GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1917 



" Close to his garden, close to his house, close to his iiieighbors." 



you are a cabinet-maker or a genius. But 

 that's part of the fun — ^something new to 

 work out and master. Don't wail that you 

 never can put all that kindling together. 

 Read the directions— they are absolutely 

 clear, and, together with the illustrations, 

 Avill surely enable you to work it out. 

 Those who have never yet done it have 

 many a delightful evening ahead. 



Mr. Geo. J. Trostle, of Sibley, Iowa, is a 

 tyi^ical baeklot beekeeper, tho he also has 

 some bees out of town. See his row of 

 hives, close to his garden, close to his house, 

 close to his neighbors. Yet he has been 

 fortunate in having liis bees make no 

 trouble. Sometimes the bee-neighbor prob- 

 lem has had to be worked out with some 

 care, and we shall touch on that further 

 in this department. Here is an interest- 

 ing bit from Mr. Trestle's letter. 



The pictures you will find inclosed are of 

 myself and bees. The swarm is a second 

 one of three-banded Italians. The row of 

 hives are in my back yard. You can see 

 by the picture how close they are to the 

 garden. I live in town on one lot, with 

 neighbors on afll sides, but have had no 

 trouble on account of the bees. 



I have also some bees out of town. They 

 will average about 80 to 100 lbs. per colony. 



I have a glass hive with bees in, which 

 I loaned to a grocer in town to use as an 

 advertisement. He screened in his front 

 window, covered the bottom with white- 

 clover sod, and the sides with tlowers. Then 

 we placed the hive on the sod with the glass 



side to the street and let the bees out in the 

 inclosed window. I lost a great many bees, 

 but was willing to do what I could to ad- 

 vertise honey. The grocer said it greatly 

 increased his sale of honey. 



Sibley, Iowa. Geo. J. Trostle^ 



That hive record of Mr. C. E. Fowler's, 

 shown- and explained on page 1071, is cer- 

 tainly ingenious and seemingly complete in 

 its condensation. Many of the ideas are cer- 

 tainly either adoptable or adai)table. But it 

 does look complicated and confusing. I 

 know I should prefer initials or abbrevia- 

 tions to arbitrary numerals. For "eggs" why 

 not " e " instead of " 1 "? " Larv^," " cap- 

 ped larvae," " hatching larvae," could be 

 "1," "cl," "hi," respectively. In one 

 place on the record "2" means "larvae;" 

 in other places it signifies two pounds of 

 bees or two frames of either brood or 

 honey, and in another place it refers to 

 the first super, the second part of the 

 hive, all of which seems like working the 

 numerals overtime, making them act as 

 ai'bitrary signs for certain words and 

 phrases in addition to their OAvn legitimate 

 work of designating number. In some 

 ways this record appeals to me strongly, 

 and, with some changes to suit my per- 

 sonal iDreferences, it will probably inaugu- 

 rate a change in my own records, which to 

 date have possessed that particular virtue 

 of generous detail especially possible to 

 the backlotter with his smaller number of 

 hives. 



