184 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



BEEKEEPING FROM A CARTOONIST'S VIEW POINT 



BY J. H. DONAHEY 



[The writer of the following is the cartoonist of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who, as we mentioned 

 editorially in our Dec. 1st issue, is an enthusiastic beekeeper. Mr. Donahey is in E^pt at present ; but when 

 he returns he is going to furnish Gleanings some cartoons depicting the joys and sorrows of the beekeeper. 

 A more extended notice of these will appear later. — Ed.] 



Three years ago, on the evening that 

 Halley's comet v.as supposed to strike the 

 earth and demolish us, our tirst colony of 

 bees arrived. They were hybrids, very cross, 

 and in a single-walled eight-frame hive. We 

 lad never kept bees before, and knew prac- 

 tically nothing about their care beyond a 

 faint memory of the old-fashioned box hive 

 that used to stand under the apple-tree in 

 the country village. 



With a desire to do something with our 

 own hands, husband it, and make it gi'ow, 

 and from the fact that we wanted life in 

 some form in the flower garden, we chose 

 ihe colony of bees. We knew they would 

 occupy very little space, and would lend that 

 ( ompleting touch we felt our garden really 

 needed, although it was an experiment pure 

 and simple. 



In our haste to place the colony on its 

 stand we neglected to read the instructions 

 accompanying the new veil, and so received 

 our first baptism of formic acid. Hoav well 

 we remember when the good wife looked up 

 into the sky at the flying comet, inquiring if 

 we really thought it would hit us. We an- 



far greater than we had ever hoped or 

 dreamed. 



The next year, during our absence, a 

 colony concluded to swarm. Mrs. Donahey, 

 who had never handled bees, tried a new 

 trick, and one we had never heard of before. 

 Knowing we could not get home in time to 

 hive them, she secured the lawn hose lying 

 near, and, turning on the water, directed the 

 stream on the bees as they were pouring out 



We did not care one whit whether it did or not. 



swered that we did not care one whit wheth- 

 er it did or not. 



We have had many enjoyable experiences, 

 and have had to hasten to our volume of the 

 ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture very oft- 

 en ; but with it all we have found a pleasure 



of the entrance. She explained later that 

 she had read somewhere that bees do not 

 swarm when it rains, and she concluded to 

 try a summer shower on them. They went 

 back into their hive that day, but they did 

 it all over the next morning, but we were 



