I hope those who read this book may find something in its pages that will be beneficial. In your excursions through the forests you are unconsciously getting the benefit of the greatest source in the world of physical perfection--God's pure air--and, at the same time there are no reasons why one with reasonable tact cannot be benefited financially.

When should a bee tree be cut and transferred to the hive? There is a difference of opinion in regard to the time of the year and also to the manner in which it should be done. I respect the opinions of those who have expressed themselves on the subject, but after trying nearly all the methods described I found nothing in them that came up to my ideal of a perfect plan of transferring the bee from the tree to the hive.

My first plan was to cut the tree and, if not too large, saw it off both above and below the bees, keep them in with smoke, and tack screen over the place of entrance. Then hire someone to help carry it home. It was set up on end and left to take care of itself and if a swarm would issue from it and we were successful in hiving it in the old box hive (the kind mostly in use in my boyhood days), we thought the last chapter of bee-keeping had been learned. Then, after the movable frame hive came into use the tree would be cut, the bees drove into a box, the honey taken from the tree and with a few pieces of brood all was taken home. The small bits of comb were tied in the central frames for the bees to cluster on and the bees shaken from the box in front of the hive. This plan was certainly superior to the first mentioned but had one serious drawback--the brood that was in the tree was left to perish./

After seeing the serious defects in the described methods, my next move was to take a hive with me on going to cut the tree. All comb containing brood was placed in the frames, the bees run into the hive, which was left at the tree for a week or more in order that the bees might have all the combs joined to the frames, and then brought home. This was another advance in the method of transferring, for the thousands of young bees about to emerge from their cells were saved, and the colony having its brood and strength undiminished should be able to fill at least one super of honey besides all stores needed for themselves. Taking it for granted that we cut the bee in the early part of the summer, one super would be a low estimate, but even this would pay all expenses connected with the cutting, buying a hive and fixtures, and as the bee is now in an ideal hive we can hopefully look forward to the next year when our profits are coming in.

There could be other plans given, some of them having virtue, but I will now lay a plan before the reader which if followed will prove more remunerative, and with less expense, than the former methods. To carry a hive and tools necessary to cut a bee tree will require the service of an assistant and when, after a week or so, we return to bring the bee home, more help is needed. A man is worthy of his hire and of course is paid. Carrying a hive over rough and uneven ground is hard work. So by the time we have the bee home and sum the matter up, the financial part of bee hunting don't impress us very strongly.

I have been in the habit of hunting bees during the fall months, but if I need a day's outing, no month from early spring, until late fall fails to find me on my tramps through the forest in search of a bee tree. No difference what time of the year I find my bee nor how many may be found in any particular season, they are always left stand over winter and cut the following spring, but not before May, for I want the bee to be strong in bee with abundance of brood. About this time of year I take a box eight inches square at the end and two feet in length. Over the one end some wire screen is nailed and a lid, the center being cut out and replaced with wire screen, serves as a covering for the other end.

With bucket, ax, and this box we will go to the tree, cut it, being careful to fell it as easy as possible. When it falls the bees should be smoked at once to prevent them rising in the air. For good reasons I prefer to cut the tree about nine or ten o'clock in the forenoon. After blowing a little smoke in at the entrance, proceed to chop a hole in the tree low down on the side, then another hole farther up or down the tree, depending on whether the bee works up or down from the place of entrance. After this is done, split the piece out, blow more smoke on the bees and take the combs out. Brush the bees off, lay them on the log some distance from the bees, place the forcing box over the main body of the bees and by brushing and smoking drive them into it. The box should be in an elevated position, say forty-five degrees or more, as bees will go on the upper end much more readily when the box is in this position. Be sure the queen is in, which can generally be determined by the manner in which the bees enter the box. If they are inclined to run back out after being forced in, it is a pretty sure sign the queen is not with them. When you are sure the queen is with them, and there is a sufficient number of bees with her, lift the box gently off, turn it upside down and place the lid on and fasten with a couple of tacks taken along. Now place the brood combs back in the tree. First a comb then a couple of small sticks crosswise to form a bee space. Continue this until all the combs are back in the tree, and as the top part of the log was not split off, the piece split from the side can be fit in, bark and flat stones can be used to form a covering that will keep the rain from getting in. By cutting the tree at this time of day thousands of bees are out in search of nectar and when they come home and find their home gone, will fly around in the air until becoming exhausted, and will then settle on the leaves and bushes in bunches and knots by the hundreds. If there was any nice white honey we have it in the bucket and picking up the box start on the homeward journey. Presuming we have a movable frame hive at home with an inch of starter in the frames or, what would be better, a hive filled with comb from the year previous, we place the hive on its permanent stand and take the lid from the box and shake the bees down at the entrance. For fear the queen has been left in the tree it would be well to have an entrance guard placed on the hive, as this would exclude the queen and as soon as the queen is seen the guard can be removed. In a short time we can tell whether they take kindly to their new home. The queen is a laying one and some pollen should be taken in the following day. I always made sure I had the queen and never had a bee so treated to swarm out after being hived.

