680 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



September, 1917 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



enough honey in the combs containing drone 

 brood to hist well into the fall, or till about 

 the time our lat«-reared queens are ready 

 for mating', when it is advisable to feed 

 some warm thin syrup each day about noon, 

 when it is warm and pleasant, so as to in- 

 sure a full flight of the drones. 



Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



Letters from a Beekeeper's Wife 



The Honey Shop, Sept. 1, 1917. 

 Dear Sis: 



I am tired tonight, for the whole family 

 has been bottling honey all day — even Billy 

 has been helping by sticking on labels and 

 l^utting the jars on the shelves. You know 

 we told you when you were here — it already 

 seems ages ago — that we were going to sell 

 some of our honey in pint and quart jars 

 for a little more per pound to fat, honest 

 Mr. Day, instead of selling it all at whole- 

 sale. That is what we have been bottling. 

 I went to town yesterday; and when I saw 

 seven or eight people looking in Mr. Day's 

 window I went over to look too. It was our 

 observation hive full of live bees that had 

 drawn the crowd. (Yes, eight makes a 

 crowd in our village at eleven o'clock in the 

 morning!) They were all so absorbed in 

 watching the moving mass of insects that 

 not one looked up as I joined them. Beside 

 the hive were pyramids of our jars of 

 honey, shining like bottled sunlight. I was 

 so proud that I could scarcely refrain from 

 tapping my neighbor on the shoulder and 

 saying, ''They are our bees, and I bottled 

 that honey !" 



Florence protests, whenever she helps with 

 the honey, that it is a shame to take it away 

 from the bees when they have worked hard 

 all summer to gather it. Her father insists 

 that the bees owe him their surplus for the 

 rent of his hives and the care he gives the 

 inmates. He always ends the argument 

 with a twinkle in his eye as he says : 



"Besides, doesn't everything in the world 

 exist for man's particular use?" 



He knows that that will start me off; for 

 of all the illogical and conceited man-made 

 theories, that one seems to me the worst, 

 which insists that nature is made for man. 

 We have only to look about us to see how 

 each species is struggling for its own ex- 

 istence, each one ruthless in its disregard of 

 every other species, and, if need be, preying 

 upon other species. I suppose the advo- 

 cates of the thcoi'v that the world has been 



evolved for man reason that, since man 

 likes honey and robs the bees of it, the bees 

 exist solely to make it for him. They get it 

 from the nectar of flowers; therefore the 

 flowers exist to jDroduce nectar for bees to 

 take, to make the honey for man ! The 

 flowers grow in the soil ; therefore soil exists 

 to nourish the flowers, which produce the 

 nectar, for bees to take, to make the honey 

 for man ! If the soil were not warmed by 

 the sun, the flowers would not grow ; there- 

 fore the sun exists to warm the soil, which 

 nourishes the flowers, which produce the 

 nectar, for bees to take, to make the honey 

 for man ! Doesn't it make a good House 

 that Jack Built? To follow such reasoning 

 to its logical conclusion, if our tiny sun 

 exists for man's sole benefit, I suppose all 

 the other suns in the universe, that we call 

 stars, the light from which takes years to 

 travel to us, exist to make our sky beautiful 

 at night ! Man is a modest creature ! 



I did not mean to give you such a dis- 

 sertation, but even in would-be scientific 

 papers I have seen the nature-exists-for- 

 man theory and it always heats me. To 

 think of puny little man taking such a 

 theory seriously in the face of the great 

 facts of nature ! Bah ! 



When I began this letter I meant to tell 

 you about Rob's plan for educating the 

 public — meaning our town — to like dark 

 honey. Do you remember exclaiming over 

 the delicious flavor of that tulip poplar and 

 locust honey when you were here, and won- 

 dering why you never saw any on the mar- 

 ket at home? That set Rob thinking. He has 

 always contended that clover honey is little 

 better than some of the darker honeys, and 

 that to put up the white color as a standard 

 is arbitrary and artificial. Next Monday 

 when the county fair opens, in addition to 

 the honey and bee exhibit that Rob is going 

 to have, he wants the girls and me to go in 

 "white dresses, with white aprons and caps, 

 to hand out samples of as many different 

 kinds of honey as we can get, on crackers. 

 We are to have a color scale of honeys on 

 llie table to use in the demonstration. The 

 girls think it will be a lark for we will see 

 everyone we know and many that we don't. 



So think of us on Monday in sjDotless 

 white, telling men, women, and children how 

 good dark honey is and passing out a little 

 dab on a cracker ! I wonder what kind of 

 demonstrators we shall make. I wish you 

 could be here to help. 



Yours deep in the bee business, 



Mary. 



