Ava-JST, 1917 



G LEANINGS IN BEE C \< L T U R E 



617 



a REE 



EEKEEP- 



is a 

 man's busi- 

 ness." page 519. 

 And it was the 

 editor that said 

 it ! Oh, well ! we 

 don't mind, we 

 women — even 



if it is. "We like it just as well, may be a 

 little better. 



I am forever talking- about the value of 

 reading, and am glad Prof. Baldwin called 

 attention, page 538, to what Dr. Phillips ex- 

 presses so forcibly, " To be a good bee- 

 keeper one must read and re-read the books 

 and journals pertaining to the subject." A 

 few months ago we bound several years' 

 tiles of Gleanings with nails, as described 

 on page 37, January 1, 1915. Of course the 

 bound volume is not elegant in appearance, 

 nor does it lie open flat ; but even this crude 

 binding does make reference much easier 

 tlian when the copies are loose, and it 

 doesn't cost anything at all. Subscribe 

 and read, and then bind and re-read. 



One thing I have always rejoiced in is 

 the fact that the bee journals do not make 

 a practice of painting beekeeping in rosier 

 luies than the facts will justify. In this 

 they have seemed to me particularly consci- 

 entious and fair. They do not as a class 

 suggest that anybody can get rich with a 

 few colonies of bees in a back lot. Neither 

 the uncertainties involved nor the work 

 and studj' required are minimized by the 

 journals devoted to apiculture. But occa- 

 sionally some other jDublication, perhaps 

 with the best intentions and as a result of 

 ignorance or misinformation, will quite 

 utterly misrepresent conditions. 



I recall that our own first interest in bees 

 hatched out of an article in a poultry jour- 

 nal, the idea of the article being that bee- 

 keeping was a particularly fine side line to 

 go along with poultry-raising as all you 

 had to do was to put a hive or two out in 

 the yard, and the bees would do the rest. 

 That idea had a particularly winning ap- 

 peal. So we became beekeepers. We con- 

 tinued as beekeepers, not because there is 

 no work involved, but because there is — fas- 

 cinating, challenging, alluring work, with 

 ils own healthy chance of reasonable profits. 



Tl.e most recent example that has come 

 rndcr my observation of exaggeration that 

 amounts to misrepresentation seems partic- 

 ularly regrettable, because it is in an ad- 

 vertisement of one of the Department of 

 Agriculture bulletins. Needless to say, the 

 Departme::t has nothing to do with it. A 

 daily ]iaper. fired with the ambition to serve 



the public in 

 these days of 

 unwonted activi- 

 ty, when every 

 one is doing his 

 bit and learning 

 as many new bits 

 as he can, has 

 advertised differ- 

 ent bulletins of practical value on garden- 

 ing and foods and canning, and now on 

 bees. And in these advertisements of the 

 bee bulletin occur these sentences: " There 

 are tons of potential honey in every va- 

 cant lot, suburb, and pasture." " A 

 vacant lot overgTown with weeds has a 

 hundred pounds of food in it." " The bee 

 is the only domestic animal which you can 

 keep almost anywhere, and which requires 

 no feeding. All he asks of his keeper is 

 patience and understanding of his ways." 

 " I ask," says the bee, " neither food nor 

 clothing, and only a box for a shelter." 



Yet the bulletin itself says: "It is a 

 mistake to paint only the bright side of the 

 picture and leave it to the new beekeeper to 

 discover that there is another side. Wliere 

 any financial profit is derived, beekeeping 

 requires hard work, and work at just the 

 right time, otherwise the surplus of honey 

 may be diminished or lost. Few lines of 

 work require more study to insure success. 

 In years where the available nectar is lim- 

 ited, surplus honey ;is secured only by 

 judicioi-s manipulations, and it is only thru 

 considerable experience and often by ex- 

 pensive reverses that the beekeeper is able 

 to manipulate properly to save his crop. 

 Any one can produce honey in seasons of 

 plenty, but these do not come every year in 

 most locations, and it takes a good beekeep- 

 er to make the most of poor years. When, 

 even with the best of manipulation, the crop 

 is a failure thru lack of nectar, the bees 

 must be fed to keep them from starvation." 

 Of course the bulletin goes on to condemn 

 box hives : " The keeping of bees in boxes, 

 hollow logs, or straw ' skeps ' is not profit- 

 able, is often a menace to progressive bee- 

 keepers, and should be stronglj- condemned. 

 Bees in box hives (plain boxes with no 

 frames, and with combs built at the will of 

 the bees) are too often seen in all parts of 

 the country. The owners m.ay obtain from 

 them a few pounds of inferior honey a year, 

 and carelessly 'Continue in the antiquated 

 practice. In some cases this type of bee- 

 keeping does little harm to others; but where 

 diseases of the brood are present the box 

 hive is a serious menace and should be abol- 

 ished." 



The bulletin itself, if procured and read, 



