March 28, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



197 



young^ queens to lay be correct. If it be true, I have no 

 doubt it is owing to the fact that the bees were stimulated 

 so that they fed the queen differently. Is it not more prob- 

 able that it was simply a coincidence? I think a pood 

 many experiments should be tried before we reach this con- 

 clusion. 



Page 232 — That the thread which evinces that matinif 

 has taken place is absorbed into the body of the queen, I 

 think very improbable indeed. It is of a kind of tissue 

 that would be slowly absorbed, and want of contact would 

 make absorption very slow. That it could dry up and dis- 

 appear is easy to believe. 



Page 250 — I am not at all sure that bees do not com- 

 municate. A study of their brain would make this seem 

 possible. That they are one-idead insects seems also to me 

 not proven, as the judge would say. The very case Mr. 

 Root gave, I think would warrant this conclusion. When 

 bees are not gathering, how quickly honey some distance 

 from an apiary attracts multitudes of bees if exposed. I 

 think Sir John Lubbock would give a decided " no " to this 

 idea, that bees do not communicate. If any man living 

 has a right to an opinion regarding the intelligence of ants 

 and bees, it is he. 



Page 255 — Here again Mr. Root advises the use of the 

 lantern. I have tried the night-working with bees several 

 times when necessity compelled it, and I should be slow to 

 recommend it, especially to a novice. 



Page 261 — Mr. Roofs com mendation of California in 

 view of the prolonged harvest is very timely. The white sage 

 of the valleys precedes the black sage of the canyons, and, as 

 he so well says, " the bees first commence working in the 

 valleys and then gradually fly higher up as the blossoms 

 climb the mountain sides, giving a much longer season than 

 we have in regions not mountainous." There is another 

 fact that greatly extends the period of bloom in California 

 — many flowers, like the white sage, are in long racemes 

 which bloom centrifugally, that is, the outside flowers 

 bloom much earlier than the inside flowers, or the lower 

 flowers blossom earlier than the upper. This, of course, 

 greatly prolongs the period of bloom, and consequently, 

 the honey season. 



Page 276 — What warrant is there for stating that 

 formic acid is a vegetable acid secreted from the honey and 

 pollen ? I think there is none. I believe that it is equally 

 untrue that the poison is more pungent when the bees are 

 working. The formic acid is a secretion of the insect, and 

 in no sense a vegetable secretion. If the poison is more 

 irritating at one time than another, it is because there is 

 more of it. When bees are idle, all their functions will be 

 less active and so less poison would be secreted. Yet I 

 have my doubts in this matter. I have never known bees 

 to sting worse, or the wound to be more painful, than in 

 the autumn when the harvest was all over. 



Page 277 — I am surprised that our author teaches that 

 stinging does not kill the bee. Who has not known cases 

 where thousands of bees have died from stinging? In the 

 case of the cow killed by being stung, which I described in 

 the bee-papers some months ago, so many of the bees lost 

 their lives that the apiary was sadly depleted. I have 

 proved by direct experiment, that losing the sting means to 

 lose the life. Death, however, may not immediately follow 

 the wound. 



(To be continued.) 



Adaptability of Bee-Keeping to Women. 



BY MRS. L. C. AXTEI.I,. 



I AM surprised that more women do not take up bee-keep- 

 ing as a business, for I am sure they would find it profit- 

 able, conducive to health, and a pleasure, if followed 

 perseveringly. 



As bees never ought to be handled except in warm 

 weather, in taking care of them there is no need of expo- 

 sure in unsuitable weather, as is often necessary in other 

 outdoor work, especially in caring for poultry. I have often 

 seen women out in a pouring rain gathering up little chick- 

 ens, and have done it a great many times myself. 



•Keeping bees is light work, requiring but little heavy 

 lifting, except when putting the bees into the cellar for 

 winter, and that is not really necessary, as they can be 

 made warm and dry and left on the summer stands. Simply 

 remove all extra combs and surplus from the hives, and fill 

 the empty space with dry chaff, first covering the combs 

 the bees occupy with thick cotton-cloth, to prevent the chad 

 from falling down among the bee«. 



