G L, E A K I K G S IN BEE C U L T U K E 



OtTOBKK lO'JO 



will be imt relics of a past ern. Season 

 after season sees old apiaries undergoing 

 the change from "gums" and antiquated 

 ideas to movable-frame hives and modern 

 beekeeping. Of course, it is only in the 

 ranks of sideline beekeepers that these box 

 hives are to be found, as commercial bee- 

 keeping would be impossible with them. So 

 those of us who are eager to see the stigma 

 of non-progressiveness removed from the 

 name of sideline beekeeping are particu- 

 larly interested in the modernizing of these 

 old ill-kept yards. A reall}' wonderful work 

 has been done within the last few years 

 in all sections of the country, quite notably 

 in North Carolina. I suppose those of us 

 who have never had the experience can 

 scarcely appreciate the constant deepening 

 of delight and satisfaction that a real bee- 

 lover, who had never known anything but 

 boxes and logs, gets from his new hives 

 and his widening knowledge and increased 

 skill. . 



John M. Weavil of Kernersville, N. ("., 

 is one who has made this important change, 

 and here is what he says about it: "My 

 grandfather was an old-fashioned bee- 

 keeper and gave me a colony when I was 

 about 15 years old; so I have been a bee- 

 keeper for about 18 years. I continued as 

 my grandfather did, till 1916, but it is 

 needless to say I got nothing out of it. 

 But I did not know any better then. What 

 I most wish is that I had known what 

 little I do now when I started. 



In 1916, as soon as he found out about 

 tliese better methods, he m)ade his new 

 start, transferring five colonies to new 

 hives and introducing Italian queens, and 

 they came thru the winter so well that 

 "1917 gave me the bee fever right.'' The 

 last I heard he had 30 colonies of Italian 

 bees in modern hives. ABC and X Y Z of 



• liiliii C. Weavil in his apiur> . 



Bee Culture, Dr. Miller's "Fifty Years 

 among the Bees," and Gleanings. He is 

 a farmer with a mechanical bent, and has 

 been able to make some of his hives from 

 licoii'-e cases obtained from a tobacco fac- 

 tory. Like many of us he had a hard time 

 with the swarming mania of last year. "As 

 for keeping bees for pleasure or ]irofit,"" 

 he wrote at that time, "'I l)a\e bceu trying 



to keep them for ])otli, hut tliis everlasting 

 swarming has abc^t taken all the pleasure 

 out of it and I fear most of the profit. ' ' 

 Which shows that he has progressed a long 

 step in his undertaking of honey-produc- 

 tion. 



Then down in Mountville, Ga., is a young 

 lad not yet out of his "teens," John ('. 



Apiary of John C. Hogg. 



Hogg. About four years ago he began 

 ' ' studying, thinking, and observing bees ' ' 

 and this is how it happened. His father 

 had quite an apiary, all in box hives. They 

 kept hearing more or less about "patent 

 hives" and finally in a farm journal they 

 saw an advertisement of bee supplies that 

 resulted in an order by his father for five 

 hives with shallow supers, and a book on 

 beekeeping. "Well, we got them," .Tohn 

 continues in his letter. ' ' The book was 

 looked thru by the whole family and then 

 laid aside. Nobody seemed the least bit 

 interested. Then I began to read it and 

 soon became interested, interest grew into 

 fever, and now I have the worst ever 

 known. I had no idea there was so miuli 

 to learn about the little fellows. ' ' 



That first summer his sisters came liome 

 from a fish -fry one day, telling about a 

 kind-hearted old miller who had some bees 

 in these new hives. It wasn 't long before 

 .John managed to join a fishing j)arty going 

 down that way, but instead of fishing he 

 stayed at the house and mill, talking bees 

 with J..T. Perry, the old and crijipled miller 

 who kept bees in modern hi\es. It was 

 "Uncle Perry," indeed, Avho told liiiii 

 about Gleanings, giving him an old copy. 

 He promptly subscribed anil lia-^ii 't missed 

 an issue since, "and with it 1 ha\e got 

 tlie Townsend Bee Book and A B (" and -\ 

 V Z of Bee Culture. I have read every 

 article available on bees since the first issue 

 of Gleanings arrived. I have recently 

 purchased a kodak and am sending you 

 one of the first views I ever snapped with 

 it." 



It is only fair to add that he closes a 

 later letter thus: "I believe that is about 

 all I have to say except that I was about 

 to offer my kodak for sale because you tell 

 nie there is more to learn aV)out ]>hotogra- 

 phy than about bees!" 



