520 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



[You have given us a hard question to an- 

 swer. The owner of the bees has expended 

 no labor, and up to the time the bees have 

 to be fed he is not out of pocket anything. 

 On the other hand, you have spent your cap- 

 ital (labor) all for nothing. The owner put 

 in his capital (bees and appliances) and he 

 still has that capital. Your capital is gone. 

 I should say, then, that the owner should pay 

 for all the syrup, or his capital will be gone 

 likewise. 



In every contract involving the keeping of 

 bees on shares there should be a provision 

 covering a contingency of this kind. In our 

 model contract, under the head of " Bees on 

 Shares," in our A B C of Bee Culture, it is 

 provided that, where no honey is secured, or 

 an amount not to exceed 10 lbs. per colony, 

 the owner shall pay the operator a certain 

 amount per day to cover loss of time, but 

 the amount is not specified. If a man is 

 worth $2.00 a day at the bee-yards and he 

 conscientiously and intelligently fulfills his 



{)art of the contract, he ought not to receive 

 ess than $1.00 a day. The owner could well 

 afford to pay that amount, as the bees, by 

 reason of the manipulation, have probably 

 been enhanced in value; and for this increas- 

 ed value the owner should be willing to pay 

 a reasonable sum. 



If it could be shown, on the other hand, 

 that the operator, while claiming to know 

 all about bees, really knew nothing about 

 them, and that he was negligent, then such 

 operator should get nothing for his work— 

 particularly so if other bee-keepers in the 

 vicinity secured a fair crop of honey. When 

 any one engages to keep bees on shares he 

 ought to be able to show good references 

 from bee-keepers with whom he has worked 

 before.— Ed.] 



AN IRON HIVE-CARRIER. 



I saw in Gleanings a picture of your pole 

 hive-carrier. I will show you how to make 

 one with which you can carry them up and 

 down stairs just as well as you can a satch- 

 el. The illustration shows the idea. I use 



^^-fe. 



-.,i,.,.,'^^LJ 



a piece of |XJ steel tire for the backbone, 

 as I call it, and a leaf of a buggy-spring for 

 the front part. The spring has to be drawn 

 out thin except about a foot in the center 

 where the backbone is welded on. You can 

 carry a hive in both hands if it is not too 



heavy. To put it on a hive you take hold of 

 the front part, spread it open, and slip it 

 forward until the back end hooks on; then 

 the more you lift, the more it holds on. It 

 wants to be made so that it touches the out- 

 sides and end about three inches. Make one 

 and try it; and if you like it, let other bee- 

 keepers see how much easier it is to use 

 this than it is to carry them in the arms. 

 Spencerport, N. Y. R. G. Carey. 



CHAPTER III. 



BLOOM TIME. 



As I looked out over the valley, and to the 

 hills beyond, on the morning of May 20, 1905, 

 a beautiful sight met my gaze. The dew- 

 covered grass, in many fields, was glistening 

 in the morning sunshine, while the plum and 

 cherry trees, with their white flowers, in the 

 orchards, nestled down among the more 

 showy apple, whose pinkish- white bloom so 

 ladened the air with fragrance that, from 

 sight and smell, one could hardly think but 

 that he was in the sinless "Eden land" 

 when the "stars sang for joy " on creation's 

 early morn. But a neighing from the bam 

 calls out ' ' horse to be fed, ' ' and the ' ■ rounds 

 of another day ' ' are begun. After break- 

 fast the horse was hitched up, as the roads 

 to the out- apiary are too muddy, from the 

 rain of the afternoon before, for comfort 

 with the auto. 



Arriving, I find the bees starting out in 

 good earnest for the apple-trees, which is 

 just what I want, as they will now be out of 

 the way when I am hunting for the queens, 

 for to-day's work is to consist in part in 

 finding and clipping the wings of all undip- 

 ped queens. This clipping part would be 

 wholly unnecessary with the plan to be giv- 

 en were it not that, owing to certain pecul- 

 iar seasons, the bees in a few colonies will 

 take it ' ' into their heads ' ' to swarm a few 

 days before I am ready to do the ' ' swarm- 

 ing;" and in such cases as these, where all 

 queens have their wings clipped, these colo- 

 nies are held together until the time has fully 

 arrived for making swarms. As such pe- 

 culiar seasons do not come oftener than 

 about one year in four, I have sometimes 

 thought I would give up the clipping; but so 

 far I have adhered to it, very much as a 

 man will stick to the insuring of his build- 

 ings when there has not been a "fire" in 

 his school district for forty years. 



On opening the hives I find the honey 

 quite largely turned into bees and brood, as 

 only the two outside combs have much in 

 them— six to eight combs in each hive being 



