72 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



"Making a Start in Bee-keeping" is the 

 title of the next chapter. He would advise 

 the beginner to read all the standard text- 

 books, and, having done this, to subscribe 

 for the best bee journals. Then he would 

 urge his pupil to work one season with a 

 good bee-keeper as an apprentice. 



"Mistakes in Bee-keeping" follows next; 

 and it is one of the most interesting chapters 

 in the whole work. Here are just a few of 

 the mistakes he points out: "A man who 

 has decided to make bee-keeping his life bus- 

 iness makes a mistake when he gets a few 

 colonies and attempts to learn the business 

 all by himself. . . A beginner is quite li- 

 able to fall into the error of increasing his 

 colonies too rapidly. . . A mistake that 

 is made by many is to look on bee-keeping 

 as a sort of royal road to wealth. . . . 

 Many bee-keepers make the mistake of com- 

 puting their income at so many pounds per 

 colony. . . Another mistake is that of 

 choosing hives, implements, and methods 

 that are complicated. . Some bee-keepers 

 make the mistake of condemning any practice 

 not according to nature. The whole system 

 of modern bee culture," he says, "is largely 

 a transgression of nature's laws, or manag- 

 ing differently from what the bees would 

 manage if left to their own way of doing 

 things. . . Many bee-keepers make the 

 mistake of thinking they can improve some 

 of the standard hives and implements, and 

 that before they have fairly learned the bus- 

 iness. Others make the mistake of adopt- 

 ing new hives and implements or varieties 

 of bees on too large a scale. . . One ex- 

 pensive mistake easily made and yet easily 

 avoided is made year after year by many 

 bee-keepers; and that is, not securing hives, 

 sections, and foundation in season. . . . 

 It is a mistake to suppose that a poor loca- 

 tion can be changed to a good one by plant- 

 ing for honey." 



" The Influence of Locality " is a chapter 

 that shows the breadth of the author's views. 

 He was, he says, often sorely puzzled at the 

 diametrically opposite views expressed by 

 different correspondents of the bee journals 

 in his earlier experience; but at that time 

 he was at his old home in Genesee Co. , Mich. 

 It was not until he had seen the fields of 

 New York, white with buckwheat; admired 

 the luxuriance of sweet- clover growth in the 

 suburbs of Chicago; followed for miles the 

 great irrigating- ditches of Colorado where 

 they give life to the royal purple of the al- 

 falfa bloom; climbed the mountains in Cali- 

 fornia, pulling himself up by grasping the 

 sage brush, that he fully realized the great 

 amount of apicultural meaning stored up in 

 that one little word locality. Then he goes 

 on to describe the peculiarities of the differ- 

 ent places, and then winds up this interest- 

 ing chapter by the terse statement, "Above 

 all things, know your locality." 



"The best Stock and how to Secure it" 

 is a chapter that would be considered or- 

 thodox by the great majority of bee-keepers. 

 He says there are only two varieties of bees 

 worthy of consideration for use in the Unit- 



ed States. In fact, they are about the only 

 varieties now left here for consideration, 

 and they are the Italians and the Germans. 

 The Syrians he criticises as being too prohf- 

 ic; Cyprians irritable, and the Carniolans 

 too much inclined to spend their energies in 

 breeding and swarming. The tendency of 

 the Italians to put their honey in the brood- 

 nest he thinks is now easily overcome 



The next chapter, "On the Choice of a 

 Hive," gives the preference to the Lang- 

 stroth hive and frame. This is a change of 

 position from the former edition of his work, 

 where he recommended the Heddon divisible 

 brood- chamber. He has no use for staples 

 or projections on frames to make them self- 

 spacing, because he thinks the eye and hand 

 can space frames without such aids. Closed- 

 end frames have their advantages, but he 

 thinks they are not equal to the loose un- 

 spaced hanging frame. In explaining his 

 change of front from the Heddon to the 

 Langstroth hive he says, ' ' Divisible-brood- 

 chamber hives cost considerably more than 

 other styles of hives; and after using them 

 for years by the side of the ordinary Lang- 

 stroth hive, seeing them used by other per- 

 sons in different locations, and considering 

 the new features that have recently sprung 

 up in bee-keeping, I have gradually come to 

 the decision that, if I were now starting in 

 the bee business, I would not use the hori- 

 zontally divisible hive." 



In the chapter on honey- boards and queen- 

 excluders he describes the use of the Hed- 

 don slat honev-board and the queen-exclud- 

 ing zinc board. 



' ' Sections and their Adjustment on the 

 Hive" is the title of a rather interesting 

 chapter. He gives the preference to the 

 four-piece plain tall sections, to be used in 

 connection with fences. In explaining this 

 preference he says: "The principal advan- 

 tage of plain sections and fence separators 

 is that the freer communication thus allowed 

 the bees induces them, for some reason, to 

 build out the combs fuller around the edges 

 and corners, and attach them more perfect- 

 ly to the sections. This gives the finished 

 product a more attractive appearance, and 

 greatly lessens the danger of breakage in 

 shipment. Another point, although it may 

 be a minor one, is that a plain section is fill- 

 ed fuller of honey; that is, the edges of the 

 wood do not stand out s© far above the sur- 

 face of the comb as they do in the beeway 

 sections. A filled plain section has a plump- 

 er look than a beeway section, the latter 

 having the appearance of being only partly 

 filled. A tall plain section may not contain 

 any more honey than a square section of the 

 beeway type; but it appears to contain more, 

 and has. withal, a more attractive appear- 

 ance. There is still another little point, and 

 that is that a plain section offers special ad- 

 vantages in the matter of cleaning it of pro- 

 polis, as there is no inset to work into with 

 the scraping-knife. " I do not however, con- 

 sider the advantages of the plain section 

 sufficient to warrant any expensive change 

 of fixtures in order that it may be adopted. " 



(To be continued.) 