If bees are gentle it is a real pleasure to me to see them 

 flying around and hear their happy hum among the flow- 

 ers — they are company just as all life is company. A few 

 neatly painted hives set in the front or side yard add to the 

 beauty of the premises, making a home look attractive. I 

 would not have the bees very near to the walks, as some 

 people are afraid of them. 



Some of our most successful apiarists are women. 

 Most men bee-keepers have women helpers. Indeed, much 

 of the work to be done with the bees seems just adapted to 

 women, as they are more likely to look after the little things 

 than the men. Where a home is heavily mortgaged, if the 

 wife or grown-up daughter would engage in bee-keeping, 

 she could do much toward lifting the heavy burden from 

 the shoulders of the husband and father. Even if there 

 are no debts to pay it is nice for a woman to have some 

 money which she feels she has earned herself, as there are 

 so many ways in which she can use it — for benevolences 

 and the like — and there is real joy in giving what one earns 

 one's self. Then, it is quite a help to have plenty of honey 

 to use ; it doesn't require any preparing or cooking, and if 

 unexpected company comes a section of nice honey or a 

 dish of candied honey helps to fill up the table, and most 

 people enjoy eating it. 



I think one great reason why more women do not take 

 up bee-keeping is because they are afraid of the stings. 

 But if Italian bees are kept, and handled gently, working 

 with them only when the weather is warm and sunshiny, 

 always giving them a puff or two of smoke at the entrance 

 before opening the hive, having the face protected with a 

 bee-veil and the wrists tightly wrapt, a woman will soon 

 become so used to them that she will have no more fear of 

 the bees than of a sitting hen. Bees resent quick move- 

 ments so it is well to move slowly and easily when working 

 with them. It might be well for two beginners to work 

 together, one to use the smoker while the other works, but 

 care must be taken not to use too much smoke. The odor 

 from a crusht bee seems to anger them, but a little smoke 

 will subdue them. 



When a woman makes up her mind to begin bee-keep- 

 ing she must begin right. Buy good hives, and good colo- 

 nies of pure, gentle Italian bees — not the very yellow ones, 

 as I have had the very yellow Italians that were worse to 

 handle than any blacks or hybrids we ever had. The 

 queens of such colonies should be destroyed, and ought 

 never to be sold to beginners. Then the next thing she 

 should have is a good text-book on bees — don't buy an old 

 one because it is cheap, but get one that is up with the 

 times. Follow the book very closely the first few years, 

 and pay little attention to what a neighbor advises unless 

 you know him to be a practical apiarist. It is better to have 

 few colonies at first, and I am not sure but that it is just 

 as well to have five as one, as it seems hardly worth while 

 to spend the time reading up for only one colony when one 

 can just as well look after three or five. 



Many women will say they have no time to spend in 

 caring for bees, and yet they spend much time working in 

 the garden, and with flowers, or poultry, and none of these 

 things pay as well for the time expended as do the bees. 

 Better have a few colonies of bees, and a little less of some- 

 thing else — perhaps fewer ruffles and tucks on the chil- 

 dren's clothes, or make less pies and cakes. 



In order to make bee-keeping easy and successful we 

 must do everything at the right time, and have things in 

 the right place. Bees will not put up with slipshod ways. 

 We must follow their instincts more or less, and help them 

 in following them out to the best advantage. 



If weak women would have the care of bees all to them- 

 selves, and be removed from all other work and care, very 

 many of them would find their health. I know this from 

 experience. Working with the bees has done me more good 

 than hundreds of dollars spent for medicine could have 

 done. 



There is something very fascinating about bee-keep- 

 ing, and when once a woman gets interested she forgets 

 her aches and ailments, especially if she has enough colo- 

 nies to look after to keep her busy. When swarming 

 begins, and being short of help, she will see to it that the 

 swarms are cared for if she is only half alive, and the 

 work will become so exciting and exhilarating that before 

 she is aware of it she will be on the fair road to recovery. 

 She has been working out-of-doors, breathing the fresh air, 

 been somewhat suukist, heard the birds sing, and forgotten 

 her own troubles; and bodily ailments have taken unto 

 themselves wings and flown away. Warren Co., 111. 



