c 



TALKS TO 



By lona 



Fkbruary, 1920 



THE coiniii'T 

 spring is an 

 unusually 

 good time for 

 making a start 

 with bees. The 

 price of honey is 

 good; there will 

 for years be no 

 danger of over- 

 production; and the beekeepers are organiz- 

 ing as never before, helping the industry by 

 legislation and in other ways that were 

 quite impossible when working individually. 

 The Lure of Beekeeping. 

 For those who love outdoors, and would 

 like work or rather a pastime in which they 

 can completely lose themselves with the 

 ever-present chance of discovering some fact 

 never before observed by any previous au- 

 thority, there is nothing quite so fascinating 

 as the keeping of three or four colonies of 

 bees. Do you not remember years ago when 

 the craze struck you for collecting postage 

 stamps, or, possibly, it was birds ' eggs or 

 arrowheads? Or perhaps you were enthused 

 with the idea of writing some wonderful 

 book or making a flying machine. What- 

 ever the particular enthusiasm may have 

 been, we '11 venture to say that it will seem 

 quite insignificant in comparison to the bee 

 fever when you really get the latter in dead 

 earnest. Moreover, the bee fever, when once 

 contracted, usually becomes chronic. Take 

 the case of the well-known beekeeper, H. R. 

 Boardman, who died at the (i.xe of eighty. 

 A few months before his death he said that 

 if he were only a young man of twenty he 

 would just be delighted to engage in bee- 

 keeping. 



Only last July, Dr. C. C. Miller, who per- 

 haps is the best known and best beloved bee- 

 keeper in the world, when answering the 

 question, "Docs Beekeeping Pay?" said: 

 "If you're a born beekeeper no other busi- 

 ness will give you as much enjoyment added 

 to your living. I know I might have made 

 more money at some other business, but I'd 

 have been dead long ago. I've just started 

 in on my 89th year, and there 's just as much 

 fun in living now as there was when I began 

 keeping bees 58 years ago. More; for I've 

 better health than I had then." Just one 

 look into Dr. Miller's face has always been 

 sufficient to prove his enthusiasm for bee- 

 keeping has never waned. 



Best Way to Begin. 

 To any who may be interested in beekeep- 

 ing but have a little doubt as to whether 

 they will be able to make it pay, we suggest 

 that the best way to take up this work is to 

 purchase three or four colonies and begin 

 simply with the idea of providing one's 

 self with a live, wide-awake interest outside 

 of one's regular work. If the beginner is 

 careful and punctual and begins with the 

 right spirit, reading the best writers on the 

 subject, and occasionally visiting a good bee- 

 keeper to talk things over, he will be pretty 

 tcrtain to make his few colonies pay. And 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



BEGINNERS 



Fowls 



3 



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103 



then, after he 

 has gained ex- 

 perience, if he 

 decides that he 

 likes beekeeping 

 so well as to 

 change this side- 

 line into a main- 

 line, he may 

 gradually make 

 the change; but, of course, before launching 

 out too far, a year 's work with a profession- 

 al beekeeper would be a wonderful help. 

 Our Talks This Year. 

 Our talks to beginners this year, there- 

 fore, will be to the small beekeeper with 

 three or four colonies, and we strongly ad- 

 vise that he start with no more than this. 

 In each talk we shall attempt to explain in 

 successive steps exactly what the beginner 

 should do in order to succeed with his bees. 

 How and Where to Get the Bees. 

 Sometime this month the beginner should 

 make his plans for obtaining the bees. Then 

 two or three months later when the weather 

 is warm enough for the bees to fly freely, 

 perhaps during May in the Northern States, 

 he may look over the colonies, make his 

 purchase, and take the bees home. The bees 

 may be obtained from a distance either in 

 entire colonies or in pound packages. When 

 sold in the latter way, the packages are ac- 

 companied by directions explaining how 

 they are to be handled upon arrival. 



Sometimes neglected colonies in old hives 

 may be obtained from a nearby farm at a 

 low price. It may be difficult, however, for 

 the buyer to be certain of the condition of 

 such colonies, for often the combs are solidly 

 built together and cannot be removed for ex- 

 amination; also, considerable time and trou- 

 ble are involved in getting such colonies 

 transferred to modern hives. When buying 

 such colonies it is a good plan to take along 

 a good beekeeper to determine their value 

 and whether or not they are diseased. 



A better way of getting colonies is to 

 leave new hives with some reliable beekeep- 

 er, with the understanding that he hive his 

 first swarms in these hives. In this way you 

 pay for bees only and not for old hives for 

 which you have no use. The only objection 

 to the plan is that you may not obtain the 

 colonies early enough in the season to get 

 a large amount of surplus. 



The very best way of getting a start is 

 to buy good colonies in modern hives from 

 a neighboring beekeeper whom you can 

 trust. 



Use Our Information Bureau. 

 And now for the sake of those beginners 

 to whom puzzling questions occur which are 

 apparently not answered in the available 

 bee literature, we shall again call attention 

 to the fact that we have an information de- 

 partment intended primarily for them. It 

 is our sincere hope that all beginners, as well 

 as all other readers of Gleanings, will feel 

 perfectly free to take advantage of this in- 

 formation department at any time. 



