GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



little bit leary of the pesky things, for the 

 sight of a bee had always affected me just 

 the same as it does the majority of mankind. 

 I was never unprepared to make my get- 

 away. 



It wasn't long before my neighbor was 

 making an awful smudge and monkeying 

 with those bees. By tip-toeing around and 

 peeking over, I saw it all. Standing on 

 somewhat higher ground I was astonished 

 as I beheld him actually putting his hands 

 down in that hive, right among those bees. 

 The cold chills ran relay races up and doAvri 

 my nervous body as I watched him lift out 

 the frames covered with the yellow-banded 

 fellows and dozens of them running over his 

 hands. " Hello ! George ! What are you do- 

 ing? " I asked, in as calm and possessed a 

 manner as I could muster up. Without lift- 

 ing his eyes he said, " I'm trying to see what 

 these little fellows are doing." 



His calm answer and the seemingly in- 

 different manner with which he turned those 

 frames of comb and bees over and around, 

 all the while critically examining them, cap- 

 tivated me, and I tvas stung with the " hce 

 fever." May be you think it strange; but 

 the fever has not yet abated. 



Well, my confidence soon grew bolder, 

 and I was finally near enough to peek over 

 into the hive. Wonderful! delightful! en- 

 trancing! 



But, horrors! He asked me to hold a 

 frame for him while he did something or 

 other that needed attention. My nervous 

 chills immediately changed to " shiverinos." 

 My teeth would have chattered themselves 

 loose had I not set my jaws firmly together; 

 and (would you believe it?) when some of 

 those varmints ventured to run over my 

 hands the water seemed to ooze off from me 

 in a manner that would put a Turkish bath 

 to shame. After it was all over I went 

 home, weak as a cat, and lay down to ru- 

 minate, resuscitate, and recover, for I had 

 experienced a drenching equal to any Turk- 

 ish bath I have ever had administered to me. 



I couldn't rest. I wanted some bees; and 

 their not stinging me was one of the best 

 reasons I should have them; and then, 

 again, I had never before in all my life had 

 enough honey to eat. 



My neighbor was Mr. George Belt. I 

 asked him to find me some bees. He did. 

 We soon became fast friends, just because 

 we had found true pleasure in the same 

 hobby. My wife soon called me " nutty." 

 George and I were both fatally afflicted witli 

 the malady. Many an hour we ruminated 

 on the possibilities and tlie pleasures we liad 

 discovered in the yellow-banded friends. 



growing more " nutty " every day. Ever 

 after we hailed each other as " George B." 

 and " Hamlin B." 



1 soon secured three colonies, brought in 

 from the country in home-made hives. Gee ! 

 but I was afraid of them just the same 

 Setting them on boxes in the back yard I 

 carefully pulled oft". one of the cleats that 

 kept them in the hives, and ran away tO' a 

 safe distance. They were so overjoyed at 

 the fresh air I had let in that the whole yard 

 seemed to be full of bees and their music, 

 which I did not understand, as they played 

 in and out of the hive. As soon as their 

 enthusiasm had waned I stole up and lib 

 erated another hive. Now, " George B." 

 did not see this or he would have laughed. 



My wife also became interested at this 

 juncture, and began handing out advice as 

 to how I should conduct myself and manage 

 the newly acquired backyard friends. Many 

 have been tlie fool things we thought of and 

 experienced during the past three years. 



This was in the fall of the year, and I 

 put those three stands in the cellar, and shut 

 tlie cellar up tight from the air as well as 

 light. Every time I went down cellar I 

 hurried out again. My wife always made 

 me go down for vegetables and canned fruit, 

 I had to be bold, of course, but I was really 

 afraid, just the same. The bees would come 

 out and fly around. The floor, was becoming 

 thickly covered with them. I was awfully 

 worried. I knew they would all be dead on 

 the floor before spring. They got so noisy 

 at times, and so bold, that I put off taking 

 them out of doors until after the middle of 

 the following April; and when T did grow 

 bold enough to do so I had another case of 

 chills; for while cai'rying out the second and 

 third hives the other bees took especial de- 

 light in settling on me as the most likely 

 object and place in the whole back yard to 

 rest, and they actually turned my hat and 

 clothes into a brown spring suit. It made 

 me somewhat disgusted ; but my wife wisely 

 remarked, " You can't expect much else 

 from bees." She knew all about it, of 

 course. Well, there were less than one million 

 bees in those three hives after all had died 

 in the cellar that wanted to die there. 



We ham-ested (or, rather, stole) sixteen 

 pounds of bulk honey from one of these 

 colonies that fall, but had to feed two colo- 

 nies all winter. The other colony fell dead 

 on the hive bottom three days before I put 

 tlie others out the following spring — starved, 

 of course. " Fool trick," my wife said. " I 

 know it," was my response. I pined for 

 thirty days — never felt more uncomfortable 

 in all my life, for I really thought they had 



