CHAPTER III.
PATENT AND NON-PATENT HIVES, BEE JOURNALS, ETC.
I HAVE learned from bitter experience, as has nearly every one who has kept bees for any length of time, the dishonesty, and utter disregard for truth, of a class of speculators who prey upon the unsuspecting bee-keeper. Patent Hives—the great majority of them—are a curse and a hindrance to successful and profitable bee-keeping. I have no time to describe the multitude of worthless patent hives, and the many tricks and swindles of the venders of the same, but I advise every bee-keeper to consult his own interests, and have nothing to do with them. Ninety-nine out of every hundred are a swindle. I have tested their merits and know whereof I affirm.
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 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 you 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 newspapers. 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 a 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.