igos. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



SIXTY YEARS AMONG THE 

 BEES. 



29 



First Letter. 



Dr. Miller or any of the advocates of 

 old combs. The bees (I should say, 

 the log) was at the east end of a build- 

 ing used for repairing things, or a 

 kind of a rainy-day resort, which we 

 Rv W T DavU T^t youngsters designated, the "Sub- 



By W. J. Davis, 1st. Treasury." The older reader will re- 



ON JANUARY I, 1845, two good- member that was a more common 

 sized boys might have been word then than now. The bees win- 

 seen with a one-horse sleigh, tered fine, and when spring awoke, 

 making for a bee-keeper's home on a two boys might have been seen, one 

 hill north of the valley of the Broken- on either side of the old log, watch- 

 straw creek, a tributary of the Alle- ing the industrious citizens going 

 gheny river, in western Pennsylvania, and coming. 



to become the legal owners of a hive "See there," says one boy, "what 

 of bees. a great load of honey that bee has 



H,me and Apiary of Capt. H. H. Robinson, Cuba.— (See Editoria'S.) 



The "boys" were the writer and an 

 older brother. We purchased from an 

 -incle, for $5.00 in silver, a colony of 

 Dees in a section of a hollow log, with 

 I wide board nailed on the upper end 

 ind a similar one for a bottom, with 

 hree or four triangular notches in 

 he lower end of the log for "fly-holes" 

 or the bees. 



What mysteries were hidden in that 

 )rimitive home of blackness and 

 weetness! The bees in color would 

 uit the most ardent admirer of the 

 ilacks, and the combs were as black 

 s the bees and would, no doubt, suit 



on its legs." Then someone told us 



that it was not honey on their legs, 

 but wax. When a Yankee boy with 

 a little Dutch blood in his veins starts 

 out to investigate a thing he is going 

 to investigate. 



Some time in May that hive began 

 to show some awful big bees, and 

 early in June out came a swarm. We 

 were provided with some new hives, 

 all painted red. They were called the 

 Weeks hive, the "most wonderful in- 

 vention under the sun." But in truth, 

 it was a great improvement on the 

 straw skep or log gum. The brood 

 chamber would hold about one bushel, 



