MARCH 1, 1914 



187 



enough to li\e on until it was time to put 

 them out. 



Thing's began to go better, i had six 

 strong colonies the next fall. Took out 150 

 nice sections of honey. T ate honey all win- 

 ter and sold the rest at 25 cents a section. 



I wintered the six colonies perfectly. I 

 had a thei*mometer in the cellar, and kept 

 liie cellar windows open nearly all the time, 

 but darkened the opening with a long heavy 

 curtain. I discovered that every thing else 

 also kei)t better in the cellar with the tem- 

 perature around 45 degrees. 



During the past summer I increased to 

 eleven colonies. Lost two of my queens, and 

 then consolidated three stands into one, 

 leaving me nine. I'll tell you how it was. 

 Tlie colony that had up to this time made 

 me 108 sections of fine honey did not swarm 

 until the last day of June. I was lounging 

 in the yard swing, watching half a bushel or 

 so of the tenants hanging on the front of 

 I lie hive, when all at once they came out of 

 that hive like a cloud rose in the air, and 

 left like a roaring tornado. I was mad. J 

 never before had had nerve enough to clip 

 a queen. My wife was excited also. More 

 advice was given me as to how I could have 

 prevented sucli a blunder. I got out my 

 tools, jerked the supers off from that hive, 

 and found the queen. I think now she was 

 a virgin. Then I slipped the scissors under 

 her wing and clipped her; also clipped the 

 queen of another colony that had just 

 swarmed. After it was all finished, I re- 

 pented what I had done, as my book knowl- 

 edge had then had time enough to soak 

 through and leak out, and I realized what I 

 probably had done. The next day I found 

 one of those clipped queens balled on the 

 front steps of the next-door hive. I sprin- 

 kled water on the ball. She emerged and 

 ran into that liive before I had time to stop 

 her. Something happened to that colony 

 as it became queenless. So did the other hive 

 where I had clipped the queen. I don't 

 know about the colony with the runaway 

 swarm. They kept on working. But I do 

 not know yet Avhether it still has a queen. 

 I presume I shall find out next spring — 

 another fool notion, I suppose. I presume 

 mv wife will tell me about it at that time. 



I harvested 247 nice sections of honey 

 that year, much of it No. 1 fancy, and all 

 selling at 25 cts. per cake. 1 weighed ten 

 sections that 1 sold to one party for $2.50, 

 and the scales showed ten pounds and four 

 ounces — 25 cts. per pound, you see, and the 

 customer wanted more. 



If there ever was a hobby to get a man's 

 mind off from every thing else, the bee is it. 

 They say fish and cabbage are foods for the 

 brain. Well, I do believe the bees are the 

 emergency brakes in cases of overwork and 

 brain-fag. I have wasted thirty-fi\e years 

 of pleasure and fun, as well as profit and 

 better health, by not having discovered the 

 interesting and industrious bee as my friend. 



There would not be so many bioken-down 

 business and professional men if they had 

 taken time to become interested in a few 

 colonies of bees. I also believe the outdoor 

 treatment of bee cultui'e, taken early in life 

 by the average individual, would eliminate 

 many cases of the white plague commonly 

 called tuberculosis, not to mention other ail- 

 ments that the outdoor life would benefit. 



God made the bees for us. He has her- 

 alded the praises of honey in the book of 

 holy writ. Man makes sugar and molasses 

 by chemical processes. The bees make hon- 

 ey by the process provided by God himself, 

 who never patented the process, and never 

 has changed, nor invented a better way than 

 he started the bee out with at the beginning, 

 notwithstanding all the tlieories that Dr. 

 Bonney and the many other wise and learn- 

 ed fellows are continually contending about 

 in tlieir endeavors to make over the bee and 

 its habits. 



Do you know I have learned to appreciate 

 and love, more and more, God's outdoors 

 since I got this bee trouble? I had never 

 seen the sun rise since I Avas a little boy on 

 the farm until the bees gave me the morning- 

 boost. I have got so I can't successfully 

 night-hawk it any more, and neither can I 

 lie in bed in the morning while the bees are 

 out and at it. But I have never been able 

 to get out so'early but that I have seen them 

 coming home as well as going out. 



My health is better, I feel better, and 

 really am better, because I have learned to 

 love the bees. 



ARRESTED FOR KEEPING BEES 



BY A. T. RODMAN 



I have decided to tell my troubles to the 

 readers of Gleanings. During the summer 

 of 1912 my neighbors across the street in- 

 formed us that our bees were destroying 

 their grapes. The facts were that we had 



had a dry season just as the gi'apes were 

 maturing, and then, just as the gi*apes ri- 

 ]iened, a heavy rain. This caused a rush of 

 sap into the grapes; and as the skins had 

 been hardened by the dry weather they 