Now what about the bee in the tree? When we left it there were thousands flying around and settling on the leaves and bushes, other thousands in all stages of development in the combs. The ones that are hanging on the bushes begin to make further investigation and finding their brood soon cover it and with the bees hatching out every hour soon make the colony almost as populous as it was before the tree was cut. In taking the combs out we may have seen some queen cells started. If so, so much the better. If not, there certainly were eggs in some of the combs and in sixteen days at the most they can rear a queen from these eggs. When this time has elapsed, take your box and smoker. Take the combs out as before; drive the bees into the box, and as the brood is nearly all hatched out by this time you will have nearly as many bees as you got the first time. These are brought home and treated as the first swarm and the combs can be placed in the log again for the few remaining bees that may have been left, to cluster on and these can be brought home later and joined to the second swarm. By this method you get two strong colonies from one tree. There is no help needed; no heavy lifting and carrying of hives to and from the tree. By following this plan you can soon have quite an apiary and be on your way to enjoy the profits as well as the pleasures of bee hunting. This plan is original with me and I believe it to be the very best plan given so far, and I expect to follow it until someone gives us something superior.

The profits of bee hunting will depend on the ability of the man to manipulate the bees after taking them from the tree. You must agree with me that in cutting the tree, there is nearly always some of the combs containing honey broken up and covered with dirt, and this honey can never be classed as salable. Therefore, if we hunt bees merely for what honey may be in the tree and leave the bees to perish from starvation and cold, it were far better, from a moral and financial point of view, to let the tree stand.

There are customs in vogue among sportsmen that have been handed down from generation to generation, that have almost become laws. Indeed, we have heard it said that custom becomes law.

A hunter may wound a deer, follow it for a distance and find that another hunter has shot and killed it. The question might arise as to whom the deer belonged. A bee hunter may find a bee tree and mark it and some other hunter might find it afterwards and cut it. The same question might arise as to whom it legally belonged. If sportsmen were to settle the disputes they would refer back to custom and say the deer belonged to the one first wounding it, providing the wound was of such nature that the one first wounding it would have been pretty sure of getting it, by following on, and they would also decide that the bee belonged to the one who first found and marked it.

A custom that may seem to be founded on justice is pretty apt to be followed by laws that may coincide with the custom. But we must remember there are statute laws relating to the ownership of wild animals and bees, and though we all band together as sportsmen, we cannot abrogate nor set aside these laws already formed.

In my boyhood days, when I would find a bee, I was very slow to tell any one just where it was for fear they might cut it. Was this true sportsmanship? I think not. Some other bee hunter might hunt for that bee a day or more and finding it would have reason to say that I had deceived him and he could hardly be blamed if he cut it. I have been used just this very way more than once, and felt like retaliating by cutting a bee that was found prior by another party. But am glad to say that I never did. Since I became more mature in years I have had more confidence in my fellow sportsmen and now after finding a bee tree the first time I see any one who is likely to look for the bee, he is told its exact location, thus probably saving him much valuable time in not looking for a bee that is found.

As a fitting close to this work it might be well to quote the statute laws relating to the ownership of wild bees.

"Bees while unreclaimed, are by nature wild animals. Those which take up their abode in a tree belong to the owner of the soil, if unreclaimed, but if reclaimed and identified, they belong to the former owner. If a swarm leave a hive they belong to the owner as long as they are in sight and are easily taken; otherwise they become the property of the first occupant. Merely finding a bee on the land of another and marking the tree does not vest the property of the bees in the finder. They do not become private property until they are in a hive."

