36 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15 



Conversations with 

 Doolittle 



At Borodino 



BOOKS, HIVES, ETC., f OR BEGINNERS. 



I read with interest your article for beginners in 

 the November 15th issue. Now please name some 

 of the practical books on bee-keeping; and tell us 

 what size of frame and hive you would use. Would 

 it be advisable to sow sweet clover or other nectar- 

 producing plants for bee pasture? 



It would be hard work to pick out any 

 special book on bee-keeping and recommend 

 it above all the rest, as all writers on apicul- 

 ture have their own individual ideas of what 

 is practical. When any one originates 

 something new, that thing is more practi- 

 cal in his hands than in the hands of some 

 one not familiar with it. To illustrate: Eor 

 over thiity years of my bee-keeping life I 

 used a smoker made of a piece of tin ten 

 inches long, rolled into a tube two inches in 

 diameter, and locked together with a stove- 

 pipe joint, so there was nothing to unsolder 

 from iieat irom the burning fuel. In one 

 end was nailed a cone-shaped plug having a 

 X-incli hole in the center, while the other 

 end was fitted with a removable plug or 

 stopper having a mouthpiece with a hole 

 bored through it, something like the mouth- 

 piece of an ordinary tobacco-pipe. This cyl- 

 inder was filled with almost any kind of fuel 

 that would produce lots of smoke — a coal of 

 fire or a little punk set on fire from a match 

 droiJjoed in, and the mouthpiece or plug re- 

 placed. It was then held between the teeth, 

 and the smoke directed just where it was 

 needed, by a slight breathing through the 

 mouthpiece and a little turning at the de- 

 sired angle by a pressure of the teeth, or a 

 little motion of the head and neck. This 

 left both hands free, and the directing of the 

 smoke, and the quantity required, became, 

 after a little, almost automatic. When, final- 

 ly, my teeih began to decay I had to resort 

 to a " bellows smoker " — a thing wliich the 

 great mass of bee-keepers called "perfec- 

 tion;" but I was so thoroughly disgusted 

 with it that I threw it into the waste-box 

 till I was simply obliged to go back to it on 

 account of having nd teeth to hold the old 

 mouth smoker with. 



In 1876 I was at Medina, having the old 

 mouth smoker with me. I showed the 

 founder of Gleanings, Mr. A. I. Root, how 

 I used this femoker; and as he saw how any 

 amount of smoke, from the least trifle to a 

 large volume, could be directed just where 

 it was needed, and at the instant needed, 

 while both hands were free, he became very 

 entimsiaslic in the matter. When I return- 

 ed home I left the old smoker with him; 

 but I soon received a letter telling me how 

 the "elephant" hail filled his eyes with 

 smoke till the tears streamed down his face 

 — how his lungs were filled till he was nearly 

 strangled, and he forgot to turn the thing, 

 on the bees, so that he got the worst sting- 

 ing he had had in a long time. If begin- 



ners — yea, and all others — will be patient in 

 trying something new, their trial is not so 

 apt to be in vain. 



Now about the books: I think all will 

 bear me out when I say that the book con- 

 taining the most up to date matter. on api- 

 culture is the one called "The ABC and X 

 Y Z of Bee Culture." But, while this is a 

 fact my eyes always glisten at the sight of 

 my old 1865 edition of " Quinby's Mysteries 

 of Bee-keeping," for it was at the feet of this 

 Gamaliel that 1 learned my first lessons in 

 practical apiculture. Of course, this book 

 is now out of print; but "Quinby's New 

 Bee-keeping," by L. C. Root, Father Quin- 

 by's son-in-law, is still obtainable, and 

 brought more nearly up to date. Then there 

 is " Langstroth on the Honey-bee," which 

 was and is considered "the standard'' for 

 the world. And our own Dr. Miller's book 

 telling of his forty years' work with the bees, 

 which has placed him where his name is a 

 household word on the tongue of every lover 

 of our little pets, should be in every bee- 

 keeper's library. And, dear me! there are 

 nearly or quite twice as many more books 

 on bee-keeping that have the " right ring "' 

 in them, from which so much can be learn- 

 ed that surely no one interested in bees can 

 go amiss in making a selection. 



For 35 years I u^ed and "swore" by the 

 Gallup frame about the same as I did by 

 that old mouth smoker. The Gallup frame 

 was like a Langstroth frame, but it was 10^ 

 in. square, inside, or 11^ outside. Mr. Gal- 

 lup used twelve of these to the hive, while 

 I used only nine, spacing them 1>^ inches 

 from center to center. This small brood- 

 chamber caused nearly all the white honey 

 to be stored in the sections; but when I 

 wished a non-swarming plan for working 

 my bees, this one-foot cube for a brood- 

 chamber would not answer. 1 then took 

 the old beaten path and adopted the regular 

 Langstroth size, using ten frames to the 

 hive; and now, after getting "acquainted" 

 with this regular L. frame and liive I am 

 wondering at the patience the rank and file 

 of the bee-keepers of the past had with my 

 continual claims for the Gallup as best. 



Now about sowing for bee pasturage: I 

 very much doubt whether the sowing or 

 planting of any thing which is of no value 

 except for the nectar it may produce can be 

 made to pay on land which will produce 

 fairly good returns for farming purposes. 

 Sweet clover is surely a great honey-plant; 

 and the beauty of this plant is that it will 

 thrive on gravelly, rocky, or sandy soil 

 where almost nothing else will grow at all. 

 I have sown it all about here by the road- 

 side, by gullies, and all waste places, until 

 it is quite a help to the bees. But as an api- 

 ary of lUO colonies requires hundreds of acres 

 of pasturage, the clovers, as sown by our 

 farmers, the basswoods growing for lumber, 

 and the buckwheat for its grain, give 99 out 

 of every 100 ounces of nectar which our bees 

 gather; while the hard maple, willows, and 

 fruit-trees give the most of the other ounce 

 not included with the 99. 



