MAY 1, 1911 



341 



A tight board fence tluit is too iinu-li ot » good thing; a section of a bee-tree in the foreground. 



a little controversy with our lamented friend 

 Hutchinson on this question, and he finally 

 made the concession that there was quite a 

 little in this worth ferreting out. Whatever 

 we may think and say about luck in our 

 enterprise, nevertheless there is such a thing 

 as luck. There is not one among us who 

 can control all and every condition that' has 

 an influence on the net result. Even if we 

 were smart enough to bring each colony up 

 to that point of gi'eatest populousness just 

 at a certain time, then we might fail in 

 judging when that time would be the most 

 appropriate and advantageous, for seasons 

 are not always the same. 



Who can be held responsible for the 

 drifting of bees from one hive to another? 

 Who is wise enough to start his bees in a 

 certain direction, so that they will find cer- 

 tain honey-secreting blossoms? Many other 

 questions suggest themselves here. We have 

 had certain colonies do as good as nothing 

 one season, and the next season they did 

 wonders. Three little dwindled-out colonies 

 were united early in June, and outdid any 

 thing else in the yard that season. We are 

 a long way from having solved all the prob- 

 lems in beedom. 



Naples, N. Y. 



A DOSE OF 



FEVEM ; SOME DISCOURAGING EXPERIENCES, BUT 

 STILL HOPEFUL 



BY W. H. DREYER 



I send you a photo of a section of an elm- 

 tree containing a swarm of bees hauled to 

 my home June 3d. It was cut on the W. S. 

 Blakesley farm, about three miles Avest of 

 here, and was some job before it was safely 

 landed as you see it in the picture, with a 

 Langstroth body over the top cavity, leav- 

 ing the knot-hole for an entrance. 



I have kept bees for about ten years, and 

 have had enough ups and downs in the 

 business to take the wind out of almost any 

 one ; but beekeeping has something about 

 it that continues throwing fuel on the fire, 

 even if it consumes some of our time and 

 carntal. 



When I started beekeeping T bought my 



first ten colonies in box hives of the man on 

 whose farm this bee-tree was cut. 



My first loss was almost entirely from 

 robbing. I wanted to taste some of their 

 honey, and n|ake a bad spill of it, getting 

 all my bees excited, and inviting many 

 othei's. 



But this was only an incentive toward 

 getting hold of bee-books and journals. 

 After reading the many possibilities on the 

 subject my enthusiasm grew instead of dy- 

 ing. Langstroth hives were bought, then 

 came 4x5 sections and fences, and all the 

 up-to-date things that go to make beekeep- 

 ing a pleasure. After laying in a good 

 supply of these things, enough to manage 