This is a statute law. But true sportsmen do not think of going to law for adjustment of these matters, but rather depend on that fraternal spirit by which all questions relating to ownership are settled amicably.

Bee keeping as a source of revenue dates far back in ancient history. With the advent of the movable frame hive and the increased demand for honey all over the world as a source of food supply, it received a new impetus and there are many bee keepers in this and other countries who are not only making an honest living in the pursuit, but have become wealthy as well.

Over half a century ago, Rev. L. L. Langstroth invented the movable frame hive and became the benefactor of the bee-keeping fraternity. Prior to this time there was no way of telling the condition of a bee except what could be learned from an external diagnosis. If from their actions we were led to believe the colony was diseased, or that the bee moth was holding sway, there was no way by which we could remedy the evil. But this invention gives us access at all times to the brood chamber and we are able to see just what is wrong and apply the proper remedy. Perhaps it is fair to add that all bee keepers do not agree that the movable frame was invented by Father Langstroth. This honor is conceded by many to belong to Huber or Dzierzon, German bee keepers. Be this as it may, the movable frame hive of today, used throughout America and many foreign countries, is the product of the inventive genius of this great benefactor of the bee-keeping fraternity.

The invention of many accessories since the death of Father Langstroth, many years ago, would almost make us believe that there is nothing further to be desired, that perfection has been reached. But well we know that perfection cannot be reached on this earth, and so we will look forward, knowing as time goes on that other great minds will add to the store of knowledge now possessed by the bee keeper, and bee keeping of the future will be as far in advance of the present as the present is of the past.

With the help of appliances and the instruction given by able writers in many magazines and bee papers anyone with a fair amount of ability should be able to make a success at this vocation. There are many men who, while they have proved to be benefactors to us, have at the same time become wealthy. There are many instances of this, but I will mention The A. I. Root Co., of Medina, O. A. I. Root, the senior member of this firm, was an apiarist of note while I was still a little boy. After a while he began the manufacture of hives and appliances. He invented the pound section box, the extractor and many other accessories that could not be dispensed with at the present day. Many of his inventions were never patented, thus saving that cost to those whom he wished to befriend, and by honest dealing, selling the best of everything needed by the apiarist at the lowest possible cost consistent with superior workmanship, he has today, the most extensive manufacturing establishment in America, and possibly the world. In connection, the firm publishes, "Gleanings in Bee Culture," a monthly magazine, devoted to the interest of bee keeping. The ablest writers, men who have made this their life work, contribute regularly and give us advice which, if followed will lead to success.

Therefore, when the bee history is completed, and the names of many who have been our benefactors are recorded, the names of L. L. Langstroth and A. I. Root will shine with lustre.

It is not generally known that beekeeping is quite an industry in the United States and that this country maintains a lead over all other lands both as to the quantity and quality of the honey it produces. This is the case, however, and America is recognized by other countries as the honey-land par excellence, where beekeepers turn out honey by the carload and this is so, for California, in one lone year, produced 800 carloads, and of this 500 were shipped out of the state. Texas is also a heavy producer and year in and year out will actually outrank California.

Although produced in such vast quantities it must not be inferred that quality is neglected; on the contrary we cannot be excelled when merit is considered. Our apiarists are scientific to a very high degree and possibly no branch of American farming has been worked up to so great a pitch of excellence, only dairying and horsebreeding can be compared with it, but American apiculturists lead the world, whereas, our horsemen or dairymen do not.

This proud position is owing to the splendid discoveries and inventions of the Rev. L. L. Langstroth of Oxford, Ohio, who has been dead for some years, but whose spirit still lives. Previous to his time beekeeping was only an amusement or pastime, or more accurately speaking, a hobby.

Now, the industry is founded on a sound scientific basis and bids fair to grow at a lively rate in the years that are to come. At present, the amount of money invested in bees and bee appliances is not less than one hundred million dollars. The annual income from this source cannot be much less than $20,000,000, and in a good year all over the country, it would approximate $50,000,000 though it is very seldom that there is a good season for bees all over this vast country. Beekeeping is a branch of agriculture and like other pursuits belonging to that science there are fat years and lean years. It is not an uncommon event for a beekeeper to clean up a sum of money for his crop which will more than equal the value of his bees and all the appliances he uses. Other years may be total failures, but year in and year out no industry pays larger returns on the labor and money expended. The wise beekeeper is not deterred by a bad season but simply bides his chance. He knows that in course of time the bees will make good all losses and give in addition a handsome profit to the owner for his kind attention and thoughtful consideration.

