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BEEKEEPING AS A PURSUIT.[1]
By Arthur Todd.
This subject may be regarded from two standpoints—that of the man who, with income assured from other sources, pursues beekeeping for its pleasure; and that of the man who, wishing to increase his slender income, or actually make an income, turns to beekeeping with a view to profit on the capital and labor to be invested. But, as to the latter are denied none of the pleasures enjoyed by the former, it is from the latter standpoint alone that I shall review the subject.
Beekeeping is, strictly speaking, a branch of agriculture, and many a farmer is to-day getting a greater return from his investment in bees than that received from any of his other stock; but right here I say that beekeeping as a pursuit has to-day become a “specialty.” The man who enters upon this pursuit (leaving the question of capital aside) must be one endowed with physical and mental ability; a man with open eyes and ears, one ready for emergencies, prompt to do what is necessary at once, and one who is not easily discouraged.
The physical ability is required because beekeeping demands real hard work—yes, back-aching work—not suitable to the sick ladies and gentlemen so often ill-advised to go into beekeeping. The mental ability is required to keep the beekeeper abreast of the times and its rapidly changing conditions. Beekeeping is now a science, a study, and the conditions which govern one season, or colony of bees, will be completely changed for the next. Every stage in the life of a colony of bees requires to be understood. There must be no “guessing,” and this will bring us to the cultivation of the habit of observation, and a disposition to hear all that one can upon the special subject.
Emergencies will occur needing heroic treatment, but the beekeeper with mind and hand trained by experience and thoughtful consideration of his “specialty,” will rise superior to any occasion, and when discouragement comes, as it inevitably will, in the words of the immortal Longfellow, “He will look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again, but wisely improve the future for it is his.”
Pleasure and profit go hand in hand, as a rule, in this specialty, although the former is not unalloyed by a liberal application of the “business end” of the little busy bee, and the latter by a recurrence of poor honey seasons. In nature are found both the beautiful and the sublime; in the hive both are constantly under the beekeeper’s eye, teaching him to look with amazement from “nature up to nature’s God.” As he views his hive and sees the city grow, and population increase, the waxen walls, and stores well filled, the free-born citizen hurrying to and fro, each with his special task, outside of the thoughts of profit will come to the most unimpressionable, thoughts of wonder and admiration for the works of that great Architect of the universe who said, “Let there be life and there was life.”
The profits of beekeeping are what? To many a one they hold out the hopes of “the glorious privilege of being independent;” and to obtain these profits the specialist, gifted with the requisite mental and physical qualities, must be “the right man in the right place.” He must have hives of the movable-frame order. Moses Quinby wrote thus, in 1858: “There is not the least doubt, in my mind, that whoever realizes the greatest profit from his bees will have to retain the movable combs in some form;” and who of us will gainsay this to-day? Out of the many styles of movable-comb hives now in existence, the beekeeper will select one best fitted for the business in which he means to engage, be it the production of comb or extracted honey, queen-rearing, bee-selling, or a combination of all.
The specialist who intends to rear bees for sale will do well to employ that hive which will take the size and style of frame most in use in the district in which he resides. Interchangeability of parts is a grand secret of success, and the beekeeper who can sell a colony of bees, or buy a colony well knowing that each and every frame is usable in his own or his neighbors’ hives, has made a step in the right direction. The main points in a good hive are, “Simplicity of construction, combining plenty of bee-space with perfect ease of manipulation.”
The race of bees will next engage the specialist’s attention. Study and experience, and also the actual line of business engaged in, will best decide this point. The black, the Italian, the Syrian, the Cyprian, and the Carniolan, alike have their votaries. At present, for all purposes of sale and honey-gathering, the Ligurian or Italian-Alp bee is the principal one in demand; but the very best race of bees will afford but little profit unless the queens are carefully looked after. As fast as signs of senility appear, these should be removed and their places supplied by younger and more vigorous queens. The apiarist for profit should not only rear queens, but know how, when and where to replace them. He should also know the requisites of a good queen, and how to judge of her progeny.
Pasture to the beekeeper is everything; if that be poor, his returns will be poor; hence he should carefully examine his location. Districts vary greatly in their flora, and by a careful study of this question before locating, disappointment will be avoided. The beekeeper should be a walking calendar of the flora of his neighborhood for miles around, then, as the honey comes pouring in, he can tell its source and label it accordingly. This knowledge will enable him to build up colonies, and follow the old advice, “Keep your colonies strong;” so that when the honey does come, there are bees to gather it in.
