OF THE 
 
 U N I VERS I T Y 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 63a 
 
 Al&b 
 
 UCJ 8 > 1341 
 
Return this book on or before the 
 Latest Date stamped below. A 
 charge is made on all overdue 
 books. 
 
 University of Illinois Library 
 

 
 
 . 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE BLESSED BEES 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN ALLEN 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 182 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
Copyright by 
 G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 
 1878 
 
£ ? Se 4V 
 
 /LM y ¥-/ ■ BJtjR 
 
 638 
 
 R^ 4b 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This record of a year's work gives the experi- 
 ences and results of my beginning in a business 
 which is to me a constant pleasure, and the source 
 of a good income. Bee-keeping, by old methods, 
 was believed to be ruled by chance ; the bee-keeper 
 who had good luck obtained some honey from his 
 hives by the slaughter of his bees over the brim- 
 stone pit ; the bee-keeper who had bad luck found 
 himself, sooner or later, the owner of a beggarly 
 array of empty hives. Bee-keeping, by modern 
 methods, depends not upon luck but upon knowl- 
 edge; it is an art just as much as growing wheat or 
 fruit or stock; the profits which may be gained 
 from it are just as certain as the profits from any 
 other branch of rural labor, and are much larger. 
 
 i 
 
4 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 To write these chapters has been to me a labor 
 of love. I hope they may serve in some measure 
 to diffuse a knowledge of bee-culture, and to call 
 attention to its pleasures and its profits. 
 
 Linnswick, March ii, 1878. 
 
 JOHN ALLEN. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 I. 
 
 CLOUD, 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 II. 
 
 GLEAM, 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 14 
 
 III. 
 
 UTOPIA, 
 
 • 
 
 
 ■ 2 5 
 
 IV. 
 
 BEGINNINGS — AT WORK, 
 
 . 
 
 • 
 
 33 
 
 V. 
 
 ITALIANIZING, 
 
 • 
 
 
 • 58 
 
 VI. 
 
 APPLE BLOSSOMS, 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 79 
 
 VII. 
 
 WHITE CLOVER AND LINN, . 
 
 • 
 
 
 • 93 
 
 VIII. 
 
 NUCLEUS SWARMING, 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 100 
 
 IX. 
 
 COMB-HONEY, 
 
 • 
 
 
 . 108 
 
 X. 
 
 FALL FLOWERS, . 
 
 • 
 
 . 
 
 112 
 
 XI. 
 
 MORE COMB-HONEY, . 
 
 • 
 
 
 . 118 
 
 XII. 
 
 PREPARING FOR WINTER, 
 
 • 
 
 . 
 
 122 
 
 XIII. 
 
 MARKETING, . 
 
 • 
 
 
 . 1 3 ° 
 
 XIV. 
 
 DEBIT AND CREDIT, 
 
 • 
 
 . 
 
 140 
 
 XV, 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS, 
 
 • 
 
 
 . 146 
 
 
 NOTES, 
 
 « 
 
 • 
 
 157 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/blessedbeesOOclut 
 
THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 i. 
 
 CLOUD. 
 
 My room was No. 14 in the old boarding hall, 
 just at the head of the first flight of stairs. I stood 
 at the window watching for the mail-boy, who was 
 much later than usual that night. For an hour 
 he had been due. It was a long and weary hour to 
 me, during which study had been impossible. After 
 what seemed an endless time I heard his step com- 
 ing by the college. I forced myself to sit down 
 quietly at the table. The boy would distribute the 
 mail in the steward’s rooms below in a few minutes, 
 and as he came up stairs my room was first. I 
 should soon know if there was a message for me. 
 No news would be good news. I listened eagerly 
 and soon heard his step on the stair. Would he 
 pass my door? I hoped so, fervently. He came 
 on. He stopped and knocked. He had something 
 
8 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 for me. It was, as I feared it would be, a telegram. 
 My nervousness had gone, I was quiet now. I 
 opened it and read : 
 
 Your father is worse. Come home at once. 
 
 MARY ALLEN. 
 
 My hope was gone now. I knew my mother 
 would not have sent such a message unless there 
 was real danger. There was no time for anything 
 but action ; indeed, there was scarcely time for that. 
 I asked my chum, Tom, to pick up my things, 
 ready for packing, while I should go across to 
 Bircham’s for a horse and wagon. On the way 
 over I stopped at the President’s door, and obtained 
 leave of absence from college. It was after nine 
 o’clock, and Bircham had gone to bed. But I roused 
 him, and he promised to be at the boarding-hall at 
 five o’clock in the morning. The train left Lansing 
 at six, and an hour would give us ample time, 
 especially if we took the lower town road, as it was 
 best to do, since they were grading the other. 
 When I got back to the room Tom had everything 
 ready for packing ; but before beginning, I went to 
 the rooms of several of my special friends to say 
 good-bye. They were manly fellows, full of pluck 
 and kindliness. They all wanted to help me, but 
 there was really nothing they could do, and they 
 had the good sense to see it, and not trouble me. 
 Then the old trunk was soon packed. Tom said he 
 
CLOUD. 
 
 9 
 
 would call me at half-past four, and insisted on my 
 going to bed. It was not easy to sleep, at first it 
 seemed impossible. But I knew that for several 
 days I must be able to give solid help at home, and 
 should need whatever strength I had. After an 
 hour of determination sleep came. At four o'clock 
 I awoke, without Tom's calling, and at once pre- 
 pared for my journey. When all was ready, and 
 my trunk waiting in the hall, I went down for a 
 few minutes to the college grounds. They were 
 very dear to me, and the feeling was strong upon 
 me that it might be years before I should see them 
 again. The walks, the old oaks on the lawn, the 
 young oaks in groves, the flower garden, the green- 
 houses, the vegetable garden, — in the ten minutes at 
 my disposal I glanced at them all. I had done many 
 happy hours work in them. They had brought to 
 me a wealth of beauty. How beautiful they were 
 in the early light of that quiet September morning ! 
 On returning to the hall I found Bircham at the 
 door, and my belongings already bestowed in his 
 one-horse lumber wagon. Tom and I shook hands, 
 and the wagon drove off. I looked back when we 
 were nearly at the plank-road. Tom stood at the 
 horse-block. He waved his hand and turned into 
 the hall. In a few minutes the oak woods shut the 
 college from sight. This was years ago, and I have 
 not seen it since. Year by year I hear of its growth 
 
10 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 and prosperity, and am glad. It was a happy home 
 to me for almost two years. 
 
 Bircham was not a talkative companion, and left 
 me to myself. The station was reached in time, 
 soon the train came up from Jackson, and I was on 
 my homeward way. Once seated and going on as 
 fast as steam would carry me, I had time to think. 
 It seemed certain that my father was in serious 
 danger. Two days before, my mother had written 
 that he was ill of typhoid fever, but had bidden me 
 stay quietly at my studies, for she would send if 
 there was any danger. She had sent. There was 
 danger, danger that in the prime of life my father 
 should go away to return to us no more. The tie 
 by which each member of his family was bound to 
 him was very strong. His clear sense, his sympa- 
 thetic nature, his love of home, had made him a 
 friend and companion to us all. He was sick unto 
 death and I was seventy miles away. It seemed as 
 if no train ever went so slow, that no hours ever 
 were so interminably long. When the brakeman 
 shouted “ Portland/’ it seemed as if we had been all 
 day on the route, but it was only a distance of 
 twenty-six miles from Lansing. I settled down 
 into the corner of the seat, pulled my cap over my 
 eyes, and resolutely tried not to think. To this 
 end I began to repeat in order all the propositions 
 in my text-book in Geometry. But the effort not 
 
CLOUD. 
 
 II 
 
 to think of home, and what at that very moment 
 might be taking place there, was vain. The famil- 
 iar words of the geometrical propositions were 
 mechanically repeated, but my mind was elsewhere. 
 I remember now that it was a sunny day, and that 
 often hundreds of acres, covered with brilliant 
 golden-rod and coreopsis, offered a gorgeous ex- 
 panse of richest gold. But for me the skies and 
 fields were leaden. 
 
 The weary day wore on, and just after noon the 
 train reached Howard. As I stepped upon the 
 platform my brother Will met me. He said only, 
 “ Father is very sick. I came over early this morn- 
 ing, and brought Jack for you to ride home. Leave 
 your trunk with the stage-driver, to come on in the 
 morning. ,, In five minutes we were on the way. 
 The horses had been fed at Howard, and had rested 
 since eight o’clock that morning. The roads were 
 good. It was only ten miles home. Without un- 
 duly urging our horses, which were daily used on 
 the farm, we could make the distance in an hour 
 and a half. I learned as we went on that father 
 had been somewhat ill for a week. Three days be- 
 fore, he became worse, when the first letter had 
 been sent to me. The morning before, the doctor 
 had expressed doubts of his recovery, and the tele- 
 gram for my return had been dispatched! He was 
 failing rapidly when Will left for Howard that 
 
12 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 morning. If we would see him alive we must reach 
 home soon. Our good farm-horses seemed to par- 
 take of our eagerness. The day was growing cool, 
 and, for animals not used to the road, they made 
 good time. In an hour and a quarter we reached 
 the home clearing. Our log-house was a quarter of 
 a mile further, at the opposite side of the “ forty.” 
 We could see the doctor’s gig, and the horse of a 
 neighbor, at the gate. In a moment our horses 
 were there also. As we went up the path the door 
 opened, and my mother stood in the door-way. A 
 glance at her face told me all. My father was 
 dead. 
 
 I will not relate the incidents of the next few 
 days. Into every home Death has come. All 
 know the deep experiences of sorrow. All have 
 felt reluctance to speak of those sacred experiences 
 to others. It is enough to say that kind neighbors 
 from all about us gave friendly help. Not a few 
 told of the good words and deeds of him who was 
 gone away. September gave one of its brightest 
 days for the funeral. After the “ earth to earth” 
 had been said, we returned to our home, — a home 
 full of sorrow, indeed, but not desolate, for we had 
 glad memories of his pure life and his loving heart. 
 There were, too, very strong ties of affection be- 
 tween us all, that gave us now strength and cour- 
 age. Each helped the other to bear the burden. 
 
CLOUD . 
 
 13 
 
 The beautiful day was drawing to a close as we 
 reached home. A neighbor woman desired to re- 
 main and help my mother for the night, but mother 
 said no. She preferred that we should be alone. 
 We all avoided mention of our sorrow, and all be- 
 gan the usual evening work of the farm and house. 
 It was better so. When we gathered in mother’s 
 room at last, for the evening hour before our early 
 bed-time, she read to us the fourteenth chapter of 
 St. John, and as she read the humble room seemed 
 pervaded by a strengthening spirit. Surely it was 
 the presence of the promised Comforter. 
 
II. 
 
 GLEAM. 
 
 On going up with Will to our attic-room it was 
 impossible for me to go at once to sleep. My fath- 
 er's sudden death brought a great change to us all, 
 a change about which I could not help thinking. 
 He had been fairly successful, as success is counted 
 among pioneer farmers. He had begun to care for 
 himself when a boy of thirteen, and from that time 
 had been dependent entirely upon his own labor. 
 He had given himself a good education, married at 
 twenty-six, moved from the East upon our present 
 farm six years later, had put up good log buildings, 
 cleared sixty acres and subdued it thoroughly, put 
 out, ten years before his death, fifteen acres in 
 apple trees, kept his farm well stocked with such 
 animals as were needed, and, at his death, left every- 
 thing free from debt. As such things are calculated 
 in the backwoods of Michigan our prospects were by 
 no means desperate. Will and I were accustomed 
 to hard work. We could easily take care of the 
 
 farm, and do it well. And the farm would take care 
 14 
 
GLEAM. 
 
 15 
 
 of us ; that is, we should have enough to eat and 
 wear, and could live as did our neighbors. But 
 father had often talked over with us his plans for 
 the future, — plans, as to his children, far different 
 from merely living on the farm from year to year, 
 with scarcely more culture than the oxen that 
 pulled our plow. For farming he had a strong lik- 
 ing. For the intelligent farmer he had a high 
 respect. But farmers who submitted to be tyran- 
 nized over by their acres, their crops, and their 
 stock ; farmers who cared little for the best education 
 for themselves and their children, roused in him a 
 manly indignation. He had sent me to Lansing to 
 attend the Agricultural College, expecting that I 
 would graduate there, then spend two years at 
 Harvard. Will was to have a similar course. He 
 hoped that we would, after our school education was 
 finished, choose farming for a profession. But in 
 this we were to be free to follow our own bent. 
 My sister Lucy was to go to Cornell when prepared 
 for college, and bring to his country home, when she 
 graduated, all the womanly grace and culture that 
 the schools can give. 
 
 As I thought over, in the stillness of that lonesome 
 night, these plans and hopes which had been so 
 dear to my father, there seemed no chance of their 
 accomplishment in the case of Will and myself. 
 We must look after the farm, keep up the home for 
 
i6 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 us all. Probably we should be able to give my 
 sister the culture which had been planned, but our 
 own education must be given up, so far as college 
 and association with other students, were concerned. 
 The thought was very bitter. More bitter than this, 
 however, was the thought that mother must continue 
 her severe toil. We had hoped that in another 
 year she might have rest from the self-sacrificing 
 care she had for many years given her family, go for 
 a long visit among early friends in Massachusetts, 
 and take up many of the threads of life that had 
 been dropped since she had been a pioneer in the 
 backwoods. This hope, also, must, for the present, 
 be given up. She could not leave her family. If 
 she could have done this, there was no way to get 
 the money for her expenses. She must go on for 
 years in the old way. Nay, perhaps her labors and 
 self-denials would be increased. 
 
 The prospect, certainly, was not bright. I shrunk 
 from no hard work. I was willing to struggle 
 against difficulties and endure poverty. But for 
 mother, rest and change were necessary. Will and 
 Lucy were worthy of the best culture the schools 
 could give. My own hopes seemed to me honorable 
 and worthy of accomplishment. To give all these 
 up was a grievous disappointment. It was far into 
 the night before I could quiet myself for sleep. 
 
 In the morning I began with Will the farm-work. 
 
GLEAM . 
 
 17 
 
 The wheat was already sown, twenty acres of it. 
 But potatoes were not dug, nor corn husked, nor 
 buckwheat threshed. The orchard was now yielding 
 well, and the apples were to be gathered and 
 marketed. As we worked we discussed the future. 
 Will agreed that for him and me our fathers plans 
 must be given up. He assented more easily than I 
 had expected, but I think he did not fully realize 
 what the giving up those plans meant for our whole 
 lives. He was a year younger than I, and he had 
 not been waked up by two years at college. Our 
 farm was well located on a gentle rise sloping to the 
 east and south. Through its southern and western 
 parts ran a good-sized creek, one of the feeders of 
 the Muskegon river. Twenty acres of the land 
 along the creek had never been cleared, and both up 
 and down the creek this forest extended far beyond 
 the limits of our farm. Our fields and fences, 
 orchard and buildings were all in good condition, 
 and it was a real delight to push forward our work 
 during the fine days of the last of September and 
 the first of October. The potatoes were not an 
 average yield, the season in July had been a little 
 too dry and hot for them. But the corn yielded 
 largely, and the buckwheat gave an excellent crop. 
 But our principal labor and pleasure were in the 
 orchard. This had been father’s special pride. He 
 had procured the best varieties of apples adapted to 
 
i8 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 our climate, and had cared for them in the best 
 manner. All the approved works on fruit-culture 
 had, from year to year, found their way to his shelves. 
 He had been an authority on apples through all the 
 country. The orchard had never given so large a 
 crop as that fall. There were seven hundred trees, 
 and nearly all were well laden. There were scarcely 
 any orchards in the vicinity in bearing condition. 
 When ours was first put out father had been looked 
 on, by many of the surrounding farmers, as a foolish 
 visionary. But he had looked ahead. He foresaw 
 that the country would rapidly develop ; that the 
 great lumber regions near us would give a large 
 market for apples ; that railroads would be built and 
 thus an outlet secured to the markets south and 
 west. So he had contented himself with log build- 
 ings, and had planted the orchard. Now his wise 
 forethought came to our help when he had forever 
 gone from us. 
 
 To gather the apples and take them to market 
 was by no means a small work. But experience in 
 former years with smaller crops had taught us how 
 to manage. A portion of the crop was to be 
 marketed at once, a portion was to be stored for 
 marketing in the spring. Our apples were well 
 known as of the best quality. The buyers in 
 Howard were competing somewhat for superior 
 fruit, some desiring to send it to the lumber camps, 
 
GLEAM . 
 
 19 
 
 others to ship it south. We determined, therefore, 
 to market our crop there. In marketing the pre- 
 vious smaller crops we had used four large wagon 
 boxes, made long and high, in which to haul the 
 fruit to Howard. After wheat sowing with us, 
 there is a lull in work, so we easily procured pickers 
 to gather the fruit, and three teams, in addition to 
 our own, for hauling it. The light ladders, the bas- 
 kets, all the appurtenances for picking were in good 
 order. It was on a most beautiful day that the four 
 wagons, each with one of the large boxes on it, were 
 driven to the orchard, and the pickers began their 
 merry work. We began picking just after dinner, 
 so that the fruit might be perfectly dry. Before 
 night the boxes were filled, and covered with blan- 
 kets to protect them from the damp night air. 
 Early in the morning we went to Howard, sold the 
 four loads, deposited the money in the bank, and 
 were home again at noon. In the afternoon the 
 pickers were again at work, and the wagons were 
 filled in readiness for the next morning. So the 
 work went on until we had drawn to market, and 
 sold for cash, 3,169 bushels — all of our crop which 
 was to be sold that fall. We received 73 cents per 
 bushel. After paying all expenses of picking and 
 hauling, our crop of apples, for fall market, netted us 
 the comfortable sum of $1,196.47. The average yield 
 per tree had been more than seven and a half bushels. 
 
20 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 The Roxbury Russets were to be kept until the 
 spring. They were put in large piles on sandy 
 knolls in the orchard, covered with straw and then 
 with sand until safe against the severest frosts. We 
 knew by experience that they would keep in this 
 way perfectly. The yield was about the same per 
 tree as the other part of the orchard. We buried 
 2,080 bushels. The profitable yield from the orchard 
 gave me much encouragement. It promised rest 
 and change for my mother, and education for my 
 sister. It would increase in productiveness for sev- 
 eral years to come. Should the yield average as 
 large as it had been this year I was now quite cer- 
 tain of our ability to do many things which had been 
 talked over in my fathers plans. 
 
 Under two or three of the apple trees nearest the 
 house were ranged some hives of bees. They had 
 been special pets of my father’s. He enjoyed seeing 
 them, and hearing their industrious hum. He had 
 been taught in his youth to keep bees in the old 
 way, and as he had never expected any profit from 
 them he had kept them as he was taught. They 
 were in box hives, with a place for putting small 
 honey-boxes on top. We had usually obtained 
 enough honey for family use ; sometimes there had 
 been a few score pounds to sell. Now that the pres- 
 sure of fall work was over I went one day to 
 examine these bees. I found seventeen swarms in 
 
GLEAM. 
 
 21 
 
 good, common, box-hives. There had been ten the 
 previous spring. The increase for the year had been 
 but seven. The boxes had been put on the last of 
 August, and were nearly all full, so that now I took 
 from each hive an average of twenty-four pounds of 
 good box-honey. I learned that father had taken 
 from the ten old hives thirty pounds each just after 
 white-clover, in July. Thus the result of the ten 
 hives for the year had been over seventy pounds of 
 good comb honey per hive, and an increase of seven 
 swarms. A very good result, indeed, as it then 
 seemed to me, for I knew scarcely anything about 
 bees or their management. While at the college I 
 had seen bees in movable-comb hives, and had two 
 or three times heard Prof. Cook speak in most en- 
 thusiastic terms of the pleasures and profits of bee- 
 keeping. With the superior wisdom common to 
 boys of sixteen, I had regarded his enthusiasm as an 
 amiable weakness, and had smiled at the idea of 
 making much money from so small a business as 
 keeping bees. I had, however, procured a copy of 
 his little Manual of the Apiary, intending to give it 
 to father that he might get some hints to increase 
 his enjoyment with his pets. Now I went to my 
 trunk and looked out the book, to see if it had any- 
 thing to say about wintering bees, for I remembered 
 hearing father say that this was the great stumbling- 
 block in the way of successful bee-keeping. Often 
 
22 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 a large portion of the swarms would perish in the 
 winter ; sometimes the sorry bee-keeper would find 
 himself in the spring the owner only of a long array 
 of empty hives. Our bees had done so well for the 
 season it seemed worth while to winter them if pos- 
 sible, so to Prof. Cook I turned for knowledge. 
 
 As I ran down the index page my eye chanced to 
 strike the words Profits of Bee-keeping. I turned to 
 the body of the book to see what the profits were. 
 I was much surprised as I read, and thought at first 
 there must be some mistake. After reading the 
 passage over three or four times it seemed certain 
 that it said what the author had intended to say, 
 but the statement seemed quite incredible. He 
 said : A n experienced apiarist may invest in bees any 
 spring in Michigan, with the absolute certainty of 
 more than doubling his investment the first season, 
 while a net gain of four hundred per cent, causes no 
 surprise to the bee-keepers of our state. During the 
 past season an investment in bees has returned to me 
 five hundred per cent., and though this has been a, 
 good season for honey, yet I have done better than this 
 several times. No less than three farmers of our 
 state who possess good improved farms, and also keep 
 about one hundred colonies of bees each, have told me 
 within a few weeks that their income from their bees 
 far exceeded that from their farms. 
 
 These statements at first seemed so wild as to be 
 
GLEAM . 
 
 23 
 
 simply absurd. But when I came to compare them 
 with the proceeds of our ten swarms in box-hives 
 for that very year the absurdity all vanished. Our 
 account with our ten swarms would have stood as 
 follows : 
 
 Cr. 
 
 By 708 lbs. box honey, at 20 cts. per lb. 
 “ 7 swarms, at $5 00 each, 
 
 Dr. 
 
 To 7 new hives, for increase, at 50 cts. each, 
 “ 162 5-lb. honey-boxes, at 10 cts. each, 
 
 $141 60 
 35 00 
 
 $176 60 
 
 $ 3 50 
 16 20 
 
 19 70 
 
 Net gain in one year on 10 swarms, . $156 90 
 
 Common black bees in box-hives were worth at 
 that time in our neighborhood $5.00 per hive. Our 
 ten swarms in the spring, then, represented an invest- 
 ment of $50. On this investment we had cleared 
 that year $156 90 — or more than 313 per cent. If, 
 with black bees in box-hives, we had been so suc- 
 cessful, might it not be reasonable that with Italian 
 bees in movable-comb hives, and the skillful use of 
 all modern appliances, a gain of 500 per cent . per 
 annum could be made, as Prof. Cook had said ? His 
 statement no longer seemed absurd. His little book 
 on bees had set me thinking — thinking so seriously 
 that I went about in a dreamy state for a week. 
 Was there not in these bees a chance for me to 
 
24 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 achieve the culture, the travel, the good works in 
 many ways for our family, which my father had 
 planned for so many years, but which his untimely 
 death had blighted P 1 
 i The figures refer to the notes in the appendix. 
 
III. 
 
 UTOPIA. 
 
 In the little book on bees there was an advertise- 
 ment of a monthly periodical, devoted to bee cul- 
 ture. I sent for a specimen copy, which came in a few 
 days. It was read with great interest, and corrobor- 
 ated all the statements in Prof. Cook's book as to 
 profits. In this periodical, I found advertisements 
 of two others, devoted to the same subject. I sent 
 also for specimens of these. When they came and 
 were read, I sent subscriptions for a year to each of 
 them, and purchased all the back volumes of one of 
 them. I sent also for Quinby’s Mysteries of Bee- 
 keeping, and for Langstroth on The Hive and Honey 
 Bee . These two books were both most excellent in 
 their time, but the improvements in bee-keeping 
 since they were written, have been so great, that in 
 many things they were not up with the times. Prof. 
 Cook, and the three magazines, and the back vol- 
 umes of the one, became my text-books, and were 
 most diligently studied. 
 
 Meanwhile the season was running on. I learned 
 
 25 
 
26 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 that bees had usually wintered best in good, dry 
 cellars, perfectly dark, kept at a temperature of 40 
 to 45 degrees. I prepared our cellar, and at the 
 proper time put the seventeen swarms into it. Then 
 other preparations were made for winter. Wood 
 vvas to be hauled and cut. Will and I soon hauled 
 from the woods along the creek, an abundant supply. 
 It had been corded there the winter before, and was 
 now in good condition. A man, who ran a horse- 
 power saw, was engaged for a day, and a tremendous 
 pile of wood was sawed. Barns, stables, corn-cribs, 
 cellar, wood-pile were now ready for the severe 
 weather which winter always brings in this latitude. 
 
 I had engaged to teach the school in an adjacent 
 district for four months, at forty-two dollars per 
 month. It was three miles from home, and I should 
 need to remain in my district from Monday morning 
 to Friday night. Lucy, it was determined, should 
 board near the school-house in my district, and at- 
 tend my school. As this would leave the family at 
 home rather small, mother decided to take the 
 teacher in our own district to board for the winter. 
 This teacher was a warm friend of mother’s, and 
 would be good company for her during the winter. 
 She was in everyway a competent teacher, and Will 
 would be one of her pupils. He would look after 
 the stock nights and mornings, and be “ man of the 
 house.” 
 
UTOPIA. 
 
