238 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



"Certainly. But you were asking about 

 what a novice should do. Captain J. E. 

 Hetherington once told in my hearing at a bee 

 convention how, when he was a young man, 

 he wrote to that father in bee-keeping, Moses 

 Quinby, asking him if he would advise a 

 young man to make a specialty of bee-keep- 

 ing, and Mr. Quinby's reply was no. A year^ 

 or two before father Quinby died, Mr. Heth-' 

 erington referred him to this letter and asked 

 him how he would then answer it; and he 

 said that his answer would still be the same. 

 When Captain H. pressed him for his reason 

 for still thinking the same, Mr. Quinby's 

 answer was, ' Just look over the list of those 

 who kept bees twenty years ago, and have 

 succeeded so well that they are still content 

 to follow the business. How few they are !' 

 And yet Captain Hethrington made a success 

 at his specialty, bee-keeping, numbering his 

 colonies by the thousands. You see he was 

 an exception to the rule." 



' 'Then, if I understand you and Mr. Quinby, 

 you do not advise entering into bee-keeping 

 as a specialty until a person has proven his 

 ability at bee-keeping by giving thai special 

 attention, together with some other pursuit 

 or pursuits, until he is satisfied that they 

 want to make apiculture a special calling in 

 life." 



"That is it exactly. I consider it foolish- 

 ness for a novice at bee-keeping to put $500 

 to $1000 of hard-earned money at some other 

 calling in life into bees, and start out with 

 bee-keeping alone as a specialty before he is 

 at all familiar with the many intricate prob- 

 lems of the pursuit, expecting that he will 

 make a success of such specialty; for, in 99 

 cases out of 100, the 20 years spoken of by 

 Mr. Quinby will find him out of the business, 

 a very much disgusted man, with his invest- 

 ment nearly if not quite a total loss." 



"But you said Mr. Hetherington succeed- 

 ed." 



"Certainly. He was brought up under 

 Mr. Quinby's influence, which was thorough 

 and careful. The trouble is that 99 out of 

 every 100 who enter into bee-keeping are 

 not positive enough in their methods to suc- 

 ceed as specialists. The novice is apt to 

 think that a colony has a good queen; that a 

 colony has enough honey for winter; that its 

 combs are good enough, etc. The trouble is 

 they do not know; and that is why so many 

 hives are piled up in fence-corners or old 

 buildings all over the land, showing the many 

 who have entered into bee-keeping, and why 

 they have failed." 



"But does not the location have much to 

 do with it?" 



"Yes, but a good location will not over- 

 come a slipshod, go-as-you-please way of 

 keeping bees. However, a good location, 

 with a man fitted for a specialist, will roll 

 up a success which the world will almost en- 

 vy. Captain Hetherington had a good loca- 

 tion, which was an advantage to him without 

 doubt." 



" Do you think it possible for a man to be 

 equally interested in several pursuits at the 

 same time ?" 



"Perhaps not." 



"Then why not give a young man two or 

 three different pursuits till he finds out which 

 he likes best ?" 



"That is my idea exactly. In my opinion, 

 it is not best for a young man to start ovit 

 as a specialist. Many of the bee-keeping 

 specialists of to-day have become such l)y 

 getting a few bees, when they soon formed a 

 liking for them, and soon afterward they 

 found they were neglecting their regular 

 business for the bees, their love increasing 

 for the bees more and more as the years went 

 on. Then they soon became bee-keepers and 

 the other business was dropped." 



' ' Did you start out with bee-keeping as 

 your only business?" 



"No. I was born of farmer parents. I 

 grew up a farmer's boy. I loved the farm 

 and its work, or at least I thought! did." 



"Then how came you to be a bee-keeper?" 



"One winter an old bee-book fell into my 

 hands and 1 read it. It said that a few hive^ 

 of bees belonged to every farm — just as miu^h 

 so as did the cows, horses, sheep, pigs, and 

 chickens. My father was consulted in the 

 matter. He had kept bees when I was a ba- 

 by. He said I could get a hive or two, but 

 that thei'e was little profit in them. I pur- 

 chased two colonies of bees in the spring of 

 1869." 



"Did you expect to go into bee-keeping 

 extensively ?" 



"No. 1 figured that I would keep ten col- 

 onies; that these colonies would give me 

 twenty pounds to the colony, of surplus hon- 

 ey. Honey was then worth 25 cents a pound 

 in any of the villages about us. The 200 

 pounds from the ten colonies would bring 

 me $50.00 each year on an average, and! 

 would have $50 to help along with the taxes 

 and other expenses on the farm. But the 

 bees increased, and with this increase my 

 love for them increased faster than the in- 

 crease of the bees; and it was then I found 

 out that 1 did not love the old farm and the 

 work that went with it as well as I supposed 

 I did. This was against my father's wishes. 

 He wanted me to be a farmer. ' ' 



"But bee-keeping was farming, was it 

 not ?" 



' ' Not in the eyes of my father, for he saw 

 that this love for the bees was the cause of 

 my neglecting the other legitimate work of 

 the farm. One day when I was revolving in 

 my mind as to how much longer I would 

 stick to the old farm, I was in the chamber 

 over our living-room. My father and a 

 neighbor came into the room below and en- 

 tered into conversation. I was soon aroused 

 from my reverie by what was being said, for 

 I heard this in my father's voice: 'I have al- 

 ways wanted and expected that Gilbert 

 would be a farmer. I have hoped and pray- 

 ed that he would make a failure of bee-keep- 

 ing; but it looks now as though he were go- 

 ing to succeed in spite of my hopes and my 

 prayers.' This gave me an idea that the 

 breaking-away from the old farm would not 

 be as hard as I expected it would, and so I 

 planned, and did leave the farm one year 



