Since then I have found several 

 colonies in trees by simply passing through the 

 woods on warm days in early spring, and looking 

 into every tree I mistrusted might be hollow, so as 

 to make a nesting-place for bees. As there are no 

 leaves on the trees at this time of the year to bother, 

 the bees are easily seen by walking so as to look to- 

 ward and a little under the sun. 



Well, about the end of September my neighbor 

 and I cut those trees and obtained about 100 lbs. of 

 honey after it was strained, as I told you in my last 

 article. Of course, I gave the neighbor all the hon- 

 ey he wanted to eat at the time of cutting the trees, 

 and also some after mother strained it. 



During the following winter I saw an advertise- 

 ment in one of the newspapers, stating that if any 

 one was desirous of learning how to hunt wild bees, 

 he could do so by sending 75 cents for the " Bee- 

 keepers' Text-book," and addressing H. A. King & 

 Bro.. Nevada, Ohio. Still having my success of the 

 spring before fresh in my mind, I sent for the book; 

 and not finding such instructions on hunting bees as 

 I expected in it, it was laid one side without further 

 reading, in a closet where books and papers were 

 kept. Six years now passed, when, for some reason, 

 I chanced to hunt in this closet and pick up this 

 same book. As I saw the preface was short, I read 

 that, as I always do the first thing in any book. I 

 at once wanted to know all there was in the book, 

 and sat down fairly "spellbound" till the last page 

 was read. I at once decided to have some bees in 

 the spring, as this was in. January, 1869, and accord- 

 ingly I engaged two colonies of a bee-keeper living a 

 mile distant, for five dollars each, in box hives, I 

 also purchased "Quinby's Mysteries of Bee-Keep- 

 Ing," and read and re-read it till I could tell all the 

 substance of the book by simply turning to the in- 

 dex. Then I subscribed for the American Bee-Jour- 

 nal, which I read with great delight. 



When spring opened I got my bees home, bought 

 five L. hives, all complete, for $12.50, and considered 

 myself well equipped for the season. I could hardly 

 wait for summer to come, I was so anxious to see 

 the bees fly everyday; and many a cold bleak day in 

 April and May I would go and tip up those box hives 

 to see the bees clustered between the combs. In 

 fact, I wanted to be with them constantly, yet withal 

 I had a great fear of their stinging me, as my flesh 

 always swelled badly when stung — so much so that 

 I was often conflned to the house, from my eyes be- 

 ing'swollen shut, or a limb so badly swollen that I 

 could not walk on it. For this reason I always bun- 

 dled up well, if I went near the bees when they were 

 flying. As it came near the swarming season, I re- 



membered what Quinbysaid in his book about being 

 able to tell about the time they would swarm, by in- 

 verting the hive in the middle of the day, and with a 

 little smoke driving the bees out of the way, so that 

 the sun might shine down between the combs, thus 

 revealing any queen-cells that might be started on 

 them. 



Not wishing to keep watch of the bees all the 

 while, I thought I would see if I could tell any thing 

 about it. So I bundled up with veil, overcoat, and 

 mittens, and prepared for the siege, for I so feared 

 the stings that my wife said I made more fuss than I 

 would if I were going out to face a bear. I often 

 wonder that I persisted in working with the bees 

 when I so feared them. But so it was; and after 

 getting stung several times pretty badly, I found 

 ttiat each time the pain and swelling grew less and 

 less, till finally I dropped all but a veil, which thing 

 I still wear, as a general thing, when at work with 

 the bees. 



To return. With "fear and trembling" I blew a 

 little smoke under the hive, and inverted it, blow- 

 ing smoke from a roll of cotton rags (no improved 

 smokers then) upon the bees, and, to my surprise, I 

 found queen-cells nearly ready to seal over. In a 

 few days this hive cast a swarm which was safely 

 hived In one of the L. hives. That was the only 

 swarm of the season, as 1869 was a very poor year 

 for bees. 



I now had a swarm in a frame hive, and these I 

 "overhauled" every few days till I became familiar 

 as to how the combs were built, the larvas fed, the 

 time from the egg to the perfect bee, etc., all of 

 which every bee-keeper should be thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with at the outset. 



To sum up. In the fall I had one full box of hon- 

 ey (6-lb. box), and two partly filled from the colony 

 which did not swarm, and three colonies of bees, to 

 which I fed S^S.OO worth of sugar to insure safe win- 

 tering, as the season was so poor that most of the 

 colonies not fed starved before spring. I was offer- 

 ed 50 cents per lb. for the completed box of honey; 

 but as I wished it myself, I did not sell it, even at 

 that figure. I bought another swarm in the fall, and 

 had one given to me which had no honey. This I 

 fed, and a recapitulation showed an outlay of S35 00, 

 with nothing to show for it, except the one box of 

 honey, two partly filled and four empty hives, and 

 five colonies of bees to run my chances on through 

 the winter. Infatuated with the bees as I was, I 

 now resolved that I would never lay out a single 

 cent more on them, unless they first earned it for 

 me; believing that, if I could not make four pay, I 

 could not four hundred. This I held to, so that my 

 bees never cost me more than $35.00, and have earned 

 me my home and all I now enjoy, besides paying 

 their way. G . M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., April, 1884. 



I believe, friend D., you are putting em- 

 phasis on a pretty good point in your closing 

 up, and that is, that beginners should be 

 careful about investing very much money in 

 bees before the bees pay it back ; but to do 

 this they must, as a matter of course, build 

 up slowly, and this course of action will be 

 our most eflicient remedy against blasted 

 hopes.— Our juveniles can go right to work 

 now and try their eyes at bee-hunting. In 

 some localities there may be light snows. If 

 they can go out through the woods just as the 

 sun comes out after one of these snowstorms, 



