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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



desiring to perform any manipulation 

 of the liive, and can be quickly re- 

 placed. It is a very tedious job pack- 

 ing and unpacking bees with loose 

 chaff every fall and spring, and I do 

 not think any large bee-keeper will 

 attempt it more than once. 



7th. Have as much empty space as 

 possible inside the hive and outside 

 the packing, and in no case allow the 

 top of the hive to rest directly on the 

 packing. I use very large hives with 

 from 2 to 5 cubic feet of empty space, 

 and have frequently noticed that those 

 hives having the largest amount of 

 this empty space, usually keep the 

 dryest. 



Sth. Crowd bees on as small a space 

 as possible. I winter my strong colo- 

 nies frequently on 7 combs, and never 

 more than 8, my frames being of 

 about the same capacity as the Lang- 

 stroth frames. 



9tli. Crowd the packing as close up 

 to the bees as possible. The less 

 empty space there is inside the pack- 

 ing, the more equal can the bees keep 

 the temperature. 



10th. Have winter passages through 

 all the combs. I consider this very 

 important with any mode of out-door 

 wintering. 



In conclusion I want to say, that 

 while I do not consider the method of 

 wintering in chaff-hives to be the best 

 one under all circumstances, and for 

 all bee-keepers, I do think that the 

 longer it is practiced, the more favor- 

 ably will it be thouglit of. If my cel- 

 lar was a suital)leone, I should e.xperi- 

 ment witli the putting of some 

 thoroughly packed hives in it during 

 the winter, tlnis combining the ad- 

 vantages of our two principal methods 

 of wintering, I hope some of our 

 wide-awake bee-keepers, wlio are more 

 favorably situated than I am, will 

 make sqme thorough experiments in 

 this direction. 



Williamstown, Iowa, Sept., 1882. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Advancing the Science of Apiculture. 



J. E. POND, JR. 



The science of apiculture is still in 

 its infancy— a healthy babe if you 

 please; still its growth has been 

 hardly commensurate with its years, 

 but \vitli careful nurture and right 

 management it will eventually be- 

 come a giant. 



The advent of frame hives formed 

 an era in this occupation, which be- 

 fore that time was considered of little 

 account, except among a few special- 

 ists, causing it to be' classed among 

 the sciences, and to become a certain 

 success in the hands of any one who 

 will devote brains and labor to it. 

 The old box-liive management was 

 largely a matter of luck, even among 

 those of the largest experience, but 

 with frames, pecuniary profit is sure 

 and certain with those who under- 

 stand the business, and beginners, 

 even, can, by their aid, manage an 

 apiary without loss, and with a fair 

 cliance to realize a profit. All honor, 

 then, to the Rev. L. L. Langstroth, 

 for what he has done for apiculture in 



giving us the movable frame. His 

 works will follow him, and his mem- 

 ory be held dear in the hearts of bee- 

 keepers long after his frail body lies 

 moldering in its mother earth, and 

 bee-keepers, generations hence, will 

 bless his name for making the man- 

 agement of the hive so simple and so 

 easy. But why has not that advance- 

 ment been made in bee-keeping since 

 the era of the frame, that its advent 

 seemed to warrant i* I do not wish to 

 be understood as assuming that no 

 advancement has been made since 

 that time, but I do assert tliat such 

 advancement has not been made as 

 ought to have been, or might have 

 been, had our bee-keepers been a 

 little less .selfish, and actuated with a 

 desire to benefit liumanity as a whole, 

 rather than themselves individually. 

 To be sure, there has been but little 

 encouragement given to any one who 

 earnestly desired to progress. At- 

 tempts in that direction have either 

 l>een " damned with faint praise," or 

 died for want of sustenance. New 

 ideas have been frowned upon, and 

 new theories, especially if they seemed 

 to combat old fogy principles (which 

 were the natural result of the box- 

 hive and brimstone style of manage- 

 ment) were either looked upon as in- 

 novations, and condemned without a 

 trial, or else strangled at birth by the 

 cord of self-sufhciency. Even the in- 

 ventor of an acknowledged good thing 

 was not allowed to receive the reward 

 he so justly merited, but attempts 

 were at once made either to decry the 

 merits of the invention, or to avoid 

 payment for tlie same, by adopting 

 some device which, when used in con- 

 nection with it, was supposed to dodge 

 the claim of the inventor, even though 

 admitted to be anything but an im- 

 provement. 