There are still many opportunities for bee-keepers in this country. This is particularly true of West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, where the conditions for beekeeping are almost ideal and where, as a usual thing, the market for honey is good. All through the South there are openings for beekeepers and it will be a long time yet before all openings are filled. Southwest Texas is a sort of beekeeper's paradise and only a part of it has been occupied as yet. Arkansas is a particularly good state for bees, but it has only been partially developed by up-to-date beekeepers. Parts of Pennsylvania are open to good beekeepers and so are portions of Michigan, one of the leading states of the Union. Ontario and Quebec are excellent for bees--none better. Nearly all the western states are good for bees and some of them rank high as honey producers. This is true of Colorado and Utah. Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington and Oregon offer excellent openings for first-class beekeepers. In the West, beekeepers, usually select an irrigated region where alfalfa and sweet clover are common, so that during the long dry summers the bees are kept busy storing honey of a very high quality.

Successful beekeepers are found in every state, and it would be hazardous for anyone to say just what state is best for bees. Ohio, Indiana and Illinois produce large quantities of fine honey, but this is nearly all consumed within their own borders at fair prices so that beekeepers do fairly well.

What hinders beekeeping more than any other fault is the neglect of the beekeepers in not providing adequate shelter for the bees during cold weather, and also from the heat of summer. In the Northern and Central states good protection must be provided against zero weather. Our bees originally came from the tropics, and for that reason they require ample protection. The ordinary hives must have an outer case placed around them and then leaves, straw or sawdust well packed around them. Fixed in this way they will withstand the rigors of an arctic winter. Lack of adequate winter protection is the weakest point in American bee culture, and yet is easily provided. This accounts for the saying of many who have tried it, "Beekeeping doesn't pay." Perhaps at no time is protection more necessary than in early spring when the hives are full of young and tender brood. The hives may also be covered with layers of thick paper or asbestos board. A small hole will allow all of the fresh air necessary for bees in a state of sleep. These points are first mentioned because neglect of them accounts for most of the failures we often hear of.

No success can be anticipated unless one uses the best hives made on the Langstroth principle. We have no space here in which to give a complete account of the hives now made on that plan. The better way would be for anyone interested to write for a sample of "Gleanings in Bee Culture" Medina, Ohio, or to American Bee Journal, Hamilton, Illinois, so as to get in touch with the publishers, who issue books adapted to the wants of beginners. These magazines also issue supply catalogues and in other ways are quite helpful. Splendid books can be purchased at a low price giving complete information with regard to the bee industry. Many persons have learned the whole art of beekeeping by a careful study of a good book on bee culture supplemented of course by observation.

Nothing very important, however, can be learned about bees unless one possesses a colony of bees in a movable comb hive. In fact it is useless to attempt to obtain a knowledge of bees without a hive to work with. I, therefore, earnestly recommend any beginner to obtain a colony at the earliest opportunity. Very often an ordinary box hive can be secured for a "song." This will do to begin with. Next send for two complete standard Langstroth hives, a smoker, a veil and a bee book; also a swarm-catcher.

If the box hive is of a medium size it will probably east two swarms in spring about fruit-bloom time or a little later. When the swarms emerge they may be quickly taken down by means of the swarm-catcher, if they happen to lodge in a branch of a tree, as they usually do. If the hives are in readiness it is no great feat to safely place the swarms in their new homes and all will go well. The parent colony may be disposed of in a week or ten days (not later) after the second swarm issues, by drumming the bees out of the box into the hive which holds the second swarm. This is done by giving them smoke from the smoker and then battering on the hive with a stick, which so alarms the inmates that they rush over the side of the upturned hive into the new one. What is left is simply a lot of dirty combs fit only for the melting pot. This is probably, the neatest, cleanest and cheapest method of making a start in beekeeping. It is well within the ability of most men and the cost is comparatively small. If the bees are native blacks, later on they may be changed to Italians simply by purchasing young pure bred queens for about a dollar each. The old queens are killed and new ones introduced in a cage till the bees make her acquaintance, when she is automatically released. In two months' time very few of the original bees will be found, all having died from hard work and old age, and their places taken by rich golden yellow Italian bees. It may be well to add this caution, "Do not experiment with any other race of bees."