438 



GLEANINGS IN I3EE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY. 



SHAVE kept bees for ten years. I have 17 colo- 

 nies now. I think bee-keeping is too hard work 

 — ' for women. Any woman who can lift a 75-lb. 

 hive with a -tOlb. honey-box on it, and carry it away 

 go that the returning swarm won't find it, can go 

 out with an ox team and break prairie sod and make 

 money faster. Somebody has a long article in 

 Harper's Monthly for June, entitled "Money-making 

 for Ladies." Among many other things, it says, 

 " In connection with a garden, it is a comparatively 

 easy matter to raise bees. They take up little room, 

 generally find and take care of themselves. Bee- 

 raising particularly commends itself to ladies, be- 

 cause there is so little work in it; it is like having 

 a colony of small slaves to work for her while she is 

 busy with other things, or enjoying the sweet do- 

 nothingness that follows accomplished labor." I 

 like that — I like the " sweet donothingness." It 

 sounds well; but any one who has raised bees for a 

 few years knows it is only sound. Bees must have 

 close attention, and constant attention, a good part 

 of the year, and that means work, and very hard 

 work. A good many women who would like to keep 

 bees and make money easily are like a woman who 

 came here three years ago to buy bees. She wanted 

 cheap bees, and I told her I would sell them as cheap- 

 ly as I could. I told her that I had paid two dollars 

 for a single bee, but of course I would not charge 

 her that much for every bee in the hive. I would 

 sell her a good colony for $7.00. She said she thought 

 she ought to get them cheap, because she had lost 

 all of hers. "I understand bee-keeping," she said, 

 "and I think I had real good success with them for a 

 new beginner. 1 had only two swarms last spring, 

 and in the fall I had six. I swarmed them artiJiciaUu, 

 and I think I succeeded real well." 



"And how many have you now? " I asked. 



"Oh! I haven't any: they all died this winter, but 

 I think I had real good success to make six swarms 

 out of two." 



I did not sell her any. Mahala B. Chaddock. 



Vermont, Fulton Co., 111., July 10, 1883. 



There is some truth in what you say, my 

 friend, and I would by no means have our 

 lady readers think they can keep bees, and 

 care for large crops of honey, without hard 

 work ; but for all that, I think it is not nec- 

 essary, nor even well, for anybody to lift a 

 " 75-lb. hive, with a 40-lb. honey-box on top 

 of it." No, nor even one that weighs 50 lbs., 

 all told. It is true, work might sometimes 

 be hastened by so doing ; but in the end, I 

 do not think it would pay. Friend Brooks 

 has given us a plan to take care of swarms 

 without moving the old hive at all ; and as 

 a rule, I do not believe it pays to move hives. 

 If you are going to sell bees, lift out the 

 frames and set them in a nice new hive tox 



your customer, and let this new hive stand 

 on a light wlieelbarrow, and then it can be 

 easily wheeled where wanted. Honey is 

 now mostly sold in cases containing not 

 much over 25 lbs., and a woman of average 

 strength can handle these pretty well. If 

 she has a great many, she will have honey 

 enough so she can afford to hire some cheap 

 help, in the shape of boys and girls who will 

 be glad of something to do. Am I not right, 

 my friend V 



TEASELS, SUNFLOWERS, ETC. 



We heard this refrain many times during July: 

 "They are good bees, and we'll put them in the 

 Holy-Land." A portion of our apiary acquired this 

 name from some plants grown from ssed given us 

 by Mr. Jones at Cincinnati, who said it was mint 

 seed from the Holy Land. In the spring of 1881 we 

 sowed the seed in a tlower-pot, and transplanted the 

 plants to our apiary. We impatiently watched for 

 bloom, but none appeared. This spring we noticed 

 the plants were of a beautiful green, with long 

 linear leaves, covered with spines. We said, "They 

 look as if they might make good greens;" but we 

 did not try them. After a while they ran up and 

 put forth burrs, and our partner remarked, "Your 

 Holy-Land mint is nothing but teasel; I've seen 

 plenty just like it growing wild in Connecticut, when 

 I was a boy." And so it has proved to be teasel, and 

 nothing else. Bees worked upon it, but we had too 

 little of it to form any opinion as to its honey value 

 in this locality. 



A friend gave us a few Spider plants that she 

 raised in a hot-bed, and we think they are pretty, 

 and quite an ornament to a lawn. They seem to 

 suit this locality better than the Rocky-Mountain 

 bee-plant, but this season has been uncommonly 

 cool and wet. The Kocky-xHountain bee-plant revels 

 in hot, dry weather. 



We have some sunflowers that we admire and talk 

 of from sunrise till sunset. They are the Russian, 

 and do not grow so tall as the old variety, but the 

 flowers are immense. The diameter across the seed 

 only of the head measures eleven inches, and the 

 circumference is SVA inches. We think they are 

 grand for shade for bee-hives, as they grow so quick- 

 ly, and the bees need sunshine in spring and fall, 

 and they would be large enough for shade as soon as 

 it was needed. The bloom yields honey, and the 

 seed excellent food for fowls. Many persons think 

 that sunflowers grown in a malarial district are a 

 preventive against disease. 



Peoria, 111., Aug., 1883. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



THE NATIONAIi CONVENTION. 



fJiHE North American Bee-Keepers' Society will 

 hold their next annual meeting at Washing- 

 ■ — ' ton Park Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, across Wash- 

 ington Park from Exposition building. First ses- 

 sion, Tuesday, Oct. 3d, 10 a.m. We are encouraged 

 to hope that this will be a very profitable meeting, 

 as we are promised papers from and the presence of 

 a large number of our most prominent bee-keepers 

 from many of the States and Canada. Implements 

 of the apiary, and essays from abroad, are expected 

 to add to the knowledge imparted by the research 

 and Inventive skill and methods of our own coun- 

 trymen. Ehrick Parmly, Sec'y. 



