20 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



present. Now, have not you forgotten that 

 the mistakes of the past with us old special- 

 ists are the mistakes of the present, and per- 

 haps of the future, with some of yoiir 

 readers '? But this will do for the overture, 

 and we will commence with what we believe 

 to be the crowning mistake among bee- 

 keepers, namely, that of looking upon the 

 business as a kind of royal road to wealth : 

 or, at least, a good living, with little labor, 

 and, some believe, little "brains, after they 

 have once "caught on" to a few secrets. 

 Honey production will be successful only 

 with those who are wide-awake, both mental- 

 ly and physically, and are best adapted to 

 the pursuit. 



Second : Keeping too few bees has really 

 been quite a great error in the past, and will 

 undoubtedly prove a great mistake with 

 many in the future, if we ever have a good 

 honey year and good prices. 



Third : A terrible mistake is in adopting 

 methods and implements which reijuire 

 much time and care in manipulation. Tlie 

 successful honey producer, in the future, 

 will be found among those who use hives 

 and lesser implements which can be success- 

 fully manipulated instantly. 



Fourth : Another common error, and I 

 believe I was the first one to point it out, 

 some ten or twelve years ago, is in comput- 

 ing income from a hive or colony, or from 

 the number of pounds of honey and price 

 per pound. More th;>n a dozen years ago, 

 in a convention at Kalamazoo, I delivered 

 nearly these words: "Now that I have 

 found a field well stocked with honey re- 

 sources, and with no other apiarist with 

 which to divide these sources, how can I, 

 with the least capital and labor, secure from 

 this field the greatest amount of surplus 

 honey, in the nicest marketable shape?" 

 That is the question, and all other proposi- 

 tions not relating directly thereto are mis- 

 takes. 



Fifth : A most common error is endeav- 

 oring lo adapt hives to bees, to such an ex- 

 tent as to almost totally ignore the adaptabil- 

 ity of the hive to the bee-keeper. Some of 

 the laws governing the instincts of bees we 

 must not violate. But scores of supposed 

 necessities to these instincts ai'e just as well 

 violated, so far as the bees are concerned, 

 and ever so much better so far as the bee- 

 master is interested. 



Sixth : ( )ne of the grossest and most ex- 

 pensive mistakes made by bee-keepers is in 

 taking for the basis of their reasonings the 

 idea that they must follow nature in order to 

 procure the best results from bees. If 

 nature showed a high degree of intelligence, 

 and with that intelligence a s])ecial desire to 

 create honey for the grocery store, the mat- 

 ter would be different : but as we know that 

 certain violations of nature's laws, as we call 

 them, have changed the little South Ameri- 

 can root into the fine Peachblow potato, the 

 little bush hens into our elegant Plymouth 

 Rocks and Cochins, the wild pony into the 

 standard bred horses of to-day, and so I 

 might go on through the vegetable and ani- 

 mal world, so we shall never have the best 

 success until we learn just where we can ad- 

 vantageously, to a certain extent, cross 



nature's methods : transplanting them with 

 those of man's intelligence (which, by the 

 way, is also a part of nature), and bring 

 about the splendid results with bee-keeping 

 which has been brought about with other 

 lines of animal and vegetable life. 



Seventh : Another fatal mistake and one 

 common with beginners in bee culture, at all 

 times, is jumping at a conclusion that they 

 can very readily make a great improvement 

 UTion some invention or device of older and 

 more experienced bee-keepers. Well do I 

 remember how myself and others went right 

 at it to improve the Langstroth hive, and the 

 first five or six alterations I made damaged 

 the hive every time. Not until I had been a 

 specialist ten or twelve years, and had made 

 all of these mistakes, was I able to make 

 even a slight improvement. Every bee- 

 keeper should always be looking for im- 

 provements, but his modesty and good sense 

 should teach him not to expect to find tliem 

 until he knows considerable about the busi- 

 ness, and when he thinks he has it. experi-." 

 ment very carefully, and rei)eat the experi- 

 ments, before he flashes his new conceits 

 upon the world. »^ 



Eighth : Egregious mistakes have been 

 made, and erroneous conclusions arrived at, 

 through experimenting on too small a scale. 

 There are certain kinds of experiments 

 which will demonstrate truths just as well 

 upon a small, as upon a large scale : while 

 there are others that nothing but a large 

 scale and repetition of experiments will con- 

 vey any definite knowledge to the experi- 

 menter. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I have written about just 

 a few mistakes, but T know that others will 

 write about many that I have omitted, and 

 no doubt to better eft'ect than I could do, 

 therefore I will close with what I have given 

 above, hoping and believing that I shall re- 

 ceive more than I can give upon this subject. 



DowAOiAO, Mich. 



Jan. 10, 1889. 



" Too Many Irons." — Lack of System. — One- 

 Piece vs. Four-Piece Sections. 



OLIVER FOSTER. 



^I^ERHAPS the greatest mistakes I am 



ij*^ making are in getting "too many 



,^^ irons in the fire,'" iii not using more 



forethought on my work, and in not 



being more systematic and methodical. 



Where one has several branches of business 

 in connection with bee-keeping, the demand 

 for system is increased, while the difficulties 

 in bringing it about are multiplied. 



Those who make an exclusive specialty of 

 comb honey, or of extracted honey, or of 

 queen rearing, or bees by the lb. or supplies, 

 can be very systematic about their work, 

 especially if they settle down on some meth- 

 od and do not try to improve it. But those 

 who, like myself, combine all these branches 

 and are constantly exiierimenting on all 

 lines and changing plans, often find the most 

 carefully planned system demoralized. 



My aim is toward a general i)lan that may 

 be constantly amended without destroying 

 its symmetry. 



