GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1917 



will thus correct the wrong impressions left 

 by the advertisement ; but any one who mere- 

 ly reads the advertisement without sending 

 for the bulletin may happen to buy some 

 bees, firm in the belief that they need only 

 a box for a shelter, and set them out in his 

 yard to gather part of the tons of honey in 

 some adjoining weed-covered vacant lots. 

 Thus he will lay himself liable to keen dis- 

 appointment, and probably will pass soon 

 into the ranks of slovenly, disastrous bee- 

 keepers. 



As to bees being a good side line for a 

 poultryman, so they are, even as chickens 

 are a good side line for beekeepers, and 

 either one or the two together justifiable 

 side lines for anybody. Howevex', there is 

 no question but bees make a more ideal side 

 line than chickens for a woman, or for a 

 business man. The chickens require care 

 every day in the year. No matter what the 

 weather, the poultryman must go out into it 

 to look after his flock. When he goes on a 

 vacation, some arrangement must be made 

 for their care. With a farmer, of course, 

 they are no drawback, as he has other live 

 stock that requires daily care, and so the 

 chickens add no particular complications in 

 this way. 



With bees, the case is entirely different — 

 no paddling around in the rain, no braving 

 of winter storms ; and, given the proper care 

 before being left, they will look after them- 

 selves during vacation-time. 



Now, side lines are undeniably of real 

 value in people's lives. " All work and no 

 play " has been weighed in the balance and 

 found wanting, long years ago. But there 

 is play and play. To many people, play 

 for its own sake offers little satisfaction, 

 and those are usually the ones who adoi3t 

 some avocation or side line to bring the 

 needed relaxation and refreshment. And 

 while sometimes the conditions of a person's 

 life may unfortunately forbid the exercise 

 of his tastes in his real work, everybody 

 can, within reasonable limits, choose his 

 own avocation. So for thousands of j^eople 

 it represents the very thing that would have 

 been, under happier or at least different con- 

 ditions, his main work. With others, it is 

 chosen to make a complete contrast to the 

 chief busine.^s of life. And always it yields 

 many hours of utter delight and satisfaction. 



Take the case of Dr. F. C. Freeman, of 

 Chattanooga, Tennessee. Starting two 

 years ago with two colonies, he increased 

 them that season to five, tho the three new 

 ones were still rather weak by fall. " The 

 orthodox thing to do," he writes, " was to 

 double them up; but not being very ortho- 

 dox, either in religir.n, politics, or medicine, 



why should I be in apiculture?" So he 

 thought things out for himself, gave the 

 hives pretty good protection, fed a little 

 during warm spells thru the winter, for they 

 were short of stores, stimulated a bit in the 

 early spring, and the weak colonies came 

 out of the winter stronger than they went 

 in. Last year he increased further to nine, 

 and again wintered successfully — this time 

 without protection. So now he says he feels 

 like a " sophomore in apiculture, just ooz- 

 ing with advice." 



Dr. Freeman's immediate surroundings 

 consist of extensive railroad yards, a base- 

 ball park, and forty-three acres of play- 

 ground, all of which, he cheerfully admits, 

 " ai"e as good for flowers as the cinder heap 

 of a near-by furnace. But I cannot believe 

 that any one will go into beekeeping just for 

 the money or even for the honey alone. 

 I began to play with bees, not so much for 

 profit as for a pleasant diversion, which they 

 have certainly proved to be." 



Moreover, Dr. Freeman has made part of 

 his hives for the sheer delight of it. As he 

 prefers the Danzenbaker hive, he is utilizing 

 some white-pine boxes he has discovered, 

 with % ends and % sides, each of them as 

 wide as the depth of a Danzenbaker body. 

 The top and bottom of this most convenient 

 box being of matched material, he makes 

 them into telescope covers and finishes with 

 asphalt roofing. Because of the sides of his 

 home - made hives being thin, he uses a 

 division-board on each side. Corners are 

 rabbeted and nailed both ways, and the 

 result is everything solid and tight and satis- 

 factory. 



He has also put a " reducer " in his light 

 current, and imbeds the wires in his founda- 

 tion by electricity. But he adds, " Don't try 

 to make your own hives unless you have 

 suitable tools and are skilled and happy in 

 their use." Right good advice this is, too. 

 But he loves it himself, having used and en- 

 joyed tools since childhood, so the making of 

 the hives is just another bit of pleasure in 

 his beekeeping. He sums up by saying, 

 " Tho I am in a poor place to make money, 

 and so far have had little honey, I should 

 be very loath to be without the interesting 

 little fellows in the back yard, and I know 

 tl:ere are thousands who would gain profit, 

 knowledge, and diversion if they would be- 

 come back-lot buzzers." 



STUTTERED STORIES. 

 (With apologies to Dr. Miller.) 

 There once was a woman (not me 1 ) 

 Whose stories were crooked as Z. 

 Told early, told late. 

 No tale was told straight — 

 She stuttered her stories, you see. 



