PATENT AND NON-PATENT HIVES,
BEE JOURNALS, ETC.
I HAVE learned from bitter experience, as has nearly every one, who has
kept bees for any length of time, the dishonesty, and utter disregard
for truth, of a class of speculators who prey upon the unsuspecting
bee-keeper. Patent hives--the great majority of them--are a curse and
a hindrance to successful and profitable bee keeping. I have no time
to describe the multitude of worthless patent hives, and the many
tricks and swindles of the venders of the same, but I advise every bee
keeper to consult his own interests, and have nothing to do with them.
Ninety-nine out of every hundred are a swindle. I have tested their
merits and know whereof I affirm.
The More-patent hives against which I wish to caution the bee-keeper,
and particularly the beginner, are those offered by A. J. Root,
publisher of "Gleanings in Bee Culture." Root makes the "Gleanings" the
medium for advertising and palming off upon the public his wares. Don't
invest in his trash if you wish to keep bees with profit. I am sorry
to find that many of the bee journals and bee-keepers' associations,
are conducted on prejudiced and selfish motives, and in the interest
of some individual, or company of men, for the sole purpose of making
money from the sale of some particular hive or fixture, without regard
to merit, or value to the practical bee-keeper. All honest discussion,
with a view to bring out facts and figures to guide the inexperienced
bee-keeper in his labors, I am sorry to say, is suppressed. The
bee journals should be the disseminators of _useful_ knowledge
among bee-keepers. I am sorry to find the reverse true with many of
them. After a thorough investigation, I feel it my duty to advise
bee-keepers, and those contemplating bee-keeping, _not to take all for
granted that they read in the bee journals_, for if you do, you will be
very likely to soon find yourself robbed of your money, and your bees
ruined.
Very many who write for the bee journals with high sounding words,
claiming to be adepts in bee culture, have really no _practical_
knowledge of the nature and habits of bees. We have supported a host
of speculators in our business, for a long time; the object of this
class has ever been, how best to secure our hard earnings, and with
no desire or effort to aid in rendering bee keeping more profitable
and desirable. The country is full of this class, and they always
combine to crush out real merit in anything pertaining to bee culture,
brought before the public by individual bee-keepers, who are laboring
to advance the cause by giving their experiences, gained from hard
every-day labor among bees.
For many years I have written articles on bee culture, for the leading
agricultural journals and newspaper. I have thus given much of my
experience in detail, with no thought of further reward than the
satisfaction of having contributed to aid bee-keepers in raising bees
with greater profit, believing if all would so contribute of their
practical experience with bees, great mutual benefit might be gained,
and rapid progress made in successful and profitable bee culture. In
consequence of my course in spreading information with a view to aid
the cause, the class referred to in this chapter, and their tools, are
boiling over with wrath towards me, lying and slandering me through
the public press, and by every other means which their depraved natures
can invent. All because I have succeeded by hard study in perfecting
a hive and new system of bee management, which is fast coming into
general use among bee keepers; consequently the sale of their worthless
trash is decreasing rapidly. But I am anxious to get through with
this part of my work, and reach the practical part, where I have the
greatest confidence in my ability to give such information as will
render bee keeping profitable and desirable.
[Illustration]