 2 7 
 
 My school began the middle of November. It 
 was not difficult to manage. I enjoyed teaching. 
 For me there was a pleasure in teaching the three or 
 four little children how to read by the word method. 
 And the daily drills in grammar, arithmetic, and 
 geography were so pleasant to me, that the pupils 
 soon caught my spirit and made rapid progress. All 
 external facilities were of the most meagre character, 
 as they must be in a new country. The house was 
 made of logs, the door in one end, two small windows 
 in the other end and in each of the sides. A large 
 box-stove stood in the centre. Around the sides 
 against the walls, were fastened wide boards, slightly 
 inclined, for the pupils* desks. They sat at these 
 desks on benches, with their backs toward the centre 
 of the room. Of maps, charts, globes we had none 
 whatever, but there was a good black-board. Such 
 a building with no apparatus seems very primitive 
 compared with the elegant structures, and abundance 
 of material for illustration now provided for the 
 public schools in many of our cities and villages. 
 But I doubt if any more eager pupils assemble in 
 those costly buildings, than came day after day, often 
 through wind and snow, to that rude house in the 
 back-woods. They came from the newly cleared 
 fields wherein they had wrought all summer, and 
 from whence they had just gathered the abundant 
 harvest. They came from houses small and rude, 
 
28 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 where, since last winter's school closed, they had 
 cooked and scrubbed, made butter and cheese, 
 washed and ironed, and with skillful fingers had cut 
 and made the family garments. To these boys and' 
 girls the four months' school was a boon highly 
 prized. They were zealous and quick-witted pupils. 
 It was a pleasure to see the clearness with which they 
 would analyze a problem in Algebra. Our reading 
 books were of the good old kind, made up of selec- 
 tions from English classics. How often, as we read 
 the stirring passages, did the cheek of boy or girl 
 flush with sympathy, the eye sparkle with pleasure, 
 and the lines around the mouth assume a firmer tense- 
 ness. As the weeks wore on, I was glad to believe that 
 when the school was done, and the boys and girls 
 were again at work on the farms, and in their humble 
 kitchens, something of earnestness, of beauty, and of 
 aspiration, caught from their term of study, would 
 dignify their lives. 
 
 When the school was once in good running order 
 I had plenty of time to devote to my books on bees. 
 They had for me a strong fascination. I read them 
 until late at night, and was busy with them again 
 in the early morning. I began with the first number 
 of the magazine, of which I had the back volumes, 
 and read them every word, advertisements and all. 
 No question as to bee management, sent up by some 
 new beginner, escaped me. No article, by any of 
 
UTOPIA . 
 
 2 9 
 
 the older bee-keepers, but was read and read again. 
 Every report as to success or failures was carefully 
 pondered. Most of the advertisements requested 
 readers to send for circulars, a request which I ac- 
 cepted, and soon had a pile of documents about 
 hives, extractors, smokers, and Italian queens. I read 
 Prof. Cook's “ Manual," turned back and read again, 
 then re-read portions on points about which I was 
 not clear. Then I imagined that I was beginning 
 the season with a hive of bees, and went over every 
 process in bee-keeping time after time, until the 
 whole theory was as familiar to me as the alphabet. 
 I was so entirely absorbed, and went about with such 
 an absent air, that some of the good gossips of the 
 district began to say that the school-master was in 
 love. Often my pencil was in hand, and old envel- 
 opes, the margins of newspapers, and odd scraps 
 were covered with figures. The bee journals said 
 that often, by the system of nucleus swarming, as 
 many as three new, good swarms of bees could be 
 made in one season from one old one, so that begin- 
 ning with one in the spring, you would have four in 
 the fall. They said, too, that in addition to 
 this, honey to the value of ten dollars could be 
 secured from the old hive, helped, perhaps, some- 
 what by a little that the first new ones would give . 3 
 When I put this statement in figures, and carried 
 the calculation out for a few years, it assumed 
 
30 
 
 TILE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 startling proportions. The result was so incredible, 
 that for a long time I refused to believe, and went 
 again to my books and journals to see if there were 
 not some mistake. But I could find no error. The 
 statements as to increase and profits were clear and 
 positive. There seemed no chance for me to have 
 gone wrong. If an increase of three swarms were 
 received from each old one, then the old one and the 
 three new ones would give four swarms in the fall 
 for each one with which I began in the spring. If, 
 now, an average yield of honey be secured from 
 these new swarms, the first season, sufficient to pay 
 for their hives, and a yield from the old hive worth 
 ten dollars, here is the result for five years, assuming 
 that I begun with five hives : 
 
 HIVES. 
 
 5x4 = 20 
 
 20X4 = 80 
 
 80X4 = 320 
 
 220X4 = 1 2 8o 
 1280X4 = 5120 
 
 DOLLARS. 
 
 5X10 = $ 50.00 
 
 20X10 = 200.00 
 
 80X10 = 800.00 
 
 320X10= 3,200.00 
 
 1280X10 = 12,800.00 
 
 At the end of five years, I should have 5120 
 swarms of bees, and an income of $12,800 ; and both 
 bees and income increasing in a quadruple ratio. 
 
 Of course I saw that this calculation did not take 
 into account the poor seasons in which little honey 
 or increase could be made, nor the losses from win- 
 tering, disease, etc. Nor did I neglect the fact that 
 after the third year I should be unable to manage 
 
UTOPIA . 
 
 3 * 
 
 the work alone, but must establish apiaries in different 
 places, and trust the work to competent assistants, 
 being general superintendent myself. Shutting my 
 eyes to the above glittering array of figures, I started 
 out again on a more moderate basis. I had now in 
 the cellar at home, the seventeen strong swarms in 
 box hives. I could easily buy from some keeper of 
 bees, in the southern part of the county, for not 
 more than five dollars each, thirteen swarms more, 
 so as to begin the season with thirty swarms. These 
 I would transfer to movable-frame hives, and run 
 them for extracted honey. Again my facile pencil 
 sought the paper. Taking a most moderate view of 
 the increase, it seemed that I could keep my old 
 hives very strong in bees, and make one and a half 
 new swarms from each old one, so as to have at the 
 close of the season two and one-half good swarms 
 for each old one with which I began. I had always 
 heard father say that ours was a good location for 
 bees, and the result of last year seemed to prove it. 
 From the statements in the journals, and from the 
 experience with our ten swarms of the past year, it 
 did not seem irrational to expect, in a good location 
 and with good management, five dollars worth of 
 honey from each old hive per year ; and from the 
 new swarms enough to pay for hives and frames. 
 Omitting fractions the yearly results for five years 
 would stand thus : 
 
32 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 HIVES. 
 
 DOLLARS. 
 
 30X2! = 75 
 
 75X21= 187 
 187X21= 467 
 467x2^ = 1167 
 
 75x5 — 375 
 
 187x5 = 935 
 
 467x5 *= 2335 
 1167x5= 5835 
 
 30x5 — $ 150 
 
 Il67X2l = 2917 
 
 At the end of five years I should have 2917 
 swarms of bees, all paid for, and should have an in- 
 come of $5,835, with stock and income increasing at 
 the ratio of 2 Again I went over everything to 
 be sure that there were no errors in my data or my 
 calculations. I was so absorbed in my bee-keeping 
 studies, that I fear for some days the school was 
 taught somewhat mechanically. Finally I locked up 
 all my bee-keeping literature for a week, and resorted 
 to the binomial formula and the Pickwick Papers 
 to clear up all mental fogs and hallucinations. At 
 the end of the week my data and calculations seemed 
 all right. There certainly was no mistake in the 
 theory. Was it possible to put the theory into suc- 
 cessful practice ? I decided. to try. 
 
IV. 
 
 BEGINNINGS. 
 
 It was the middle of January when this determin- 
 ation was reached. It was already time to begin. 
 My school would not close for two months, but much 
 could be done in the way of preparation even while 
 I was teaching. My first outlay had been for bee- 
 literature. The books and journals had opened to 
 me the whole science of bee-culture. I looked over 
 again all the advertisements, and made out another 
 list of books, including the recent back volumes 
 of all the journals published in America. This 
 purchase, with what I had bought before, amounted 
 to $34 65. It was a somewhat extravagant ex- 
 penditure, will be the thought of many. But I 
 wanted as full knowledge of the experiences of 
 others as could be obtained. The books and jour- 
 nals gave this experience quite fully, reporting 
 failures as well as successes. There was no way in 
 which I could so easily make the acquaintance of 
 bee-keepers as through their writings. There was 
 no practicable way of learning what had been found 
 
 33 
 
34 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 out about different hives, frames, methods of man- 
 agement, and races of bees, except to read the pub- 
 lished experience of those who had tried them. 
 Laying out a few dollars in books now, might save 
 one from mistakes involving much vexation and 
 many thousands of dollars. I made up my mind 
 that it was economical to be wisely extravagant in 
 buying books. 
 
 My plan was to begin the season with not less 
 than thirty swarms. I must purchase at least thir- 
 teen to add to those at home. The first of Febru- 
 ary I heard of a farmer, ten miles further south, 
 who was going to Grand Traverse to grow fruit. 
 He had some bees he wanted to sell. The next 
 Saturday I drove to his place with a common large 
 sleigh. He had nine swarms in fair condition. He 
 willingly sold them at $4 50 per swarm. I turned 
 the hives top end down, stood them on straw on 
 the bottom of the sleigh, and drove home with no 
 mishap. A few days later I heard of a vendue, at 
 which some bees were to be sold. Here I found 
 ten good box-hives, with the bees apparently in 
 good condition, and plenty of stores. Bees were in 
 no demand, and the ten hives were struck off to me 
 at $4 25 per hive. They were taken home and 
 ranged with my other purchase in the orchard, giv- 
 ing me, with the seventeen in the cellar, thirty-six 
 hives to begin with. 
 
BEGINNINGS. 
 
 35 
 
 Reports from all sides said that bees must be 
 kept in movable-comb hives.* Early in my read- 
 ing I learned that several different frames were 
 in use, for holding the combs, and that each frame 
 had its eager partisans. It was clear from the re- 
 ports that either of the frames could be successfully 
 used by a good manager. It was not easy for me 
 to decide which was best for my purpose. But a 
 decision must be made. After many days spent in 
 considering the matter, weighing testimony from 
 all sides as it came before me in the books and jour- 
 nals, looking as much as possible into the future and 
 its development of my business, I decided upon 
 using the Gallup frame . 5 I cannot now and here 
 give all the reasons that led me to this decision. 
 Perhaps when this record is finished the reasons 
 will be sufficiently manifest. 
 
 As to hives, it appeared that those of plainest 
 and simplest construction were best. On hives and 
 frames there was no patent of any value. The 
 Langstroth patent, which covered the movable- 
 comb principle, had expired some years before. 
 I concluded to use a perfectly plain box, with 
 a lid like a trunk, long enough to hold twelve 
 Gallup frames. These hives were to be so made 
 that one could be set on top of another, making a 
 second story to serve as a surplus receptacle to be 
 worked for either comb or extracted honey. In 
 
36 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 order to have the hives perfectly accurate in all 
 respects it was best to send to an experienced bee- 
 keeper for a pattern hive, by which I could have 
 the material for my hives cut out at a sash and 
 door factory in Howard. It would save expense in 
 transportation to send for all the material I needed 
 for the year at one time, and have it forwarded by 
 freight. I took the circular of one of the dealers in 
 apiarian supplies, and carefully prepared a list. My 
 situation was so remote from all places where bee- 
 keeping material could be obtained, that it seemed 
 wisest to send for an abundance. If not all were 
 needed the first year it would be on hand for an- 
 other season. Beginning with thirty-six swarms of 
 bees there would be needed as many hives for 
 brood chambers, and as many more for second 
 stories for surplus honey. If then the increase in 
 swarms should be one and a half for each old one, 
 there would be needed fifty-four hives for these, 
 making in all one hundred and twenty-six hives. 
 Twelve frames for a hive would make 1512 frames. 
 My list of goods was as follows : 
 
 1600 Frames, at 5c. 
 
 1 Quinby smoker, 
 
 1 Honey extractor, 
 I Uncapping knife, 
 
 I Two-story, pattern Gallup hive, 
 
 $6 00 
 80 00 
 1 50 
 7 50 
 
 JL U llLdppUllj KllUCj • • 
 
 2 Tarletane bee-veils, at 50c. 
 
 1 00 
 1 00 
 
 $97 00 
 
BEGINNINGS. 
 
 37 
 
 It was Saturday the ioth of February that I 
 drove, in company with Will and my mother, to 
 Howard to get a check for this amount, to inclose 
 with my order. While there I made inquiries as to 
 the best sash and door factory. It was necessary 
 that the material for hives should be cut out with 
 great nicety, so that every hive should be the exact 
 counterpart of every other. I was unwilling to 
 trust the work to any but the most skillful work- 
 men. At the same time I wanted the cost to be as 
 small as possible. Having mailed my order, I tried 
 to dismiss be£s from my mind until the articles 
 should arrive. I spent the nights and Saturdays 
 and Sundays among some friends. As a relief from 
 school cares, and from my long absorption in study 
 of bee literature and plans for my first season's cam- 
 paign, I read Romola and Robert Falconer . Both 
 books served as intellectual and moral tonics. As 
 I closed the volume on the last page of Romola I 
 could but feel deeply grateful for the gift to hu- 
 manity of that great genius who had wrought into 
 the book so much of the wealth of her own soul. 
 
 In a little more than two weeks I received notice 
 from Howard that my goods had arrived. The fol- 
 lowing Friday afternoon I went home, and with 
 Will’s assistance, by ten o'clock at night, had put 
 the work-shop which stood near the barn, in a cor- 
 ner of the orchard near where the bees were to be 
 
33 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 placed, into good order for receiving material, and 
 making hives. Saturday morning we drove to 
 Howard with the sleigh. The articles had come in 
 good condition. The frames had been somewhat 
 bulky to box, yet the freight on the whole was but 
 $4 60. I took my sample hive and drove to one 
 after another of the sash factories and planing mills, 
 explaining to the proprietors just what I wanted, 
 and asking them to give me their lowest terms for 
 furnishing first quality pine lumber for one hundred 
 and fifty hives, and cutting it out after the pattern. 
 The hives were not large, and would take but a 
 small amount of lumber per hive. They were so 
 simple in construction that the labor would not be 
 great, but I made it distinctly understood that 
 every piece must be exactly right. The largest 
 mill, and the one having the best machinery, offered 
 to do the job at 38 cents each, — $57 00 for the 
 hundred and fifty hives. In most places it could 
 not be done for so small a sum, but Howard is in 
 the midst of the great pine regions, hence lumber is 
 low. And the last of February is a season when 
 little work is to be had, and as I offered to pay 
 cash, the job was a good one for the manufacturer. 
 He promised to have them cut out by the follow- 
 ing Friday, when Will would drive over and get 
 them, before the sleighing was gone. 
 
 Having attended to the hives I went to various 
 stores and made the following purchases : 
 
BEGINNINGS, 
 
 39 
 
 2 Hammers, at 75c. 
 
 . . $1 50 
 
 Hand-saw, 
 
 . 1 50 
 
 Back-saw, 
 
 . x 25 
 
 Square, .... 
 
 75 
 
 40 lbs. nails, 
 
 . . 2 00 
 
 200 tin rabbets, 
 
 3 o° 
 
 40 yds. good duck, at 20c. 
 
 . . 8 00 
 
 10 gals, paint, at $2 00. 
 
 . . 20 00 
 
 2 gals, boiled oil, at 65c. 
 
 1 30 
 
 2 gals, turpentine, at 55c. 
 
 1 10 
 
 Putty, .... 
 
 25 
 
 15 good oak barrels, at $1 25. 
 
 . 18 75 
 
 $59 40 
 
 These barrels were for extracted honejr. If my 
 bees should do as well as was often reported, these 
 barrels would not be sufficient to contain the honey. 
 It will be seen before this record is finished, that I 
 obtained much more than honey enough to fill the 
 barrels, and was compelled to order more in July. 
 The barrels were to be made at the end of two 
 weeks, the cooper being quite busy just then on a 
 lot of flour-barrels for a neighboring mill. I con- 
 sulted my memoranda, and could see no other 
 article needed, except some scantling and boards 
 from which to make bottom boards for the hives to 
 stand on, and alighting boards on which the incom- 
 ing bees could alight and crawl to the entrances 
 to the hives. This lumber I could get at a mill 
 near home. With my various purchases in the 
 sleigh, with the promise of the material for hives 
 by the next Friday, and the barrels in two weeks, I 
 felt well content with my day’s work. It was five 
 
40 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 o’clock before we were ready to start for home. 
 Then Will drove at a good pace over the smooth 
 roads. The horses’ well-corked shoes struck the 
 hard beaten snow with a clear triumphant crack , 
 most exhilarating to hear. A full moon lent its 
 bright light, sparkling on the snowy fields with rich 
 suggestions of oriental gems, and throwing ghostly 
 shadows across the road as we now and then went 
 through a stretch of pine or oak or maple forest. 
 We made the ten miles with our farm horses in less 
 than an hour and a half. 
 
 It was agreed that Will would go to the saw mill 
 near us on the next Tuesday after school and get 
 the scantling and boards for bottom boards, then 
 take a half-holiday on Friday afternoon and get the 
 hive material from Howard. We should then be 
 ready for work in making and painting hives, and 
 could employ our Saturdays in so doing. 
 
 But one thing further remained for me to do. 
 My bees were all black ones, the common bee of 
 the country. My study of bee literature had con- 
 vinced me that the Italian bee was much to be pre- 
 ferred because more industrious, and more easily 
 managed in consequence of its greater docility . 6 
 I had carefully studied the whole subject of Italian- 
 izing bees, and felt confident of my ability to do it. 
 The sooner my common stock was changed for 
 Italians, the larger would the honey harvest be, 
 
BEGINNINGS. 
 
 41 
 
 and the greater would be my pleasure among the 
 hives. I thereupon decided to Italianize at the 
 earliest practicable time. To this end I at once 
 sent out several letters to different importers of 
 Italian bees, inquiring for what sum they could 
 send me one strong swarm of Italians with a 
 selected queen, purity and safe arrival guaranteed. 
 To get a selected queen in the early spring would 
 cost more than to wait and get one later. But I 
 could not afford to wait. The improvement in my 
 stock would more than make up for the extra ex- 
 pense. In a few days answers began to arrive. 
 The dealers were not eager to sell selected queens 
 in the spring ; they could make more by breeding 
 from them to supply the growing demand for Ital- 
 ians. But one of the most reliable importers had 
 received an invoice of queens late the previous au- 
 tumn, which he was wintering. He would give me 
 a warranted swarm of pure Italians, with a selected 
 queen, for $20 00. It was a large sum to pay for a 
 single swarm of bees. It is to be remembered that 
 this was several years ago. They are cheaper now. 
 I could get the selected queen alone for $10 00. 
 The queen was all I really needed, and if I had 
 been an expert in handling bees, I should have sent 
 only for the queen. But being a beginner, I felt 
 there was some risk in my introducing a valuable 
 queen to one of my black stocks. It was best and 
 
4 2 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 most economical to be on the safe side. The full 
 swarm was ordered to be sent at the earliest prac- 
 ticable moment. I then felt that my arrangements 
 for beginning were completed. 
 
 The whole field had been carefully gone over time 
 after time, and calculations made as to what was es- 
 sential. The subject had so possessed me that for 
 months I had lived in a land of bees. The expense 
 of beginning may look somewhat large, to those not 
 familiar with the subject, but as bee-culture was to 
 be my profession it would be most satisfactory and 
 economical to begin right, and to have everything 
 of the best kind. I had now expended : 
 
 Bee literature, . 
 
 $34 
 
 65 
 
 iq swarms black bees, 
 
 83 
 
 00 
 
 i swarm Italians, . 
 
 20 
 
 00 
 
 Pattern hive, frames, extractor, etc. 
 
 97 
 
 00 
 
 Freight on same, . 
 
 4 
 
 60 
 
 Material for 1 50 hives, 
 
 57 
 
 00 
 
 Tools, paint, duck, barrels, etc., 
 
 59 
 
 40 
 
 Lumber for bottom boards, etc., 
 
 3 
 
 24 
 
 
 $358 
 
 89 
 
 Before any practical experience in bee-keeping, 
 before ever having opened a movable-comb hive, I 
 had incurred this large expense. Many will call it 
 rash. I shall prove that in my case it was wise. 
 Still I should not advise this course generally, for 
 in most cases it will lead to failure and disappoint- 
 ment . 7 It can only succeed where there has 
 been a most careful study of the whole subject, 
 
AT WORK. 
 
 43 
 
 where one has in imagination performed every 
 operation in the art of modern bee-keeping until 
 thoroughly familiar with it, and where there is a 
 strong determination to succeed as will lead to 
 daily attention to the most minute details. Even 
 if one has all these qualifications he cannot succeed 
 as well as I did unless he has a location equally 
 good. Bees collect honey from flowers. If there 
 are but few honey-producing flowers they can get 
 but little honey. If there is an abundance of 
 honey-producing bloom they will, if wisely man- 
 aged, gather very large quantities indeed. 
 
 The next Saturday morning Will and I began 
 nailing hives. Thanks to our father's ideas of a 
 practical education, we both knew how to use a 
 hammer, still the work of putting hives together 
 was new, and our progress was slow at first. There 
 were four pieces for the body of each hive, and five 
 for the lid. These were to be most accurately 
 fitted together, and thoroughly nailed, for hives, 
 exposed constantly to storms and changes of tem- 
 perature, are liable to warp and split. We found 
 that the cutting out had been done in a workman- 
 like manner. The measurements of the pieces were 
 exact, and all fitted together perfectly. It was best 
 to make haste slowly. Speed would come with 
 practise. So we did not hurry, but fitted every 
 piece carefully to its place, and put every nail in 
 
44 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 well. After dinner, mother and Lucy came to the 
 shop to look on for an hour, for the whole family 
 partook of my enthusiasm, and all gave cordial 
 sympathy. It was one of those charming days that 
 sometimes come as harbingers of spring. The door 
 of the shop was open and the bright sunshine 
 streamed across the floor. The pungent fragrance 
 of the pine lumber filled the air with a stimulating 
 odor. Our hammers kept up an industrious clatter. 
 Mother sat upon a finished hive, her busy fingers 
 engaged in knitting. Lucy played among the hives 
 and materials in happy, girlish ways. It was a glad 
 hour, only saddened by memories of him who 
 would have been our leader and inspirer, now, 
 alas, in bodily presence, to give us help no more. 
 
 When night came Will had nailed thirteen hives 
 and I fifteen. Having acquired some deftness in 
 handling the pieces we thought we could do better 
 in future, and probably finish the lot in about four 
 days. My school closed the next Friday, March 
 16th, then my whole time was given to the hives, 
 and the work went on rapidly. When they were 
 all nailed, painting was begun. The paint which 
 had been procured was of three colors, pure white, a 
 dark blue, and a brilliant red. The different colors 
 would aid the bees in marking their hives, and 
 would have a more picturesque effect when grouped 
 in the orchard than if all were one color. Besides 
 
AT WORK. 
 
 45 
 
 red, white, and blue had pleasant patriotic sugges- 
 tions, and it is well to be patriotic even in bee 
 hives ! Each hive received two good coats. On 
 April 5th, the last one was painted, and the next 
 day they were carefully stored, ready for use when- 
 ever wanted. 
 
 The bees in the cellar had kept well. The tem- 
 perature had been steadily cold, and the cellar had 
 been kept generally at about 40 degrees. The time 
 was now approaching when they must be taken out 
 and put on their summer stands, for on some days 
 it was impossible to keep the cellar at a lower tem- 
 perature than 50 degrees. The hives purchased 
 had been grouped in the orchard in the places 
 where they were to remain. The others when 
 taken from the cellar were to be so arranged that 
 the whole would be in the most convenient posi- 
 tion for work. I determined to prepare a place 
 large enough for 200 swarms of bees, should I ever 
 desire to keep so many at home. 
 
 The orchard in this part sloped gently to the south 
 and east. The rising ground at the rear would help 
 to break the force of the winds, but as additional 
 protection I decided to put a tight board fence, 
 seven feet high, on the west, north, and east of the 
 part devoted to bees. A piece one hundred feet 
 square was laid out. For the three sides required 
 300 feet of fence, to make which would require 2100 
 
46 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 feet of board, 30 posts, and 600 feet of two by four 
 scantling. This material was all bought at the 
 nearest mill, at a cost of $33 45 for the whole. 
 
 A laborer was secured at a dollar and a quarter a 
 day to dig the holes and set the posts. This he 
 did in two days and a half. The rest of the work I 
 did myself, and soon had the pleasure of seeing the 
 bee-yard nicely inclosed. Then the fence was 
 thoroughly whitewashed, both for looks and econ- 
 omy. When this was done the whole cost of the 
 fence for material, labor, and white-wash amounted 
 to $39 98. The fence was finished April 12th. The 
 next day was warm and bright. About ten o’clock 
 with Will’s help, the bees were taken from the cel- 
 lar and set on their summer stands. The little fel- 
 lows, after their long winter in darkness, had a gala 
 day indeed. They played in the warm sun for 
 hours with all the abandon of happy children. 
 
 They seemed in perfect condition. At evening as 
 I went from hive to hive, I found that but few dead 
 bees had been brought out, as the bees had done 
 their spring cleaning and tidied up their houses on 
 this, their first day of sunlight. My first experience 
 in wintering in the cellar had been a success. I found 
 on a subsequent examination that those which had 
 been kept in the cellar were much stronger in bees 
 than those I had purchased, which had been win- 
 tered in the open air. 
 
