1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



933 



(, tjjijb it@ 4s& nia> -ft*. 



a^J- i'^J- S*f 5^ ^ J 



EMPLOYING THE TIME IN WINTER ADVANTA- 

 GEOUSLY. 



Question. — As I consider it, my bees are all 

 fixed for winter, my 20 colonies being all nice- 

 ly tucked away in their chaff hives, each hav- 

 ing from 25 to 30 pounds of sealed stores. 

 Can I do anything further along the " bee 

 line " till spring? I do not wish to make up 

 sections, or prepare many hives till I know 

 how my bees will come out, for so many of 

 them may die that I shall want no more hives 

 and sections than I have on hand now. 



Answer. — Now that we are in the midst of 

 long winter evenings, it becomes the duty of 

 all to spend these evenings in such a way that 

 they may be gaining in knowledge along the 

 line of the pursuit they have chosen in life. 

 In no business engagement is this more imper- 

 ative than where the culture of the bee is the 

 chosen occupation, and in no way can this be 

 done to any better advantage than in reading 

 the bee-literature of the day, from which the 

 mind is to be stored with useful knowledge 

 which can be put into practical use as soon as 

 the season of 1900 opens. When I first com- 

 menced bee-keeping I was greatly benefited 

 by the writings of Elisha Gallup, L. L. Lang- 

 stroth, Moses Quinby, A. I. Root, Adam 

 Grimm, and many other of those early writ- 

 ers on this subject, for by their writings I 

 learned my A B C in bee culture. 



My first year of experience in bee-keeping 

 by way of putting the things which I had read 

 in practice, resulted in 12 pounds of comb 

 honey and one swarm, from the two colonies 

 I purchased to commence with. The next 

 season I obtained 25 pounds of surplus from 

 each colony I had in the spring, on an aver- 

 age. At the end of the fourth season I chron- 

 icled an average of 80 pounds of comb honey 

 as the average surplus for each colony in the 

 spring, while at the end of the eighth season 

 my average yield per colony was 166% lbs. 

 During these eight years I had studied, read, 

 and practiced all my wakeful hours, about 

 bees, having great fun and keen enjoyment in 

 doing the same, for I have never yet spent an 

 hour (been in the bee business 30 years) in 

 my life in work pertaining to bee culture with- 

 out its being a real pleasure to me; and this 

 was brought about by those winter evenings 

 when I first began to read up the subject. 

 Many and many have been the nights when I 

 was awake from one to three hours, planning 

 how to accomplish some result I desired to 

 achieve in regard to the practical part of api- 

 culture, which, with the help of what I had 

 read, caused me to accomplish what I had 

 sought after. During all of the years which 

 have passed I have found that, if I would suc- 

 ceed, as far as possible I should read mainly 

 those books and articles which come from the 

 pens of practical bee-keepers — those whose 



ideas come from their daily work among their 

 bees rather than from theorizing while sitting 

 at the writing-table, for the former were the 

 ones who made a success of their calling, and 

 told just how they did it. If you wish to 

 learn farming, to whom do you go — to the man 

 whose farm is allowed to grow up to weeds 

 and briers, with buildings unpainted and 

 fences down, or to the man who produces good 

 crops each year, has his fences up in good 

 shape, with his buildings in attractive style 

 and in good repair? To the latter, of course; 

 and so you should do in bee-keeping. I am 

 well aware that many of our most practical 

 bee-men do not write for publication, and for 

 this reason we can bring in visiting, during 

 the winter, as another help along this line of 

 our qualification. But when we visit we 

 should try not to be a bore by staying two or 

 three days, and during the whole time asking 

 questions which are solely for self-benefit, for 

 that can not be called visiting in any sense of 

 the word. 



Some years ago a man came some distance 

 to see me. I was sick, and confined to the 

 house, yet was able to be dressed and lie on 

 the couch during the day. After warming 

 himself for a little he told me he had come 

 to have a little talk about bees, when he im- 

 mediately pulled from his pockets eight sheets 

 of foolscap paper, written over on both sides, 

 with questions which he began asking in a 

 dry, tiresome way. As soon as I gave an an- 

 swer he began to write it down; and if he could 

 not remember all I had said he asked over and 

 over again, wishing me to go into the minutiae 

 of the thing while he took it down. I stood 

 it (or, rather, lay), facing him for two or three 

 hours, till I thought I was too sick and tired 

 to be held in that way longer; and as he seem- 

 ed to take no notice of the condition I was in 

 I thought I would give him a hint, so I turned 

 over on the couch with my back to him. As 

 soon as he got through writing down the last 

 answer I had given him he very quietly took 

 his chair and came around to the other side of 

 the couch and asked the next question. I 

 stood it an hour longer, when I had to go to 

 bed, completely exhausted, after which he 

 asked my wife if she did not think I would be 

 rested enough in an hour or so to visit (?) with 

 him again. Well, to make the story short he 

 stayed that day, all night, and the greater part 

 of the next day, during which time I was able 

 to answer all of his questions, he taking the 

 answers down, and in departing I had the con- 

 solation of hearing him say to Mrs. D. that he 

 had had a good visit, and that he was very 

 thankful for the good entertainment she had 

 given him. 



When you go to visit any bee-keeper, make 

 it a z'isit, by imparting something as well as 

 in receiving something. And don't try to get 

 too much at once, for a little well learned is 

 much better than having so many things come 

 before you that you do not half remember 

 any of them. Then we have our bee conven- 

 tions, which are mainly held during the win- 

 ter months, and for the especial purpose of 

 gaining knowledge ; and while the cost of at- 

 tending may be considerable, yet if we im- 



