The More-patent hives against which I wish to caution the bee-keeper, and particularly the beginner, are those offered by A. J. Root, publisher of "Gleanings in Bee Culture." Root makes the "Gleanings" the medium for advertising and palming off upon the public his wares. Don't invest in his trash if you wish to keep bees with profit. I am sorry to find that many of the bee journals and bee-keepers' associations, are conducted on prejudiced and selfish motives, and in the interest of some individual, or company of men, for the sole purpose of making money from the sale of some particular hive or fixture, without regard to merit, or value to the practical bee-keeper. All honest discussion, with a view to bring out facts and figures to guide the inexperienced bee-keeper in his labors, I am sorry to say, is suppressed. The bee journals should be the disseminators of useful knowledge among bee-keepers. I am sorry to find the reverse true with many of them. After a thorough investigation, I feel it my duty to advise bee-keepers, and those contemplating bee-keeping, not to take all for granted that they read in the bee journals, for if you do, you will be very likely to soon find yourself robbed of your money, and your bees ruined.
Very many who write for the bee journals with high sounding words, claiming to be adepts in bee culture, have really no practical knowledge of the nature and habits of bees. We have supported a host of speculators in our business, for a long time; the object of this class has ever been, how best to secure our hard earnings, and with no desire or effort to aid in rendering bee keeping more profitable and desirable. The country is full of this class, and they always combine to crush out real merit in anything pertaining to bee culture, brought before the public by individual bee-keepers, who are laboring to advance the cause by giving their experiences, gained from hard every-day labor among bees.
For many years I have written articles on bee culture, for the leading agricultural journals and newspaper. I have thus given much of my experience in detail, with no thought of further reward than the satisfaction of having contributed to aid bee-keepers in raising bees with greater profit, believing if all would so contribute of their practical experience with bees, great mutual benefit might be gained, and rapid progress made in successful and profitable bee culture. In consequence of my course in spreading information with a view to aid the cause, the class referred to in this chapter, and their tools, are boiling over with wrath towards me, lying and slandering me through the public press, and by every other means which their depraved natures can invent. All because I have succeeded by hard study in perfecting a hive and new system of bee management, which is fast coming into general use among bee keepers; consequently the sale of their worthless trash is decreasing rapidly. But I am anxious to get through with this part of my work, and reach the practical part, where I have the greatest confidence in my ability to give such information as will render bee keeping profitable and desirable.
CHAPTER IV.
FEEDING.
FEEDING bees, when judiciously managed, is the stepping stone to large profits from them.
Bee-keepers who have heretofore attempted to feed bees have met with poor success.
A bee-keeper of my acquaintance paid fifty dollars for a patent apparatus for feeding bees together in the open air. The result was, soon after being fed, they commenced fighting among themselves. The weaker stocks first fell prey to the stronger, then the stronger in turn were attacked, and the final result was, nearly every stock was ruined, and the plan abandoned in disgust after the first season's trial.
Now it is plain to every intelligent person, that in order to receive the greatest possible profit from bees, they must be fed. There can be no question as to the great benefit to be derived from feeding bees. The only question is, how, when and what to feed. It is as much a necessity to feed bees, as to feed our domestic animals, cows, sheep, &c., or to apply manure to plants, or any crop the farmer cultivates, to stimulate growth and increase the product, and consequent profit of the same. We should look upon that farmer as either a fool or a lunatic, who should furnish his domestic animals no food, except what they obtained by grazing in the pastures and fields, the year round. And do you think his cows treated thus, would yield him a large product of butter, cheese and milk, and consequently a good profit in dollars and cents? Do you think he would find his cows, managed thus, so profitable as to induce him to keep cows to any great extent? Let a farmer manage thus—take his cows to the barn, milk them, then turn them out the year round to graze and provide for themselves, taking them up only to milk them, furnishing them with no food except what they procure by grazing—how long, think you, would such a farmer have cows to milk? Yet this is a parallel case with the bee-keeper who furnishes his bees with no feed except what they can procure by their own industry. And is it surprising that bees treated thus pay no profit?