AT WORK. 
 
 47 
 
 It was not best to begin transferring to my new 
 hives until there was sufficient bloom for the bees 
 to be busily at work. The alders and willows had 
 been giving a little pollen, to the bees which were 
 in the open air, by the last of March. Soft maple 
 and silver maple, were very abundant. They 
 began to open in profusion two days after the 
 hives were taken from the cellar. 
 
 Everything was now prepared, and I had time to 
 study again the situation. 
 
 From what my father had said, and from my own 
 observation, I had reason to think the location a 
 good one for bee-keeping. Our farm contained 80 
 acres, somewhat rolling, sloping gradually to the 
 east and south. At the west and north lay an ex- 
 tensive tract of sugar-maple woodland. A few rods 
 south of the house ran the road on the section line. 
 Beyond the road was a small stream, one of the 
 branches of the Muskegon river. The stream was 
 bordered on both sides far away in both directions 
 with woods, in which were numerous linn or bass- 
 wood trees, and not a few willows of different 
 species, and many soft and silver maples. Further 
 east and south were many farms, already pretty well 
 under cultivation. Some of these farms had or- 
 chards just coming into bearing; all of them had 
 young trees set out, which would be fruiting in a 
 few years. Everywhere in meadows and pastures, 
 
43 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 along the fences and the roadsides, and in every 
 neglected corner the white-clover grew in profusion. 
 In its season there was enough of it to afford pas- 
 turage to ten thousand swarms of bees. Nearly 
 every farm had its patch of buckwheat in the fall. 
 In every direction were occasional swamps where 
 boneset, asters, golden-rod, and coreopsis gave a 
 wealth of fall blossoms. And hearts-ease, often 
 called smart-weed which in looks it closely resem- 
 bles, was sure to over-run nearly every cultivated 
 field which was somewhat neglected. I could thus 
 count on good pasturage for bees from willows, 
 maples, apple-blossoms, and raspberries in the early 
 part of the season, from white-clover and linn a few 
 weeks later, from buckwheat, hearts-ease, and the 
 profusion of swamp flowers in the fall. In these 
 respects no location could have been better for my 
 business. Though the location was thus desirable* 
 perhaps as good as any in the northern states, there 
 were, so far as I could learn, three periods of some 
 days, or possibly of two or three weeks each, during 
 which there would be little that the bees could do. 
 After sugar-maple and fruit-blossoms until the be- 
 ginning of white-clover the pasturage would be very 
 meagre. Then from the end of the linn and white- 
 clover bloom until buckwheat and other fall flowers 
 began to open, would come another period of idle- 
 ness. Finally after the first frosts had cut off the 
 
AT WORK . 
 
 49 
 
 bloom, so that scarcely any honey could be gather, 
 ed, would come two or three weeks of beautiful 
 weather, during which the bees would have no 
 work. These times of enforced idleness, coming at 
 ^periods when the weather is usually excellent for 
 the bees to work, seemed to me a serious drawback. 
 If one's bees could work every pleasant day, from 
 early spring until late in the fall, the honey product 
 would be immensly increased. It was a problem 
 upon which I began to think from day to day ; with 
 what success will be seen by and by. 
 
 Satisfied that my location was as good as could 
 be found in the north, and putting aside the subject 
 of periods of enforced idleness as one of the ques- 
 tions that would do to chew upon, I next reviewed 
 my hives, frames, and apparatus. In the light of 
 all that I could learn from books and bee journals, 
 my arrangements were perfect, except that I discov- 
 ered two or three omissions in purchasing. The 
 hives must be set perfectly level, if I would have 
 the combs hang true in the frames. For this pur- 
 pose a spirit-level was needed. While extracting 
 honey the extractor would need to stand in the 
 work-shop at one side of the bee-yard. Hence the 
 frames must be carried from the hives to the 
 shop, and to do this some kind of a comb-carrier 
 was necessary. The Quinby smoker 8 would be 
 , of use only as there was material for it to make 
 
5o 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 smoke from. Old cotton cloth tied into rolls large 
 enough to fit loosely in the barrel of the smoker is 
 often used for this purpose. But rotten wood, es- 
 pecially decayed sugar-maple, is by far the best 
 material. For this I should not have far to seek in 
 the great maple woods near us. I went one day 
 with the wagon, and in two hours came back with 
 fuel enough to supply the smoker for several years, 
 — clean, sweet maple, rotten enough to cut like 
 cheese, but still retaining its shape perfectly. 
 
 There would be needed, also, molasses-gates, or 
 rather honey-gates, for drawing honey from the 
 barrels, and an auger to bore holes in barrel-heads 
 for putting in the gates. I made a drawing of a 
 comb-carrier to be made of tin, large enough to hold 
 six frames, the frames to hang in the carrier just as 
 they hang in the hive, the carrier to have two bails 
 so as to carry easily without tilting, even if it 
 chanced to be loaded more heavily at one side than 
 the other. I went to Howard and instructed a 
 tinner to make two of these carriers; then made the 
 other purchases, including a pair of good scissors ; a 
 small butcher knife for trimming combs when trans- 
 ferring; a kind of chisel-knife, being merely a broad, 
 thin chisel, twenty inches long, having a square end 
 sharpened for cutting combs from the sides of the 
 old hives before taking to pieces ; a ball of strong 
 cotton twine ; and an atomizer, the use of which 
 
AT WORK ; 5 1 
 
 will appear by-and-b y. These purchases made quite 
 an additional bill. 
 
 Level, 
 
 $1 50 
 
 Scissors, 
 
 75 
 
 2 Comb-carriers, 
 
 3 50 
 
 15 Honey-gates, at 50c. 
 
 7 50 
 
 Butcher-knife, 
 
 50 
 
 Auger, 
 
 1 00 
 
 Chisel-knife, 
 
 50 
 
 Atomizer, 
 
 1 50 
 
 Cord, 
 
 20 
 
 $16 95 
 
 The willows had given some pollen since the last 
 of March, and the bees had been carrying it into the 
 hives every warm day. April 15th, the maples 
 began to open, the weather was warm, and the bees 
 were very active. The next day being equally 
 pleasant I determined to begin transferring. About 
 ten o’clock when many of the bees were out in the 
 woods, I turned one of the box hives top end down 
 and set upon it one of my new hives. Then wrap- 
 ping a blanket around the junction of the two, to 
 stop every crevice and exclude the light, I rapped 
 smartly with a stick on the outside of the old hive 
 for about a minute to alarm the bees, and set them 
 to filling themselves with honey. Then keeping up 
 an occasional rap I waited for about ten minutes, 
 by which time I judged that every bee had gorged 
 itself. Then I rapped more loudly and briskly to 
 drive the bees from the lower old hive up into the 
 new one. In ten minutes more I lifted off the new 
 
52 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 hive, and found that nearly all the bees had left 
 their old quarters and were clustered in the new 
 hive. The new hive was now set on the old one’s 
 stand, so that the returning bees would find a home, 
 and the old one carried to the shop. 
 
 Most box-hives are built with two pieces crossing 
 each other at right angles from the centres of oppo- 
 site sides. These cross-pieces I sawed off by thrust- 
 ing the saw down close up to the side. Then with 
 the long chisel-knife the combs were cut free from 
 the sides of the hive all around, so as to leave them 
 attached only to the top of the hive, and as the hive 
 was then standing on its top the combs of course 
 would be left standing on the top, if the sides of the 
 hive were taken away. Then with a mallet and a 
 strong chisel I pried the sides apart, took them off, 
 and, quicker than 1 can write this account, had 
 them removed and the combs standing upright be- 
 fore me. Then I ran the knife along the top 
 board, loosened the first comb, and laid it on a table 
 which had been covered with a woolen blanket so 
 as not to bruise the young brood. Then an empty 
 frame was laid on the comb and with a very thin, 
 keen knife the comb was cut the size of the frame. 
 This comb was then fastened into the frame by 
 simply tying two cotton cords from top to bottom 
 around the frame at about three inches from each 
 end. In a moment this frame was ready and hung 
 
AT WORK ; 
 
 S3 
 
 in a comb-carrier placed handy to receive it. Then 
 another comb was taken, and so on until all had 
 been fitted into frames. The old hives were about 
 twenty inches high, and were filled with comb to the 
 bottom. My frames were about io ^ inches square 
 inside measure, hence after filling a frame with the 
 top part of one of the old combs there was a piece 
 left nearly large enough to fill another frame. At 
 this early period of the year these lower ends of the 
 old combs have neither brood nor honey. I care- 
 fully put them into frames and stored them away 
 for future use. Thus I had a full frame and a 
 frame nearly full from each of the old combs. 
 There was plenty of honey in the hive for all possi- 
 ble needs of the bees, and towards the tops of the cen- 
 tral combs there was a fine patch of brood, some of 
 it already sealed and hatching, so that from this 
 first old hive I got five frames of brood. In taking 
 the hive to pieces one comb had become badly 
 broken, this with all the trimmings and crooked 
 pieces of comb were carefully put aside. I took 
 pains to sort the comb as much as possible, putting 
 the worker comb in frames separate from the drone 
 comb. Of course it was not always possible to 
 avoid having the two kinds of comb in the same 
 frame, but I made as many frames of almost pure 
 worker comb as somewhat rapid working on my 
 part would allow. From this hive I filled ten frames 
 full, and had six frames nearly full. 
 
54 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 When my ten frames, including the five contain- 
 ing brood, were ready they were carried out to the 
 bees in their new hive. When I opened this hive, 
 and began to hang in the frames of comb and brood 
 the bees eagerly clustered upon them. I found 
 that in an hour and twenty minutes from the time 
 of beginning the first hive the transfer was nicely 
 finished up. Another hive was finished before 
 dinner. As my new hives had lids and were not 
 the same shape as the old ones, it was not conven- 
 ient to place them on the old ones to drum the 
 bees into them. So I took the old hive from which 
 I had first transferred, cut it down to ten inches 
 high, nailed the pieces again, and used this for a 
 drumming-box. It was set on the old hive, the bees 
 drummed into it, then it was set on the stand while 
 I was transferring the combs. The combs were 
 then properly arranged in a new hive, a piece of 
 duck just the size of the hive nicely spread over 
 the frames, the new hive was taken out, the drum- 
 ming-box removed from the stand and the hive set 
 on. A sheet was then spread in front of the hive 
 and the bees shaken from the drumming-box upon 
 the sheet. The scent of the comb at once attracted 
 them to the hive, aud they crawled rapidly in. 
 
 By four o’clock that day I had transferred five 
 swarms. It was a very good day’s work for a begin- 
 ner. Hard work it was, too, and night found me very 
 
AT WORK. 
 
 55 
 
 tired. I had never seen a swarm of bees transferred. 
 I knew nothing about it except what the books and 
 journals told me. But in mind I had many times 
 carefully gone over the whole process, so that when 
 the time came for real work I had a theoretical 
 familiarity with it. I knew exactly how I wanted 
 to do it. I had prepared every cord ; every tool 
 was in perfect order, and in its place ; the hives and 
 frames were exactly right. But it is practise only 
 that can make perfect. In spite of all my care some 
 confusion would creep in. Tools and material 
 would get out of place. My movements were slow 
 and awkward. So I was very weary with my first 
 day of actual work among the bees. All before this 
 had been preparation. Now had come the real 
 work, and it was not all poetry by any means. To 
 lift and carry hives required muscle. To handle the 
 combs with hands sticky with honey was not pleas- 
 ant. To work quietly and rapidly with innumerable 
 bees flying around, and not a few creeping over 
 one’s clothing, required a certain nerve. Prof. Cook 
 had said in his book that nobody need be stung. 
 Some of the writers in the journals had made light 
 of stings. Perhaps if one could begin bee-keeping 
 already possessed of the experience of a veteran, he 
 need not get stung. But experience can come only 
 with actual work among bees. A beginner is almost 
 sure to get stung somewhat. If he is intelligent, 
 
THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 56 
 
 cautious, and self-possessed he need get stung but 
 little. A few stings, however, have a way of so 
 making themselves felt that the person stung is 
 willing to affirm that their name is legion. My 
 swollen hands this first night testified that I had 
 received a portion of the discipline a beginner must 
 expect. I applied hartshorn liniment, wrapped my 
 hands in cloths wet in cold water, went to bed, and 
 forgot stings in sound sleep. 
 
 The next day I transferred six, and after that 
 seven a day until all were in their new hives. The 
 whole job was finished before noon on the sixth day. 
 
 When all was done I had the thirty-six swarms of 
 bees with an average of ten frames of good comb to 
 each swarm, and one hundred and eighty-seven 
 frames more, nearly or quite full of comb. Some of 
 these frames were filled with pieces of comb which 
 had been carefully fitted together, and I found after- 
 wards that such frames were nearly as good as those 
 filled with a single perfect comb. The bees fastened 
 the pieces together, and used them readily for both 
 honey and brood. 
 
 It was Saturday night, April 22d, that I found my 
 preliminary work was done. The bees were in their 
 new homes and working merrily. The frames of 
 comb not then needed by the bees were neatly stored 
 in empty hives. The lot of broken combs, nearly 
 filling a barrel, were ready for melting into wax. I 
 
AT WORK . 
 
 57 
 
 felt now that I was fairly launched in my Kfe-work. 
 
 I sat in the orchard in the genial April twilight, 
 looked over my hives, planned for the work that 
 was to come, and heartly enjoyed the peaceful still- 
 ness. In that evening hour the hives were all silent, 
 but I knew that on the morrow the tens of thou- 
 ands of workers would be foraging with busy hum 
 in the maple forest to gather honey for themselves 
 and me. 
 
 Just then Will came from the post-office with a 
 letter. It was a notice from the express agent 
 at Howard that a hive of bees addressed to me was 
 in his hands. The Italians had arrived ; my transfer- 
 ring was done none too soon. Attention must now 
 be given to the important work of raising Italian 
 queens, and introducing them to my black stocks. 
 
V. 
 
 ITALIANIZING. 
 
 On Monday morning at four o’clock I was off 
 for Howard with the light spring wagon. At seven 
 o’clock the express office was reached, and the hive 
 was received, apparently in good condition. The day 
 was warm and the bees naturally seemed anxious to 
 get out, many of them crowding to the ventilating 
 holes, which had been covered with wire-cloth. The 
 expressage was three dollars, making the hive of 
 Italians cost me twenty-three dollars. But they had 
 a selected queen, imported from Italy the previous 
 fall, and if I was at all successful in rearing queens 
 from her she would be worth to me at least a hun- 
 dred dollars the first season, and indefinite hundreds 
 in seasons following. 
 
 Soon after seven o’clock my good horses were on 
 the track toward home, which was reached before 
 eleven. The bees were at once taken to a stand 
 which had been prepared for them, and the entrance 
 to the hive opened. They crowded out with eager- 
 ness, and played in the sunny air with much joy. 
 The hive had come from several degrees further 
 58 
 
ITALIANIZING . 
 
 59 
 
 south than my place, where the season was somewhat 
 earlier, and I was delighted with seeing a few drones 
 among the first to fly out. My first work with the 
 Italians must be to secure a good supply of pure 
 drones. 
 
 The Italians had come in a hive of different pat- 
 tern from mine, having a frame longer and shallower. 
 Against this frame I have not a word to say, for in 
 the hands of many intelligent bee-keepers it has 
 given excellent results ; but in order to work with 
 ease and profit it was essential to have all my bees 
 in hives of the same kind. I therefore went at once 
 to work to transfer them to one of my hives. When 
 the hive was opened the frames were found all 
 right. They had been securely fastened at both top 
 and bottom so that there could be no shaking about 
 while on the journey. After removing the fasten- 
 ings the frames were lifted from the hive, and the 
 bees shaken back into the hive. Then the frames 
 were carried to the shop to transfer the combs. 
 There were ten frames of good comb. Six of the 
 frames had each a nice patch of brood, which did 
 not seem to have been injured by the journey. A 
 part of this was drone brood, some of which was 
 hatching. It took but a few minutes to transfer the 
 combs to my frames. In doing this I noticed in 
 one of the combs a number of fresh-laid eggs, assur- 
 ing me that the queen was all right. In transferring 
 
6o 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 I had put the drone brood in two frames, which I 
 took to one of my strongest black stocks, and in- 
 serted them in the centre, in place of two frames of 
 brood which were taken out and given to one of the 
 weak stocks. The remaining combs from the Italian 
 hive I put in one of my hives, carried it out and set 
 it where the old hive was, spread a sheet in front 
 and shook the bees from the old hive upon it. 
 They at once began to crawl to the hive, and I sat 
 down and watched carefully, hoping to get a sight 
 of my new and precious queen. She was easily 
 found, and gave me much satisfaction, being large, 
 healthy-looking, and light-colored. All the bees in 
 the hive seemed to be pure Italians, being distinctly 
 marked with the three brilliant orange bands on the 
 abdomen. 
 
 Having now the pure imported Italian queen my 
 object was to rear young queens from her eggs, and 
 to insure their fertilization by drones raised from 
 her eggs, then my queens being pure, and fertilised 
 by pure drones, all their progeny would be pure 
 Italians, and so in a few weeks after introducing 
 these young queens to my black-stocks all my bees 
 would be pure Italians, for in the working season 
 the worker-bee lives only about six weeks. 9 The old 
 ones die off, and their places are taken by the young 
 bees raised in the hive. If, then, in every hive 
 there was a pure Italian queen, depositing eggs, the 
 
ITALIANIZING. 
 
 6l 
 
 pure bees grown from these eggs would supply the 
 places of the black-bees as they gradually died off. 
 Where one has black bees, or where there are black 
 bees kept in the near vicinity, there is no certainty 
 that the queens will mate with Italian drones. 
 On about the fifth day after hatching, the young 
 queens leave the hive for their wedding journey. 
 They simply take a flight in the air for the purpose 
 of meeting the drone. Having met him, they return 
 to the hive, never to leave it again, except they 
 should lead out a swarm. Now if black drones are 
 numerous, it is quite probable the queens will mate 
 with them, then, however pure-blooded the queens 
 may be, their progeny will be hybrids. Upon the 
 problem of securing pure fertilization for the young 
 queens I intended to rear from the imported Italian 
 mother, I had studied a good deal for the past three 
 months. 
 
 To grow the young queens from the eggs of 
 the pure mother was easy. But if I had the 
 numerous black drones which my thirty-six hives 
 of black bees would soon produce, flying in pursuit 
 of my beautiful young Italian virgins, when they 
 went out for their marriage flight, it would not be 
 easy to secure their pure fertilization ; indeed it 
 would be impossible. About the time I sent for the 
 swarm of Italians I had hit upon a plan which 
 seemed possible. I determined to make it succeed 
 
62 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 so far as my work and care could control success. 
 These are the data of my plan : 
 
 1. No bees of any kind were kept by any person 
 nearer to me than four miles. One farmer four 
 miles away had a few swarms of black bees, but 
 there seemed little probability that my young 
 queens would meet drones from his hives. 
 
 2. So far as I could learn there were no wild bees 
 in the woods in that neighborhood. No bee-trees 
 had ever been found. Still the fear of wild bees 
 gave me some uneasiness, for should there chance to 
 be a few swarms of wild bees in hollow trees along 
 the stream, within a mile or two, they might se- 
 riously interfere with my plans. My only course 
 was to assume that there were none, and go on. 
 
 3. The only black drones, then, against which I 
 must guard were those which my own hives would 
 produce. It seemed to me that this could be done, 
 and in my transferring it had been constantly kept 
 in mind. 
 
 4. It will be remembered that I spoke in the pre- 
 vious chapter about keeping the worker-comb and 
 the drone-comb, as far as possible, in separate frames. 
 I had then carefully selected a number of the fine 
 combs, in which drone-cells were most abundant, 
 and put them in frames by themselves. From the 
 frames containing brood I had carefully cut all the 
 patches of drone-brood, and all capped drone-cells, 
 
ITALIANIZING. 
 
 63 
 
 which were not thus cut out, I had mercilessly be- 
 headed with a small sharp knife. Then in giving 
 frames of comb to my hives after transferring, I had 
 given them only frames containing worker-comb, 
 and perhaps a few drone-cells scattered here and 
 there. 
 
 5. All persons know that bees kill off their drones 
 in the fall, and raise new ones in the spring before 
 they will be needed. My hives, then, on the day I 
 gave them their combs after transferring, had no 
 hatched drones, they had no capped drone-brood, 
 and they had but few drone-cells in any of their 
 combs. It was possible that in some of these few 
 drone-cells there were drone larvae just ready to cap. 
 Unless I could guard against these possible drones 
 they would probably give me trouble. 
 
 6. After drone brood has been capped over it is 
 at least fourteen days before it hatches. Assuming 
 that there were some drone larvae, just ready to be 
 capped, in the frames when they were given to the 
 bees after transferring, this brood would hatch out 
 on the fourteenth day after. If, now, on the thir- 
 teenth day after, I examined each comb, and be- 
 headed every capped drone in his cell, there would 
 be no danger of any black drones appearing within 
 another two weeks, when I could again examine 
 and behead. This course involved a good deal of 
 care and labor in looking over the combs two or 
 
THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 64 
 
 three times, and beheading the drone brood, but I 
 determined to adopt it, for I could see no other way 
 of securing purely fertilized queens the first year. 
 
 7. If a hive of bees, at any season of the year 
 when there are eggs or larvae not more than three 
 days old in the combs, be deprived of its queen, the 
 bees will at once proceed to supply themselves with 
 a new queen. This they do by constructing a num- 
 ber of queen-cells, usually from five to twelve, into 
 each of which they put a worker egg or a worker 
 larva, and then feed this with a peculiar kind of food 
 called royal jelly, whereupon this egg or larva, 
 which if left in a worker cell and fed upon worker 
 food would have grown to be a worker-bee, develops 
 into a queen-bee. Eight days from the laying of 
 the egg this young queen arrives at the age when 
 the workers seal her up in her cell, to undergo her 
 final transformation. On the sixteenth day from 
 the egg the young queens are full grown, and, if un- 
 disturbed, will come out perfect queens. At any 
 time, between sealing up and hatching, the queen- 
 cells may be taken from the hive, and, if inserted in 
 another queenless hive, will usually be accepted and 
 allowed to hatch. The cells may also be hatched 
 by artificial heat. 
 
 8. I had the few drones which had hatched in the 
 Italian hive before its arrival, and the few that 
 would hatch from day to day from the two frames 
 
ITALIANIZING . 
 
 65 
 
 of drone brood which I had taken from the Italians 
 and given to the hive of blacks. But I feared these 
 drones were too few. Hence my first thought was 
 to secure more pure drones from the eggs of the 
 royal lady from Italy. To this end I opened the 
 hive of Italians just before sunset on the day of its 
 arrival, and inserted in the very midst of the frames 
 containing brood one of the frames of drone comb 
 prepared when 1 was transferring. The next even- 
 ing I examined this frame and finding it had eggs 
 in a large number of cells, I gave it to a good colony 
 of blacks, and inserted in its place another frame of 
 drone comb. This I did for three days in succession, 
 getting as many frames, each supplied with about 
 two thousand drone eggs, which frames were given 
 to as many black stocks. In addition to laying the 
 drone eggs in these frames the Italian queen had de- 
 posited not a few eggs in the outer margins of the 
 four frames containing brood, mentioned above as 
 having been found when the combs were transferred. 
 And she had laid a number of eggs also in two 
 other frames, so that on the evening of April 27th 
 there were six frames containing eggs and larvae. 
 The queen would not have laid so many eggs if I 
 had not stimulated her by feeding the hive every 
 night with about a pound of pure sugar syrup. The 
 bees gathered some honey and plenty of pollen 
 from the willows and maples during the day, and 
 
66 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES , 
 
 then having the feed of syrup at night the whole 
 hive had been excited to such activity that the good 
 queen had been roused to do her best in laying eggs, 
 
 9. I had now made provision for an abundant 
 supply of drones. Two frames of pure worker comb 
 were now put in the centre of the Italian hive, and 
 the hive then left undisturbed for three days. 
 
 Worker eggs and worker larvae in as many frames 
 as possible, were what I wanted now from the Ital- 
 ians, for from their eggs and larvae I would grow my 
 new queens. These new queens were not to be 
 grown in the Italian hive, for I could not force the 
 Italians to build queen-cells unless I took away their 
 queen. If I took away their queen I must introduce 
 her to one of my black stocks. As a beginner is 
 not always skillful in introducing, he may so do it 
 that the bees will not receive the queen, but will 
 kill her and cast her from the hive. I was not 
 willing to run this risk with my costly imported 
 queen. And it was not at all necessary to run the 
 risk, for the new queens could just as well be grown 
 in hives of black bees, provided I killed their queen 
 and took from them all their own frames of comb, 
 and gave them frames of eggs and larvae from the 
 Italian hive. They would then have no eggs or 
 larvae except what had come from the imported 
 mother, hence the queens they would grow would 
 all be pure Italians. A common dung-hill fowl 
 
ITALIANIZING. 
 
 6 7 
 
 will hatch the finest Brahma eggs, and care for the 
 chickens. So black bees will take care of pure Ital- 
 ian eggs, and rear from such eggs pure Italian 
 queens. 
 
