c 



ur 



November, 1921 



DOCTOR, 

 lawyer, 

 mere hant, 

 priest" — some- 

 where in the 

 ranks of every 

 profession one 

 finds a sideline 

 b e e k e e per. In 

 Bowling Green, 



Ky., lives a lawyer whose bees have been 

 the "open sesame to broad fields of never 

 failing eternal interest." From musty ar- 

 chives he has turned to the green beeyard, 

 from the technicalities of the courtroom to 

 the directness of the bee on the wing, from 

 the contentions of wrangling humans to the 

 harmony of the hive. And it has meant 

 rest and refreshment of soul as well as the 

 widening and deepening of personal inter- 

 ests. 



Ten or twelve years ago, when he had 

 been practicing law for 16 years and felt 

 the need of a breath from out-of-doors, Mr. 

 John B. Rodes bought his first hive of bees, 

 "an old-fashioned box set on legs, with 

 little boxes for the surplus honey in the 

 super." The new venture came about thru 

 an old farmer friend, a sort of philosopher 

 of the soil, who had roused his interest in 

 trees and weeds and wild flowers and birds 

 and now finally in bees. "I recall he 

 charged me $8.00 for this old box hive," 

 Mr. Rodes writes. "But what then? I 

 would have paid him $15.00 just as readily, 

 and today would not part with the old box 

 for $20.00. Memories are worth more than 

 wood." 



For four years he did nothing with his 

 bees except watch them with increasing in- 

 terest from the outside; — ^no glimpse within. 

 Then he bought a dovetailed hive with mov- 

 able frames and discovered a new field open 

 before him. He promptly bought all the 

 standard books on beekeeping and soon 

 found his interest "established forever in 

 these little insects, and as long as life lasts 

 my love for them will never fail." 



"I am asked," he continues, "whether 

 my bees are for money or for honey or for 

 fun. Up to the year 1918 I never attempted 

 to make any money out of them. I have 

 taken much pleasure in good honey, and 

 presenting the same to my friends, but I 

 doubt if the books had been kept against 

 me I could have come out even. No, I 

 would never keep bees for money. 

 But if a man wants amusement and inter- 

 est in life, and development of that secret 

 thing that lies in the soul of every man, and 

 which testifies to his kinship with nature by 

 the very love he finds there for all living 

 and growing things, then it is profitable to 

 keep bees. 



"The bees have planted in me what has 

 been called the 'lure of the unending quest.' 

 I have followed them in their flight and 

 been led into studies of birds that prey on 

 bees. The worst enemy of the hive that 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



699 



Beekeeping as a Side Line 



3 



Grace Allen 



f==:^^^^^^^ 



flies in the air is 

 the summer tan- 

 ager, clothed in 

 scarlet and 

 flashing like fire. 

 In the evening 

 twilight, as dusk 

 is gathering, you 

 hear him cluck- 

 ing in the shad- 

 ows of the trees. Last summer a male sat 

 upon my hive, within ten feet of me, and 

 continued to swoop down upon the incoming 

 bees as they slowed up to enter their home, 

 until he had gathered some twenty or more 

 in his craw. I murdered this bird. 



"And I have followed the bees to the 

 flowers, and I now recall my first glance 

 into the tulip flower of the poplar, and 

 my wonder at the perfect understanding 

 between the bee and the tree." 



In conclusion Mr. Rodes says that he is 

 neither an expert nor a professional bee- 

 keeper, but he thoroly understands what lay 

 in the heart of Virgil's "old Corycian, " 

 living on his few acres of poor soil, where, 

 "planting a few herbs, white lilies, ver- 

 vain and esculent poppies, he equaled in a 

 contented mind the wealth of kings." 

 Woman Doctor-Beekeeper. 

 Down in San Antonio, Texas, lives a phy- 

 sician. Doctor Charlotte Strum. After years 

 spent in the practice of medicine, Dr. Strum 

 found in bees the very interest she needed, 

 just as Mr. Rodes did after years of law 

 practice. She isn 't a very strong woman, 

 anyway, and has to li«iit her practice to 

 that of the office, just because by the time 

 that is done there is no strength left for 

 outside work. She lives in an apartment 

 where no dogs are allowed; she cannot bear 

 cats, hates the sound of a parrot, prefers 

 birds out-of-doors, and so had no growing 

 thing to care for except plants. These 

 kept accumulating until it sometimes looked 

 as tho either she or the plants must move 

 out, when she would gather a lot of them 

 together and give them away. 



But one day someone showed her an ob- 

 servation hive with bees inside. She was 

 fascinated with it. Then and there the 

 magic came into her life. Promptly she 

 bought one like it. Someone said she was 

 about to become a "backlot buzzer," but 

 how could she? She hadn't even a back 

 lot to buzz in, only a sleeping porch. So 

 there she placed her new hive, the entrance 

 outside and the hive itself within. 



About that time a meeting was called for 

 the organization of a honey producers ' as- 

 sociation. And Dr. Strum, possessing one 

 observation hive, went to the meeting. And 

 subscribed for five shares of stock! There's 

 genuine enthusiasm, sure enough, the royal 

 generous unhesitating kind that does things. 

 Since that time she has increased not only 

 her colonies of bees but also her shares of 

 stock. And she is glad she bought that first 

 observation hive, for ' ' this interest has 