The management of bees kept for profit will vary according to the object of the beekeeper, whether it be the production of honey or the rearing of bees or queens. In running for honey alone, we have the swarming and the non-swarming methods. The experiences of good bee-men are so diversified that one is reminded of the old saying, “when doctors differ, the patient dies.” The bee-man must strike out his own line of action suitable to his own special circumstances. In running for extracted honey, swarming is, to a great extent, controlled, for “Poverty maketh humble;” but I insist that the good bee-man will know the condition of each hive, and act accordingly.
The specialist is a man who reads, and although he may not get or use a single one of the many traps, or patent articles now offered, he should know all about them; for at any moment, what he has read about these things may give him an idea, the successful carrying out of which may help him over a difficulty. The capacity of the beekeeper to attend to a certain number of colonies, be it greater or less, will have a great influence on the profits of the pursuit. As a pursuit, beekeeping should not be entered into without careful thought and consideration as to the capital required, the location and the suitability of the employment to one’s temperament. To-day, before embarking in the business, it is possible for the intending beekeeper to serve an actual and willing apprenticeship in the yards of well-known and successful bee-masters. I need dwell not upon the advantages of this plan for they are obvious.
To the enthusiast with but small experience, I would say, “Go slow!” Read the good bee-literature now so easy to be obtained, and never be above learning from others. Visit beekeepers wherever you can enjoy the privilege, attend bee-conventions, and gradually a store of knowledge will be gathered upon which you will draw with profit later on.
Profitable beekeeping as a pursuit is, to my mind, the outcome of the union of two great factors—“talent” and “tact;” for “talent is power, tact is skill; talent is wealth, tact is ready money; talent knows what to do, tact knows how to do it; talent makes the world wonder that it gets on no faster, tact excites astonishment that it gets on so fast; talent may obtain a living, but tact will make one. Talent convinces, tact converts; talent is an honor to the profession, tact has the knack of slipping into good places, and keeping them; it seems to know everything without learning anything: it has no left hand, no deaf ear, no blind side, with a full knowledge of the Pythagorean doctrine, ‘that a man ought rather to be silent, or say something better than silence.’”
I submit these remarks to my fellow beekeepers, being painfully conscious of many shortcomings from the high standard of excellence that man should attend to who in these days goes into “beekeeping as a pursuit.”
Germantown, Pa.
HOWES’ REVERSIBLE FRAME-SUPPORT.
By C. J. F. Howes.
To whom does the invention belong? From articles lately appearing in Gleanings in Bee Culture, and editorial comments thereon, I think there is a misapprehension of what the above invention consists, or what it really is, and whose property it is. The above-mentioned articles and editorials are, I feel, doing me an injustice, and have a tendency, virtually, to rob me of all the benefits, to say nothing of the “honors,” of the discovery, which I had considered to be my property.
As to what constitutes my invention, I will quote from my article in the A. B. Journal, page 57, in reply to Mr. Heddon’s claim to the invention of the frame illustrated in Gleanings, page 104.
“At the annual meeting of the Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers’ Association, held at Adrian, Mich., Jan. 23, 1884, I exhibited samples of a device for reversing brood-frames, which device, or plan, suspended the frame by strips of wood, or metal, which strips were pivoted to the centre of the end-bars, and extended up to the top of the frame, there forming projecting arms to rest on the rabbets, and allowing the frame to revolve on these pivots.
In describing the device before the convention, I distinctly claimed as my invention, the plan of suspending the frame between side-strips pivoted to the end-bars, as described.”
Previous to the illustration and description of my device, all reversible-frames had fixtures at both top and bottom; see Gleanings for 1882, page 71, also 1883, page 65, Burgess’ device; 1884, page 155, Baldridge’s device; and 1884, page 332, Hetherington’s device. These attachments were entirely different in principle from the “Howes’ Supports.” No one had ever suggested revolving the frames on “centre pivots,” previous to the illustration, and description of my frame in Gleanings for 1884, page 156.
Soon after I began to manufacture and sell Howes’ Reversible Frame and Supports,—as advertised in Gleanings, for 1884, page 285,—reversing devices began to appear from all quarters; both men and women joining in the scramble for the “honor,” if not for the profits of the invention; each one suspending the frame by “centre pivots,” as I had described them. Several used hoop-iron bent at a right angle to form projecting arm. (Prof. Cook at the Michigan convention claimed to have tried this plan, though a lady, I think, first described it in Gleanings).
Mr. Root has often, through Gleanings, acknowledged that these different devices are, practically the same thing as the “Howes’ Support;” still he does not hesitate to manufacture, advertise and sell them, as if the invention was common property. (See editorial remarks in Gleanings; page 74, describing Mr. Nuzvinis’ device; then Editorial in next number, page 104, on the same subject.)