 10. April 28th was the thirteenth day from the 
 beginning of the transferring. It was possible that 
 by the next day a few black drones would begin to 
 hatch from those stocks first transferred. I was 
 prepared to begin the exterminating war against 
 these black drones. Will was called in to help. 
 We had a hard day’s work before us. We desired 
 to work rapidly, and not to be in danger of stings. 
 Our trowsers were tucked into our boots, so that no 
 bees could crawl up our legs. We discarded coats 
 for the day, and wore woolen shirts instead, so that 
 there could be no crawling of bees under the coats, 
 up our backs and around our necks. Close-fitting 
 gloves were put on, which buttoned tightly around 
 the wrists over the wristbands of our shirts. Then 
 putting on the bee-veils, we were quite proof 
 against the most vigorous onsets of any angry bees. 
 Such close protection is usually quite unnecessary. 
 
 I now go among my hives fearlessly, with neither 
 gloves nor veil. But then I had little experience, and 
 it was easier and pleasanter to protect oneself than 
 endure the discomfort and delay which even a few 
 stings might cause. The smoker was ready, and 
 plenty of fuel to fill it as often as necessary. At 
 
68 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 8 o'clock I blew some smoke in at the entrance of a 
 hive. After waiting a few minutes a second hive 
 was smoked, that these bees might be filling them- 
 selves while the first was being examined. Bees, if 
 alarmed by smoke or in any other way, at once fill 
 themselves with honey, and when thus full of honey 
 they are very quiet, having little disposition to 
 sting. Then seating ourselves on low stools at the 
 side of the hive, so that my left-hand was next the 
 hive, the lid was taken off. I lifted the first frame 
 with my left hand, rested the bottom of it on the 
 edge of the hive, and glanced quickly over the side 
 of the comb towards me. My right-hand was free, 
 and held a keen knife with which I rapidly beheaded 
 every capped drone-cell. Will did the beheading 
 on the other side. On some combs we found a few 
 drone-cells, but most of them had none at all. In 
 nine minutes from the time we sat down, every 
 frame in the first hive had been examined, drones 
 beheaded, frames replaced, and hive shut. Then, 
 first blowing smoke into the third, we opened the 
 second. So we kept on, and in little more than six 
 hours and a half we had gone over all the hives, 
 averaging about 1 1 minutes to a hive. As we ex- 
 amined those hives containing the inserted frames 
 of Italian drone eggs and brood, I noticed that they 
 were all in good condition. 
 
 There was no danger of any black drones appear- 
 
ITALIANIZING. 
 
 69 
 
 ing under 14 days, when I would again examine, 
 and behead. The drones from the first two frames 
 of Italian brood were becoming more numerous 
 every day. As it takes 24 days from the egg for 
 drones to come forth, the frame of drone eggs ob- 
 tained from the Italians on the 24th of April, would 
 have hatching drones on the 18th of May. Drones 
 would be coming from the other frames on follow- 
 ing days. It takes 16 days from the egg for a queen 
 bee to hatch out. Five days after hatching she will 
 fly out to meet the drone, that is in 21 days from 
 the egg she is ready for her marriage flight. If 
 measures were taken on the 1st of May, to force the 
 bees to rear queens, the queen cells would not be 
 begun before the next day, and some of them would 
 be built on following days. Hence if the bees 
 should rear queens from the eggs, the first ones 
 would be ready for the drones May 22d. But in all 
 probability they would rear some of the queens 
 from larvae two or three days old, and such ones 
 would come forth two or three days earlier. Thus 
 it was probable that if I began queen-rearing May 
 1st, some of the earliest queens would be ready for 
 the drones May 19th and 20th, just when my drones 
 would be coming out. This was what I wanted. 
 On the afternoon of May 1st, I made arrangements 
 to force two hives of black bees to rear queens from 
 Italian eggs or larvse. 
 
70 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 Two of what seemed to be the strongest, most 
 prosperous swarms of blacks were selected. I look- 
 ed over the frames of one until the queen was found 
 and beheaded. Then the frames were lifted from 
 the hive, one after another, the bees shaken back 
 into the hive, and the frames taken away, leaving 
 not a particle of its own comb in the hive. The 
 same was done for the second selected swarm. 
 Then I took from the Italian hive the frames con- 
 taining eggs and larvae, of which there were eight, 
 shook all the bees back into the hive, and carried 
 the frames to the hives of blacks which had just 
 been deprived of their own combs. Taking a sharp 
 knife I cut off a small portion of the lower and side 
 margins of the Italian combs, and then cut deep 
 notches in the newly cut margins. This brought 
 newly cut edges of comb right among the eggs and 
 larvae, thus giving the bees the best conditions for 
 construction of queen cells. Then four of these 
 frames were put into each of the selected hives of 
 blacks, and three frames of empty comb were put 
 in with them. All the bees were crowded on these 
 seven frames so as to make a smaller hive very full 
 of bees, insuring the rapid construction of queen- 
 cells, the most careful nursing of the queen larvae, 
 and that high temperature in the hive which is best 
 for the growth of bees. Then I had done all in my 
 power to facilitate queen-rearing. The hives were 
 
ITALIANIZING. 
 
 7 1 
 
 shut with a determination that I would not open 
 them until the 12th day, when it would be necessary 
 to remove from each queen-rearing hive all the queen- 
 cells but one, and to give one queen-cell to each of 
 the nucleus hives prepared for their reception. To 
 stimulate these queen-rearing hives to the greatest 
 activity I fed each of them about a half pound of 
 pure sugar syrup every night for five nights. I 
 have since learned that at that season they would 
 have done just as well without this. After these 
 two hives had been arranged for queen-rearing, 
 twelve frames of the brood which had been taken 
 from them were given to the Italians, in which they 
 gladly went to work. The other frames, taken from 
 the queen-rearing hives, were distributed among my 
 weakest stocks. It had been a hard day’s work, not 
 finished until 7 o’clock. Then I went early to bed, 
 and dreamed of virgin Italian queens flying in terror 
 from pursuing hordes of headless drones. 
 
 The next day I began to arrange the nucleus 
 hives. A nucleus hive is a hive for a small swarm 
 of bees, usually two or three frames. Where any 
 number of young queens are reared they are usually 
 hatched in nuclei, but the queen cells are not grown 
 in them. To insure the best queens, the cells must 
 be grown in strong swarms ; but after they are 
 capped they may be hatched in nuclei. Often 
 small hives are made especially for nucleus swarms. 
 
72 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 This is usually the case where long and shallow 
 frames are used. But with my small square 
 Gallup frame, I could use the regular hives and 
 frames for the nuclei. When the regular hives are 
 used for nuclei, it is much easier to build up these 
 nuclei into regular swarms. After your young 
 queens are hatched and fertilized, if you want to in- 
 crease the number of your swarms, you have only 
 to take frames of the hatching brood from your 
 strong stocks and give them to these nuclei. The 
 brood will hatch and be at home in the nucleus, and 
 so each nucleus is rapidly built up into a strong 
 stock. My object now was not to increase the 
 number of my swarms, but to obtain fertile Italian 
 queens, to give to my black stocks. Making allow- 
 ance for the loss of a few queens when they went 
 on their marriage flight, or from my inexperience 
 in introducing them to the blacks, I concluded to 
 make arrangements to hatch forty cells. Forty of 
 the empty hives were suitably provided with di- 
 vision boards, which could be moved back and forth 
 in the hives, and so contract one end to as small 
 proportions as desired, and were then properly lo- 
 cated in the orchard. Then, while waiting for the 
 queen-cells to be capped, there was time for other 
 work among the hives that were gathering honey, 
 of which more will be said in the next chapter. I 
 want first to tell the whole story of the queens. 
 
ITALIANIZING. 
 
 73 
 
 It seemed to me that it would be best to let the 
 queens come as near maturity as posssible, before 
 taking them from the parent hive. I might safely 
 wait until the twelfth day from the date of giving 
 the queenless blacks the Italian frames. On the 
 eleventh day, twelve of the weakest of the black 
 stocks were selected. Each hive was carefully 
 looked over and the queen removed. Then these 
 twelve swarms were broken up into forty nuclei. 
 There were frames enough to give each nucleus 
 three. The nuclei were made towards night, and 
 the hives were shut until ten o’clock next day. 
 Then as I opened the entrances, I leaned a board 
 against the hives before the entrances. The bees 
 coming out and meeting this unusual obsruction 
 were led to mark their new location, and so would 
 return to it, instead of going back to their old hive. 
 At one o'clock everything seeming right about the 
 nuclei, and all things looking propitious, I opened 
 one of the queen-rearing hives. It was for me an 
 interesting moment. Another move of the hand 
 would bring to light one of the frames upon which 
 I expected to find queen-cells. The frames were 
 carefully moved apart so as to remove all danger of 
 bruising cells as the frame was lifted, then it was 
 taken out. I was not disappointed. On that comb 
 there were seven large fine-looking cells. The other 
 three frames had respectively five, eight and nine 
 
74 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 cells, making twenty-nine in this hive. All but one 
 were carefully cut out, and laid on a bed of cotton- 
 wool in a shallow basket prepared for the purpose. 
 The other hive was then opened and found to con- 
 tain thirty-one cells. After leaving one in each hive 
 this gave me fifty-eight excellent capped cells . 10 
 There were but forty nuclei, so I selected forty of 
 the finest cells, and going from nucleus to nucleus, 
 grafted a cell into one of the combs of each. This 
 was done by cutting a shoulder in the comb in the 
 frame, of the right shape to receive the small piece 
 of comb attached to the cell. In not a few cases 
 when the cells had been close together and so 
 scarcely any comb was attached to them after they 
 were cut apart, I simply held the cell, point down- 
 ward, between two frames of comb, then' ,moved 
 one frame slightly toward the other, so as to press 
 gently upon the bit of comb attached to the cell. 
 The pressure would keep the cell in place until the 
 inclosed queen should hatch. Before night every 
 nucleus had its cell. 
 
 As my object was to secure queens for my black 
 stocks, some may wonder why I took all this trouble 
 with nuclei. Why not have deprived all my black 
 stocks of their queens, and then have given a 
 capped cell to each stock? This course could have 
 been followed and with success ; but it would have 
 been much less advantageous than the one I pur- 
 
ITALIANIZING . 
 
 75 
 
 sued, as will at once appear by an easy calculation. 
 After the capped queen-cells were put in the nuclei, 
 there would be an average of four days before they 
 would hatch ; then five days would pass before the 
 queen would go out to meet the drone, and longer, 
 if the fifth and some following days should chance 
 to be cloudy ; then two days more before the fertil- 
 ized queens would begin to lay ; making a period of 
 at least eleven days after the nuclei were made be- 
 fore the queens would begin to lay. If, instead of 
 making nuclei, I had destroyed all my black queens 
 and given the queen-cells directly to the black 
 stocks, each stock then would have been for at least 
 eleven days without a laying queen. A first-rate 
 queen will lay 3,000 eggs a day. We will suppose 
 that mine would have laid 2,500 a day. In one 
 hive for eleven days this would have been a loss of 
 27,500 bees. In the thirty-six hives, the aggregate 
 loss would have been 990,000 bees. I destroyed 
 twelve queens and made their stocks into nuclei, so 
 by my method I lost the use of twelve queens for 
 the eleven days, in all, a loss of 330,000 bees by the 
 nucleus method, against a loss of 990,000 by the 
 other method. This is a clear gain by the nucleus 
 method of 660,000 bees. This, too, was during the 
 time when bees must be raised to gather the white- 
 clover honey which comes soon after. A loss of so 
 many bees at this season would have seriously less- 
 
76 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 ened my honey harvest, and so have made the re- 
 ceipts of the year much smaller. 
 
 On the eleventh day after making the nuclei I ex- 
 amined five of them, simply by lifting up the frames 
 to see if any eggs were in the cells. The presence of 
 eggs would show that the queens had begun to lay. 
 Four of them showed eggs, but the fifth none. The 
 next day I examined this fifth one again and found 
 eggs, as also in six more which I opened. Then 
 preparations were made for introducing queens to 
 the black stocks. That afternoon I looked over 
 twelve of the twenty-two stocks which remained 
 after the nuclei were made, found the queens and 
 removed them. Then opening a nucleus I found 
 its queen, caged her in a small wire-cloth cage about 
 the size of my thumb, and suspended this cage be- 
 tween two combs in one of the black stocks just 
 made queenless. So the work went on until a 
 caged queen was in each of the twelve black stocks. 
 The next morning I uncaged these queens, smeared 
 a little honey on them, and let them crawl down 
 among the bees. In every case they seemed to re- 
 ceive her gladly. Then the other ten stocks had 
 their old queens removed, and a caged one put in, 
 which was liberated the following morning in the 
 same way. On the fourth day afterwards I ex- 
 amined all and found fresh eggs in twenty, showing 
 that the queens had been received and were at 
 
ITALIANIZING. 
 
 77 
 
 work. In the other two there were no eggs, and 
 queen-cells had been started, proving that for some 
 cause in these two the introduced queens had been 
 rejected. I destroyed the queen-cells and sprayed 
 every comb with peppermint water from the atom- 
 izer. Two queens were then sprayed, and allowed 
 at once to crawl between the combs. I found by 
 a subsequent examination that they were accepted. 
 
 Thus twenty-four of my nuclei had done their 
 work, had yielded me fertile queens. Four more 
 had no queens. They were probably lost in return- 
 ing from the marriage flight. These twenty-eight 
 nuclei I at once united with ten that had fertile 
 queens. The uniting was done by spraying the 
 frames in a nucleus, then spraying the frames to be 
 put in, and stopping up the entrance for a night 
 after they were united. They gave no trouble, did 
 not quarrel, and all knew their places. I helped 
 these ten swarms made by uniting nuclei, by giving 
 them frames of hatching brood from the strong 
 stocks, and by exchanging some of their empty 
 frames for those full of brood taken from other 
 hives, until all the ten had twelve frames each. I 
 desired to have every hive as strong as possible. 
 All the twenty-two which had not been used for 
 rearing queen-cells, nor broken up into nuclei for 
 hatching them were now very strong, and could 
 easily spare a frame or two to help those which had 
 
78 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 been rearing queens for all. The other two nuclei 
 were kept so as to have their queens to supply any 
 stock that might accidentally become queenless. 
 
 It was the twenty-ninth of May that the work of 
 Italianizing was completed. The work had been 
 really exciting. I entered into it with an abandon 
 which I believe is seldom found. People often 
 complain that their work is slavish toil. Mine had 
 been a daily delight. Although several years have 
 passed since then, and I now number my hives by 
 the thousand, still as I write this account of those 
 absorbing days something of the old enthusiasm 
 stirs within me. I was only seventeen. My mother, 
 my brother, my sister, and our farm of eighty acres 
 made up my little world, — a world in which it would 
 seem to many that life must be very monotonous. 
 For me life had always been happy, now it was 
 glorified by enthusiastic devotion to a chosen call- 
 ing. Here in the heart of Michigan, far from what 
 is called society, I had created a world which had 
 for me a stronger interest than any of the throbbing 
 centres of human life. I am not sure but my work 
 in rearing those beautiful insects, being for them a 
 providence to secure every best condition of life, 
 was far nobler than that of the titled courtiers who 
 attend upon queens and kings in the great hive of 
 human life. Nay, I am sure; it was nobler. My 
 work was strengthening to the body, and sweeten- 
 ing to the soul. 
 
APPLE BLOSSOMS. 
 
 While queen-rearing was going on, other work was 
 not at a stand-still. In transferring I had learned 
 very accurately the condition of every stock. All 
 had honey enough ; all had pollen stored for the 
 brood ; all had brood coming forward, yet some 
 were in much better condition than others. All 
 of my original hives, which had been wintered in 
 the cellar with careful attention to temperature, 
 were strong in bees. They seemed almost to fill 
 the hive even at that early season of the year. 
 Those which I had purchased had an abundance of 
 honey, but they had fewer bees than my old ones. 
 I at once turned attention to rearing bees, for a 
 hive that is weak in bees will scarcely gather honey 
 enough for its own use, but one that is very strong 
 in bees will, in a good location and a good season, 
 store a large quantity of surplus honey. My aim 
 in keeping bees was to make a profit from them, 
 and to do this I must have every hive boiling over 
 with faithful workers. 79 
 
8o 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 The alders, the willows of different species, and 
 the white and red maples gave sufficient pollen and 
 honey to promote brood rearing before April 15th, 
 hence when I began to transfer, all the hives had 
 some hatching brood, and other brood, in all stages 
 of growth. As soon as the bees were in the mova- 
 ble-comb hives, I began systematic effort to stimu- 
 late the queens to lay. Some of my efforts gave 
 much amusement to those of my neighbors who 
 learned about them. Early in the season it is im- 
 portant that the hives be kept quite warm, so that 
 the queens will lay, and so that the young brood 
 will not be chilled. Yet early in the season we 
 often have cool days, and the nights are usually 
 quite cool. To prevent the escape of the heat 
 generated by the bees in the hive, I had some 
 small comfortables made, the exact length and 
 width of the hives, and with these the tops of the 
 frames containing the comb were closely covered. 
 On top of these quilts I put two or three thick- 
 nesses of carpet. My wise neighbors, who had 
 always seen bees kept in the old, careless way, 
 laughed not a little at “ that young Allen, who was 
 tucking his bees up in bed comforts/’ Their fun 
 gave me no uneasiness, for I felt quite certain that 
 before many months were gone the laugh would be 
 in my favor. I could remember when they had 
 made similar complimentary remarks about my 
 
APPLE BLOSSOMS. 
 
 8f 
 
 father’s putting out so large an orchard, but the 
 preceding harvest from that orchard had given us 
 more clean cash than any farmer in our neighbor- 
 hood had received from his farm for three years. 
 
 The entrances to the hives were so arranged that 
 on cool nights and windy days they could be nearly 
 closed, leaving only space for one or two bees to 
 pop out or in at once. The bees bred in April and 
 May would be my servants, to fill the hives several 
 times with honey from the luscious harvest that 
 would come in June, with the blooming of white 
 clover and linn. May 1st was the great day for 
 inaugurating queen-rearing. The next day I looked 
 over every hive, and carefully examined every comb. 
 In order to keep the temperature of the hive as 
 high as possible in the early spring, it is important 
 to crowd the bees together on as many frames only 
 as they will comfortably cover. I reduced most of 
 the hives to six or seven frames, having those con- 
 taining brood in the centre. The next day I again 
 opened every hive, and lifting out the rear frame I 
 shoved the combs back from the centre, and put 
 this rear one, which contained no brood, in the 
 centre. In this way I was giving the queen a whole 
 frame of empty cells in the central and warmest 
 part of the hive, where she could fill the cells with 
 eggs. I repeated this process about once in two 
 days, putting in more frames when those already 
 
82 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 in were filled, until all the hives were full of frames, 
 and every frame was nearly full of brood. In this 
 work of building up the swarms to the strongest 
 point, the empty combs, which I mentioned as 
 having been stored away at the time of transfer- 
 ring, were of great value. Without them it would 
 have been impossible for me to have made the 
 hives so strong, for it is not possible for the bees 
 to make new comb in the early, cool weather. 
 
 The strongest hives were full of brood much 
 sooner than the others ; then they were made to 
 give some frames of brood to weaker ones, so as to 
 bring all up to the highest standard. Before queen- 
 rearing was over nearly every hive was full. When 
 the thirty-eight nuclei were united into ten hives, 
 a few frames were needed to fill them out, which 
 were also taken from the ablest stocks, and their 
 places filled with empty combs. It will be remem- 
 bered that at first I had thirty-six black stocks, and 
 one Italian. Two blacks had been used to raise 
 queen cells, and twelve had been broken up into 
 nuclei to hatch the cells. Now, in uniting all but 
 two of these nuclei, they were put into ten stocks. 
 Hence I now had thirty-five full stocks, and the two 
 nuclei. 
 
 The opening of hives about every other day had 
 kept me well informed as to the honey in them. 
 From willows and soft and silver maples enough 
 
APPLE BLOSSOMS. 
 
 83 
 
 honey was secured to make the hives gain several 
 pounds in weight. Of the sugar maple there were 
 large numbers of trees within a mile of me, and 
 when they opened, the bees had pasturage as good 
 as could be asked. They worked merrily, and in 
 two days I noticed the hives were about full of 
 brood and honey. This was while the queen-rear- 
 ing was going on, when there were but twenty-five 
 hives. Extracting was begun next morning. The 
 day was still and warm. The bees were flying rap- 
 idly to and from the maple woods. The first hive 
 was smoked a little, opened, the frames lifted in 
 succession, and the bees shaken into the hive. The 
 frames were hung in a carrier, and taken to the 
 shop, where the extractor was firmly set, at such a 
 height that the honey could run from it into the 
 bung of a barrel. Being curious to know the num- 
 ber of pounds I should get on this, my first honey 
 day, I had arranged to draw the honey from the 
 extractor into a pail, and then pour into the barrel. 
 By weighing the first pailful, and counting the num- 
 ber of pailfuls, the whole number of pounds would 
 be known. 
 
 The extractor 11 held two frames at a time. As the 
 honey was not yet capped over, there was no labor 
 in uncapping. Two frames were put in, and I 
 turned the crank slowly at first. The speed was 
 increased until I heard the honey fly out against 
 
84 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 the sides of the can. The frames all had brood in 
 them, of which a good deal was, of course, not yet 
 sealed. From frames containing both brood and 
 honey, the honey can be thrown without injuring 
 the brood, if one is careful to turn with just the 
 right speed. After a few trials I got the knack of 
 it, and could throw out the honey without disturb- 
 ing a single growing larva. The honey having been 
 thrown from these first combs, they were returned 
 to their hive, and another hive was opened, and so 
 the work went on. It was not by any means easy 
 work for a beginner. A pretty wide experience has 
 convinced me that extracting is not easy work for 
 an old bee keeper. Lifting the combs from the 
 hive, shaking off the bees, carrying the combs to 
 and from the extractor — all are hard work. When 
 five o’clock came, and the day’s work was done, I 
 was very tired. But the result of the work was so 
 stimulating that my weariness was almost forgotten. 
 From the thirteen hives, opened that day, had been 
 taken two hundred and twenty-six pounds of honey, 
 an average of more than seventeen pounds per hive. 
 The extensive maple forest was yielding to my 
 strong stocks a most abundant harvest. 
 
 That night after the shop was cleared up, and 
 every thing in order for the next day, I sat down 
 to put in writing, and to consider in all its aspects, 
 a plan which had come into my mind as 1 was work- 
 
APPLE BLOSSOMS. 
 
 85 
 
 ing over the extractor. I will here set down the 
 date upon which my plan of work for the year was 
 finally based — a plan which achieved such a brilliant 
 success as to be almost incredible, except to those 
 who have some acquaintance with the methods and 
 results of modern bee keeping. 
 
 1. By extracting from the hives every two or 
 three days during an abundant yield of honey, the 
 bees are stimulated by the loss of their stores to 
 such unremitting industry, that the number of 
 pounds of honey obtained from a hive is greatly 
 increased. The reports spoke not unfrequently of 
 getting three hundred pounds. Sometimes four 
 hundred pounds per hive were obtained during the 
 season. 
 
 2. By extracting frequently the cells are emptied 
 of honey, and so are ready for the queen to lay in. 
 And as the bees are bringing in honey rapidly, she 
 is stimulated to do her best. So the hive is kept 
 full of growing brood, and very strong in mature 
 bees old enough to work. 
 
 3. The honey extracted from the combs before it 
 has been sealed up in the cells by the bees is thin- 
 ner, and not so good in flavor as when it has been 
 left in the combs until sealed. But if left until 
 sealed, the bees are not stimulated to so great in- 
 dustry, and a much smaller number of pounds is 
 secured. 
 
86 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 4. The demand for extracted honey, even of the 
 best quality, is not so great as for comb honey, and 
 the price per pound is usually not more than two- 
 thirds as much as the price of comb honey. 
 
 5. After apple blossoms would come a period of 
 no bloom until white clover should open, during 
 which the bees would obtain scarcely enough honey 
 to keep them rearing brood. After white clover 
 and linn there would be another season of inactivity, 
 and another after the first frost in the fall. During 
 these idle seasons it would be best to feed the hives 
 a little every day, in order to keep them rearing 
 brood. 
 
 6. Then I asked myself this question : Could the 
 honey be extracted often during a honey harvest , and 
 then when the time of no bloom came , and the bees 
 were forced to idleness, could this honey be fed back to 
 them, and be stored by them in nice , new comb, and 
 ripened so as to obtain nearly as many pounds of comb 
 honey as had been taken of extracted honey ? 
 
 7. It will be seen that by the frequent extracting 
 the large quantity of thin honey would be secured ; 
 and the combs being often emptied, the queen would 
 have empty cells for her eggs, and so be kept lay- 
 ing. Then, when the period of scarcity came, by 
 feeding this honey back, a stimulus would be given 
 the queen. The bees, too, would be kept busy 
 feeding the young brood, and storing the honey in 
 
APPLE BLOSSOMS. 
 
 37 
 
 combs suitable for market, and ripening it, when 
 otherwise they would be idle, not getting honey 
 enough from day to day to supply the needs of the 
 hive, and hence consuming a part of what they had 
 already stored. 
 
 8. So far as I could see, it seemed certain : 
 
 (a) That whatever honey was fed to a hive would 
 be kept by the bees in the hive. For them to take 
 it outside the hive would be contrary to all that 
 was known of the nature of the bees. 
 
 {b). That a portion of what was fed them would 
 be consumed by the bees themselves, but they 
 would eat no more than they needed. It was most 
 profitable for me that they should have all they 
 needed. 
 
