Free to read Bee Book - How to keep Bees by anna botsford comstock

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

Free to read Bee Book - How to keep Bees by anna botsford comstock

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Un8uAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PP1

I like looking and just seeing what various folks say about various things, and it is free so...enjoy.

[don2]

Why does it skip page 2 and 3 right at the beginning?  I cannot go past page 1 to 4. I am not that kind of reader. :roll:  :) d2

[njfl]

Published in 1909.  This should be interesting reading.

[Musketeer21]

This book is older than dirt. It talkes about buying bees from your bee keeping neighbor for $2. Lol

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

I know, its neat seeing things being done back then, and how the methods were not really all that different of course, with many of the observations done by those who made their livings off of it at the time.

Not sure why yours skips pages. mine has all 250 pages, and goes through them fine.

[Oblio13]

Thanks for posting this, fascinating reading.

[BlueBee]

Thanks for the link BetterBee, I haven’t read this one yet.

There are lots of circa 1900 bee books a person can download for free from google (out of copyright).  It is interesting to read the old books.  Lots of useful tips in those old books.

It’s very interesting how they used to winter backs back then.   They used to winter them in bee houses inside the Jackson MI prison; or so I read in one old book.  Wintering in basements was also common practice.  Now days we seem to think the bees are more bullet proof to the cold than they did 100 years ago, yet where are the majority of queens and genetics from these days?    

I also find it very interesting the battle between the dadant jumbo design and the 10 frame Langs in the old books.  There seemed to be fairly consistent reports that the larger brood comb boxes outperformed the langs.  Yet today, new beeks seem to be attracted to the allure of the “all medium” configuration.  Maybe I'm old fashioned :laugh: but I'll keep my jumbo frames and make some more  :-D

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

Thanks for the link BetterBee, I haven’t read this one yet.


I also find it very interesting the battle between the dadant jumbo design and the 10 frame Langs in the old books.  There seemed to be fairly consistent reports that the larger brood comb boxes outperformed the langs.  Yet today, new beeks seem to be attracted to the allure of the “all medium” configuration.  Maybe I'm old fashioned :laugh: but I'll keep my jumbo frames and make some more  :-D

Hey, I keep sayin the same......Tis why I use jumbo's and deeps. (and even a super jumbo, or at least that is what I am calling it.) But I trust many of those who do go with mediums only, and know they know what they are doing...so...different strokes for different folks, and others may not deal with what we do in MI. so it makes sense for it be slightly different for them too. I like reading old school txt too. To know where you are going, one has to know where they have been,

[BlueBee]

You’re right there are a lot of interesting old books out there on Google.  I read the one about raising Bumble bees last year.  I also enjoy reading some of the old science texts like the theory of tubes and steam locomotive design.  It is amazing how much human effort went into some of those old technologies and how they’re now completely (almost) worthless.

I agree with you about different stokes for different folks.  I do run hives with mediums and deeps too, but my preference is the jumbos.