October, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



765 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



there is a good year or two, enough money 

 may be made to tide over a poor season that 

 is quite liable to come. Having two or 

 more out-apiaries tends toward a more even 

 yield of profit. The very fact that the bees 

 are scattered about in out-apiaries, several 

 miles apart, adds to the certainty of a 

 crop. 



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



Letters from a Beekeeper's Wite 



Outdoors, (3ctober 1, 1917. 

 Dear Sis : 



This is the second time that I have come 

 out here to write under the trees, having 

 been driven in before by the bees. It is 

 such a bright, warm' day that they flying 

 about doing a little lazy gathering, and I 

 foolishly chose the big apple tree for my 

 back rest. I watched the bees sipping juice 

 from the few rotting ajjples left on the 

 ground and then reached out to pick up 

 what I thought was a sound apple. Alas! 

 I gathered up with it a disgruntled honey- 

 bee, who took her revenge upon me for dis- 

 turbing her meal. My left hand is decorat- 

 ed with a puffy, red spot which still burns. 



I have the greatest respect for the " post- 

 humous works of the bee," and it is evident 

 that the bee has too, for she never forgets 

 to use them no matter how agitated or 

 angry she may be. Her immediate reac- 

 tion to any untoward stimulus is to thrust 

 out her barbed weapon, generally with tell- 

 ing effect. It seems strange that, after 

 centuries of acquaintance with the honey- 

 bee, little more is known today of the 

 poison from the sting than was known to 

 the ancients. No doubt they knew the un- 

 pleasant effect of the practical application 

 of her poison by the bee, but they seem to 

 have no better advice to offer for its cure 

 than Rob's, " Let it alone and forget it." 



Rob just came up the lane, home from 

 his visit to the Capitol, and, opening his 

 suitcase, he dropped two old books in my 

 lap. He never can resist visiting the rare 

 book store, where Mr. Todd i)uts aside old 

 books on bees until Rob comes along. 

 These two are extremely rare, and the old- 

 est we now have. Rob won't tell me what 

 he paid for them ! 



You would love these musty, leather- 

 covered volumes, with their sere brown 

 pages. One is called " The Theatre of In- 

 sects " by Thomas Moffett, 1658. Glancing 

 thru the pages on the bee, I find this, 

 apropos of stings, in which I take a per- 



sonal and lively interest, just at present. 

 " If you would indeed to go sting-free, 

 or at least heal yourself being stung; expel 

 out of your mind, idleness, impiety, theft, 

 malice; for those that are defil'd witli those 

 vices, they set upon to ehuse as it were, 

 and out of natural instinct." Which of 

 these vices have I, being stung? Am I 

 imijious, if I think Thomas Moffett didn't 

 know what he was talking about, altho his 

 language be pleasing and picturesque, or am 

 I idle that I sit here" and write to you? 



Wait a moment and I'll see what words 

 of wisdom this other volume contains about 

 stings. This rare bo.ok is called " Tliie 

 Feminin M'onarchi " by Charles Butler, 

 1654, and Rob has long wanted a copy, 

 ])rincipally because Charles was an advocate 

 of simplified spelling and employed it in 

 his book, as you can see from the title. 

 Dear! dear! according to him, any one 

 would have to be a paragon of all the 

 virtues to be able to keejD bees without 

 being badly stung! Just listen to this: 

 any one who would find " favor " with his 

 bees must " be cleanly — must not eome 

 among them smelling of sweat or having a 

 stinking breath, caused either through eat- 

 ing of leeks, onions, garlick and the like, 

 or by any other means — " (no bath-tubs 

 nor tooth-brushes in England in his day!) 

 " In a word thou must be chaste, cleanly, 

 sweet, sober, quiet and familiar so they 

 will love thee and know thee from all 

 others." Haven't I often told you what a 

 superior group of men beekeepers are? 



Rob's old bee books are full of just such 

 quaint and often good advice, and, consider- 

 ing the difficulties the beekeepers of the 

 middle ages must have encountered in ob- 

 serving the life of the hive, they knew a 

 great deal. I imagine that their beekeeping 

 consisted mainly in letting the bees alone, 

 a practice that modern beekeepers are com- 

 ing back to» to a certain extent, T believe, 

 for I hear Rob preaching about the evil of 

 too much manipulation. It seems too bad 

 that those old-time bee-men destroyed most 

 of their bees at the end of the season, in 

 order to get their products, for think liow 

 flourishing and profitable beekee])ing must 

 have been then, when all the aitificial light 

 depended upon Avax candles, and honey was 

 the chief sweetening! 



My sting still burns, so I shall stop writ- 

 ing hoping thereby to " expel idlen&ss from 

 my mind," and thus heal it. The bee is 

 dead ! At least I hold no malice against 

 her — she has paid the price of her revenge. 



]\Iary. 