 (< c ). That some of what was fed them would be 
 fed to the young brood. The more they used for 
 this purpose the better for me. The more bees 
 raised in the hive the more workers there would be 
 to store honey when the white clover and linn 
 opened their nectar-laden blooms. 
 
 (d) . That whatever the bees did not eat them- 
 selves, nor feed to the young brood, would be stored 
 in combs in the most marketable shape. 
 
 (e) . That the number of pounds of comb-honey 
 would be less than the extracted honey fed the 
 bees, but the comb-honey would be worth so much 
 more per pound, that, after making a large deduc- 
 
88 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 tion for loss in weight, the value of the comb-honey 
 would be more than the value of the extracted 
 honey. 
 
 After looking the subject over in all its aspects I 
 determined to try the experiment of feeding back 
 to the bees whatever honey I had on hand after 
 apple-blossoms. By the result of this experiment 
 I could tell whether it was wise to continue this 
 method. It was somewhat venturesome for a young 
 beginner to enter upon an untried held, but my 
 father had taught me that, if an idea had common 
 sense in its favor, not to be afraid of it because it 
 was new. The next morning I sent off an order for 
 material for five hundred honey boxes, four sides 
 glass, to hold about two and a-half pounds of honey 
 each. They would come by express to Howard in 
 time for use when apple-blossoms should fail. 
 
 Three days later apple-blossoms opened. Our 
 orchard was a sea of bloom, and in every orchard 
 near the bloom was equally profuse. The bees 
 were in a paradise of sweets. In two days I again 
 extracted, getting on an average twenty-three 
 pounds per hive. And four days later I took again 
 an average of nineteen pounds per hive. Then, as 
 the season of bloom was approaching a close, I 
 allowed the hives to be filled up. The honey-boxes 
 came to hand all right. They were nicely cut out, 
 and the work of putting them together was easy and 
 
APPLE BLOSSOMS. 89 
 
 pleasant. I arranged for putting on each hive boxes 
 to contain sixty pounds of comb-honey. 
 
 Feeders were prepared by making shallow troughs 
 two inches wide, one and a-quarter inches deep, and 
 a half-inch shorter than the inside width of a frame 
 for comb. One of these was set on the bottom bar 
 of a frame and fastened by driving small nails into 
 its ends from the sides of the frame. One end of 
 this trough was placed close against the side bar on 
 one side, which made it lack one-half an inch of 
 extending to the side bar on the other side. A 
 quarter of an inch above this trough another was 
 fastened in the same way, except that its end was 
 brought close to the side bar on the opposite side 
 from the first one, and thus an open space of half 
 an inch was left for pouring honey into the trough 
 beneath it. So one trough was put above another 
 until the frame was filled, making seven in the 
 frame. Each of the troughs, if full, held about one 
 pound of honey, so that seven pounds could be fed 
 at once. That no bees might fall into .the feeders, 
 and be drowned, a very thin piece of wood, such as 
 is used for the backs of picture-frames, was laid into 
 each trough. This, being slightly smaller than the 
 trough, would rise and fall in it, and give the bees a 
 secure footing. 
 
 Having the feeders all ready, and the boxes for 
 sixty pounds of honey per hive all prepared on 
 
90 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 racks so that the whole could be set on or lifted off 
 at once, I extracted closely from every hive, re- 
 moved all the combs except those containing brood, 
 crowded the bees on these brood combs, and put in 
 the division boards, then set on the rack of boxes, 
 put on a super which nicely shut in the boxes, and 
 still had room in the rear end for hanging in the 
 feeder. At dusk, when no bees were flying, I went 
 along by the rear end of the hives, filled the feeders 
 from a large tin pail with a spout, and hung them 
 into the supers, just as a frame would hang. At this 
 first feeding every feeder was filled with honey, for 
 I wanted so to excite the bees by giving them sud- 
 denly a large quantity, as to lead them to begin 
 vigorously in the boxes at once. On examination 
 in the morning I found that the feeders were empty, 
 but that work had been commenced in only a few 
 of the boxes. I inferred that the larger part of 
 this first feed had been stored in the vacant part of 
 the brood-combs and drew the moral that in future 
 the brood combs must be full, either of brood or 
 honey, before feeding for comb-honey was begun. 
 I filled the feeders again that morning, and at night 
 found that work was going on in many of the boxes. 
 Again at night the feeders were filled, and in the 
 morning they were empty, comb was being built in 
 nearly all the boxes, and stored in them. I did not 
 fill the feeders again this morning, for it was not 
 
APPLE BLOSSOMS, 
 
 9 I 
 
 best to have the bees in the hive in the daytime. 
 If the feeders were supplied with honey the bees 
 would remain in. If no honey was in the feeders 
 they would fly out and collect what could be found, 
 even if it was very little. By feeding at dusk they 
 could empty the feeders by morning, and so be 
 ready to go to the fields and woods. So the feed- 
 ing was kept up. In ten days every box was nearly 
 full. Then for two days only a small amount was 
 fed, so as to give the bees a chance to fill and seal 
 every cell. At the end of twelve days I took from 
 each hive the twenty-four boxes nicely filled with 
 capped honey, as beautiful as was ever made from 
 apple blossoms. It was most attractive to the eye, 
 and of good flavor. 
 
 Thus, before a pound of the white clover and 
 linn harvest had been taken I had received from 
 maples and apple blossoms 2,100 pounds of comb- 
 honey in the best shape for market. Comb-honey 
 was then worth twenty-five cents a pound, or $525 
 for the lot. Already the money invested in bees 
 was more than returned to me. Already my suc- 
 cess gave a surety for the success of plans for the 
 future. I saw my many different apiaries in favor- 
 able locations for miles around ; the whole country 
 yielding nectar to my millions of eager workers ; 
 the luscious harvest filling my storehouses with 
 sweets more delicate than the famed honey of 
 
92 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 Hymettus ; the distant markets of the world send- 
 ing to me the returns which would bring ease 
 and comfort for my mother’s old age, and cul- 
 ture for my sister, my brother, and myself. The 
 whole world of literature, travel, art, was to come 
 from the blessed bees that worked with such cease- 
 less industry under the direction of my skill. It 
 was a happy dream. A dream that well might give 
 quicker beat to my eager heart, and nerve to a hand 
 as young as mine. A dream which the harvest 
 from maples and apple blossoms assured me had 
 foundations in solid reality. 
 
VII. 
 
 WHITE CLOVER AND LINN. 
 
 All things were now in readiness for the white 
 clover to open its dainty globes, so full of food for 
 my friends, the bees. I watched its progress with 
 an expectant eagerness. It grew in great abund- 
 ance, and gave promise of an almost measureless 
 flow of nectar. How small and insignificant it 
 seemed beside the great linn trees, some of them 
 sixty feet high, that held up their mighty crowns 
 of leaves to the warm embrace of the summer sun. 
 Some of the linn trees, growing in more open places, 
 branched near the ground, and I was able easily to 
 observe the swelling flower buds. Every tree had 
 its millions. In a few days every bud would open, 
 and every small flower would be a chalice, daily 
 filled, by the beneficent hand of nature, with the 
 honey which the tireless bees would hasten to carry 
 to the hives. The delicate clover, modestly creep- 
 ing everywhere, and the majestic linns, noble mon- 
 archs of the woods, were equally my friends. On 
 the 1 2th of June the clover began to open in the 
 
 93 
 
94 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 most favored places. Two days later it was so 
 abundant that the bees seemed in a quiet, happy 
 intoxication. Long before sunrise the earliest were 
 afield. Not until almost dark did the last belated 
 wanderer fly home with its sweet burden. 
 
 Most of the frames in the first stories were nearly 
 or quite full of brood. It had been my persistent 
 effort to get these frames so full of brood, that when 
 the clover should open, there would be scarcely any 
 empty cells for storing honey in the lower stories, 
 and hence the bees, in their eagerness to find room, 
 would be willing to begin in the second stories at 
 once. These second stories had been kept near the 
 hives they were to go on, and provided with frames. 
 There were yet one hundred and eight frames of the 
 drone comb and inferior worker comb, which had 
 been stored away when transferring. Three of these 
 frames were put in each super. On the morning of 
 the second day after white clover opened the supers 
 were put on. First the lid of the hive was taken 
 off, and the quilt removed from the frames. Then 
 the second story was set on the first, the frames 
 adjusted at the proper distance, the quilt spread on 
 the frames, and the lid put on, making simply a 
 two-story hive, the lower story for brood, and the 
 upper for surplus honey. 
 
 Next morning I examined a few supers, and in 
 every one found the bees at work repairing the old 
 
WHITE CLOVER AND LINN. 
 
 95 
 
 comb, and already starting new combs in the empty 
 frames. The increase of room had come at the 
 right time. I hoped it might entirely prevent 
 swarming, as well as give abundant room for sur- 
 plus stores. The weather was warm and clear. The 
 clover kept opening its wealth of blooms. The bees 
 worked in an abandon of enjoyment. The combs 
 were built with surprising rapidity, and as fast as 
 built were filled with honey. In each super there 
 were nine frames to be filled with new comb. In 
 twelve days they had, in nearly all the hives, every 
 frame filled with new comb, and every comb filled 
 with honey waiting to be sealed. It would take no 
 small amount of time and honey for them to make 
 the wax and seal it. For my purpose it was just 
 as well to extract before sealed. 
 
 Again I prepared to extract. As I hoped to find 
 no brood in the second stories, I prepared to handle 
 the frames in a little different manner. I went first 
 to the two hives most distant from the shop, took 
 six frames from the second story of each, then closed 
 the hives, and left them until they should be reached 
 in turn. The twelve frames were taken to the shop, 
 the honey extracted, and they were then taken to 
 the hive, where regular operations were to begin. 
 From the second story of this hive the twelve full 
 frames were taken, and the twelve empty frames 
 hung at once in their place, and the hives immedi- 
 
9 6 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 ately closed. The bees would go to work without 
 hesitation in the empty comb, and so confusion and 
 loss of time were avoided. The honey was extracted 
 now from the twelve frames just taken, and they 
 were used for the next hiye, and so on until every 
 hive had been attended to. It took two days of 
 hard work to extract from the thirty-five hives, but 
 it was interesting and exciting labor. The result 
 showed an average of five and a half pounds of 
 honey to a frame, sixty-six pounds to a hive, or 
 2,310 in all. 
 
 The bees continued work day after day with the 
 quiet, happy air, so delightful to every bee keeper, 
 for it assures him that his hives are being filled. 
 To sit among the hives was to surround oneself 
 with a ceaseless sound of joyous humming. Large 
 numbers of workers were constantly leaving and re- 
 turning. Now and then a clumsy drone would go 
 booming past, making up in quantity of noise for 
 lack of industry. As all the supers were now sup- 
 plied with combs, of course it took less time to fill 
 them with honey. On the eighth day I again ex- 
 tracted, and obtained an average of fifty-nine pounds 
 per hive, 2,065 pounds from the thirty-five. I found 
 in two or three cases that the queens had got into 
 the upper stories, and nearly filled one or two combs 
 with eggs. Such frames I gave to the two nuclei, 
 left after Italianizing. 
 
WHITE LINN AND CLOVER. 
 
 97 
 
 Now the linn opened its myriads of flowers, and 
 the bees left the white clover for its superior attrac- 
 tions. They flew back and forth in a kind of quiet 
 delirium. I had read glowing accounts of the large 
 amounts of honey sometimes obtained from linn, 
 but the reality surpassed all my expectations. In 
 six days the supers were again ready to extract, and 
 yielded 2,485 pounds. 12 If linn flowers lasted through 
 the summer, they would make a bee keeper's para- 
 dise. Unfortunately they last only ten or twelve 
 days. Towards the last of their season they did 
 not yield so well. On the eleventh day after their 
 opening I observed that bees were working again 
 on white clover, so I extracted at once, in order to 
 keep the linn honey as far as possible by itself. 
 This time the yield was 1,505 pounds. 
 
 The white clover again gave the bees a field in 
 which they worked with a passion of acquisitive- 
 ness. In eleven days more the season begun to 
 fail, the clover bloom was disappearing. Finally 
 on July 22d a hot sun and dry wind made the flow- 
 ers disappear as if by magic. Instead of the carpet 
 of white there was an array of innumerable brown 
 balls. I stood in the door of the shop, looked out 
 over the wide fields, and at the broad stretch of 
 forest, and then into the infinite depths of the sum- 
 mer sky, which seemed filled with the presence of 
 that Over Soul, that is everywhere the Life of all 
 
9 8 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 life. His laws working through blooms and bees 
 had again and again filled my hives with precious 
 stores. 
 
 My preparations had been made to increase the 
 number of my swarms as soon as white clover failed, 
 and then to set all the hives to storing the honey 
 in boxes for market. Preparatory to increasing the 
 swarms I extracted all honey from the supers, and 
 set the empty frames back, to be cleansed up by 
 the bees. This last yield gave me 1,997 pounds, an 
 average of more than fifty-seven pounds per hive. 
 
 The whole harvest from white clover and linn was : 
 
 DATE. POUNDS PER HIVE. AMOUNT. 
 
 June 27 . 
 
 . 66, white clover = 2,310 
 
 July 5 • 
 
 59 , “ 
 
 “ = 2,065 
 
 July 11 . 
 
 . 71, linn, 
 
 = 2,485 
 
 July 16 
 
 43 , “ 
 
 — 1,505 
 
 July 23 . 
 
 . 57, white clover = 1,997 
 
 10,362 
 
 This great success was a surprise and a triumph 
 to me. The journals indeed gave reports of very 
 large yields, now from white clover and now from 
 linn, but in no case had so large a yield as mine 
 been reported from both in the same season. 
 
 This great yield was due to several causes : 
 
 1. The hives were all very strong in bees. No 
 swarms had issued, and none had been made. My 
 
WHITE CLOVER AND LINN 99 
 
 method of management had kept the brood cham- 
 ber almost full of brood from early in the spring. 
 
 2. The second stories, put on at the right time, 
 had given space for storing, which had been at once 
 used by the bees. 
 
 3. The location was most excellent. White clo- 
 ver and linn were in boundless profusion. 
 
 4. The weather had been good. 
 
 5. The frequent extracting had stimulated the 
 bees to work to the utmost. 
 
 It was now July 23. Buckwheat would begin to 
 bloom about August 15th to 20th. Now I must 
 work for an increase of swarms. The first steps in 
 this direction had already been taken. 
 
VIII. 
 
 NUCLEUS SWARMING. 
 
 Up to this time I had been so fortunate as to have 
 no swarms issue from the hive. I say fortunate, be- 
 cause it is best to keep one's bees at work securing 
 honey. If they swarm, the old stock, from which 
 the swarm issues, is weakened, and the new stock is 
 not strong enough to store much surplus. If all hives 
 can be kept full of bees until after white clover, they 
 will then in most locations, have gathered the main 
 harvest of the year. The bee-keeper can then make 
 as many new swarms as his judgment approves. But 
 it is not easy to keep bees from swarming until so 
 late in the season. Unless very cautiously managed 
 they will sometimes swarm so much as to weaken 
 nearly every stock, and so destroy all hopes of a 
 large yield of surplus honey. My success in keep- 
 ing them from swarming gave me much pleasure. 
 It was a real triumph to succeed in my first year 
 where so many veteran bee-keepers fail. My suc- 
 cess in preventing swarming was due in large meas- 
 ure to these two reasons: ioo 
 
NUCLE US S WARMING. I O I 
 
 1. To the young queens. In Italianizing I had 
 given to every hive a young queen. A hive with a 
 young queen is much less likely to swarm than a 
 hive with a queen a year or two old. 
 
 2. To the second stories. As soon as white clover 
 opened, the supers, filled with frames, had been put 
 on. This doubled the capacity of the hive, and set 
 the bees at work to store honey. They did not feel 
 any necessity for swarming. 
 
 I had planned in the spring to make during the 
 season one and a half new swarms for each old one, 
 so as to have in the fall, including the old one, two 
 and a half swarms for each one with which I began. 
 
 These new swarms were to be made on the nu- 
 cleus system. To make them the first essential was 
 fertile queens. Twelve days before the white clover 
 harvest would fail, as nearly as I could calculate, I 
 had again, as in the spring, set two hives to rearing 
 queens. The original swarm of Italians was again 
 deprived of its combs for this purpose, for I preferred 
 that all the queens should be grown from the eggs 
 of the imported mother, for she had proved to be an 
 excellent, full-blooded Italian. The queens reared 
 from her in the spring had before this filled all my 
 hives with beautiful, orange-banded, Italian workers. 
 
 Her combs were taken, treated as spoken of in 
 the chapter on Italianizing, and given to the two 
 hives set apart for queen-rearing. The queen cells 
 
102 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 were started in abundance. Six days after the 
 combs were put in, I found thirty-two cells in one 
 hive and thirty-nine in the other — a larger number 
 than in the spring. Perhaps they started more be- 
 cause the weather was warmer, the honey coming in 
 faster, and the hives stronger in bees. As soon as 
 the clover harvest was done, I took twenty hives and 
 divided them up into eighty three-frame nuclei. Of 
 course there were the twenty queens from these di- 
 vided hives. These were left in their old hives, but 
 each had only three frames of brood. There were 
 still fifteen of the old hives, full of frames of brood. 
 From each of these I took five frames of hatching 
 brood, then moved the other seven frames apart 
 and alternated with them five empty frames, so as 
 to fill the hive. Then the seventy-five frames taken 
 from the fifteen hives were given to the twenty 
 nuclei having queens, making four frames to give to 
 each of fifteen, and three each to the other five. 
 Then of course fifteen of these had seven frames 
 each, and the other five six frames each. Now I 
 moved the frames in these twenty nuclei apart, and 
 alternated empty frames with them until the hives 
 were full. Then to the whole thirty-five so prepared I 
 gave an abundant feed. As the combs were nearly 
 full of brood, the bees had no place to store this 
 food, and hence were urged to begin new combs in 
 the empty frames. Thus I had the whole thirty- 
 
NUCLEUS SWARMING. 
 
 103 
 
 five industriously at work building combs, of which 
 I needed a large supply, in addition to those in the 
 supers, for the new swarms. The weather was warm, 
 just right for comb building. I fed bountifully, and 
 the combs went on with gratifying speed. As my 
 queens were all young, these new combs contained 
 scarcely any but worker cells . 13 
 
 To each of the other sixty nuclei I gave a capped 
 queen cell as described in the chapter on Italianiz- 
 ing. I had prepared a few more nuclei than my 
 plan of increase required, in order that I might have 
 queens enough, even if a few should be lost. It will 
 be remembered that in the spring the queens were 
 lost from four of the nuclei. It is quite probable 
 that the young queens, returning from “ their wed- 
 ding journey, ” made a mistake, and entered the 
 wrong nuclei. In arranging these new nuclei I 
 took pains so to place them that each was easily 
 distinguished both by color and position, so as to 
 give the young queens all possible facilities in find- 
 ing their own homes. For once I managed to over- 
 come my passion for having everything in mathe- 
 matical order, and put these nuclei in irregular 
 groups, under trees somewhat distant from each 
 other. As soon as they were thus arranged I open- 
 ed each, moved the division board and the rear 
 comb a little toward the back of the hive, and set 
 in an empty frame. These sixty were then fed all 
 
104 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 that they would take, and the bees began to fill the 
 empty frame with comb. The combs built in the 
 nuclei, without queens, always have nearly or quite 
 all drone cells, but these combs are just as valuable 
 for use in the second stories. I needed worker 
 combs for the brood chambers, and combs in the 
 second stories to contain surplus honey. For this 
 last purpose the combs made up entirely of drone 
 cells are fully as valuable. Hence I could profit- 
 ably employ every bee, even in the queenless nuclei. 
 Even these nuclei were pretty well supplied with 
 bees, and as they had plenty of honey fed to them 
 every night, their combs made good progress. In 
 six days I gave each of them another empty frame, 
 and by the time then queens were all laying, they 
 had both frames full of comb. In ten days after 
 putting in the queen cells forty-three of the nuclei 
 had laying queens. Three days later I again exam- 
 ined, and found that the other seventeen were all 
 right. My precautions against the loss of queens 
 had been successful. Not a single queen had failed. 
 
 The two nuclei, kept in the spring after Italianiz- 
 ing, had gradually been built up into strong stocks, 
 by giving them the frames now and then found con- 
 taining eggs or brood in the upper stories. These 
 two and the other thirty-five had done good work 
 in comb-building, during the time that the young 
 queens were hatching, meeting the drones, and be- 
 
NUCLEUS SIVA EALING. 
 
 105 
 
 ginning to lay. At the end of six days I had taken 
 from them sixty frames of sealed brood and given 
 one to each nucleus, putting empty frames in their 
 places. At the end of the thirteen days, when all 
 the nuclei were found to have laying queens, every 
 one of the other thirty-seven was full of combs, and 
 nearly every comb was full of brood or eggs. Now 
 I must build up the nuclei as rapidly as the good 
 queens would fill the new made comb wth eggs. 
 
 Each nucleus had three frames to begin with ; 
 each had built two combs; to each had been given 
 one from the hives ; hence in each there were now 
 six frames. It would take six frames more to fill 
 them full, or three hundred and sixty frames in all. 
 To meet this demand I had the thirty-five supers 
 each containing twelve frames, which had been used 
 for surplus honey during the white clover and linn 
 harvest. Of these frames one hundred and eight 
 contained the drone comb sorted out when trans- 
 ferring, leaving two hundred and ninety-two frames 
 of good worker comb, all built during that season. 
 Seventy-seven more frames would give me a com- 
 plement for the brood chamber of every hive, both 
 old and new. From the thirty-seven hives I now 
 took one hundred and twenty frames, containing 
 larvae and eggs, and gave two to each nucleus, thus 
 increasing its number to eight. Bees do not often 
 rear brood in the outside frames in a hive, so I took 
 
106 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 the two frames of drone comb which had been built 
 in each nucleus, and put one at the front and one at 
 the rear, leaving the six frames for good worker 
 comb between. The rear half of the frames were 
 then removed back so as to make room for an empty 
 comb in the centre of each nucleus. When this was 
 done, each nucleus had six frames of worker comb 
 containing brood and eggs, two frames of drone 
 comb, one at each end, and the one frame of empty 
 worker comb in the centre, where the young queen 
 would rapidly fill it with eggs. 
 
 The places made vacant in the old hives by taking 
 out frames were filled with two empty frames in each 
 hive, and then frames of nice empty worker comb. 
 The feeding was kept up, but as now there was 
 not so much comb to build, the amount fed was 
 much less. The feeding was done always at dusk, 
 so that the bees might fly abroad by day, and gather 
 whatever honey could be found. They gathered some 
 every day, though the amount of course was small. 
 
 Four days later I took sixty frames of hatching 
 brood from the old hives, then spread the brood and 
 put in empty frames of worker combs. The sixty 
 frames of brood were given to the nuclei, and then 
 those hives also were filled with frames of worker 
 comb. Twenty days after queen rearing was begun, 
 I had sixty new swarms of bees — ninety-seven in 
 all, including the old ones. These swarms were not 
 yet as strong as the old ones had been before the 
 
NUCLEUS SWARMING. 
 
 107 
 
 new ones were begun, yet they were by no means 
 weak, for the old ones had been very strong indeed, 
 and could well give up a portion of their bees, and 
 the queens had been laying vigorously every day. 
 All of them were very strong in brood, in all stages 
 of growth. This brood was hatching every day, and 
 so the number of bees was fast increasing. The 
 increase could have been made in this way, during 
 a season when but little honey was coming in, only 
 by my method of feeding liberally. To rear 
 brood and to build comb both, requires a generous 
 amount of honey. Although the bees had gathered 
 a little every day, I found, when my new swarms 
 were all in order, that I had fed an average of thirty- 
 one pounds of honey per hive, for the whole ninety- 
 seven hives. This honey would have brought me 
 in the market sixteen cents a pound, or $481.12 for 
 the 3007 pounds fed, making each new swarm cost 
 me $8.02. Then the hive and frames for each new 
 swarm cost, including paint and quilt, $1.20. So 
 the total cost of a swarm was $9.22/* But they 
 were in every respect as perfect as bees and hives 
 and frames could be. Italian bees not so good as 
 mine and in hives much inferior, were then selling 
 for $15. per swarm. At this rate there was a clear 
 gain on the sixty swarms of $346.80. In no other 
 branch of farming could I have made, in twenty days, 
 a sum of money nearly as great. 
 
IX. 
 
 COMB HONEY. 
 
 The time for feeding the clover and linn harvest 
 back to the bees, to be stored in combs, was getting 
 very short. Not more than eight days could now 
 be counted on before buckwheat would begin to 
 open, and then every hive must be gathering the 
 rich harvest from its innumerable blooms. The 
 whole ninety-seven swarms were now in condition to 
 engage in storing in combs. To this I had been 
 looking forward, and had procured the necessary 
 supers, feeders, and boxes. August 12th I put 
 boxes on each hive to contain forty pounds of comb- 
 honey, and that afternoon at two o’clock began 
 feeding. To each hive was given a feeder full, not 
 less than seven pounds. Everything had been ar- 
 ranged so that it was only necessary to fill the 
 feeders and hang them into the rear ends of the 
 hives, yet for so many hives this was no small job. 
 
 1 had two tin pails with spouts, holding twelve 
 quarts each. The honey was drawn from the barrels 
 into these pails, and the pails carried, by aid of a 
 108 
 
COMB HONEY. 
 