I submit the question, in all seriousness. Does not this state of things justify anyone, in securing his rights to the labor of his brain, by a patent, as provided by law? If a better device, to secure the results aimed at, by reversing the brood-combs, shall be discovered, I shall be glad to adopt it, in my own apiary, and will, willingly, pay for the privilege. Until then, I request all to “please keep off my preserve.”
Adrian, Mich., Feb. 7, 1885.
WHICH IS THE MOST PROFITABLE RACE OF BEES.
By D. F. Lashier.
Which is the most profitable race of bees regarding brooding, comb-building, honey-gathering disposition and wintering qualities?
I have no desire to injure anyone’s business and wish merely to bring to notice a few facts which it seems to me to have been overlooked.
Perhaps a few notes founded upon years of experience would not be out of place, especially as my motives are entirely unselfish.
I commenced beekeeping in 1872 with one colony of gray bees in a box hive. I purchased this hive of a neighbor whose bees seemed to be very hardy and gentle. They are of uniform size and as large as any Italians that I ever have seen, even when the latter were reared in comb of their own building. I hive all my gray bees without any protection whatever and the same when looking for queens, etc. With the Italians this would be perfect madness.[2]
Doubtless some will say “your gentle bees must suffer from being robbed.” Not so, my friends, they are good protectors of their homes.
I have purchased queens from some of the best breeders in the States hoping to get the best in the market, and I never have, as yet, seen any that will hold their own with my gray bees.
In breeding, the Italians commence a trifle earlier in spring, but they dwindle so badly that when fruit trees bloom they are not as strong as the gray bees.
For honey-gathering from the white and red clover the Italians and gray bees are about equal, but when buckwheat is in bloom the grays beat the Italians by fifty per cent.
I have wintered both races indoors and out of doors. The grays seem to become dormant not caring to move about, while the Italians are uneasy, crawling out of their hives and wasting away.
My gray bees have steadily increased by natural swarming[3] from the one colony to 120, all in the same apiary; giving me, in an average season, a nice surplus of box honey, and in a very poor season holding their own without feeding or spring dwindling.
I think that had one-half the pains been taken to improve some of our native bees that have been devoted to rearing foreign races, beekeeping of to-day would be in a far better condition. It is the general result and the general summing up that decide which is the more profitable vocation.
Of late years I have wintered my bees in a frost-proof building, and have found it to be a great saving of honey. At some future time I will tell your readers, if they wish, how this building is constructed so as to carry bees safely through five months of as cold winter weather as ever existed in my section, together with my experience in fruit raising in connection with beekeeping and how I manage to save my natural swarms from absconding.
This having swarms decamp to parts unknown is all wrong. I have had more swarms come to me than I ever had desert, and the idea that bees injure fruit blossoms is altogether erroneous. Why! we were obliged to prop up our plum trees last season to prevent them from breaking down with the load of plums, and of cherries we had a most bountiful crop and this right in our apiary too.
I should be pleased to give your readers a paper on fruit and bees if it would be acceptable.[4]
Hooper, N. Y.
HOW TO FORM NUCLEI.
By Henry Alley.
Most beekeepers wish to rear a few queens and must have for such a purpose a few nucleus colonies.
The following plan for forming them is an easy and simple one. The nucleus hives should be constructed of light material and about one-third the width of the large hive, and the covers should be cleated to prevent splitting and warping. If the hives are painted they will last many years.
The nucleus colonies should consist of three combs and two quarts of bees. When ready to form them, place in one of the hives two combs containing honey and, in the centre, one containing brood, after which add the bees. Perhaps the better way would be to remove from a full colony a comb containing brood, together with the adhering bees, being careful of course not to take the queen with them. In such case there will be a sufficient number of bees on the comb to care for the brood; if not, a few more may be brushed from another comb into the hive.
After the combs and bees have been placed in the hive, confine the latter to the hives for thirty-six hours and release them early on the morning of the third day.
Do not remove the screen (with which they have been confined) from the entrance except just before dark or early in the morning; as, if released in the middle of the day, the bees would rush out and many would not return.
After having been confined in the hive for thirty-six hours, the bees will have constructed several queen cells and when released will return to the new location.
A matured queen cell may be given them at this time; or, when they have been queenless seventy-two hours, a virgin queen can be introduced safely.
Before releasing the bees the nuclei should be placed some distance from the stands from which the bees were taken. While the bees are confined in the hives they should be supplied with water. For such purpose I find the cone feeder very useful.
If the reader has studied the article in the May number in reference to the drone trap he is prepared to have his queens purely mated with any particular strain of drones in the apiary.
Wenham, Mass.
A GUIDE TO THE BEST METHODS OF BEEKEEPING.
By J. L. Christ.
R. F. Holterman, Translator.
(Continued from p. 90, Vol. III.)