I statred writing this a few months ago when Miller's
_50_Years_Among_the_Bees_ was the hot topic on BEE-L and Barnes and
Nobel's online order web site ;)  Alas, I never finished and submitted
it.  Now [log in to unmask] asks if $35 for a paperback copy is a
good price.  I paid $75 for a hard cover copy and almost $50 for hard
cover of _40_Years_... (Miller re-released an updated version every
decade, _50_Years... was the last release).  There are a lot of things
of lesser value one could purchase for $35.  Obviously I have more money
than brains, but I'd buy the paperback.

Andy Nachbaur wrote:
> Not a real review....just some more thoughts on why this book after
> 84 years is still a "must read" for old and young bee keepers ...

I couldn't agree more with Andy on this statement.  Reading _50_Years_
reminded me of a football team that just played a real stinker of a
game.  The first thing a coach does at the next practice after such a
game is to get back to the basics.  Miller's book was just such a
practice.  I found a lot of the descriptions of the equipment he used,
innovations in his time, a bit tedious today when most are stock items.
However the concepts behind the innovations are as valid today as they
ever were and his observations of beekeepers as tinkerers who would
rather invent or reinvent a wheel than use a stock item was priceless!

> things have not changed that much with the invention of the honey
> extractor.  Dr. Miller writes of the comb honey days that most in
> this generation know nothing about.  His extractor as pictured sets
> out abandoned in the apiary ...

Well, things have changed more than that.  In his final chapters when
Dr. Miller muses, "If I had it all to do over again...", he speculates
that he would manage bees for liquid honey rather than comb.  I was
amazed that Dr. Miller's methods for comb preparation for market was
so similar to Killion's description and it made me wonder how much of
what I know and attribute to more current stars of beekeeping came from
the masters who came before them.

> Miller must have been blessed with daughters ... at least judging by
> his photo illustrations.

Actually, he had a son who, although of some assistance did not "take"
to the bees.  Dr. Miller married, was widowed, remarried and I believe
his second wife had a sister(?) who was most active with the bees.  The
photographs were quite the sites.  Blouses and full skirts, with all the
undergarments of the period made quite the amusing bee suits!

Other plates in the book gave a good appreciation for beekeeping in the
last millinneum.  Migratory beekeeping (actually trips to nearby out
yards) atop horse drawn wagons.  Get a trailer?  Dr. Miller used a horse
team!  20 hives to a yard?  Dr. Miller had 100, in an area he describes
as at best, marginal.  And even the pictures come from an era when
pictures themselves were new and exciting!  Dr. Miller reminds you of
this when he writes, "I point the camera, Mr. Kodak does the rest!".

> Ten cents per hour was top wages, and 12 cents was really big money
> for honey...the same price for honey we got in the 1950's,

Hmmmm ... I thought he was getting 25 cents per pound for his comb,
which amazed me when I realized the price of honey has just more than
doubled in a century's time.  Would that the rest of inflation had kept
that pace!

> ... a "must read" bee book (because) when you read it I guarantee you
> will come away with not only answers to some question not answered
> before but ideas from the early days of beekeeping that you will think
> are worth a try today in your own "modern" apiary.

You will also come away challanged to continue to seek answers that have
yet to be found.  I expected to find in _50_Years... the definitive way
to keep your bees at home in the supers where they belong, not in the
woods where they are want to go.  Alas, no answers!  Miller was
confounded by swarms - he offers a number of strategies for control,
most of which employ some means of splitting up the hive for increase -
more like controlled swarming, not swarm prevention.

There are also GREAT(!) tips for keeping bees today - things really
haven't changed all that much in the past century.  The section where
Dr. Miller writes how he increased 9 so-so hives to over 100 (I seem to
recall 140 but am not sure of the exact number) has a permanent
bookmark in my copy.

_50_Years_Among_the_Bees_ truly is a _MUST_READ_ for any serious
beekeeper.  Seek it out, you'll be glad you did.  $35?  Buy the book!

Aaron Morris - I think, therefore I bee!