56 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



ing millions of workers, whose 

 uproarious hum fills the air for 

 many rods around, and all under 

 the control of the skilled bee mas- 

 ter as he works among his busy 

 tenants performing the most deli- 

 cate operation here, as when he 

 removes the royal larva from the 

 embryo cell and substitutes for it 

 a larva from his choicest stock, or 

 as when he searches out and cap- 

 tures the queen or mother bee, from 

 among her, perhaps, fifty thousand 

 workers, and introduces in her 

 stead a strange queen from another 

 race. Perhaps a swarm of bees 

 rush out as though the "avenger of 

 blood" was at their heels, and the 

 queen being unable to fly by reason 

 of age, or by reason of the loss of 

 a wing removed by the shears, 

 tumbles down in front of her tene- 

 ment, her majesty is adroitly lifted 

 from the ground between the thumb 

 and finger of the apiarist, and se- 

 cured by caging her, the old hive 

 is removed from its stand, and the 

 new one placed on it. Now the 

 bee master stands holding in his 

 handthe "key of the position." The 

 fugitives, as they whirl through 

 the air hither and thither, have 

 missed the old mother of the com- 

 monwealth, and return with des- 

 perate earnestness to their home 

 where they hope to reclaim her ; 

 and, finding the empty hive in the 

 room of the old one, enter it with 

 the joyous "call" so comprehensive 

 to swarming bees and their queen, 

 and also to the ear of the apiarist. 

 The queen is now liberated at the 

 entrance, awd presto ! "the bees are 

 hived." Or, perhaps, the bee mas- 



ter is seen removing from his nicely 

 adjusted cases the pure white 

 section without a single open cell, 

 or by means of the extractor 

 "slings" the pure honey from combs 

 "as white as Hermon." Is it any 

 wonder that modern bee culture is 

 wonderful to the uninitiated ? 



There are men who can guide 

 ships, lead great armies, manipu- 

 late the hair-springs of watches, 

 or govern a nation, who would be 

 utter]}' at sea without chart or 

 compass if set to preside over a 

 modern apiary. 



Bee culture is a "trade," a sci- 

 ence peculiar to itself, a fact re- 

 cognized by all visitors who gaze 

 upon the modern apiary ancl the 

 work going on therein and exclaim, 

 "wonderful, wonderful science!" 



Christianshurg, Ky. 



WHY WE LOVE 

 VOCATION. 



OUR 



By E. E. IE 



" Man shall not live by bread 

 alone :" he has a mind and a soul, 

 whose starvation is worse than a 

 scanty dinner, and whose poverty 

 is more pitiAil than the poverty of 

 the i)urse. It is a drear success in 

 life to " get there " with a cargo of 

 ore, and know as we enter port 

 that every pleasant passenger was 

 long ago washed overboard and 

 drowned, and every banner of 

 beauty torn to shreds. A beekeeper 

 can make his life that sort of a 

 success if he is that sordid sort of 

 a man ; but the temptation that 



