1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



425 



switched me off, so that I missed seeing one 

 of the brightest, most intelligent, and most 

 extensive bee-keepers that this country af- 

 fords. As early as 1890 I was in the vicini- 

 ty, on my first bicycle tour; but as I was al- 

 ready late in my schedule of appointments I 

 hurried on to some bee-keepers at whose 

 places I had promised to stop. I was, later, 

 roundly scored by some of the local bee- 

 keepers for not visiting the man of whom 

 they all seemed to be so proud. In the 

 mean time I had forgotten all about our 

 friend (for he is not one to push himself for- 

 ward) until an article of his appeared in the 

 Bee-keepers' Review about a year ago. Re- 

 membering my visit in his vicinity I began 

 a correspondence, with the result that I 

 became acquainted with a bee-keeper whom 

 it is a real pleasure to know. 



Mr. E. W. Alexander has kept bees for 50 

 consecutive years, beginning at the business 

 when he was only ten years old, for he is 

 now a little past 60. At that time his fa- 

 ther had quite a large apiary, and the then 

 ten-year-old bee-keeper took the whole 

 charge of it. For over 40 years, he says, 

 he has read every thing he could hear of 

 connected with bee-keeping. In his early 

 experience he destroyed many good colonies 

 in order that he might learn something; and 

 now he is willing to sacrifice, if necessary, a 

 whole harvest in order that he may more 

 thoroughly understand this subject of over- 

 stocking; for be it known that Mr. Alexan- 

 der has been for years keeping 500 colonies 

 in one apiary. In spite of this large number 

 in one yard he has made a grand success of 

 the business— so much so that, when his three 

 sons grew up, he helped them in business, 

 and, besides, has a good bank account left. 

 All this was done with the bees without a 

 dollar of help from any one. 



He attributes his success to" perseverance 

 and to a practical working knowledge of the 

 business. While he has had severe losses 

 at times he has never for one moment, like 

 many other bee-keepers, thought of giving 

 up. For example, one fall his bees gather- 

 ed some honey-dew that caused the loss of 

 about 500 of his colonies. At another, black 

 brood destroyed over 1000 colonies for him. 

 Still again, his home burned with nearly all 

 his bees, with only a light insurance. Did 

 he give up and become discouraged? Not 

 he. Like another bee-keeper of old, Mr. 

 Adam Grim, who estabhshed a bank with 

 the money he made from his bees, when 

 asked what he would do if he were to lose 

 all his bees, he said, with a Grim determina- 

 tion, ''I would buy more and start over." 

 That is the kind of stuff that makes success 

 in bee-keeping or any calling. Many of our 

 bee-keepers have become discouraged, given 

 up, and have gone into some other business 

 of which they had but Httle knowledge. Of 

 course, they lose in that too, and all their 

 lives they are working at a disadvantage. 



On the general subject of temperance and 

 tobacco, Mr. Alexander has been heart and 

 hand with A. I. Root in his Home talks. 

 There is quite a coterie of bee-keepers in 



that section who are of the same general 

 stripe. Would there were more of them in 

 the world! 



Mr. Alexander writes that his bees have 

 been wintering nicely, and he expects to in- 

 crease them to 1000 colonies. This entire 

 number he expects to keep in one yard at 

 home. When he says he would be willing to 

 "sacrifice a whole harvest" for the sake 

 of learning something, we shall watch his 

 experiments. But from what I know of the 

 locality it is exceptionally a good one. If 

 there is any place in the United States that 

 will support 500 or 1000 colonies of bees it is 

 this section where basswood, clover, and 

 buckwheat thrive in all their glory. Take 

 away the buckwheat, and our friend might 

 have to split up his one big yard into sever- 

 al small ones situated several miles apart; 

 for buckwheat in this part of York State is 

 at its best, and a tremendous yielder of hon- 

 ey. 



The portrait shows the face of one who 

 might be a college professor or a bank presi- 

 dent. Indeed, a really successful bee-keep- 

 er would grace almost any calling in life. 



The following article explains one of the 

 secrets of Mr. Alexander's success— watch- 

 ing for the leaks, a waste of brood that nat- 

 urally occurs from certain faulty methods 

 of manipulation. And right here it is prop- 

 er to suggest that Mr. Sibbald's method of 

 controlhng swarming, as described in our 

 last issue, may be defective in this one re- 

 spect— that there will be a lot of young brood 

 lost each time the old colony gives a fresh 

 infusion of field bees to the hive on the old 

 stand. 



It is possible that Mr. Alexander has a far 

 better method of controlhng swarms. The 

 two methods are now before our readers, 

 and we should be glad to have them test 

 them the coming season. Here is the arti- 

 cle: 



HOW SHALL WE MAKE OUR INCREASE ? 



Also How to Control Swarming at the Sams 

 Time. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



This subject has received perhaps as much 

 thought and study as any other one thing 

 connected with bee keeping, and I will try 

 to show that, with proper management, you 

 can have two colonies, each nearly equal to 

 what the mother colony would have been, 

 for the clover harvest, if not divided, and 

 fully equal for ajater harvest. 



In calling your attention to this matter I 

 take it for granted that you keep bees (like 

 myself) for the purpose of making the most 

 money out of them that you can, regardless 

 of increase or the number of colonies you 

 may have. Simply make what increase will 

 add to your present season's crop of honey. 

 In the first place, let me impress upon your 

 mind the importance of doing every thing in 

 your power, not only to build up all your 



