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Date: | Mon, 11 Sep 2023 11:36:43 -0400 |
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EARLY NEW YORK REMINISCENCES
by Geo. H. Rea, 1957
I got my start in beekeeping from my one room school teacher. He had 425 colonies of bees and induced me to work for him in the summer of 1888. I have been working with bees ever since; 67 years of it.
After working two seasons I took a notion I wanted to learn all I could about beekeeping. I went to the beekeeping meeting at Albany, N.Y. and hired out to the president of that association, Mr. P. H. Elwood. C. P. Dadant was the secretary at that time.
When I got to Elwoods we had 60,000 section boxes for comb honey to make up. These were of four pieces, dovetailed. We had a machine to make them and glue them at a rapid rate. We took 1252 colonies out of one cellar that had 1320 put in the fall before.
I learned that if a colony sits on a small rise of ground above the other colonies, even if only four feet, that colony would attract bees from other neighboring colonies; and if a colony faced west, it would draw bees from other colonies facing in other directions. Apparently, the sun shining on the entrance of that colony in the cool late afternoon would be the cause.
All of Elwood's bees were kept in one winter cellar. Later they were moved with teams of horses to 9 locations besides the home yard.
We were four miles from the Van Dusen foundation factory. They made foundation for sections 2½ by 4 feet. We used to call them "horse blankets." Elwood worked entirely for comb honey while E. W. Alexander, for whom I also worked at one time, ran for extracted with 797 colonies in one yard. Others I worked for were Ross & Parker, N. N. Betsinger, A. Snyder, F. W. Lesser, R. F. Holter- man, S. D. House and A. W. Osborn in the West Indies; and topped it off with 18 years as a bee inspector in New York.
American Bee Journal - Volume 97
PLB
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