THE BEE-KEEPERS* REVIEW 



31 



dren to support, and 1 dare not take the 

 risk of abandoning my regular occupation 

 for that of bee-keeping as my sole occu- 

 pation. At present 1 have only 12 col- 

 onies. 



This man would be the last one that the 

 Review would advise to engage in bee- 

 keeping as a specialty. It would be al- 

 most as sensible to advise him to engage 

 in the practice of medicine. A man whose 

 experience is limited to what he has ac- 

 quired in a year or two with only 12 col- 

 onies of bees is in no position to go into 

 the business as a specialist. Bee-keeping 

 is a profession that must be learned, the 

 same as any other, before it can be fol- 

 owed extensively and exclusively. The 

 men whom I advise to make of bee-keep- 

 ng an exclusive business are those who 

 have learned it from A to Z, but continue, 

 year after year, to fuss along with a 

 single apiary of 75 or 100 colonies, lack- 

 ing the confidence, or the "nerve," to drop 

 some other business that is holding them 

 back, and double their profits by enlarg- 

 ing their bee business to the extent of 

 their abilities. 



Almost an Accident. 



Although I have hauled hundreds of 

 colonies of bees with teams, and had 

 horses around bees time and again. 1 

 never had an accident, nor came any 

 wh3re near it, until this summer after the 

 close of the harvest. I have a little apiary, 

 of about 40 colonies, six miles out of Flint. 

 It was worked for increase, but the bees 

 got a little the start of me, and I was 

 compelled to put on a few upper stories. 

 I went out there with a horse and light 

 spring wagon, and some bee escapes. A 

 f3w of the supers were free from brood, 

 and 1 put the escapes under them first. 

 In the others, when I found any brood, I 

 exchanged it for frames of honey taken 

 from the outside of the brood nest in the 

 lower story. When my work was com- 

 pleted, the bees had gone down out of the 

 supers under which I had first placed the 

 escapes, so I loaded half a dozen of the 

 supers into the wagon, tying a paper over 



the top of each hive to keep out the bees. 

 The horse, in the meantime having been 

 unhitched and tied some distance away 

 behind some bushes. 



After the honey was in the wagon I sat 

 down in the shade to eat a lunch, and 

 when I returned there was quite a swarm 

 of bees around tha wagon — they had 

 found some cracks in the bottom of the 

 wagon. I saw that 1 must get the wagon 

 away at once. The horse had been used 

 around bees considerably the past two 

 years without showing any great fear of 

 them, and 1 anticipated no great trouble 

 in hitching up quickly and driving away. 

 If the bees had remained around the 

 honey there would have been no trouble, 

 but the moment the horse was brought 

 up, they left the wagon and fairly 

 swarmed, in a sort of inquisitive way, all 

 around the horse. They did not sting, nor 

 threaten to sting, but the horse went right 

 "up in the air," literally and figuratively. 

 I clung to his head, but he struck at me 

 and shook me for all the world as a big 

 dog shakes a woodchuck. How I re- 

 tained my hold, I don't know. (Why will 

 a man cling to a horse in such cases) ? 

 The horse next tried to lie down, but i 

 finally got him started up the lane on the 

 run, I still clinging to his head. Forty 

 rods away we ran into the barn yard, 

 where I tied him to a post, thanking my 

 lucky stars that 1 iiad saved the horse 

 and myself. 



The next question was what to do with 

 the honey. Of course, I could have 

 stacked it up, with a cover on the bottom and 

 a bee escape on top, and come for it after 

 dark, but that would make an extra trip. 

 Finally, it occurred to ni3 to try hauling 

 the wagon ivyss!/. It required my ut- 

 most strength, but ! could move it, and 

 eventually pulled it down the lane and 

 into the barn, where I removed the paper 

 ftcn the hives and allowed the bees to 

 go home. The horse was then brought in 

 and hitched up. and 1 drove home in 

 thankful, triumphant, but somewhat 

 thoughtful mood. 



Where did 1 make a mistake ? In not 