 IO9 
 
 yoke, to the place among the hives where they were 
 needed. Then resting a pail on a stool, prepared 
 for the purpose, the honey was quickly poured into 
 a feeder and the feeder hung into the hive or super. 
 Work as rapidly as I could, it took me rather more 
 than three minutes to feed a hive. Before all were 
 attended to it was dark, and a very tired young man 
 went to bed that night before eight o’clock. In or- 
 der to stimulate rapid comb building in every box, 
 I had determined to fill the feeders again next morn- 
 ing. At daylight I was at the work, beginning 
 where I had begun the day before. In nearly all 
 the boxes comb was begun. The feeders were 
 nearly empty. They were all filled before nine 
 o’clock. I calculated that it would take the bees 
 about the whole day to empty them this time, but 
 afterwards I fed, in the morning, only about three 
 pounds, so as to leave them a chance to fly out for 
 several hours during the day, but gave a full feed in 
 the evening. This calculation proved in the main 
 correct. On the morning of the fourth day the 
 boxes were nearly all full of comb, and the upper 
 parts of the combs were already sealed. That 
 evening I fed only about two pounds, and then for 
 two days put only a small amount in each feeder. 
 On the morning of the seventh day the honey in the 
 boxes was all nicely sealed. It was only in time, for 
 the buckwheat had begun to open. If I kept feed- 
 
THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 iio 
 
 in g the white clover and linn to the bees, the darker 
 honey which they gathered from the buckwheat 
 would be mixed with the white, and so it would all 
 have to sell for dark honey. Moreover, if the bees 
 were fed in the hive, they would gather but little 
 honey from the fields. The only course was at once 
 to remove the filled boxes, and put in empty frames, 
 to be filled with comb, for storing the harvest from 
 buckwheat and other full flowers. It was a delight 
 to take off the clean boxes, with their store of white 
 honey so beautiful and delicate. I had fed an aver- 
 age of forty-six pounds of extracted honey to each 
 hive. From this the bees had made enough wax 
 for building comb, and had filled the comb with 
 honey, so that each hive yielded forty pounds. It 
 will be remembered that this extracted honey was 
 thin and unripe. It would have brought then in 
 market sixteen cents per pound. The value of the 
 honey fed each hive was therefore $7.36. The 
 forty pounds of comb-honey were worth readily, in 
 clean cash, $10. There was, then, a clear profit of 
 $2.64 per hive for feeding the honey back, and get- 
 ting it stored in combs. Indeed, there was a gain 
 larger than this, though it came in a way entirely 
 unexpected by me. I had calculated that my 
 boxes contained two and a half pounds of comb- 
 honey. On sending them to market, later in the 
 season, I found the custom was to sell such boxes 
 
COMB HONEY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 by gross weight. The wood and glass in each box 
 weighed one-half a pound, hence the gross weight of 
 each box was three pounds. The half pound of 
 glass and wood in the box brought me the worth of 
 a half pound of honey. So that I made a gain of 
 one-fifth in the gross weight of my honey by having 
 it stored in the boxes. The boxes sold for a good 
 deal more than they cost me in the first place. 
 This does not seem right, and yet after looking the 
 matter all over I could not see where I had been at 
 fault. I sent to the wholesale dealer what I rated as 
 two and a half pounds of honey. He sold it, and 
 sent me returns for three pounds. All could see just 
 what they were purchasing, and need not buy unless 
 they chose. I found that my honey was quickly 
 taken from the hands of the wholesale merchants, 
 and that the retailers sold it readily to the con- 
 sumers at somewhat more than the regular market 
 price. It is only an illustration of the fact that 
 people will buy a very nice article, and that it pays 
 to put whatever you have for sale in an attractive 
 shape. 
 
X. 
 
 FALL FLOWERS. 
 
 By my advice Will had sowed on our farm eight 
 acres of buckwheat. It was much more than we 
 usually sowed, but we knew that the grain would 
 give a fair profit on the labor and expense, hence 
 whatever honey the bees should make from it 
 would be clear gain. I had offered to furnish seed 
 to as many of the neighboring farmers within two 
 miles, as would sow a patch of buckwheat on their 
 farms, and had been called upon to furnish thirty-four 
 bushels for this purpose, which had cost me $42.50. 
 There were forty-three acres of buckwheat within 
 two miles of our place. Most of it had been sown 
 a little later than ours, and hence would open later. 
 
 Our buckwheat began to open August 20th. The 
 next day I prepared the supers for the reception of 
 the fall harvest. There was nothing to do but to 
 put in all the frames of drone comb and then fill 
 them up with empty frames. The hives having 
 thus been put in order I could do no more. The 
 bees, the buckwheat, and the other fall-flowers, must 
 do the rest. 
 
 1 12 
 
FALL FLOWERS. 
 
 113 
 
 Buckwheat rapidly opened until great fields of 
 white lay all around us, and the air was densely 
 laden with its heavy perfume. It yielded honey 
 most bountifully, as buckwheat often does in favor- 
 able years , though sometimes it gives scarcely any. 
 The hives were not yet so full of bees as they had 
 been before the new swarms were made, but the 
 brood was rapidly hatching in every one of them. 
 The buckwheat yielded so profusely that they 
 seemed to gather honey as fast as during linn bloom. 
 September 2nd, twelve days after putting on the 
 supers, they were full enough to begin extracting. 
 That day I extracted from twenty hives, aud kept 
 taking twenty a day until all were done. I got an 
 average of fifty-seven pounds per colony, — 5529 
 pounds from the ninety-seven swarms. 
 
 Bees could have had no better pasturage. In 
 addition to the buckwheat there was now a very 
 large quantity of heartsease, a plant resembling 
 smartweed, and often called by that name; but it 
 is not smartweed, as anyone can tell by tasting the 
 leaves. The leaves of smartweed have a very pun- 
 gent, acrid taste ; but the leaves of heartsease are 
 nearly tasteless. From smartweed no honey is 
 gathered, but heartsease is one of the best honey 
 plants. It grew all around me, in every cultivated 
 field, by road-sides, and along fences and streams. 
 Then the swamps and borders of the woods were 
 
THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 1 14 
 
 full of boneset, and goldenrod, and aster, all of 
 which yield much good honey. It was a bewilder- 
 ing array of sweets for the joy of the eager bees. 
 They worked on buckwheat until about eleven 
 o’clock each day, then, if the sun was bright, the 
 flow of honey seemed to cease in buckwheat, and 
 they betook themselves to other flowers, on which 
 they worked until darkness drove them heavily 
 laden to the hives. Bees were getting more abund- 
 ant now, and pasturage was even better than when 
 buckwheat first opened. 
 
 Frosts usually come in my vicinity about the 
 tenth of September. Only a few days more would 
 surely close honey-gathering for the year. I watched 
 the weather with much interest. From the im- 
 mense area of bloom the bees were gathering rapid- 
 ly. Every day of good weather now meant nearly 
 a thousand pounds of honey for my hives. The 
 weather continued delightful, and the hives again 
 grew heavy with their luscious stores. September 
 nth there was danger of a frost. At six o’clock 
 the thermometer stood at 43 F., and the weather 
 was growing colder. If the night continued clear 
 the mercury would be below 32 F. before morning. 
 But happily a change of wind brought propitious 
 clouds, and we escaped. In the morning it was 
 warmer again. Four days more of beautiful 
 weather, then on the afternoon of the fifteenth 
 
FALL FLOWERS, . 
 
 115 
 
 came a sudden change. A north wind set in about 
 four o’clock. The bees rapidly sought the hives. 
 The sky was cloudless. By six o’clock the ther- 
 mometor was down to 37 F. It was now quite cer- 
 tain that we should have frost before morning. 
 
 The clear September night was most inviting. 
 The stars shone out with a pure lustre. The wind 
 had gone down and the trees were silent. I put on 
 a thick coat and strolled out into my city of hives, 
 whose millions of lilliputian workers had given me 
 so many happy hours as the spring and summer and 
 fall had gone by. They had richly repaid all my 
 care. I had studied all their instincts, and had so 
 managed as to adapt every circumstance to their 
 needs. Faithful to those instincts, they had availed 
 themselves of every effort on my part to facilitate 
 their work. Now, on this calm night, had come the 
 end of their gathering from field, and swamp, and 
 forest. I looked at the thermometer which had 
 been hung among the hives. At ten o’clock it 
 stood at 33 F. In that still clear air it would con- 
 tinue falling, and before morning the delicate cryst- 
 als of the merciless frost would blight the bloom far 
 and near. When the morrow’s sun should send 
 down its genial rays, the millions of flowers would 
 hang with faded beauty on lifeless stems, no longer 
 the fairy laboratories for perfecting the nectar^ 
 which my faithful bees should gladly bring to the 
 
Il 6 the blessed bees. 
 
 waiting hives. I walked slowly along the rows of 
 hives and touched them with caressing hand. I put 
 down my ear to catch in its fullness, their deep con- 
 tented roar. I sat down in my favorite seat under 
 a spreading apple-tree, where during the last five 
 months I had so often sat by day and by night, to 
 have silent converse with my speechless friends. 
 All around me, in the dim shadows of the orchard, 
 were the hives ; beyond rose the dark masses of the 
 maple forest ; above shone the silent stars. The 
 months had gone by full of labor, of care, of self- 
 denial, but most rich in experiences, precious to me 
 especially in their lessons of labor and independ- 
 ence. A glad feeling of gratitude welled from my 
 heart to Him whose laws made flowers and bees, 
 and through whose mysterious leadings I had come 
 to this happy work. Surely from Him had come 
 benedictions upon my blessed bees. 
 
 I sat under the tree or walked among the hives 
 until twelve o’clock. Before going to my room I 
 looked again at my thermometer. It stood at 29 F. 
 Already the delicate frost was forming its crystals 
 all over the country. I went to bed with a feeling 
 of release from absorbing care. The five months 
 just passed had been given to constant and laborious 
 attention to the bees. Now the crisis of my work 
 was passed. It only remained to store the honey 
 
FALL FLOWERS . IT 7 
 
 in combs for market, and to prepare my little friends 
 for the winter. 
 
 Next morning I was out at five o'clock. The 
 frost lay thick and white on field and wood. 
 
XI. 
 
 MORE COMB-HONEY. 
 
 THOUGH the frost had cut off the most of the 
 flowers, and honey gathering had nearly ceased, the 
 weather for a month longer would be mostly clear 
 and warm. The nights would often be cool, there 
 would now and then be a stormy day, but on 
 the whole it would be warm enough for the bees to 
 work well in storing honey in the comb. I at once 
 extracted all that was in the supers, and obtained 
 sixty-one pounds per hive, — 6,017 pounds from the 
 ninety-seven hives. This made the whole full har- 
 vest amount to 11,564 pounds. The white clover 
 had all been put in comb before fall harvest. Of 
 the linn harvest there was yet in the barrels 2,893 
 pounds, in all 14,457 pounds, now to be stored in 
 combs. 
 
 On examination I found that the combs in the 
 lower stories, except the two end ones, were about 
 two-thirds full of brood. To have this large amount 
 of brood coming forward at this season was what I 
 especially desired, for the young bees were the ones 
 118 
 
MORE COMB-HONEY. 
 
 1 1 9 
 
 that would have strength to live over winter, and 
 would gather the pollen and early honey, and nurse 
 the growing brood in the spring. But as the lower 
 stories were so full of brood there was not honey 
 enough stored in them to feed the bees during the 
 winter, and also the brood that would be started in 
 the spring, before any honey could be gathered. I 
 calculated that it would take about twenty pounds 
 per hive to supply them, and set aside this amount, 
 1,940 pounds, from the buckwheat honey. This 
 left 12,517 pounds to be stored in boxes for market. 
 
 The boxes were ready, and were at once put on. 
 Two tiers, enough to contain eighty pounds of 
 comb-honey were put on each hive. Then the 
 feeding went on rapidly. It is generally an injury, 
 bo:h to bees and honey, for bees to fly much in 
 search of stores after frosts have killed the flowers. 
 The bees themselves are worked out in their eager 
 search. And as they find scarcely any good honey, 
 they often gather quantities of juice from grapes, 
 from decaying apples, and from cider mills. They 
 will collect, too, the sweet excretions of many spe- 
 cies of plant lice, that are often found in myriads on 
 certain kinds of trees. These unhealthy juices they 
 store in the hive, and then in cold weather they 
 consume this bad food, and being unable to fly out 
 and void their feces, they contract dysentery or 
 “bee-cholera,” and often perish in great numbers 
 
120 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 from this cause alone. By keeping my bees in the 
 hive, during the early fall days, at work building 
 comb and filling it with honey, they would be saved 
 from collecting this poisonous food, and from its 
 fatal consequences in the winter. So I fed them all 
 they would take, and fed them in the morning, so 
 as to keep them from flying out. 
 
 In nine days the boxes were full and the honey 
 sealed. They were taken off and stored in the shop. 
 To thirty-one swarms I had fed only linn honey: to 
 the others buckwheat. I found that all boxes came 
 off in good condition. They were full of honey, 
 and every cell was sealed, so that there was no 
 leaking. After removing the first set of boxes, the 
 bees were given a vacation of five days. I feated 
 that too great an amount of honey, quickly fed to 
 them, might overwork them, and make them lazy. 
 If nothing were fed them for five days they would, 
 it seemed probable, return to work with avidity. 
 
 I had now fed to the hives 8,730 pounds. This 
 left 3,787 pounds — not quite enough to get forty 
 pounds of comb-honey from each of eighty-four 
 hives. But there were one hundred and thirty 
 pounds of honey from apple blossoms still on hand, 
 and I could spare enough from that which had been 
 set aside for the bees, to insure the filling of the 
 boxes. So I put on each of eighty-four hives, 
 boxes for forty pounds, as soon as the “ vacation” 
 
MORE COMB-HONEY. 
 
 121 
 
 was over, and fed again rapidly. The eager and 
 obedient bees responded at once. They worked 
 most industriously, and in eight days more every 
 box was filled. The weather was a little cool, and 
 they did not seal it so readily as at first, but two 
 days later it was sealed. The year’s harvest was 
 stored in combs. 
 
 From maples and apple blossoms the yield had 
 been 2,100 pounds. After swarming time 3,880 
 pounds of white clover and linn had been put in 
 combs, and now again of linn 2,480 pounds. Of 
 buckwheat, and other fall flowers, the yield was 
 8,640 pounds. The product of the year was 17,100 
 pounds of comb-honey, as beautiful as one could 
 wish to see. 15 
 
XII. 
 
 PREPARING FOR WINTER. 
 
 My studies in the literature of bee-keeping had 
 taught me that wintering was a rock upon which 
 the business had often foundered. The bee-keeper 
 has had fair success in securing honey ; his increase 
 of swarms has been sufficient; he goes into winter 
 quarters with a large number of stocks, and has 
 great expectations for the next year. But these 
 expectations are doomed to bitter disappointment. 
 His bees die during the winter and spring. Even 
 his largest swarms dwindle down to a handful, or 
 entirely disappear. From his two or three score 
 stocks, in apparently good condition in the fall, he 
 will have in the spring scarcely a half dozen weak 
 and dispirited ones. He throws up bee-keeping in 
 disgust. 
 
 It was long thought that this state of things could 
 not be helped. Success depended entirely upon 
 “ luck.” Bees wintered well or ill without any par- 
 ticular cause for the one or the other. Not seldom 
 the good farmer still puts his bees into box hives, 
 122 
 
PREPARING FOR WINTER . 
 
 123 
 
 sets them out where grass and weeds soon almost 
 stop up the entrances, allows them to swarm so 
 much as to weaken every stock, and then to go into 
 winter quarters with insufficient and inferior stores. 
 They nearly all die in wintering. Then he com- 
 plains of his “ poor luck/’ But of course there was 
 and is no luck about it. It was foreordained from 
 the foundation of the world that bees so kept should 
 die in winter. Suppose a cow were kept in an open 
 yard during the snows and zero blasts of December, 
 with only a hundred pounds of hay for the month, 
 would she not be dead long before the month was 
 past? Would any body say her death was due to 
 “poor luck?” Would not everybody condemn her 
 owner as a foolish and inhuman man ? If fifty cows 
 were tied in a small unventilated stable, fed only a 
 meagre amount of spoiled hay each day, and al- 
 lowed to wallow for months in their own filth, many 
 of them would surely die before spring, and if any 
 survived, they would be but walking skeletons. 
 Horses, cows, pigs and sheep keep in fat and 
 healthy condition through the winter, when their 
 keepers obey the laws that control the lives of the 
 animals. These laws demand that the animals shall 
 have good food, good shelter and good ventilation. 
 If these conditions are not complied with, the ani- 
 mals will die, or come out sickly in the spring, yet 
 nobody says they die because of the owner’s “ bad 
 
124 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 luck,” but because of his folly in not taking good 
 care of them. Bees will live through the winter, 
 and come out healthy in the spring, if we give them 
 the conditions natural to the bee, if we obey the 
 laws of bee life. 
 
 From all I could learn on the subject by reading 
 and reflection, it seemed that successful wintering 
 depended on certain conditions, which were entirely 
 under my control. 
 
 1. The hives, when winter comes on, should be 
 well stocked with young bees. If brood rearing 
 ceases early in the fall, so that only old bees are in 
 the hive when winter begins, they will naturally die 
 before spring, even if they have good stores, good 
 ventilation and a proper temperature. 
 
 2. The hive should have from twenty-five to thirty 
 pounds of healthy sealed honey. If the stores con- 
 sist largely of juice from grapes and apples, or of 
 the excretions of plant-lice, the bees will surely con- 
 tract disease, and will die a miserable death. Be 
 sure that they have good sealed honey, or if this is 
 impossible, feed them good sugar syrup in time, so 
 that they can seal it in the combs before cold 
 weather. 
 
 3. Often the moisture from the breath of the bees 
 condenses on the sides of the hives, and on the 
 combs, and freezes, so that in cold weather the bees 
 will be almost encased in ice, and in warm weather 
 
PREPARING FOR WINTER. 
 
 125 
 
 will have damp, moldy, unhealthy combs. If there 
 is put over the combs, on the frames, a porous ab- 
 sorbent covering, this will take up the moisture as 
 it arises from the bees, and give the hive sufficient 
 ventilation. 
 
 4. Many people suppose that bees freeze up in 
 the winter; that after cold weather comes they may 
 remain frozen for weeks, or, it may be, months. 
 This is a mistake. Bees that live through the 
 winter do not freeze. A frozen bee is as effectually 
 dead as a frozen human being. As cold weather 
 comes on the bees gather in a compact mass in the 
 centre of the hive. Their honey supplies them with 
 food. This food is the fuel that feeds the little 
 vital fire in each of them. By their being in a dense 
 cluster this heat is kept from radiating, and thus 
 the mass of bees is kept above freezing temperature, 
 however cold may be the winter, even in northern 
 latitudes. The wise bee-keeper can do much to 
 help his little friends in their battle against winter. 
 He can give them good, close hives; can surround 
 these hives with non-conducting material, and so 
 aid in confining the heat generated by the bees ; 
 and can put the hives into a suitable store-house, 
 or cellar, where he can keep the temperature con- 
 stantly at about forty degrees. Bees so cared for 
 will winter perfectly, and come out in the spring 
 healthy, active, strong. As they will keep rearing 
 
126 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 a small amount of brood all winter, they will proba- 
 bly come out stronger in the spring than they were 
 in the fall. 
 
 Bearing these principles in mind, I prepared for 
 winter. First the hives were looked over, and two 
 of the combs, having no brood, and the smallest 
 amount of honey, were taken out. In nearly every 
 case they were the end combs in front and rear. 
 The feeders were then brought into use again. 
 This time they were hung in the lower stories, in 
 the rear end. In each of the ten combs left in the 
 hive, there was some honey in the top part, about 
 two pounds to a comb, on an average. I fed to 
 each hive twelve pounds of honey, which the bees 
 quickly put in the combs, and capped a few days 
 later. The feeders were taken out as soon as the 
 feeding was done, and a close division board put in. 
 Then two narrow strips of board, one-half inch thick, 
 were laid one-half inch apart, lengthwise, of the 
 hives on top of the frames. The duck covers, which 
 had been used, during the summer, were left off, 
 and the thick comforts, made by quilting woolen 
 carpet between common muslin, were put on. This 
 gave to every hive a warm absorbent cover. Im- 
 mediately under the cover, between the two strips 
 of board, there was the clear half-inch passage, from 
 end to end of the hive. As this passage was at the 
 top of the hive, where the warm air collects, it would 
 
PREPARING FOR WINTER. 
 
 1 27 
 
 give the bees safe and easy access to every comb, 
 even in the coldest weather. Then, putting on the 
 lids of the hives, they were in readiness to take to 
 the cellar as soon as the cold weather of the last of 
 November should come. 
 
 Attention was then given to the cellar. This had 
 always been dry, and safe from frost. The experi- 
 ence of the past winter proved that bees could be 
 wintered in it safely. Shelves were put up so that 
 rows of hives could be set so as to come one foot 
 under the floor above. By putting them so high 
 above the cellar bottom they were kept from what 
 ever damp unhealthy air there might be near the 
 bottom. The shelves were supported by standards 
 resting on the cellar bottom. It would have been 
 much easier to have sustained the shelves by hang- 
 ing them from the sleepers of the floor above, but 
 if sustained in this way every footstep on the floor 
 would have communicated a slight jar to the hives, 
 and so the bees would have been constantly dis- 
 turbed. By having the shelves sustained by sup- 
 ports resting on the cellar floor, this danger of jar- 
 ring, and consequent agitation of the bees, was 
 avoided. The shelves were so arranged that when 
 the hives should be put in, I could have instant ac- 
 cess to every one of them. 
 
 The windows of the cellar were darkened by tack- 
 ing old carpet upon the sash, both inside and out. 
 
128 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 This also served to protect them sufficiently against 
 frost in all ordinary weather. Some bundles of 
 straw were prepared for piling outside against ex- 
 treme cold weather. The windows were on hinges, 
 so as to open readily. In warm winter weather 
 they could be thrown open at night to ventilate 
 the cellar, and to cool it down to about thirty-eight 
 degrees. A ventilating flue was put in at each side 
 also, in case they should be needed in extreme cold 
 weather. These flues were simply square wood 
 pipes put at the top of the cellar walls just under 
 the upper floor, going through the walls, and turn- 
 ing up at a right angle. They could be opened and 
 shut instantly. The inner doorway to the cellar 
 was from the kitchen. By keeping this doorway 
 open in extreme cold weather, there would be some 
 circulation of air between cellar and kitchen, and in 
 this way the cellar be somewhat warmed by heat 
 from the kitchen stove. 
 
 The 1 8th of November the weather became cold. 
 The thermometer sunk to twenty-five. It was clear 
 and dry. Making a hand-barrow large enough to 
 carry two hives at a time, Will and I carried them 
 in, and ranged them in order on the shelves. Every 
 hive was numbered, and its stand in the orchard 
 had the same number, so that in carrying them out 
 no confusion need be made by placing hives on 
 wrong stands. It is not the intention of this record 
 
PREPARING FOR WINTER. 
 
 129 
 
 to enter upon the work of my second year, but I 
 will say here that the bees wintered most excel- 
 lently. Not a hive was lost. All came out bright 
 and strong. The hives had mainly young bees in 
 the fall ; they had plenty of pure honey; they were 
 kept at an equable temperature of about forty de- 
 grees ; they had pure dry air. With such condi- 
 tions bees will always winter well. Not because of 
 “ good luck,” but because it is the law of nature. 
 
XIII. 
 
 MARKETING. 
 
 After the hives and the cellar were prepared for 
 winter, attention was turned to marketing the 
 honey. For several weeks I had been sending out 
 letters of inquiry as to best methods of sending to 
 market, best markets, best commission merchants, 
 etc. From all I could learn it seemed that a crop 
 of honey as large as mine, and put up in such beau- 
 tiful shape, would find the best market in New 
 York. Moreover, I intended to be a large producer 
 of honey in future years, and it was wise to begin 
 at once to establish a reputation in the largest 
 market, as a producer of a most superior article. It 
 was decided that the honey should be sent to New 
 York. 
 
 The only means of sending it was by rail. I 
 feared that the jar on the railroads might break 
 some of the combs, and my beautiful honey might 
 reach market in a mussy mess. I learned, by read- 
 ing, that large crops of honey were sent safely by 
 rail from California to New York. If it went safely 
 130 
 
MARKETING, 
 
 131 
 
 from California, then surely it ought to go safely 
 from Michigan. I searched all the journals for 
 hints as to packing. I sent letters to the promin- 
 ent commission merchants in several of the large 
 cities, asking how the honey they received was 
 packed. I wrote, also, to some large honey pro- 
 ducers, East and West, asking how they packed 
 honey for transportation on the cars. From these 
 different sources of information I obtained hints 
 that enabled me to perfect a plan for packing the 
 boxes of honey in crates, and then packing the 
 crates in a car, in such a way that all would go 
 safely over so great a distance. First, crates were 
 to be made. I took my accurate measurements and 
 made a crate, by hand, of the right size to contain 
 sixteen of my honey boxes. Then this crate was 
 taken to the mill at Howard, and materials ordered 
 to be cut out for 450 crates. This material, all 
 nicely cut out ready for nailing, cost me twenty-six 
 cents per crate. Into the front and rear sides of 
 each crate a long narrow pane of glass, running two- 
 thirds the length of the crate, was fitted. This 
 glass, cut to size, cost me seven cents per crate. 
 Will and I made them in the shop at home, on the 
 bright days during the last of October, after all the 
 farm work was done, and every arrangement had 
 been perfected for wintering the bees. The work 
 was light, clean, pleasant. We had both acquired 
 
132 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 sufficient skill to work with some rapidity, and could 
 each make thirty crates a day, without working 
 hard. 
 
