May, ig[[. 



Amc^rican ^ae Journal 



Bee-I^eping <^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson. Marengo, 111. 



Bee-Keeping as an Avocation for Women 



Some time ago I heard a man remark. 

 'VThere's no occupation under the sun 

 where women don't crowd in now-a-days." 

 The man was mistaken. Women are not 

 crowding in. they have long arrived and 

 taken their place side by side with man. 

 efficiently helping along with life's work. In 

 one respect the man was right: there is 

 hardly an occupation under the sun that 

 woman has not or is not trying her luck 

 with, and bee-keeping is one of the many. 

 How far back there have been women bee- 

 keepers, or how many there may be now. I 

 could not lell; but I know that bees can be 

 kept by women as successfully, financially 

 and otherwise, as by men. 



There has been much nonsense writ- 

 ten in papers about a veilless and gloveless. 

 as well as laborless. lucrative bee-keeping 

 for women, children and invalids. Bees can 

 be worked without veil or gloves. I admit, 

 but the woman who embarks in bee keeping 

 with an idea of taking her fancy-work into 

 the apiary and sit contentedly watching her 

 bees gather the honey for her. will soon con- 

 clude that if she wished to realize the profit 

 from them she is probably anticipating, she 

 would better don veil and gloves and do 

 some honest work, and do it when her inter- 

 ests demand it. and not only at times when 

 the bees happen to be in the mood to be 

 worked without antagonism. 



When I was requested to write this paper 

 on " Bee-Keeping for Women,' I found the 

 only thing I could tell was my own experi- 

 ence as a woman bee-keeper, and this I have 

 endeavored to do without any attempt at 

 rose-coloring or discouraging. 



When my father died, nearly 4 years ago. 

 mother and I suddenly found ourselves with 

 225 colonies of bees on our hands, the prin- 

 cipal care of which depended upon me. 

 Although an experienced bee-keepers' 

 daughter. I was disgracefully ignorant of the 

 proper management of bees. Father had 

 always had help to work his bees, and the 

 honey-house work had been my share, and 

 as I was about as fearful of a bee sting as of 

 a snake-bite. I went near them as little as 

 possible, and excepting a few times when 1 

 had gone out with father to smoke for him 

 and doa little handling. I had never ventured 

 into the bee-yards. 



About the first thing I did was to get a pair 

 of good, safe rubber gloves. They were so 

 stiff my hands felt like done up in splints, 

 and gave me more discomfort than a goodly 

 number of bee-stings would have done. 

 Fortunately they did not last long, but soon 

 began to split and break. I have since found 

 a thin leather or light canvas glove is best 

 suited for the work. 



The spring of igo- was late and generally 

 unfavorable for bees in our locality. Spring 

 dwindling had reduced our number of colo- 

 nies to about 200. Of these we moved Bo to 

 an out-apiary on May 24th. Apple-trccs were 

 then just beginning to blossom, and the bees 

 that had by this time become alarmingly 

 light of stores, literally filled up during the 

 bloom. 



Some time later when I went to work this 

 out-apiary, the first thing that greeted me on 

 my arrival was an immense swarm of bees 

 high up in an apple-tree. While I was light- 

 ing up the smoker and getting ready for 

 work, another came tumbling out. I hurried 

 to look for the queen, and back of me came 

 another, and still another. The whole air 

 seemed filled with swarms, and I felt like 

 swarming out. too. and leaving the bees to 

 their own sweet will: I found consolation, 

 however, in the knowledge that I had faith- 

 fully clipped every queen's wings early in 

 the spring, and that they could not get away 

 from me no matter how hard tliey tried. I 

 had read in a bee-book that it takes 16 days 

 for a queen to hatch from the day the egg 

 was laid. On this I relied. I went through 

 my bees and assiduously ripped out not only 

 every queen cell, but every queen-cell cup 

 that had anything in it resembling an egg. 

 When on the 12th or 13th day after this I 

 again visited the bee-yard, confident that I 

 was getting around in plenty of time. I was 

 painfulljr surprised to find many young 



queens hatched, and more swarms had taken 

 to the woods or filled neighbors' dry-goods 

 boxes than I would like to tell, and I indig- 

 nantly concluded that there was something 

 dead wrong and misleading about those bee- 

 books. Had I pursued more carefully I 

 would also have read that when bees have 

 larvae they will rear a queen in 10 days. 



Early in July a sister came for a visit. For 

 years she had been in the habit of spending 

 the two months school vacation at home, 

 and had helped father quite a little with the 

 bees, and consequently knew more about 

 handling them than I. After that things ran 

 smoother. 



The first summer was hard, and we made 

 many mistakes. To make matters worse it 

 was a poor season in our locality, owing to 

 the extremely late spring and succeeding 



Miss Hettie E. Hoffman. 



severe drouth. From our 200 colonies we 

 harvested some over 6000 pounds of comb 

 honey, and about 2000 pounds of extracted. 



The season of 1008 again proved a poor one, 

 owing to the same conditions of drouth as in 

 the previous summer. But ioo<j. however, 

 gave us a good crop of fine-quality honey. 



I found that 2011 or more colonies was more 

 than I could properly manage with numerous 

 other duties depending upon me. so we 

 gradually reduced our number to about I7rj. 

