1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



359 



until our colonies now number about 200 ; 

 but we have sold off queens and bees until 

 at one time the boys reported we had only 

 about three laying queens to supply eggs for 

 the whole apiary. Neighbor II. reports his 

 apiary in much the same condition ; and, al- 

 though a hundred or more young queens 

 will be laying in less than a week, the orders 

 are so urgent we can hardly give them time 

 to fill a single comb. Queens we get from 

 the South are often introduced and then 

 taken out and shipped before they have laid 

 a dozen eggs. I mention this to show you 

 how hard we have tried to help you. Bee- 

 hives, sections, and every thing else in the 

 bee line we have had no trouble in keeping 

 on hand, for the stack of bass wood in our 

 lumber yard, nicely seasoned, has been equal 

 to all emergencies. I presume I should have 

 foreseen some thing what the call for bees 

 would be ; and we are now making plans to 

 be abreast of orders another season. One 

 bad feature of deals in shipping bees is, 

 that they arc perishable ])roperty, and must 

 be taken from the office as soon as received. 

 Well, if our customer is several miles from 

 the express or post office, he is obliged to 

 make a trip, or send, almost daily, until the 

 goods come. It is true, he might have a no- 

 tice there would be a delay ; but he must be 

 on hand to get these notices, and then he 

 must make more trips, about the time the 

 bees are expected to be on hand. I tell you, 

 my friends, there is no way in the world to 

 do business like having them all ready to go 

 off the very day the order comes ; and the 

 man who will have bees and queens to send 

 ■off: in this way, will get the trade, even if he 

 •charges double the price that those do who 

 have to write apologies about the weather, 

 being sick, or absent from home, and the 

 like. Are you listening to this, you who ad- 

 vertise bees and queens for sale? 



Even at $2.00 per lb. for bees, the orders 

 come pouring in ; and after a man has had 

 a package, and put them on his empty 

 combs, and seen them go to work, he and 

 his neighbors are sure to want another lot 

 right off, and here we are. unable to send 

 right back promptly. I am ashamed of my- 

 self, and, with God's help, I will do better 

 next year. Why do not more of you take it 

 up? I thought, when I said $2.00 per lb., 

 somebody else would undersell me, and I 

 should have a chance to get ready for win- 

 ter ; but here you are letting all this great 

 trade fall into my hands when you who have 

 time on your hands, and the requisite skill 

 to do it, could make excellent wages at it, 

 at just half the money. Here is a great field 

 open to all those wanting some thing to do. 

 Wake up, boys, and " make hay while the 

 sun shines." 



HANDT BOXES FOR TOOLS ABOUT THE 

 APIARY. 



A great many tools and implements are 

 needed, especially in putting up queens and 

 bees, and very often a shower comes up, or 

 it comes on night, when you hardly have 

 time to carry them to the house. AVell, if 

 you will look at the plan of our apiary, you 

 will see, where the paths intersect, quite a 

 little gravel space. On this space, we keep 



empty Simplicity hives for convenience. A 

 bottom-board is nicely leveled up, and on 

 these we can pile hives up any height. Well , 

 3 hives set on this bottom-board, and then 

 a cover, will raise it just about the, height of 

 your vest buttons, and you will find it a very 

 handy table on which to set your smoker or 

 any tools, and being a conspicuous spot, you 

 can always tell wliere to look. Now, to 

 make it into a tool-box, you have only to set 

 another hive over it, and put on the cover 

 when it comes night, and all your imple- 

 ments are secure, handy, and dry in case it 

 rains during the night, or, in fact at any 

 other time. This stand and tool-box costs 

 you nothing, for every bee-keeper wants at 

 least a half-dozen empty Simplicity hives on 

 hand constantly for emergencies. Below is 

 a picture of a couple of them as they appear 

 in our apiary. 



SIMPLICITY-niVE TOOL-BOX, FOR KEEPING 



HANDY AND DRY, S3I0KER, BASKET 



OF ROTTEN WOOD, MATCH-BOX, 



(iUEEN-CAGES, ETC., ETC. 



IMPERFECT ADDRESSES. 



A friend sent us $10.00 for four tested queens, 

 which were promptly sent, but they all lay in his 

 postofflcc, and died, because he wrote his name so 

 badly we called it "Borus " instead of Barnes. As 

 we had his first name correct, and also the initial, it 

 does seem as if his postmaster might have guessed 

 the truth, when our friend had been calling day af- 

 ter day for his queens. Oftentimes a little impor- 

 tunity at express and post oflices is a good thing. 

 Ask your postmaster if there are no bees there for 

 any one, and he will often pull out some thing 

 that will prove to be just what you are waiting for. 

 But the real trouble, my friends, is with you who 

 will persist in hastily scrawling your names. This 

 friend wrote us three times, and we got his three 

 signatures together, but none of us would ever have 

 made " Barnes " of it. It takes time to always write 

 plainly, I know; but any printer* will print your 

 whole name and address a thousand times on a small 

 gummed label for the very trifling expense of Sl.OO, 

 and then you need not write it at all, unless you 

 choose. In this case, I stood half of the ten dollars; 

 but, my friends, I give you fair warning, I can do it 

 but a little longer. 



' If they won't do it, we will, and pay postagie. 



