- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
How times change with the advancement of knowledge.
It's long been known that when honey bees—as well as other insects—get trapped in the milkweed's pollinia, or sticky mass of pollen, many perish when they are unable to free themselves.
So when we were perusing the book, ABC of Bee Culture, published in 1890 and written by noted beekeeping innovator/entrepreneur A. I. Root (1839-1923) of Ohio--with information “gleaned from the experience of thousands of beekeepers from all over the land”--we came across a surprising recommendation.
The surprising recommendation: If you want to kill off bees where they are not wanted, plant milkweed. In one reference, milkweed is described as a “useless weed.” (Actually, it's the only larval host of the monarch butterfly and without milkweed, no monarchs.)
Excerpt from ABC of Bee Culture:
"Milkweed (Asclepias cornuti). This plant is celebrated, not for the honey it produces, although it doubtless furnishes a good supply, but for its queer, winged masses of pollen, which attach themselves to the bees's feet and cause him to become a cripple, if not to lose his life. Every fall, we have many inquiries from new subscribers in regard to this queer phenomenon. Some think it is a parasite, others a protuberance growing on the bee's foot, and others, a winged insect enemy of the bee.” (Note that foragers are referred to as male, but all foragers are female.)
“It is the same that Prof. Riley alluded to when he recommended that the milkweed be planted to kill off the bees when they become troublesome to the fruit grower. The folly of such advice—think of the labor and expense of starting a plantation of useless weeds just to entrap honey bees---becomes more apparent when we learn that it is perhaps only the old and enfeebled bees that are unable to free themselves from those appendages, and hence the milkweed can scarcely be called an enemy. The appendage, it will be observed, looks like a pair of wings, and they attach themselves to the bee by a glutinous matter which quickly hardens so it is quite difficult to remove, if not done when it is first attached.”
There's a wealth of information in the encyclopedic ABC of Bee Culture, even the 126-year-old edition, but planting milkweed to kill bees and describing milkweed a "useless weed" aren't two of them.
How times change with the advancement of knowledge.
(Editor's Note: The newest edition of the ABC of Bee Culture is The ABC and Xyz of Bee Culture: An Encyclopedia of Beekeeping, 40th Edition. It's published by the A. I. Root Co.)


- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

We found the book, ABC of Bee Culture: A Cyclopedia of Everything Pertaining to the Care of the Honey Bee; Bees, Honey, Hives, Implements, Honey-Plants, Etc. by A. I. Root, in an antiques and jewelry shop in Vacaville, Calif.
The book offers a look into how our ancestors kept bees. It also reveals that the former book owner was apparently quite enamored with President William Howard Taft (1857-1930), the 27th president of the United States, who served from March 4, 1909 to March 4, 1913.
Why? The foreword pages hold newspaper clippings about the late president.
And not just "hold." They're glued. As in heavy-duty glue.
Apparently the book owner had no money for a real scrapbook.
One clipping is headlined “Taft Anecdotes” and another, “Taft’s Career in a Nut Shell." A photo caption reads “Mr. Taft starting for his vacation in Canada in 1928.” Another caption: “Out for a stroll in Washington.” And yet another: “Chief Justice in His Office" (Taft served as chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1921-1930).
Here I buy a book about bees and beekeeping and I get a two-for-one: Apis mellifera and William Howard Taft.
Fortunately, the main text is devoid of Taft clippings.
The book is interesting reading. Back then beekeepers didn't worry about parasites, pesticides, pests, diseases, colony collapse disorder (CCD), malnutrition and stress. American beekeepers had no varroa mites or small hive beetles--but they did have wax moth larvae and American Foul Brood.
A paragraph:
"Diseases of Bees: I am very glad indeed to be able to say, that bees are less liable to be affected with disease than perhaps any other class of animated creatures. It is perhaps because the individual members of a colony are so constantly giving way to other younger members, as they are hatched out and come on the sstage of action. Nothing but a really contagious disease could do very much harm, where vigorous and youthful members are being added to the family circle almost daily, and for a great part of the year, by hundreds or thousands. Therefore, if your bees lack thrit, all you have to do is to start brood-rearing briskly; and if the queen is in any way at fault, you can simple remove her and substitute another, without even so much as disturbing the regular routine."
A. I. Root goes on to say that the only disease that interferes with brood rearing is Foul Brood (what we now call "American Foul Brood" or AFB.)
How times have changed. The varroa mites which transfer viruses are beekeepers' nightmares and probably play a huge role in the mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder.