 When the crates were done, preparations were 
 made for packing them in the cars in such a way 
 that the honey would not be injured by jarring. 
 A quantity of strong, durable sacking was pro- 
 cured, cut into proper sizes, sewed up into large 
 bags, or cushion-ticks, and filled with oat straw. 
 Then, with a large, long needle, such as upholster- 
 ers use, I “ tied ” them so that they looked like long 
 narrow mattresses. When done they were six feet 
 in length, as wide as the crates were long, and fully 
 eight inches thick. There were a good many of 
 them, and they made a formidable pile, stacked on 
 the barn floor after they were filled. My neighbors 
 had become somewhat more cautious in their criti- 
 cisms, since the amount of my honey harvest had 
 been noised around ; but one of them could not 
 help saying that “ That John Allen is a singular fel- 
 ler. First he made quilts for all his bees, and now 
 I do believe he's goin’ to put’em to sleep for the 
 winter, in straw beds. He's got a couple of wagon 
 loads of beds in the barn, and he jest keeps his 
 mouth shet as tight's a drum about 'em. Guess 
 he'll be a knittin' stockin's for 'em next." 
 
 Only one item now remained before I could be- 
 gin packing the honey in the crates. I wanted to 
 
MARKETING. 
 
 133 
 
 make my honey advertise my business as widely as 
 possible. To this end it would be wise to put a 
 neat label on every box of honey, and on every 
 crate, so that wherever boxes and crates were seen, 
 they would state the producer's name and location. 
 I classified the honey into four grades, and named 
 the grades “ Apple Blossoms," “ White Clover," 
 “ Linn," and “ Fall Flowers." These names desig- 
 nated, as accurately as any I could think of, the ex- 
 act sources whence the honey was gathered, and 
 they were attractive names, that would call up, in 
 the minds of all, visions of the beautiful country in 
 the time of apple bloom, — 
 
 “One boundless- blush, one white-empurpled shower 
 
 Of mingled blossoms ; ” — 
 
 of the starry carpet of green and white which in 
 June the clover spreads over hills and valleys; of 
 the honey-dripping lindens, from among whose 
 blooming branches the eager bees * send down a 
 soothing murmur, that lulls one like the perfume of 
 the lotus ; and of the wild forest nooks, and lonely 
 swamps, and brambly hill-sides that assume such 
 gorgeous hues when golden-rod, and asters, and 
 coreopsis fling out their brilliant banners in August 
 and September. 
 
 A good name for my place would also help to ad- 
 vertise my business. To state the kind of honey, 
 the name of the producer, and his location on every 
 
134 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 box and crate would soon make the grades of honey 
 and my name and place familiar, and so would se- 
 cure me a ready market at good prices. To hit 
 upon a good name for my apiary was not so easy as 
 it had been to give suitable names to the grades of 
 honey. The name must be short, and suggestive 
 of the business, and yet not so strongly suggestive 
 as to be in bad taste. “ Maplegrove,” “ Linclen- 
 wald,” “ Linnswick,” “ Clovernook, ,, “ Cloverfield,” 
 all these were good, sufficiently suggestive, yet not 
 too much so. I called a family council to choose 
 from among these the name of our home. To use 
 a good Quaker phrase, the spirit moved us to agree 
 upon “ Linnswick.” Then I went to Howard and 
 procured properly printed labels for boxes and 
 crates. 
 
 Then packing was begun. First upon one side 
 of each box was neatly pasted a label, setting forth 
 that it contained white-clover honey, or whatever 
 kind, made by Italian bees, in Linnswick Apiary, 
 near Howard City, Michigan; John Allen, pro- 
 prietor. Sixteen of these boxes were then packed 
 in a crate, just filling it, and showing the beautiful 
 honey through the glass in the sides, the lid was 
 screwed on, and then a large label having the same 
 statement was put on each end. As fast as ready 
 the crates were piled on the barn floor ready for 
 loading on the wagons, to be taken to Howard. 
 
MARKETING . 
 
 135 
 
 It was all to be packed in a single car, hence it 
 would be best to take it all to Howard at one trip. 
 I engaged nine of the neighbors to come with their 
 large wagons, taking special pains to hire those who 
 had had most to say of my youthful folly, and of 
 my new-fangled notions about bees. The teams were 
 on hand at five o’clock in the morning, and load- 
 ing up was begun. Now came the first use for the 
 mysterious “ straw beds,” which had given so much 
 concern to some of the neighbors. Two of these 
 were laid side by side against the front end of the 
 wagon-box, with their ends running up against the 
 end of the box until the edge of the ticks reached 
 the top of the box, against which they were nailed. 
 Then others were laid on the bottom of the box, 
 and fastened against the sides, so as to make a thick 
 straw cushion all around. Then the first crates 
 were placed snugly against the cushioned front end, 
 resting of course on the cushions on the bottom. 
 In this way the honey was protected from sudden 
 jars on the road to Howard. So wagon after wag- 
 on was filled, until in each there was more than 
 seventeen hundred pounds of honey. A number of 
 cushions, not needed for protecting the crates in 
 the wagons, were placed on top of the loads, to be 
 used first in preparing the car for receiving the 
 honey. 
 
136 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 The men had been bidden to come without their 
 breakfasts, and now all went into the rough but 
 pleasant kitchen of our large log-house, where my 
 mother had used her skill in preparing a most 
 savory breakfast. As we ate, not a few questions 
 were asked me about bees and honey, and my 
 methods of managing. Believing that any attempt 
 on their part to keep bees would surely result in 
 failure, from their not informing themselves thor- 
 oughly as to methods, and not attending carefully 
 to the bees, I allowed them to mystify themselves 
 with the belief that I had some profound secrets to 
 which my success was due. Of course I did not 
 tell them so. Indeed, I denied it strongly. But 
 my denial only made them assert it more positively. 
 The capacity of the average man for humbugging 
 himself is simply amazing. Those good men be- 
 lieve to this day, that I have some powerful charms 
 for managing bees. They will, perhaps, read this 
 book out of curiosity, to know what young Allen 
 says, and will smile with a superior look and say, 
 “ Allen has written a book, but then, you know, he 
 has not told his secrets.” If I were to charge them 
 fifty dollars each, for some utterly useless “ charm ” 
 or “secret,” they would pay it willingly, and think 
 it cheap. 
 
 After breakfast I mounted my wagon and started 
 off, at the head of the procession of ten teams. 
 
MARKETING. 
 
 137 
 
 Those heavily-laden lumber wagons, each driven by 
 a brown-fisted farmer, were for me a triumphal caval- 
 cade. They were the irrefutable witness, to the 
 whole neighborhood, that “ Allen’s queer notions ” 
 about bees had produced very substantial results. 
 Before noon we reached Howard. The station-agent 
 had engaged to have a car ready, and we drove to it 
 at once. I had brought hammer and nails from 
 home. Straw cushions were held against the forward 
 end of the car so that they just came down to the 
 floor, and nailed in that position. It took but a 
 moment to cushion the whole end. Then a cushion 
 was put against each side so that they just touched 
 the end ones, and others laid across from side to 
 side on the bottom of the car. Then a tier of 
 crates was piled on these bottom cushions, with their 
 ends snuggly pushed against the cushioned end of 
 the car. As fast as a wagon was emptied its cushions 
 were used on the sides and bottom of the car. I 
 packed every crate in the car myself. I had thought 
 out my system of packing, and was determined it 
 should succeed if care could command success. ^ A 
 farmer, near Howard, had been engaged to have on 
 hand a load of oat-straw. This was made into small 
 bundles and closely thrust into every vacant place, 
 every corner and crevice, so that, when the last crate 
 was placed, my year’s harvest was closely cushioned 
 in straw all around. I could see no reason for its 
 not reaching New York in safety. 
 
133 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 It was four o’clock when the work was done. 
 The agent locked the car. In a few minutes the 
 freight-train left, and I saw the harvest into which 
 had gone so much of thought and labor from my- 
 self, so much of labor and instinct from my friends, 
 the bees, recede from the station towards the far- 
 distant market in the great city. Soon the train 
 passed from sight around a curve. I started for 
 home at a somewhat rapid gait, the line of empty 
 wagons making a noisy but merry rattling over the 
 hard road. Mother had engaged to have supper for 
 us at half-past six. Before that hour we were on 
 hand. A meal had been prepared to which the 
 hungry farmers devoted themselves with silent as- 
 siduity for a quarter of an hour. Then each received 
 his pay, three dollars and a half, and went home. 
 
 It had been a hard day’s work. For me a day of 
 suppressed but intense excitement. When the men 
 were gone I sat down in the easy chair before the 
 great fire-place in mother’s room. Will and Lucy 
 soon joined me, and mother came in when she had 
 attended to the evening work. Something of my 
 deep interest had communicated itself to them. 
 They said nothing of the honey nor of the summer’s 
 work, but I knew that their thoughts often went 
 with mine to the laden car in the east-bound train, 
 and that with me they not unfrequently dwelt upon 
 our work in the future. We played some games. 
 
MARKETING. 
 
 1 39 
 
 The apples, and nuts, and cider were brought in. 
 Will read to us the essay on “ Success," from Emer- 
 son's Society and Solitude which had come a few days 
 before. Mother sang some cheerful ballads, the 
 first time since father's death that she had given us 
 the sweet old songs. When I rose to go up-stairs, 
 her “good night,, my son," was sympathetic with a 
 tone of courage. 
 
XIV. 
 
 DEBIT AND CREDIT. 
 
 The next morning I sat down at my desk and be- 
 gan to make out the balance sheet. Some time 
 would elapse before I could receive returns from 
 New York, but all other accounts could be arranged, 
 and when the returns for the honey came, they 
 could be readily entered, and the results of the 
 year’s work quickly known. 
 
 The accounts were first to be arranged in two 
 classes. Into the first class must be put everything 
 which had been consumed in the work of the year, 
 everything which might be called current expenses. 
 Into the second class was to be put all expenditures 
 which were properly considered a permanent invest- 
 ment in the business. The accounts had been care- 
 fully kept, and the work of arranging them was 
 easy. 
 
 As the work had grown quite unexpectedly on my 
 hands, large expenses had been incurred, in the 
 hurry of the season, of which no minute record 
 has been made in the foregoing pages: honey- 
 140 
 
DEBIT AND CREDIT . 
 
 141 
 
 boxes, more frames and hives, and barrels, nails, 
 paint, duck, packing-crates, straw cushions, etc., etc. 
 The team had been used on various trips after bees, 
 lumber, hives, and barrels, going to Howard on 
 business, drawing honey to the station. I found the 
 team had been used in the service of the bees six- 
 teen full days. My own labor in connection with 
 the team, will be considered in another item. For 
 team I made an entry of two dollars per day. For 
 teams to draw honey to the station I had paid 
 $31.50. My own labor I valued at the rate I could 
 have received for teaching. The previous winter I 
 had received $40 per month and board. Board in 
 my neighborhood among farmers was worth $10 per 
 month, making my wages $50 per month. I knew 
 that I could have got this sum for teaching even in 
 summer, by going to the larger villages in the south- 
 ern part of the state. For seven months my time 
 had been given mainly to the bees, Will had given 
 some labor to them, but this was offset by labor 
 which I had done on the farm from time to time, 
 when not needed among the bees. 
 
 A large item of current expenses was the honey- 
 boxes, of which 6900 had been bought. They 
 would be sold with the honey. But the packing 
 crates, and the straw cushions would-be returned, 
 and could be used in coming years, hence they must 
 
142 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 be considered an investment. The expense account 
 was finally arranged as follows : 
 
 6900 honey boxes, at $3.50 per 100 
 
 . 
 
 . $241.50 
 
 Expressage on same 
 
 . 
 
 4.50 
 
 Labor of my own team 
 
 , . 
 
 . 32.00 
 
 Labor of teams drawing honey 
 
 • 
 
 31.50 
 
 Labor of self, 7m. at $50 per m. 
 
 • 
 
 . 350.00 
 
 34 bushels of buckwheat 
 
 . 
 
 42.50 
 
 7,000 labels for boxes 
 
 . 
 
 35.00 
 
 1,500 labels for crates . 
 
 . 
 
 . 6.00 
 
 Straw for packing in car 
 
 . 
 
 3.00 
 
 Stationery and Postage 
 
 • 
 
 . 2.00 
 
 All other items were properly put 
 
 $748.00 
 
 in the invest- 
 
 ment account, for all were on hand in the shape of 
 
 tools, materials, hives, or bees. 
 
 This account stood 
 
 thus : 
 
 Sundries, (p. 42) ... 
 
 
 . $358.89 
 
 Fence, (p. 46) ... 
 
 
 39-98 
 
 Sundries, (p. 51) 
 
 
 16.95 
 
 Expressage on Italians 
 
 
 3.00 
 
 800 frames, at $5.00 per 100 
 
 
 . 40.00 
 
 100 feeders, at 30c. 
 
 
 30.00 
 
 2 tin pails, at 90c. 
 
 
 1.80 
 
 Expressage on frames and feeders 
 
 
 3.25 
 
 18 barrels, at $1.25 
 
 
 22.50 
 
 18 honey gates, at 50c. 
 
 
 9.00 
 
 Material for 50 hives, at 38c, 
 
 
 . 19.00 
 
 200 tin rabbets, at i^c. 
 
 
 3.00 
 
 3 gallons paint at $2.00 
 
 
 6.00 
 
 Oil, turpentine, putty, 
 
 
 1.40 
 
 5 yards duck, at 20c. 
 
 
 . 1. 00 
 
 Paint brush .... 
 
 . 
 
 •35 
 
DEBIT AND CREDIT. 
 
 143 
 
 Nails, $1.15 
 
 Cloth, for straw cushions . . . 19.40 
 
 Sewing same . . . . . . 2.00 
 
 450 packing crates, at 33c. . . . 148.50 
 
 Sugar, for feeding in the Spring . . 8.64 
 
 The 17 hives of bees left by my father . 85.00 
 
 $830.81 
 
 At the end of two weeks a letter came from the 
 commission merchants. 
 
 New York, November i$tk, 18 — 
 
 John Allen, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir y 
 
 Your consignment of honey just received in good 
 order. We have seldom received so large a quantity from one grower 
 in such good shape. We shall be able in a few days to return you 
 the highest market price. 
 
 Truly Yours, 
 
 Barton & Grey. 
 
 Three days later came another letter. 
 
 New York, November 16 th, 18 — 
 
 John Allen, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir , 
 
 Herewith we inclose to you draft on the Park Bank 
 for $3,744.52, in full for honey sold, as follows : 
 
 2520 lbs. 
 
 “ Apple Blossoms,” at 19c. 
 
 $ 478.80 
 
 3504 " 
 
 “ White Clover,” at 24c. 
 
 840.96 
 
 4128 “ 
 
 “Linn,” at 24c. 
 
 990.72 
 
 10368 “ 
 
 “ Fall Flowers,” at 18c. 
 
 1866.24 
 
 
 
 4176.72 
 
 Less freight, drayage and commission, 
 
 432.20 
 
 
 
 $3,744-52 
 
144 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 Your honey took the highest price. You will observe that the 
 boxes were weighed and sold with the honey, which increased the 
 weight of each box one-half a pound. We have this day shipped to 
 you the cushion-ticks, emptied of straw, as per order. The empty 
 crates will be returned soon. We hope to receive your consignments 
 in future. Truly Yours, 
 
 Barton & Grey. 
 
 Subtracting the current expenses from the gross 
 returns gave me a net cash income of $2,966.52. 
 The investment in the business was $830.81, hence 
 I had a clear cash gain of 360 per cent . on the in- 
 vestment. But in addition to this cash income 
 there was a large gain from increase and improve- 
 ment of stock. I had begun the season with thirty- 
 seven swarms, including the one Italian. Estimat- 
 ing the seventeen swarms, left by my father, at 
 $5.00 a swarm, these thirty-seven were worth, before 
 being put into the new hives in the spring, $191. 
 I had improved these bees by the introduction of 
 Italian queens, and by transferring to better hives 
 and frames, so that the thirty-six original black 
 stocks were now pure Italians, and in a most excel- 
 lent hive. I had added, also, sixty stocks of pure 
 Italians to my number. These Italians of my rear- 
 ing were perfectly pure. No better bees were ever 
 bred. Italian bees no better than mine, and in 
 hives inferior to mine, were then selling at $15 per 
 swarm. In order to be on the safe side I estimated 
 the improvement in the thirty-six original stocks at 
 
DEBIT AND CREDIT. 
 
 145 
 
 $5.00 each, — $180 in all. The sixty new stocks I 
 put at $10 each, — $600. This made a gain in stock 
 of $780. Adding the cash gain to this makes the 
 whole gain $3776.72. There was to show for this, 
 either cash on hand, or bees worth more than their 
 estimated value. Dividing this whole gain by the 
 amount of the investment gave a gain of 454 per 
 cent, on the investment. Prof. Cook had said the 
 gain was often 500 per cent., and I had read similar 
 accounts in the journals. My gain gave me satisfac- 
 tion, even if it was smaller than some reported. 
 
XV. 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 In looking over this record of my first year's work 
 it will be best for all to keep in mind certain facts, 
 that have an important bearing upon the success 
 attained. 
 
 i. I learned the theory of bee-keeping as thor- 
 oughly as a most earnest student could learn it from 
 books and bee-journals. Nothing, of any real value, 
 that had been printed on the subject of modern bee- 
 keeping, was neglected. Then I picked out some 
 of the most successful bee-keepers, and carefully 
 studied every item that had come from them in re- 
 gard to their work. I studied their method until I 
 became imbued with their spirit. Thus I learned 
 how they operated, and was able to begin my own 
 work with a carefully considered system, based on 
 the practice of intelligent men who had made bee- 
 keeping a success. 
 
 2. The theory thus learned I applied to practice, 
 not in the spirit of slavish copying, but with con- 
 stant observation, and a readiness to adapt myself 
 146 
 
CONSIDERA TIONS. 
 
 147 
 
 and my practice to the emergencies of the case. 
 Having a thorough knowledge of the structure and 
 instincts of the bee, I had a rational basis for judg- 
 ments as to the probabilities of success or failure 
 from any methods of work. 
 
 3. I was constantly among the bees. One of the 
 neighbors said he “ guessed that John Allen jest 
 slept with the bees, for he always saw him around 
 the hives the last thing at night, and the first thing 
 in the morning.” I was always working among the 
 bees, or observing them. Observing I found just as 
 profitable as working, for it led to the best methods 
 of work. 
 
 4. Early in the season I obtained young, strong, 
 prolific queens. When honey was coming in these 
 queens would lay rapidly. When no honey was 
 coming in the hives were fed enough to keep the 
 queens laying. By moving combs apart, about 
 every second day in the early part of the season, and 
 inserting an empty comb in the center, I gave the 
 queens abundance of empty cells, in which to de- 
 posit eggs, in the central and warmest parts of the 
 hives. 
 
 5. The use of the extractor early in the season 
 also kept the cells empty so that the queen had 
 plenty of room to do her best. Thus when the 
 second stories were put on, nearly every comb in 
 the lower stories was full of brood. Hence, as the 
 
143 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 bees had little chance to store honey in the lower 
 stories, they began at once to work in the second 
 stories. Then as the brood hatched in the lower 
 stories the queens could just about keep the cells, 
 so made vacant, supplied with eggs. In this way I 
 reared an immense number of bees. A queen lay- 
 ing from 2,000 to 3,000 eggs a day soon has a very 
 large number of workers. 
 
 6. By having the young queens, by using the 
 extractor, and by putting on the second stories at 
 the right time, I kept the bees from swarming, 
 hence every colony was in the strongest and best 
 condition for work when the honey season came. 
 
 7. By the frequent use of the extractor, during a 
 flow of honey, the bees were stimulated to the 
 greatest efforts. Finding all their stores taken from 
 them they redoubled their industry in order to make 
 good their loss. Thus a large quantity of honey 
 was obtained. 
 
 8. By feeding this extracted honey back to the 
 bees, during times when no honey could be gather- 
 ed, I kept them employed in storing it in comb, in 
 such shape as to secure the highest market price. 
 By extracting frequently, when honey could be 
 gathered, I secured a large number of pounds. By 
 feeding this honey back to the bees at times when 
 otherwise they must have been idle, I obtained this 
 honey in nice comb, in good shape for market. 
 
CONS ID ERA TIONS. 
 
 149 
 
 9. By the system of nucleus-swarming not one of 
 
 the hives was without a laying queen for more than 
 two days, except the two which were used for rear- 
 ing queen-cells. It was only when introducing 
 Italian Queens to black stocks, that any hive was 
 without a queen even for two days. Only two hives 
 were needed for rearing queen-cells. When just 
 ready to hatch, these cells were given to nuclei. 
 Here they hatched. As soon as they were fertilized 
 and began to lay, the nuclei were rapidly built up 
 by help of brood and bees from the strong hives. 
 In this way there was neither hive nor nucleus that 
 was without a laying queen any longer than was 
 absolutely necessary. ^ 
 
 10. The location of my apiary was most excellent. 
 The willows, soft maples, sugar maples, and apples, 
 gave good early pasturage. The profusion of white 
 clover, linn, buckwheat and other fall-flowers, gave 
 the bees a chance to revel in a wilderness of sweets, 
 in summer and fall. 
 
 11. The weather, for the whole season was good 
 for gathering honey. Cold, rainy days in the spring 
 often make the harvest from apple blossoms almost 
 nothing; too much rain or too much drouth injures 
 the flow from white clover ; sometimes, for what 
 reason is unknown, the linn secretes scarcely any 
 honey ; various circumstances often make the fall 
 harvest exceedingly light. But my first year was 
 one calculated to give delight to every bee-keeper. 
 
THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 150 
 
 If these eleven considerations are borne in mind, 
 my first year’s work will be seen to have been no 
 more successful than might be expected. I had 
 simply been able to take advantage of the condi- 
 tions of success provided by nature. 
 
 As this book may fall into the hands of some who 
 will become interested in the subject, and desire to 
 keep bees, either on a small or a large scale, it is, 
 perhaps, best to call their attention to some further 
 considerations. 
 
 12. Those who have not examined the subject 
 have no conception of the difference between keep- 
 ing bees in the old box-hives and keeping them in 
 moveable comb-hives, and by aid of the honey- 
 extractor, artificial queen-rearing, and nucleus- 
 swarming. It is as great a difference as that be- 
 tween making cloth by the old process of hand- 
 carding, hand-spinning, and hand-weaving, and mak- 
 ing it by help of all the modern machinery. 
 
 13. To keep bees by the new methods requires in- 
 telligence and energy. Only intelligent men and 
 women can learn the structure and instincts of the 
 bee, and then wisely adapt the management to the 
 structure and instincts. It requires energy, for only 
 by energetic industry can the bee-keeper be perfectly 
 prepared to reap the harvest of honey when it 
 comes ; only by energetic industry can he prepare 
 his bees for winter, and winter them without loss. 
 
CONSIDERA TIONS. 
 
 151 
 
 With this intelligence and industry the bee-keeper 
 has an occupation as pleasant, as certain, and as 
 profitable as almost any business that can be named. 
 
 14. Bee-keeping is a business which can be de- 
 veloped to a very large extent indeed. It may be 
 made a great industry like grain-growing and stock- 
 raising. There are but few neighborhoods in the 
 whole country where bees enough are kept to 
 gather the honey which the flowers of field, forest, 
 orchard, and swamp now produce. Prof. Cook, of 
 the Michigan Agricultural College, says that at a 
 low estimate each township in the State of Michigan 
 could produce every year honey worth $1,000. Ex- 
 tending this calculation over the whole country makes 
 the honey-producing capacities of the Union more 
 than $23,500,000 a year. I know that there are now 
 not a few bee-keepers, who have from 50 to 200 
 hives, who realize not less than a thousand dollars 
 a year from their bees. These men work with intel- 
 ligence and energy. Let similar intelligence and 
 energy be given to the business, by a dozen men in 
 every township in the Union, and the honey pro- 
 duct would be immense, giving profitable work to 
 large numbers, and a healthful, delicious, and beau- 
 tiful article of food to the whole world. 16 
 
 15. The losses from wintering, from the bee-moth, 
 and from disease, have, hitherto, served to make the 
 business very uncertain. This uncertainty is fast 
 
152 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 disappearing. In my own experience I have found 
 no trouble. Wintering bees safely, depends upon 
 conditions which the bee-keeper can easily secure. 
 There is no more difficulty or danger in wintering a 
 hive of bees than in wintering a cow. Know the 
 conditions upon which the life of the bee depends, 
 then comply with those conditions. This is the 
 whole secret. These conditions can be known, and 
 can be complied with. They are now known and 
 complied with by not a few intelligent bee-keepers. 
 Those who have seen dozens of weak swarms of 
 bees, in the old box-hives, devastated by the moth, 
 suppose that the moth is a formidable enemy. 
 Again my own experience enables me to say, posi- 
 tively, that the moth need not be feared. Give the 
 bees plain hives that have no lurking-places for 
 moths and grubs, keep the hives strong in bees, and 
 they will defend themselves. This is the experience 
 of all intelligent bee-keepers. Disease among bees 
 has been, in some cases, a great scourge. But 
 remedies have been discovered, so that if disease ap- 
 pears it can be controlled. Prudence and energy 
 can usually prevent disease from appearing. 
 