 From these we harvested, the past season 

 ' lyio), n,=;*x) pounds of comb honey, and about 

 2200 pounds of extracted. 



The work in producing these crops was all 

 done by women, with the exception of put- 

 ting the bees in and out of their winter 

 quarters, moving them to and from the out- 

 apiary, and drawing the honey to the freight- 

 house when it was ready for shipment. For 

 this work we hire neighbors. 



Mother and I make all our supplies, in- 

 cluding the comb foundation and extracting 

 the honey. My only help in working tlie 

 bees is my sister the two months she is with 

 us. A 15-year-old niece assisted with the 

 finishing of the sections the past season. 



Bee-keeping for women, although a healthy. 

 and for the most part pleasant, occupation, 

 is by no means all easy work. To carry tons 

 of honey from the hives into your honey- 

 house, or bend all day over bee-hives, hand- 

 ling and shaking heavy combs, would soon 

 scatter illusions to the winds, and probably 

 end in prosaic back-ache and kindred com- 

 plications for a woman not accustomed to 

 strenuous work. For a woman to plunge 

 into bee-keeping with the hope of at once 

 deriving a competent income from it would, 

 in most cases, end in discouragement and 



failure. If. however, she is content to begin 

 with a few colonies, and study the habits 

 and management of her bees before she ven 

 tures deep, she will in time find it a remun- 

 erative business. She will also find her en- 

 durance growing with lier colonies for cul- 

 tured woman is but the weaker sex 'because 

 for centuries she has pampered herself and 

 allowed herself to be pampered The peas 

 ant women of Europe who go into the fields 

 and work, shoulder to shoulder with their 

 men, are as strong as men, and the women 

 of savage tribes are fully capable of per- 

 forming the burden of the work thrust upon 

 them The practice of wheeling a 'barrow 

 to and from the bee-yard is better exercise 

 for gaming health and strength than swing- 

 ing dumb-bells or subjecting the body to va- 

 rious contortions in physical-culture prac- 



Remuneratively compared with other oc- 

 cupations, bee-keeping has its advantages as 

 well as Its disadvantages. A woman! able 

 to work, can successfully handle from i-c, ,0 

 ISO colonies of bees with little extra help' In 

 a fair season, if properly worked they'will 

 net her an income quite a little ahead of her 

 sister who teaches, or works in factory or 

 store. But to the bee-keeper, every vear 

 does not bring a good crop. The season for 

 theactual honey-flow is comparatively short 

 and if during these few weeks the weather 

 IS unfavorable, or as is sometimes the case 

 the blossoms yield little or no nectar the 

 crop will be short, or even a total failure 

 manage or work as faithfully as you wilh 

 Then there is capital invested, and the re- 

 sponsibility and risk of ownership, the bur- 

 den of which the employer carries for the 

 woman working for wages. But. while for 

 the wage-earner, in most cases, it is an all- 

 year-around. monotonous performance, for 

 the bee-keepers after a summer of invigor- 

 ating outdoor life comes a period of rest for 

 while your bees are taljing their long winter 

 sleep they need little if any attention. Cer- 

 tainly the wise bee-keeper will get ready as 

 many supplies during the winter months as 

 possible, if he or she does not wish to be 

 caught in a summer rush, that is anything 

 but cileasant. But even this working ahead 

 will leaveplenty of time for rest and recrea- 

 tion. 



The w-oman who keeps bees lives and 

 works at home, and can attend to her house- 

 hold and family duties besides her bee work 

 even though some minor details may be neg- 

 lected during the busy season There is 

 much easy, agreeable work connected with 

 the business that will keep the growing boy 

 or girl out of mischief. 



There is always a ready market for good 

 honey Dealers are usually looking for 

 comb honey put up in neat, attractive pack- 

 ages, and properly graded. This work is 



market. Sell it outright for cash if possible 

 if not. ship It to a reliable commission-house' 

 Nearly all our extracted honey is sold at 

 home. I he honey is put up in =; and 10 pound 

 pails as soon as extracted, and allowed to 

 granulate. I he labels on our pails tell our 

 customers that pure honey will granulate 

 and also give directions to liquefy the honey 

 if so wanted, and we have yet to hear of a 

 complaint of " sugared " honey. 



The woman keeping bees can. if she will 

 or must, doall her own work. A woman cai> 

 not very well farm it alone. She must hire 

 men to do the heavy work, and by so doine 

 she becomes dependent. 



While bee-keeping is not a "get-rich- 

 quick" business, and probably never will 

 put man or woman in "millionaires' row " it 

 will provide a comfortable income for the 

 right man or woman. It is an interesting 

 ever new and broadening study, tiringing 

 one close to Nature, and for the bee-keeper 

 the everyday life easly becomes the icieal 

 simple life. Hettie E. Hoffman. 



Canajoharie. N. Y. 



Miss Hoffman's delightful article puts 

 things in such a common-sense way 

 that it is easy to believe that it comes 

 from real experience in the bee-yard. 

 One point in it is likely to awaken con- 

 troversy. When 200 colonies proved 

 too many to take care of, along with 

 what other work had to be done, was it 

 wise to reduce the number as did Miss 

 Hoffman ? That certainly is not fol- 

 lowing the advice of our good friend 

 of the Bee-Keepers' Review, whose slo- 

 gan is, " Keep more bees." Would it 

 not have been better to have hired help 



