1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



695 



making an average of sixteen days from the 

 egg to the fully mature queen. 



THE HIVE OR THE MAN. 



OuestioJi. — I have just entered the ranks of 

 bee-keepers, and am very much interested in 

 hives. A few miles on one side of me is a man 

 who keeps bees in the American hive. On 

 the other side of me, at about an equal dis- 

 tance, lives a man who keeps bees in the 

 Langstroth hive, while in still another direc- 

 tion is a man who keeps bees in a hive of his 

 own invention. During the present season 

 the man having his own hive has secured a 

 yield of about oO pounds from each hive, on 

 an average, while neither of the other two, 

 with the American or Langstroth hives, has 

 secured any, and they tell me if their bees 

 secure only honey enough for winter they will 

 do well. The man with his own hive claims 

 that neither the American nor the Langstroth 

 hive gives any great yields of honey; and had 

 the other two had and used his hive they 

 would have secured honey the same as he did. 

 Is this claim right ? If not, why did he secure 

 honey while the other two did not ? As I am 

 beginning in bee-keeping, I am anxious to 

 start with the right hive, so I may meet with 

 success. 



Answer. — From the above and other nu- 

 merous questions asked, and the hosts which 

 are clamoring for the best hive, it would seem 

 that all one had to do was to get one of that 

 neighbor's o^vii hive, or the Gallup, Root, 

 Langstroth, American, Quinby, Hoffman, 

 Heddon, or some other good hive, to meet 

 with certain success in apiculture. No matter 

 how poorly attended to, if we only have a oood 

 hive we certainly shall have honey to sell and 

 give away. From the many failures in the 

 bee-business, and the shipwreck ending in dis- 

 aster of so many who start out joyously when 

 embarking in this business, it would seem as 

 if they depended simply on using or having 

 their bees in good hives. While a good hive 

 has much to do with the results of bee-keep- 

 ing, the man has much more to do with suc- 

 cess or failure. Do men buy choice animals 

 of any kind and let them take care of them- 

 selves, expecting a profit from them ? No ; 

 they spare no pains to have them properly 

 cared for, and give them every chance in their 

 power that looks or tends toward success. 

 Yet those same men, should they embark in 

 the bee business, will expect a large income 

 from bees if they only have them in a good 

 hive, if they do not do any thing for them 

 once in six months. As well provide a good 

 stable for choice stock, and then let them 

 shirk for themselves, expecting a profit from 

 them. Men do not do this way with the 

 stock, and why should they with the bees? 

 The idea that bees "work for nothing and 

 board themselves ' ' must be banished from our 

 thoughts before we secure much profit from 

 them. vSuccessful bee-keeping means work, 

 and lots of it, for a man with brains enough to 

 know that he must leave no stone unturned 

 that tends toward success. A good hive in 

 the hands of such a man, with a good season, 

 is a power which rolls up tons of honey, and 



shows to the masses of people that there is 

 money in the bee-business. Such a man will 

 have his bees in readiness for the hone3'-har- 

 vest when it comes, and do things in just the 

 right time to secure the best results. I am 

 often asked, "What advantage have any of 

 the movable-frame hives enumerated above 

 over a box hive?" Much, every way, in the 

 hands of a skilled apiarist, but none at all 

 with the man who never handles the frames to 

 take advantage of the benefits to be derived 

 from a judicious spreading of the brood, by 

 making the strong help the weak ; by giving 

 stores, from those having more than an abun- 

 dance, to the needy ; by cutting out queen- 

 cells to keep from ruinous overswarming, etc. 

 What are movable frames good for, if not for 

 the above purpose ? and yet we have those all 

 over the country who do not take a frame out 

 of a hive once a year, and call themselves bee- 

 keepers, and wonder why they don't succeed 

 as Mr. A does. They have the same hives, 

 they are sure. 



We come along some morning and say, 

 " Good morning, friend B. How do the bees 

 prosper ?' ' 



" Pretty well, I guess ; I have lifted the 

 hives, and they all feel quite heavy. See 

 here ; lift this one. There, is not that a good 

 one? I'll get lots of honey from that one 

 this sea.son." 



We step to the entrance and see very few 

 bees flying. When we ask, " How many 

 square inches of brood is there in this hive ?" 

 he says, " Oh ! I don't know. I have not had 

 the frames out since the bees were put into the 

 hive. I do not believe in fussing with bees as 

 Mr. A does." 



Thus we find plenty of bee-keepers, or those 

 calling themselves such, all over the land. Is 

 it any wonder we have plenty of candidates 

 for blasted hopes ? Mr. B does not seem to 

 realize that it is just this " fussing," as he calls 

 it, of Mr. A that makes his success so much 

 greater than his own. I do not want it under- 

 stood that a person is to be kept constantly 

 overhauling his hives to make bee-keeping 

 successful. No, not that. What I mean is 

 that, when a gain is to be made by looking 

 inside of a hive, do it, and at just the time it 

 is needed. Spread the brood in just the right 

 time, put on the sections in just the right 

 time, cut out the queen-cells in just the right 

 time, and so on with all of the work of the 

 apiary ; and do not keep any more colonies 

 than you can care for and have every thing 

 done in good order. Better results can be 

 secured with thirty colonies properly attended 

 to than with one hundred poorly attended to, 

 or, what is often the case, not attended to at 

 all. What I want to impress upon the minds 

 of the readers of Gleanings is this : That a 

 thorough, practical apiarist will succeed with 

 almost any of the frame hives now in use, 

 while a careless slipshod man will not pay his 

 way with the best hive ever invented. 



My bees have done the best this season they 

 have for the last eight years. 



Blaine, Wash., Aug. 17. J. B. Ramage. 



