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