Kasson, Minn.
=Value of Bee Papers and Books.=
There is little use trying to keep bees, either for pleasure or profit,
without at least one live bee-paper to awaken interest and enthusiasm,
and keep the apiarist abreast of the times. When we see an apiary
that shows neatness, taste and prosperity, we need not be told that
the owner or manager has access to bee papers and books; and when
we find a bee-yard with hives huddled together regardless of order,
distance or taste, with many of the colonies dead and dying, we are
sure that the knowledge, skill and enterprise that come from the study
of apiarian literature, have never reached that desolate and forlorn
spot. Of course the bees are black, but no darker than much of the
filthy comb and honey inside the hives. By neglect, much of the worker
comb has become unfit for brood-rearing, and hence drones are reared in
superabundance, and these deteriorated male bees fill the air for miles
in all directions, to vitiate the pure blood of all well-kept apiaries.
But the intelligent, careful, painstaking apiarist will find
encouragement in the assurance that all bees kept by such slipshod
methods are doomed, and on the principle of "the survival of the
fittest" must go, and the sooner the better for all concerned.
Bees in this section did well last season, and went into winter
quarters in excellent condition. The recent warm spell gave them a fine
airing (those on the summer stands), and now they should winter with
but little loss.