1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1103 



"But you do not consider spring feednig 

 as labor thrown away, do you?" 



"That was not the point at issue. The 

 contention was the keeping of more colonies, 

 instead of spending so much time in manip- 

 ulation; and if I know any thing of bee- 

 keeping there is nothing that requires more 

 labor on the part of the apiarist than the 

 feeding of bees during the spring of the 

 year, where success is to be obtained by 

 such feeding. And to carry out properly 

 the feeding of from 500 to 700 colonies of 

 bees is something which would almost stag- 

 ger the man who sees only fun in all the 

 work in the apiary." 



"I see now, for I know that, when feed- 

 ing is once begun, it must be continued till 

 the flowers begin to yield nectar, or there 

 will be little results accruing from the mat- 

 ter. ' ' 



"That is right; and, in addition to all of 

 this labor, comes the cost of the feed. And 

 the strange thing is that neither of these 

 counts as any thing to the one who sees 

 nothing but ' labor and vexation of spirit ' 

 in the matter of manipulation along other 

 lines which, as a rule, give better results 

 than does spring feeding." 



" I see that ' Deacon Hardscrabble ' thinks 

 that much of the feed given during the 

 spring finds its way into the surplus. What 

 do you think of that ? ' ' 



' ' That depends upon the amount fed just 

 prior to the opening of the honey harvest. 

 If the feeding is heavy at that time, and the 

 hive is not well filled with brood, some of 

 the feed may go into the sections together 

 with that obtained from the fields. But 

 bee-keepers, as a rule, are made on the plan 

 of feeding as little as possible consistent 

 with good results, owing to the expense of 

 the feed. But I have no fight along this 

 line, nor along the line of spring feeding to 

 get the colonies in proper condition for the 

 harvest. My contention is against the advo- 

 cating of any plan that tends to a neglect of 

 the bees, as does the advocating of many 

 colonies with little manipulation; while at 

 the same time it appears that such advo- 

 cates spend more labor at feeding, etc., 

 than is required in building up colonies ready 

 for the harvest, in other ways. And, great- 

 est of all, this advocating of multitudes of 

 colonies with little or no labor tends to beget 

 in the beginner- a slip- shod method which 

 generally results in his losing all he put in 

 the business, in a few years after he enters 

 the ranks of apiculture." 



"Then you think as good results can be 

 secured with the same amount of labor by 

 the man who keeps 100 colonies of bees as 

 could be done were he to spend the same 

 labor on 200?" 



"That is my thought; and any careful 

 reader of the bee-papers during the past can 

 come to no other conclusion, for reports 

 favor the former rather than the latter. 

 Don't misunderstand me. If any man has 

 the ability to care for 100, 200, 1000, or even 

 2000 properly, and can hire competent labor 

 to help him manage the thousands, he will 



make a success in the matter. But the put- 

 ting into the field of 200 colonies of bees, 

 where a man has capacity for only 100, will 

 not make success, even though the ' trend ' 

 of some would have it so appear. A man 

 can secure much better results in properly 

 caring for 100 than can be done with 200 

 colonies worked (?) on the let-alone plan of 

 visiting the apiary three or four times a 

 year." 



"What do you base this assertion on?" 



"The experience and observation of the 

 past. Thirty-five years of bee-keeping life 

 tells me that this is not mere fancy, but 

 facts which the success of the two plans, in 

 the hands of the average person, proves. If 

 you have any doubts along this line, just try 

 the two plans side by side till you are con- 

 vinced. With the low prices of honey (as 

 compared with the prices of many other 

 things), seems to have come the thought 

 of partially or wholly going back to the old 

 idea that bees work for nothing and board 

 themselves; so that many bee-keepers seem 

 to think all that should be required of them 

 may be summed up in the old saying of 

 hold the dish to catch the porridge." 



" Then you think that this advocating of 

 more colonies and less work tends toward a 

 lowering of the standard of our more ad- 

 vanced apiculture?" 



"I do; and not only this, but an educa- 

 tion that is not profitable. To the enthusi- 

 astic bee-keeper there is no fun in such a 

 plan as this. Pleasure comes only through 

 a love of our pursuit; and if we love it we 

 are always interested enough to make the 

 labor fun while we are doing it. Did any 

 one ever have any fun going fishing and get 

 it by swinging in a hammock in the shade ? 

 Did any one ever enjoy himself in the fox- 

 chase while sitting beside the sitting-room 

 fire? The love of fishing and of the fux- 

 chase is greater than that for hammock and 

 fire, and so the love for work with the bees 

 will make the same greater fun than a life 

 of ease to the one who is to succeed in our 

 pursuit." 



[I am a little at a loss to know to whom 

 Mr. 'Doolittle alludes in his reference to the 

 editor who "loudly endorsed" the idea of 

 keeping a large number of colonies on one 

 place, and then afterward in his next num- 

 ber commended the feeding of the same in 

 the spring. It would be much better if our 

 correspondents would refer to the individual 

 by name, and give exact page or pages of a 

 given bee journal where such and such ideas 

 were discussed. No offense could possibly 

 be taken in any case, for every one has a 

 right to his opinion. Perhaps some might 

 say, "Do not put the shoe on if it does not 

 fit." I am not putting it on, because I do 

 not think I have given any general indorse- 

 ment to a large number of colonies in one 

 locality, as mentioned in the paragraph 

 above by Mr. Doolittle. Mr. E. W. Alexan- 

 der, in our issue for Nov. 1, page 1019, did 

 tell about keeping an extraordinarily large 

 number of colonies in one locality. In my 



