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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 2A, 



heard and read just enough about bee-keeping to swell his 

 head and fill it with the idea that be was specially predesti- 

 nated to the business, and that it was foreordained that he 

 should make a fortune out of it. and that all he has to do is to 

 go inttt it and thrauyh it to said fortune in a very short space 

 of time — when this is the state of things in his upper senKor- 

 ium, he is about to make a grand mistake, and his little capi- 

 tal is about as good as gone. To make a little fortune out of 

 bee-keeping (saying nothing about a big one) it takes time and 

 patient, persistent work, as well as special aptitude and abil- 

 ity ; and, in addition to all this, an e.xtra locality for the 

 abundant yield of nectar. But a little fortune may undoubt- 

 edly be made under the favorable conditions noted. 



When the novice sets out with a score or more of colonies 

 to start with, this is a mistake. With such a number he 

 makes so many mistakes before he gets experience, that loss 

 instead of profit is soon down in his ledger. Probably his first 

 winter fixes off his 20 colonies with their increase. As In so 

 many other handicrafts (and hendcnifts. to coin a word) noth- 

 ing can take the place of experience and manipulation in 

 modern scientific bee-culture. 



Again, when this neophyte (with the big head) conceives 

 that he can construct a hive with a new wrinkle or two to it, 

 which will be the hive among oil hives, consumes precious 

 time in doing it, and expends his money patenting and bring- 

 ing it out, he discovers his mistake after his time and money 

 are gone. When he goes off into this thing and that, to invent 

 this fixture and improve that, and after accomplishing his ob- 

 jects finds, to his chagrin, that the whole ground he has been 

 so diligently and hopefully exploring has been gone over and 

 over long ago, it just begins to dawn on him that he has made 

 a costly and absurd mistake. 



I do not wish to discourage mechanical skill or ini^entive 

 genius, but to simply point out the folly of wasting time and 

 money in digging for what has already been dug out. Tbis 

 is a common mistake among young bee-keepers, and not too 

 uncommon among older ones. Experience in mistakes is use- 

 ful to some men, but not so to others. The wise man will 

 never make but one or two mistakes in the same line. His 

 "bought wit" (maybe dearly bought) serves him. 



" Bought wit 18 the de-irest, 

 But muther wit is the Clearest." 



it has been said. That hardly means that one rich in " mother 

 wit" will not make mistakes, but the man with mother wit 

 will profit by mistakes and never repeat them, while the other 

 fellow will repeat them. I know a man in our county who 

 goes into nearly every patent penny prospect to make money 

 which comes his way, and although in nine cases out of ten 

 he "comes out at the little end of the horn " financially, he 

 still loves the patent fixture,whatever it may be.and goes right 

 in as usual with the next itinerant speculator that comes 

 round, as it nothing unpleasant to his pocket had happened. 

 That man tried bee-keeping, and, of course, failed — tried 

 again, and would doubtless tse trying yet only for that " busi- 

 ness end " of the "varmint" which proved too much for him. 



It is a mistake to suppose that the bee-keeper who makes 

 the business profitable is a sinecurist. While it is true that 

 bees usually "board themselves" and help to board many 

 others, the shiftless bee-keeper who builds on that pleasant 

 fact makes a mistake. Their industry will neither impli^iiient 

 nor supplement his idleness. As eternal vigilance is said to 

 be the price of liberty, so is eternal industry and application 

 the price of success in apiculture 



As the wintering of bees in these latitudes is really the 

 most difficult part of bee-keeping, the bee-keeper who neglects 

 or fails to post himself in this essential makes a fatal mistake 

 — fatal to the bees and fatal to his profits. 



The bee-keeper who puts inferior queens, or old queens, 

 into winter quarters makes a mistake, and this mistake is 

 often made. 



The bee-keeper who leaves his colonies short of stores in 

 the fall, expecting to feed them in the winter or spring makes 

 a serious mistake, for even though th3y may never be actually 

 short for present needs, the deficient stores operate agairst 

 them, especially in the spring when they like to see plenty, 

 and need plenty for breeding. Furthermore, it is a mistake 

 to feed bees in the fall that are to bo wintered, either to 

 supply deficient stores or for other purposes. This will be dis- 

 puted, but that, too, will be a mistake. Of course, supplying 

 colonies in the fall with frames full of honey is no mistake, 

 but that is not feeding. To feed Is to give liquid or some kind 

 of syrup, honey, etc., which for several reasons is a mistake. 



