GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



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"And why 



RED looked at the few colonies 

 of bees and then at the doctor; 

 then at the bees again. 

 "Charity,'' said the doctor, 

 'l'*^'-JF' "suflfereth long and is kind; is 



1 1 ^i, not puffed up: is not easily pro- 



voked; thinketh no evil; bear- 

 eth all things, hopeth all things, 

 endureth all things." 



" Doctor, you quote my favor- 

 ite passage of Scripture at an 

 opportune moment, for I feel 

 far from charitable." 

 " queried the doctor. 

 "Why! Well, then, the idea, doctor, of my 

 coming up here into these lonely mountains to 

 take charge of only ten colonies of bees when I 

 expected to manipulate a large apiary!" 



" 1 don't remember of telling you that I had 

 a large apiary," said the doctor. " If I did. I 

 beg pardon; for it was far from me to convey 

 an erroneous impression. Besides, Fred, what 

 difference does it make whether I have ten 

 colonies or five hundred if you get your pay for 

 your labor? The pay will certainly be the 

 same for the few as the many.' 



" I know our agreement is to that effect; but 

 1 hardly see how I can keep busy at present 

 upon ten colonies of bees; and unless I have 

 something to do, I— doctor, I'll— I'll fly— I'll be 

 that nervous, you see. But must I consider 

 all of your learned talk as merely theoretical 

 management?" 



" Largely, largely," replied the doctor; " but 

 I have talked with you enough to know that 

 you are a practical bee man, and it is our duty 

 now to make the practical match the theoreti- 

 cal. There are ten colonies of bees before us. 

 Now, not only theory but practice tells us that, 

 in a good honey-flow, a colony of bees having a 

 prolific queen can be safely divided every two 

 months, or even oftener. These colonies have 

 ten frames, eight of them filled with brood. 

 When the colony is in condition to divide I 

 insert a tin division in the center of the hive, 

 equalize the hatching brood, secure the queen 

 in one compartment, and introduce a queen to 

 the queenless part. When the new queen is 

 accepted, and the bees get equalized, I take out 

 half the frames and bees and place them in a 

 new hive beside the old one. If this operation 

 is performed carefully, there will be no massing 

 of bees into one hive to the depletion of the 



otner, for both have queens. I use division- 

 boards in the new colonies, and insert frames 

 of foundation as fast as they are drawn out. 

 The result is, that on an average the division 

 can be performed every two months, the year 

 round, in this valley. You can readily figure 

 what this will amount to. Doubling these ten 

 colonies every two months results in 640 colo- 

 nies at the close of the year, or 40,960 at the end 

 of the second year. There may be a few fail- 

 ures in queens, and we will call it an even 

 40,000." 



" Let me see," said Fred, as he took out his 

 pencil and began to figure. "At that ratio we 

 should have at the end of the third year, say, 

 barring out the worthless queens, 3,000,000 col- 

 onies of bees." 



" That is it," said the doctor; " you see there 

 is plenty of work ahead if you only keep ever- 

 lastingly at it." 



" But, doctor, you do not really mean to in- 

 crease so rapidly? " 



"Only the first year," replied the doctor; 

 "500 or 600 will be about all my field will at 

 present bear; and, although I hate to think of 

 it, I hope to open this valley to the public some 

 time; then the rearing of bees for sale will be 

 its profitable feature." 



" Why, doctor, it would be necessary to run 

 a railroad up here to accommodate a bee-ranch 

 upon such a grand scale." 



"That is coming in good time," said the doc- 

 tor. "A new line from Ukiah to Humboldt Co. 

 will pass within a mile of us." 



The doctor now secured a smoker and two 

 veils from a neat box used for that purpose, and 

 they proceeded to investigate the interior of 

 the hives; and, though their exterior was 

 roughly made, and unpainted, the interior was 

 fitted with the latest improved Hoffman frames. 

 " Why, doctor, your bees are the finest I ever 

 saw," said Fred, with the eye of a critic. 



" Yes, sir, and I want to show you a theoret- 

 ical queen." 



The doctor held up a frame, and they both 

 looked for the queen. 



"There she goes," said Fred, " through that 

 opening," pointing his finger toward the spot; 

 " but, my! she is a beauty, and so large!" 



Thus they examined all of the hives; the bees 

 were large and gentle, queens such as Fred had 

 never seen, and new honey was coming in freely 

 so late in the season that Fred was full of ex- 

 clamations: and under them the doctor's face 

 wore a pleased expression. 



" Your queens are so fine, doctor, that I am 

 anxious to know how you reared them." 



" Well, then, I will briefly say that I have 

 the same theory in relation to the breeding of 

 queens that is put into practice in the breeding 

 of horses. Perhaps you know that California 

 horses beat the world for speed and other 



