GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15, 



The British Bee-keepers' Association, as well 

 as the Brit. Bee Journal, encourages every one 

 to keep a few bees. The cottager, with his 

 limited income, is, sometimes, just able to 

 make both ends meet, and hence finds the 

 keeping of a few colonies both a pleasurable 

 and profitable occupation. It gives him the 

 best and most wholesome sweet in the world 

 for his table, and enables him to have a little 

 more of this world's goods than he perhaps 

 otherwise would. 



Personally I have been greatly interested in 

 the pictures that have been presented in our 

 esteemed British cotemporary from time to 

 time. Feeling sure there were some views 

 that would interest our own readers, I arranged 

 for an exchange of engravings, and now take 

 pleasure in presenting the first one of the 



ers, as well as to those who declare they are 

 " too old " to take up bee-keeping. Always 

 used to an active and busy life, an architect 

 and surve3'or by profession, he first began to 

 take an interest in bee-keeping in 1888, when 

 a friend lent him "Cheshire's Practical Bee- 

 keeping." At this time, too, his next-door 

 neighbor, the curate of the parish, commenced 

 to keep bees. At this time Mr. Lister was 

 eighty years of age; and in 1890, nothing 

 daunted by his fourscore and two years, he 

 determined to take up bee-keeping himself. 

 He built himself a hive which was kept in the 

 window of his workshop, with an entrance 

 through the sash for the bees to fly from, and 

 an alighting-board &nd porch outside. This 

 modest beginning did not long sati.'^fy his as- 

 pirations, and after building a hive or two he 



APIARY OF WM. I.ISTER, MORTON, GAINSBOROUGH, ENGI.AND. 



series — the house-apiary, the hives, and the 

 bee-keeper himself. The interesting and re- 

 markable part regarding this is that the owner 

 began to study bees when he was 82 years old, 

 when most men would feel too feeble and 

 perhaps too ancient to go into some new in- 

 dustry. May he reach and pass the four- 

 score-and-ten mark. "We little know how 

 much an agreeable and pleasant pastime 

 aflForded by the study of bees will do some- 

 times to build up health and prolong life. 

 —Ed.] 



Our illustration shows the apiary of a veter- 

 an bee-keeper, Mr. Wm. Lister, of Morton, 

 Gainsborough. This gentleman may serve as 

 an example to many of our younger bee-keep- 



determined to erect a bee-house, and, with 

 the exception of the asphalt floor, he actual- 

 ly made and erected the capital bee house 

 shown in our illustration. It measures 10 ft. 

 by G ft., and is 6 ft. high to the eaves. The 

 walls are double, -with an air-space between, 

 and the roof is matchboarded and felted as 

 well as slated. Two sky-lights aie fitted 

 which open outward to allow bees to escape, 

 and shutters are also affixed to darken the in- 

 terior. Runners to carry single-walled body- 

 boxes are fitted round one side and the end 

 farthest from the door, and sixteen stocks can 

 be thus accommodated in two tiers. On the 

 opposite side of the house is a hinged table 

 for manipulations, and the corner behind the 

 door is fitted as a comb store for 100 frames. 