It is a mistake to winter bees on sugar syrup, or any- 

 thing but honey, except In an extremity — not because the 

 bees will not winter on syrup, but for other reasons. The 

 first is, the honey is the natural and therefore the best food ; 



the second is, the excitement and work of storing the liquid, 

 curing and capping it in the fall when the bees ought to be 

 quiet, shortens their lives; the third is, in nine cases in ten a 

 good deal of the syrup will be left uncapped in the bottoms of 

 the frames, and will absorb mnisture arid deteriorate; the 

 fourth is, it crowds just th.it much more honey on the market 

 to lower the price ; and one more reason is, that the use of 

 sugar in the hives for any purpose excites prejudice In the 

 minds of the consumers, and suspicion of adulteration, and 

 the real fact is that some of the syrup, more or less, will, in 

 many cases, find its way into the honey that is taken out for 

 sale. These are my reasons for saying that the feeding busi- 

 ness is a mistake, except la extremis. 



It is a fundamental mistake to try to make something else 

 which is not honey take the legitimate place of honey, either 

 in the hive or out of it, or to try to make honey out of some- 

 thing else than nectar, either for beefood or human food. 



It is a mistake for any bee-keeper, who is a, bee-keeper, 

 not to produce both comb and extracted honey. It is a mis- 

 take to have a large hive for the former, or a small hive for 

 the latter. 



In producing honey in sections, it is a mistake to use full 

 sheets of foundation ; and in the brood-chamber and extract- 

 ing-stories it is a mistake not to use them. The less the bet- 

 ter in the sections is the right rule, and no mistake. This, 

 too, will be disputed, but the dispute will again be a mistake. 

 No section foundation has yet been produced that will turn 

 out a section of honey as satisfying to the discriminating con- 

 sumer, and as satisfactory to the general dealer, as the nat- 

 ural section without foundation, except a starter. 



It is a mistake to use wide sections or single-slotted sec- 

 tions, or slovenly-made sections. 



It is a mistake to leave the supers on the hives till every 

 section is completely filled and capped ; and it is a mistake to 

 put them in a cool or damp place when you do take them off. 

 It is a mistake, too, to put them at once on the market before 

 the market is ready for them. 



It is a mistake to sell sections of honey to a customer 

 without telling him or her, at least twice, to put them in a 

 warm, dry place. If you don't, ten to one, the sections will be 

 put in the cellar where they will spoil, and yourown credit, as 

 well as your customer's pocket, will suffer. And you must re- 

 peat this iiijunclion vivii voce every time you sell them sections 

 of honey, because they forget it, and hardly ever read your 

 solemn admonitions on the label. 



In taking extracted honey it is a mistake to make a prac- 

 tice of extracting honey before it is ripe. It can be ripened 

 ariificially, but the natural way is best. It is a mistake to 

 can and seal np the honey directly from the extractor, unless 

 it is all capped over before extracting, and even then it is not 

 always ripe. It ought to stand for a short time exposed in a 

 hot, dry atmosphere; then seal up for the best results. It is 

 a mistake to put an ounce of extracted honey on the market 

 which is not fully ripe. It may turn sour in the dealer's or 

 consumer's bands, and make trouble. 



It is a mistake to make a practice of extracting honey 

 from the brood-chamber, because, not only is the young brood 

 disturbed and often thrown out in the honey, but the pollen 

 comes out, too, injuring the flavor and color of the honey, and 

 giving it a tendency to sour. It is a mistake to have any pol- 

 len at all in your extracting-frames, and a still greater one to 

 have it in the sections. It is, therefore, a mistake to allow 

 the queen up in tlie extracting-stories or in the section supers. 

 Wherefore it is a mistake not to ii<e the perforated-zinc in 

 both cases. This will be holly disputed, too, but no matter, it 

 is true all the same. 



In liquifying honey it is a mistake to raise the tempera- 

 ture over 140"^, and it is another mistake to let it stand un- 

 sealed after liquefaction. To preserve aromi, flavor and 

 fluidity, seal it up hot. And it is an offensive, unprofitable and 

 hnpardonable mistake to put honey of any kind on the mar- 

 ket unripe, untidy or unclean. 



There are a thousand and one other mistakes in bee-keep- 

 ing, but I can here only glance at about a score and one more 

 of them. 



It is a mistake on your part to have foul brood in your 

 bee-yard if it is there through your own negligence or mis- 

 management, and, however it gets there, it is a great evil to 

 have it there and to tonic it there. It is a mistake to try to 

 hide it and neglec-t to take prompt measures to get rid of it by 

 any other cure than the inspector's cure — especially if he was 

 around. And to even hint to him that there was any other 

 salvation from foul brood except through his plan, would be a 

 dangerous mistake. That his cure is the sole and only real 

 and genuine curr^ for foul brood on the face of the earth is 

 what you must first of all get yourself seized of if you want to 



