c 



a 



January, 1917 



THIS, as its 

 name indi- 

 cates, is to 

 be a department 

 particularly for 

 those to whom 

 beekeeping is a 

 sideline, be they 

 enthusiastic be- 

 ginners or discouraged ready-to-quittei"S, 

 bee-lovers too bus}^ about other things to 

 hav^ more than two or three hives under 

 an ajDple tree to provide honey and delight 

 of their presence, or skillful honey-pro- 

 ducers who, unattracted by the thorght 

 of beekeeping as a means of livelihcod, 

 choose to limit their efforts to forty or 

 fifty colonies in their own yards. Our in- 

 terests will not be those of outyards and 

 trucks and crews of helpers and carloads 

 of honey and all the varied and distinct 

 problems that these big efforts bring about, 

 but they will be vital and absorbing to us, 

 and we shall discuss them one by one. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping as a Side Line 



1 



43 



is power. Il is 

 also success 

 and wealth." 



In C h a m - 

 paign, Illinois, 

 there lives a 

 railroad man, a 

 freight conduct- 

 or named G. B 

 Mays. For fifteen years Mr. Mays has been 

 keeping bees as a sideline; and, as he 

 has a gentle strain of Italians, he has no 

 trouble with his neighbors. The picture 

 shows his little yard during the honey- 

 flow; at that time, Mr. Mays had twenty 

 colonies and took ot¥ eleven hundred pounds 

 of white-clover hone}?, but he has since 

 increased to forty colonies. He is able to 

 furnish honey to all the agents on his 

 division. Mr. Mays is a reader and a 

 constant student of bee books and journals, 

 and therein probably lies the secret of 

 his continued endeavor and success. 



Right now is the best season of the 

 year for study, and there is a wealth of 

 literature to choose from, books and 

 journals and bulletins. Once the habit is 

 formed, it keeps going of itself. The more 

 you read, the more you know ; the more 

 you knoAV, the more you want to know ; 

 th'j more you want to know, the more you 

 read. So there you are, reading again. 

 And in what good company! — doctors, 

 ministers, lawj-ers, grocers, iron-workers, 

 carpenters, farmei's, teachers ; always, 

 everj-where, the successful ones are those 

 Avho study most carefully and thoroly, and 

 work most persistently and intelligently. 

 Notice what Prof. Jager says, page 1067; 

 " Beekeeping is a science, and a very deep 

 and complicated one at that. Knowledge 



Another thing to be looked after in win- 

 ter is the question of new suj^plies. And 

 in its own way that is as much fun as 

 working with the bees themselves. Don't, 

 1 pray you, wait till the last possible 

 minute to order your hives, and then till 

 another last possible minute to put them 

 together. Decide early in the Avinter (if 

 you did not in the fall) what you will 

 need for next season, and, having decided, 

 order; and ha^dng purchased, put together; 

 for, of course, tho you be the veriest be- 

 ginner, you are going to tackle that job 

 yourself. I have heard of people who sent 

 for the bee-supply agent or the state in- 

 spector to help work out the Chinese puz- 

 zle of hives and frames " in the flat." It 

 is undeniabl}^ puzzling the first time, unless 



The apiary from which a railroatl man furnishes hone,v to ^he agents on his division. 



