The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-04
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Do you know anything about bees I confess that my knowledge of them was limited to fear of being stung until recently. when I ran across a bee lover, and he opened my eyes to the virtue of the honey maker.
 I had to make 8 trip down In Lowndes county and it came about that I had to spend the night at Hayneville at the hotel. It was dreary night It rained without ceasing and l was shut up in my room, or rather in the one of young man who, going out, was kind enough to let me use 1t.
 I noticed that 1t was not the average hotel room for it had books on the mantle and magazines on the table Now, I never spend much time in med itation. I either read or hunt for some one to talk to- I began to look over the book sya and the magazines, and they were all about bees.
 I was wishing I had bought a Sat urday Evening Post or a a~Collier's or the American, as it appeared l would have to kill few Lonesome hours before bed time. I went in to supper, and after it was over, returned to>my room to find seated by the fire a thoughtful looking young man who, though polite, was strangely reticent.
 
 made several attempts at general conversation. but did not excite his at tention sufficiently to keep it going, for 1t kept dying down. He showed no particular interest in the 1egisla- ture, the peace conference, national prohibition or any of the live newspa- per topics of the day.
 I was about to give him up as hope less material for conversational pur- poses, but remembered my father tell ing me when lad that if one used tact and patience and got man talk ing about the thing he worked at and knew best he would be amply re- warded.
 So just to start a conversation on a new tack I said, "Do you know any thing about bee culture in this sec for an hour or more he shot more bee information into me than I had ac- quired in all my past life. He just fairly made bees give forth their sweetest hector for my benefit
 
 Now. this is what I learned about him: He was a professional queen bee raiser. I didn't even know there was such profession. I thought the bees attended to rearing their queens un- aided <by mans help. They are capable of tending to the job, but some bee raisers get in, hurry and want to assist nature, and here is where my | friend got his living.
 He began his study of bees at the age of years and they have had a fascination for him ever since. and he just naturally loved to fool with bees. Nice playthings, if you lShow how to handle them. I innocently asked if he ever got stung. He admitted that | he did, and spoke rather regretfully of the fact that the average bee had not yet made any difference in the rse of its sting in favor of an expert. 1 Oh, yes, he used a net, but most gen- erally worked without gloves. Just | think of taking up a handful of bees | It is enough to make one shiver. know people who can't even touch the | feathers of a hen without having a creepy sensation and to stroke a cats back would give them a conniption fit-and yet there are others who can handle live. sticky, crawling insects without flinching.
 l For years I had been hearing of a section through Lowndes county in I which honey was one of the great side crops, and now at Hayneville was in the heart of it and in touct 1 with one of the men who knew the most about bees, not only in Alabama 1 Florida and Tennessee, but all over tht 1 country, and I pumped him dry, ant was only sorry that he had to go out | to spend the night or I would have kept him up until midnight descantine on the busy bee.
 It seems that the past season wa. l an unusual one both in amount O honey gathered and the sum realized upon it. The bee crop, like the corn cotton, wheat or any other crop, 1; a variable one and it's hard to foretel conditions or to make sure a killing by using foresight. The seasons con trol the situation.
 I asked one good woman, at the ho tel, who was reared in the country, f honey was plentiful. She said ther. had been an abundance of it, but tha it had brought about $2.5O a gallon and she had used very little of it, fo she well remembered the time wher she could buy it at 75 cents a gallon I know it's scarce and high, for an a pretty good forager and in spite 0 the fact that friends in different part of the state have told me they woult ship me a gallon or more. I have S, far gone honeylhss.
 It seems that the bee raisers wer disappointed in the bees not getting enough after the robbings in July an, August to carry them over the winte and my friend was busy going to tn various yards over the county to fee, the bees to keep them from starvins and tha Sllqar hill was cutfipo int