In all ages such has been the case 

 with improvements, and in apiculture 

 no less than any other. No one is 

 willing to accept a new thing at first, 

 or drive his wheels out of the old ruts, 

 no matter how clumsy the old or how 

 rough the road, but when the new de- 

 vice has won its way to favor, a host 

 of imitators at once arise, and wliile 

 they are not willing even then to ac- 

 knowledge the merits, they are ready 

 to adopt the principles, claiming tliat 

 the additions or changes they have 

 made are the cliief, if not the only 

 causes, of its success. As in hives 

 and other supplies, so in matters re- 

 lating to the honey bee itself. It took 

 years to learn the economy of the 

 luve, the duties of queens aiul work- 

 ers, and the use of the drones ; and 

 even these facts were not discovered 

 till poor blind Iluber set himself to the 

 task. Partlienogenesis was scouted 

 as being at variance with the laws of 

 nature, and even now there are found 

 those who still insist the Dzierzon 

 theory is an impossibility. 



The advent of the Italian bee was 

 an immense advantage, for its coming 

 and adoption was the means of set- 

 tling forever many mooted questions, 

 and of our learning many things that 

 heretofore were hidden mysteries, and 

 had our bee-keei)ers even then striven 

 as hard to gain a knowledge of the 

 bee itself as they did to make it a 



pecuniary profit to themselves, we 

 should have progressed much farther 

 than we now have. 



The invention of foimdation and 

 the extractor (both foreshadowed by 

 Langstroth years ago) were long 

 strides forward, and their tendency 

 has been to make uncertainty certain, 

 and a barely paying business largely 

 remunerative. Why is it, then, with 

 all our past and present advantages, 

 that we have made no greater pro- 

 gress'!' Other occupations, which a 

 few years ago possessed far less pros- 

 pects and advantages, have out- 

 stripped us in the race, and have 

 gained a world-vv'ide reputation, and 

 become a means, rather than an aux- 

 iliary, in gaining a competence. Why 

 is it not so with apiculture V The 

 questions do not seem hard to answer, 

 and I propose to liriefly give my views 

 in regard to them. 



Bee-keepers, as a rule, are not ento- 

 mologists, and entomologists, as a 

 rule, are not bee-keepers, and bee- 

 keepers have not taken that pains 

 they ought, to give enough study to 

 entomology to enable them to know 

 the general peculiarities of the bee. 

 In days past, and largely even now, 

 bee-culture was, and is iised, simply 

 as an auxiliary to agriculture, and 

 while considered profitable, was only 

 so because the bees boarded them- 

 selves and required (at least received) 

 no care. If they gave a yield of sur- 

 plus well and good, if not, their own- 

 ers let them die out, saying, " I never 

 did have luck with bees." Even those 

 who adopted it as a business simply 

 engaged in it for the profit to be de- 

 rived from it without knowing aught 

 or caring aught, save for the mechan- 

 ical part of its management. No time 

 was given to the study of the charac- 

 teristics of the bees themselves, and 

 no thought given to the business, ex- 

 cept to reckon up the gain or loss at 

 the close of the season. Occasionally 

 some one better posted than his neigh- 

 bors would attempt some experiments 

 which seemed to him conducive of 

 good results, and endeavor to get his 

 neighbor to follow his lead, but he 

 was only laughed at for his pains, and 

 driven from his position by raillery 

 and ridicule. If a scientist gave a 

 view or opinion at variance with old- 

 fashioned notions, it was at once said, 

 " What does lie know about it, he is 

 only a book man ? We have kept bees 

 for 40 years in the good old way of 

 our fathers, and he can't tell us any- 

 thing about it." Prejudice and super- 

 stition have prevented progress in 

 many directions, and in apiculture as 

 much, if not more, than in any other, 

 and until we divest ourselves entirely 

 of such prejudice, learn that this is a 

 progressive age, :ind that we, even 

 well-informed tliough we are, have 

 yet much to learn, we shall grope in 

 the darkness of self-conceit, and never 

 see the light of progress and improve- 

 ment. No one need fear the results 

 of experiments or discussions. Truth 

 is immutable, and will live through 

 countless ages. Although experiment 

 and discussion may seem to disprove 

 some of our pet ideas, upset some of 

 our cherished fancies, and prove us in 

 the wrong, the truth itself can never 