 1 6 . “ But the stings, how about the stings ? They 
 are what we fear most.” Well, until you learn 
 “ how to do it ” you will get stung somewhat. It is 
 the ordeal of initiation to the fraternity of success- 
 ful bee-keepers. If one begins carefully, always 
 
CONSIDER A TIONS. 
 
 153 
 
 knows what he wants to do, has everything prepared 
 to do what he wants, and then works cautiously so 
 as not to irritate the bees, he will get stung very 
 little. In a very short time he will have no fear of 
 stings at all, and will get stung very seldom. 
 
 1 7. Bee-keepers will always be of two classes. 
 First, there will be those who will keep a few swarms 
 for pleasure and profit, but whose main business is 
 something else. There are very large numbers of 
 men and women, in country, village, or city, who 
 could keep a few swarms of bees, and who could de- 
 rive from the care of them health, recreation, and a 
 small profit. Let such get a book on bee-culture 
 that is up with the times, subscribe for a good jour- 
 nal devoted to bee-culture, get a swarm of bees, and 
 go to work. They will find the health and pleasure 
 that always come from an avocation that takes the 
 mind from the regular work, and they will get 
 enough profit to pay them for their time. 
 
 18. The second class of bee-keepers will be those 
 who make it their principal or only business, who 
 follow it for a livelihood. There are not a few who 
 already do this, and the number is increasing every 
 year. There is at present no branch of rural in- 
 dustry that offers better chances for success to the 
 intelligent, energetic man or woman. Begin slowly, 
 learn the business, advance surely. Soon a health- 
 ful and delightful business can be built up, which 
 
154 
 
 THE BLESSED BEES . 
 
 will give a fair income. There will be some who 
 will go into the business largely, as I have done. 
 There are now, in different parts of the country, 
 many men who number their hives by the hundred, 
 a few who number them by the thousand. To fol- 
 low the business with success, in this way, demands 
 the same business qualities that command success in 
 other callings. 1 * 
 
 19. Every person who begins bee-keeping must 
 not expect as great success as I had the first year. 
 There are very few who will study the business as I 
 did ; there are very few who will care for their bees 
 as attentively as I did ; there are very few who can 
 secure locations as favorable as mine ; it is not always 
 that the season is as good as was my first year. 
 That, when the conditions are as favorable, a success 
 as great as mine can always be achieved, I am 
 thoroughly convinced. I11 the notes to this volume 
 I have given the testimony of others who corroborate 
 my experience. 
 
 20. Possibly I may, in future, give some account 
 of my subsequent work, which will show even a 
 larger success. I will only say here that by supply- 
 ing the bees with continuous pasturage, from early 
 in the spring until frost in the fall, a very large yield 
 of honey may be received. Let the bee-keeper se- 
 cure a location where the natural pasturage is good, 
 then let him cultivate, on a somewhat extensive 
 
CONSIDERA TIONS. 
 
 155 
 
 scale, plants which will bloom in the times when 
 natural pasturage fails, keep every hive very strong in 
 bees, and he may receive from ten to twenty pounds 
 of honey per day from each hive, for several months 
 in succession. 
 
 21. In spite of my warning there will be some 
 who will rush into bee-keeping, expecting to get 
 rich in a year or two, without much hard work. It 
 was so with fruit-growing. People became wild, and 
 expected to make a fortune in a short time from an 
 acre or two of strawberries. Of course they were 
 disappointed. So every person, who expects to get 
 rich quickly by keeping a few bees, will fail. Money 
 can be made only by thorough acquaintance with 
 the business, and by careful, persistent work from 
 year to year. But, in spite of what I say, some will 
 get bitten by beginning bee-keeping without due 
 preparation, and with false expectations. When 
 you do get bitten, please to remember that “ I told 
 you so.” 
 
 Now my record of the first year’s work among my 
 bees is done. To write this account has been a 
 happy task, for in so doing I have lived over again 
 those first absorbing months, when every operation 
 was new, and every success was a joyful surprise and 
 a stimulus to greater effort. Looking at the 
 pleasure the bees have brought me ; looking at the 
 growth of character which has come from the lesson 
 
156 THE BLESSED BEES. 
 
 of industry and independence learned in attending 
 to their needs ; looking at the books, and travels, 
 and means of culture which they secured for my 
 mother, my sister, my brother, and myself ; looking 
 at the works, of which my father had only distant 
 dreams, which I have wrought through their help, 
 they have surely been “ The Blessed Bees/' 
 
NOTES.. 
 
 1. Profits of Bee-keeping. — (Page 24.) “ With a small number 
 
 of hives I have realized $35 per hive.” — J. M. Stephenson , Crawford 
 Co ., Penn., in American Bee Journal, Vol. xiii., p. 14. 
 
 Prof. A. J. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural College, Lansing, 
 reports in 1876 a net profit of $24 05 per hive. — American Bee Jour - 
 nal, Vol. xiii.,p. 18. 
 
 “This business, compared with other agricultural pursuits, with 
 me at least, stands the test pretty well ; it has given me this year an 
 income of $1,000 (after paying for lumber and glass) for my labor on 
 forty stocks of bees.” — J. P. Moore , Binghampton, N. Y., in Am- 
 erican Bee Journal , Vol. xiii., p. 61. 
 
 “We know by past experience that, when well managed, they 
 hardly ever pay less than 100 per cent., and often as much as 500 per 
 cent." — Dr. Botts, Barren Co., Ky ., in Ame?ican Bee Journal, Vol. 
 xiii., p. 41 1. 
 
 Mrs. L. B. Baker, of Lansing, Mich., reports that her first year in 
 keeping bees she had two swarms which gave her a profit of $103 15 
 or $51 56 per swarm. The next year, 1875, she made a profit of 
 $59 85 per hive. In 1876 her profit was $19 05 per hive. — Bee- 
 keepers' Magazine, Vol. v., p. 90. 
 
 2. Increase of Bees. — (Page 29.) Under the most favorable 
 conditions bees will increase in numbers very rapidly. Usually, bee- 
 keepers prefer to increase their stocks somewhat slowly, for slow in- 
 crease of stocks gives a larger amount of surplus honey. 
 
 C. F. Greening, Grand Meadow, Minn. , reports that in 1877 he 
 had three swarms that multiplied in one year to nineteen. — American 
 Bee Journal, Vol. xiii. , p. 300. 
 
 S. G. Rose, Bluff City, 111., says he had six swarms in one year 
 from one hive of Italians, and took also 84 pounds of honey. — Am- 
 erican Bee Journal , Vol. xiii . , p. 304. 
 
 J. M. Glenn, Jefferson Co., Tenn., in the summer of 1877, in- 
 creased one swarm of Italians to nine swarms, and took also 210 
 pounds of honey. — American Bee Journal, Vol. xiii., p. 341. 
 
158 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 C. M. Joslin, M. D., Saginaw Co., Mich., reports that in the 
 spring of 1876 he had two swarms of Italians in the Quinby hive. 
 During that summer he increased these to thirty-four swarms. Am- 
 erican Bee Journal, Vol. xiii., p. 100. 
 
 J. S. Marble, Chanute, Kansas, reports that in 1876 he increased 
 one swarm to thirteen, and took also 450 pounds of honey. He fed, 
 early in the season, 88 pounds of sugar to promote breeding. Glean- 
 ings in Bee-Culture , Vol. iv., p. 293. 
 
 3. Amount of Honey per Hive. — (Page 29.) J. E. Pleasants, 
 
 Los Angelos Co. , Cal. , says, ‘ ‘ Last spring I had forty-five swarms, 
 and increased to one hundred, besides getting 10,000 pounds of ex- 
 tracted honey.” — This gives 222 pounds per hive. — American Bee 
 Journal, Vol. xiii., p. 101. , 
 
 A. A. Baldwin, Sandusky, N. Y., reports, “ My best Italian stock 
 gave one swarm on May 28th, and from the two I had 175 pounds of 
 box honey. The best Italian stock that I kept from increasing gave 
 150 pounds of box honey.” — American Bee Journal, Vol. xiii., p . 
 420. 
 
 G. M. Doolittle reports an average of 158 pounds of box honey per 
 hive, and an average of 446 pounds of extracted honey per hive. — 
 Gleanings in Bee-Culture , Vol. v., p. 263. 
 
 4. Movable-Comb Hive. — (Page 35.) The movable-comb bee- 
 hive was invented by the Rev. L. L. Langstroth, about the year 
 1850. It was patented, but the patent expired a few years since. 
 Mr. Langstroth, now in honored old age, lives at Oxford, Ohio. 
 His invention was the first and most important step in the science of 
 modern bee-culture. Without it artificial queen-rearing, nucleus 
 swarming, and using the honey extractor would all be impossible. 
 The movable-comb hive is, in essentials, simply a box with a lid, 
 like a common cheap trunk, provided the trunk had a hole made in 
 one end or side, near the bottom, for an entrance for the bees. The 
 lid, or cover, of the hive is, usually, not hinged. Inside this box, 
 near the top, is a rabbet on each side, or on each end, if the frames 
 are to hang lengthwise. Frames about an inch in width are made so 
 as to be about one-half inch smaller than the inside dimension of the 
 box or hive. The top bar of a frame is longer than the bottom bar, 
 so that its ends rest in the rabbets, and the frame hangs down in the 
 box. The hive is filled with these frames hanging side by side, 
 about one and a half inches from the centre of one frame to the 
 centre of the next. In these frames the bees build their combs. By 
 proper care on the part of the bee-keeper, the bees can be led to 
 build their combs straight and true, just filling the frames. Then, to 
 
NOTES . 
 
 159 
 
 examine the condition of a hive, the bee-keeper has only to lift off 
 the lid, remove a light quilt that is spread on top of the frames, and 
 lift one frame, or all the frames, from the hive. In this way he may 
 always know, in a few minutes, the exact condition of any hive. He 
 has perfect control of the hives in all respects. He can remove or 
 introduce queens ; can take out frames of brood or honey, or put in 
 frames of brood or honey from other hives : can lift out the frames, 
 set them in an extractor, throw the honey out, and return the frames 
 to be filled again. Every year brings a wider and fuller recognition 
 from intelligent bee-keepers, of the great value of Mr. Lang troth’s 
 invention. As the science of bee-culture developes to the magnitude 
 it will undoubtedly attain, Mr. Langstroth will be honored among 
 the great inventors of this age. 
 
 The standard Langstroth frame is 9^ inches deep by I7|- inches 
 long, the top bar projecting f of an inch at each end, in order to rest 
 in the rabbets. There are several other frames and hives, all con- 
 structed on the same principle, so far as movable frames are con- 
 cerned, and differing only in the dimensions of the frame. The 
 Quinby frame is by i8-J inches ; the Adair, 11^ by I3f inches ; 
 the American, 12 by 12 inches ; and the Gallup, 11J by 11^ inches. 
 These include all the frames that have been used to any large extent, 
 but many bee-keepers have made frames and hives of different di- 
 mensions to suit their own fancy. 
 
 These various frames have eager partizans. From the reports of 
 success by different bee-keepers, it appears that any one of the frames 
 in the hands of an intelligent manager, will give success. Probably 
 a much larger number of the standard Langstroth are used than of 
 any other. No bee-keeper has reported so large an average profit in 
 a single season, from an equal number of swarms, as Mr. Doo- 
 little, of Borodino, N. Y., who uses the Gallup frame. 
 
 5. The Gallup Frame. — (Page 35.) I have never seen any reason 
 to regret adopting the Gallup frame. In my experience with it no 
 frame could have done better. Though it is not used by a large 
 number of bee-keepers, yet those who do use it are generally intelli- 
 gent and successful. In an article in the American Bee Journal , 
 Vol.XIII.yJ>. 227, written by C Clute, of Keokuk, Iowa, I find 
 that Prof. Cook is quoted as saying, “I prefer the Gallup frame for 
 these reasons : (1) It can be used for nuclei, and save making small 
 ones on purpose for this. (2) It can be made more compact (in the 
 hive) and so save heat in fall and spring. (3) It is easy to handle. 
 (4) It does not trouble by comb falling out. I have tried all sizes, 
 and find this best.” 
 
i6o 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 6. The Italian Bees. — (Page 40.) “ The so-called Italian bee 
 
 has been cultivated from time immemorial in the northern portions of 
 Italy, and some adjourning districts, and differs from the common 
 honey-bee only by its pecular color and workings. In the workers 
 the first three upper segments of the abdomen are of a bright orange 
 color, though the lower margin of the third segment is black. While 
 young, this coloring is brighter, and becomes darker as they increase 
 in age ; but under all circumstances it remains sufficiently marked to 
 enable the observer to distinguish the two kinds at a glance. Still 
 more conspicuous is the difference between the Italian and the 
 common queen. The Italian queen has not only the orange color 
 segments in common with the workers, but the yellow predominates, 
 also, in all the other segments. The drones differ from the common 
 drones, in having the first three segments bordered with orange, and 
 in having orange-colored spots besides. * * * Though the Ital- 
 
 ian bee was so long and so extensively known, it escaped the notice 
 of German apiarians, who little anticipated how important it would 
 prove to be for the settlement of controversies which had long been 
 maintained among them. Capt. Baldenstein, of Cour, in the Orisons, 
 first called attention to this bee in 1848, as peculiarly adapted to de- 
 termine the question as to the origin of drone-eggs, and as further- 
 more of great practical value in bee-culture.” He subsequently in- 
 troduced them into Switzerland, and though he did not succeed in 
 breeding pure stock from them, he arrived at important results. In 
 1853 the famous Dzierzon, one of the great fathers of modern bee- 
 culture, received a hive of Italians as a gift from Madame de Prollius, 
 of Mira, near Venice. He succeeded in breeding pure stock from 
 them. By his efforts, and by those of Count Baldenstein, the atten- 
 tion of bee-keepers in Germany, and in other countries of Europe, 
 was called to the merits of this bee, and it has now been very widely 
 introduced. — Rev . George Klein, in American Bee Journal , Vol. /., 
 p. 16. 
 
 Italian bees were introduced into the United States about the year 
 1850. I think the first successful importation was by S. B. Parsons, 
 of Flushing, Long Island. They are now found in nearly all parts 
 of our country, though in many localities the common black bee still 
 predominates. There are now several dealers who receive regular 
 invoices of Italian queens every summer, direct from Italy, and 
 supply them to their customers in all sections. Pure imported 
 queens can now be bought as low as $4.00 each. 
 
 An experienced bee-keeper sums up the merits of Italians, as com- 
 pared with black bees, as follows : (1) They possess longer tongues 
 and can gather from flowers which are useless to the black bee. 
 (2) They are more active, and with the same opportunities will col- 
 
NOTES . 
 
 165 
 
 good, the linn was very abundant, and the hives were very strong in 
 bees. Under these conditions a much larger yield per day, than 
 mine, is often obtained. 
 
 R. R. Murphy, Garden Plain, 111 ., writes : “I have a swarm of 
 bees on the scales that was fifteen pounds heavier this morning at 
 six o’clock than at the same time yesterday .” — American Bee Jour- 
 nal, Vol. xiii . , p. 240. 
 
 G. M. Doolittle, Borodino, N. Y., reports that the largest yield 
 from his best swarm was sixty-six pounds in three days, or an average 
 of twenty-two pounds a day . — Gleanings in Bee-Culture , Vol. v., p. 
 263. 
 
 13. (Page 103.) A hive of bees without a queen will continue 
 working with spirit, if they have the eggs or larvae from which to 
 grow a queen. But if they build comb when having no queen it is 
 drone comb. A hive with a queen a year or more old has, under 
 any circumstances, a strong determination to build some drone comb, 
 and if honey is coming in rapidly, and new combs are needed for 
 storing, it will often build a large amount of drone comb. A hive 
 with a young queen, grown during the season, builds worker comb 
 almost entirely. The skillful bee-keeper takes advantage of this 
 fact to get his combs, for the brood chambers of his hives, built in 
 hives having young queens, and thus he avoids having much drone 
 comb. 
 
 14. (Page 107.) If the cost of growing bees to make new swarms 
 is so great, some may ask, why grow them at all, why not buy bees in 
 box hives, as I did in the Spring ? 
 
 Under some circumstances it is more economical to buy bees than 
 it is to raise them. That is, the skillful bee-keeper, by keeping his 
 bees at work gathering honey and storing it in combs for market, 
 can make more money than he can by allowing them to rear brood 
 for making new swarms. But my course was best for me under the 
 circumstances, as will be seen from the following facts : 
 
 a. There were no bees near me which could have been purchased. 
 To have gone some distance would have been an expense and trouble 
 for transportation. 
 
 b. Bees bought must have been transferred to the hive I was 
 using. This transferring would have made a large amount of extra 
 work. 
 
 c. I could have bought only black bees, and those probably with 
 old and feeble queens. These would have been of little service to 
 me that first year, for I could not, at that late period in the season, 
 have built them up into vigorous condition for collecting the fall 
 
1 66 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 harvest. To have bought black bees would have introduced a large 
 number of black drones into my apiary, and so have made it impos- 
 sible for me to raise pure Italians. 
 
 d. By my plan I secured young, vigorous Italian queens, purely 
 fertilized, and pure Italian workers, ready to begin work at once in 
 collecting the fall harvest. 
 
 e. Hence my new swarms gathered honey enough in a short time 
 to pay for themselves several times over. Considering the amount of 
 honey they gathered for me, I had no reason to complain of their 
 cost. I, however, made a serious mistake in having my apple blos- 
 soms honey stored in comb, and thus being compelled to use the nice 
 clover honey for feeding the bees. The apple blossoms honey would 
 have been just as good for the bees, and by feeding it instead of the 
 white clover I should have saved the difference between its value and 
 that of the white clover, — five cents a pound, quite a large sum in 
 the aggregate. 
 
 15. (Page 1 2 1.) My yield of comb honey was large. So great a 
 quantity per hive could have been secured only by extracting fre- 
 quently during a flow of honey, and then feeding back to the bees 
 when the flow ceased, so as to keep them at work storing in comb, 
 when otherwise they would have been idle. 
 
 G. M. Doolittle, ofBorodino,N. Y., reports a yield of 566 pounds 
 of extracted honey from one hive in one year. — Bee-Keepers' Maga- 
 zine, Vol . v.,p. 234. 
 
 If he had fed this back to the bees to be stored in combs, allow- 
 ing that there would have been a loss of one-ninth in weight in so 
 doing, he would have had 503 pounds of comb honey for the yield of 
 this hive. Mr. Doolittle sold his white comb honey for twenty cents 
 a pound, and the dark honey for less ; an average of fifteen cents a 
 pound for both white and dark will be a low estimate. This gives 
 an income of $75 45 from one hive in one year, not to mention the 
 increase in stock, and Mr. Doolittle about doubled his stock the same 
 year. If such success can be achieved often, it will make bee-keep- 
 ing a most important industry. 
 
 16. Bee-Keeping as a Business. — (Page 151.) According to 
 the New York Sun , Mr. J. S. Harbison, of San Diego Co., Cal., 
 took to the New York market in the fall of 1876, 200,000 pounds of 
 honey, the product of his hives for that year. Mr. Harbison then 
 had in San Diego Co. 3,000 swarms of bees, located in six different 
 places. — Gleanings , Vol. iv.,p. 298. 
 
 Adam Grimm, of Jefferson, Wis., had at one time 1400 swarms, 
 from the annual product of which he received a large income. He 
 
NOTES. 
 
 1 67 
 
 was a most enthusiastic and industrious bee-keeper. He died in 
 1876, leaving a fortune which was the result of his work in bee- 
 culture. — Gleanings , Vol. iv., p. 303. 
 
 Hiram Roop, Carson City, Mich., says: “My report for 1876 
 does not compare well with my others. My honey sales for this sea- 
 son amount to $1,088 05, clear from expense. Sales of bees, 
 $433 °5- Total, $1,521 10. I shall try to winter 190 good 
 swarms.” — Gleanings , Vol. V. y p. 309. 
 
 G. M. Doolittle, Borodino, N. Y., reports that in 1877 he worked 
 sixty-seven swarms for surplus honey. From these he secured 11,177 
 pounds of comb and extracted honey. He adds, “ In conclusion we 
 would say that with a practical apiarist bee-keeping is a paying 
 business, even at the present prices of honey, we having cleared 
 nearly $6,000 from our bees, free of all expense, within the last five 
 years, with an average of about fifty stocks in the spring of each 
 year.” — Bee-Keepers' Magazine , Vol. v. y p. 235. 
 
 Captain Hetherington, of Cherry Valley, N. Y., is reported to 
 have more than 1,000 swarms. The newspapers say that he makes 
 bee-keeping a paying business. 
 
 17. The National Bee-Keepers’ Association. — (Page 154.) 
 There are many state, district and county associations of bee-keepers. 
 There is also a National Association, which held its last meeting at 
 the Cooper Institute, New York City, October 16th, 1877. At this 
 meeting many important papers were read, and much valuable dis- 
 cussion was drawn out. Rev. J. W. Shearer was appointed to pre- 
 pare an address to the public, “ setting forth some of the principal 
 improvements made in bee-culture, and giving a few hints concern- 
 ing its general character and usefulness.” The address, as adopted, 
 is as follows : 
 
 FACTS FOR THE PUBLIC. 
 
 The National Bee-Keepers’ Convention, in session in New York, 
 October 16th to 19th, 1877, aware of the general lack of information 
 concerning improved methods of apiculture and its products, respect- 
 fully submit the following statement of facts for general information 
 concerning a large source of personal and national revenue, in pre- 
 serving the honey which God has caused to flow so abundantly in 
 the vast and varied flora of our country : 
 
 1. It is now only a few years since the introduction of movable- 
 comb hives has opened up a new era in bee-keeping, and placed it on 
 the basis of a successful business pursuit. Such hives, adapted to 
 climate, furnish every facility for intelligent management of bees, by 
 
NOTES. 
 
 1 68 
 
 regulating swarming, guarding against moths, and manipulating both 
 bees and comb. 
 
 2. The invention of the extractor , or honey slinger, a machine 
 which empties the honey from the combs by centrifugal force, with- 
 out injury, so that the combs may be returned to the bees, marks 
 another great step in apiculture. Thus virgin honey, free from 
 foreign admixture, is obtained, having the flavor of the flower from 
 which it is drawn. 
 
 3. The further invention of artificial comb -foundation, made of 
 pure wax, first successfully used to a large extent this season, com- 
 pletes the requisites for placing bee-keeping on the basis of a great 
 industry in our country. Bees receive this artificial comb-foundation 
 with readiness as receptacles both for honey and brood. 
 
 4. Simultaneous with the first and all of these improvements, the 
 introduction of Italian bees , and of improved methods of rearing 
 queens, and of transporting and introducing them to colonies, has 
 greatly improved the value of the honey gatherers, both, because of 
 the superiority of the Italian bee, and the introduction of new blood. 
 New blood prevents the danger from in-and-in breeding. 
 
 5. The great drawback to apiculture is the sting of the bee. 
 Danger from this source is now largely overcome by the simple ap- 
 pliances used for the protection of the person, and for subduing the 
 bees. The most vicious colony may be subdued in a very few 
 minutes. 
 
 6. To consumers of honey, a few facts are necessary in this 
 article, to preserve them from imposition. Nice white comb speaks 
 for itself, and is generally admired ; but the price many lovers of 
 honey cannot afford. It makes a beautiful dish for the table, but is 
 no better than extracted honey. All comb is wax, and wax in the 
 stomach is perfectly indigestible. Extracted honey is the pure liquid 
 honey as it is taken from the combs by the honey slinger, free from 
 any foreign admixture. It is entirely different from what is known 
 in the market as strained honey. Consumers help to impose upon 
 themselves by the false idea that pure honey will not granulate. 
 They desire ungranulated honey, and dealers will attempt to supply 
 the demand. Almost all pure honey will granulate when exposed 
 for some time to light and cold. The granulated state is a fine 
 evidence of pure honey. Much of the jar honey heretofore sold in 
 the markets, and recommended not to granulate, is a very inferior 
 article, composed largely of glucose or some inferior substance. 
 Granulated honey can be reduced to its liquid state in a few moments 
 by placing the jar in warm water. When thus liquified it so remains 
 for some time before again crystalizing. Consumers may be sure of 
 
NOTES. 169 
 
 a good wholesome article by purchasing granulated honey and re- 
 ducing it. 
 
 7. To producers. By full use of all improvements in bee-keep- 
 ing, the honey crops of America may be almost indefinitely increased 
 and become a great source of national revenue. None need fear 
 over-production. The home demand and consumption are largely 
 increased whenever people learn to know the superiority of such 
 honey. Dealers in New York have already commenced a large ex- 
 port trade, and they tell us that their only difficulty is in procuring 
 honey in the proper shape and quantity to supply the growing de- 
 mand. Trade demands that honey be put up in nice attractive pack- 
 ages, and in small parcels or jars, so as to be readily handled by 
 grocers and consumers. Honey was for centuries the principal sweet 
 known, and is one of the most healthful of all. Improvement in 
 refining sugar has within the last two or three centuries led to its 
 general adoption. Why may not also new improvements in api- 
 culture restore it to its true place as a general favorite, which was 
 lost by bad management and the consequent corresponding limited 
 supply ? ” 
 
 We believe that improvements in bee-keeping as compared with 
 old methods, are not less than those seen in railroads and steamboats, 
 as compared with former modes of travel. — The Bee-Keepers' Maga- 
 zine , 1877 270. 
 


 
I