August, igii. 



American l^ee JournaJj 



BEE-tftEPiNG ^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson. Marengo. III. 



Hair-Pin for Transferring Larvae 



With the useful hair-pin and the dan- 

 gerous hat-pin, what is there that a 

 woman will not do or dare ? The latest 

 is from Miss Ethel Robson, who is thus 

 reported in the Canadian Bee Journal: 



" I have something now where I think you 

 will say the woman has an advantage over 

 the man as a bee-keeper. When I prepared 

 my Queen-cells I didn't use the implements 

 recommended by Mr. Clark. Being a woman 

 I used a hair-pin; it was always handy, and 

 one of the larger kind served fairly well to 

 spread the royal jelly. For transferring lar 

 vae. if you want to do it easily, get a fine hair- 

 pin, and you can lift them out beautifully, 

 and you don't even have to cut the cells 

 down very far; you can lift them out every 

 time." 



Bees— and Nerves 



Under the above title it would not be un- 

 reasonable to expect to read about a case of 

 nervous prostration caused by bees, but 

 Quite the contrary, this is a story of a frail 

 little woman who by the means of bees is 

 curing herself of one of the most seething 

 hysterical, dyspeptic attacks of nerves that 

 ever a feminine person was victim of. 



Three years ago she was a wreck; given 

 up for as good as dead by four physicians. 

 She was emaciated, dyspeptic, neuralgic, 

 unstrung. And somebody (with deliberate 

 malice, she thoughti made her a present of 

 a colony of bees, and they scared her neu- 

 rasthenic femininity half to death. She dare 

 not go near them, but from her couch on the 

 piazza she could not help wondering what 

 was going on in the hive. 



Finally, her curiosity caused her to ask 

 her husband to get her a book about bees. 

 He brought it home that very night, and she 

 sat up until midnight to read it. and she 

 could hardly wait for morning to come that 

 she might have a chair taken out near the 

 hive. That was the beginning of the expert 

 knowledge of bees she has since acquired — 

 and, incidentally, the cure of her nerves. 



The second year she had 20 colonies, and 

 this season she is running 50. and taking all 

 the care of them herself. Early last April, 

 she and her husband closed their house in 

 town and moved out a little way into a two- 

 room camp situated in the center of an 

 apple-orchard. And it certainly is a pretty 

 sight to see the pure-white hives dotted 

 about on the green grass which surrounds 

 the white camp with its broad piazza and 

 hammocks and swing-chairs. 



" But what about your housework ? How- 

 do you find time to do it ?" I asked her the 

 other day while I sat on the piazza of the 

 camp and inwardly admired the faint pink 

 of returning health that is creeping into her 

 cheeks. 



"Why— there isn t any, she answered as 

 gleefully as a child at a picnic. "My hus- 

 band gets a hearty dinner in the city where 

 he works, and they won't let me eat any- 

 thing yet but malted milk and crackers— 

 and that isn't hard to get. And we brought 

 out here only a couple of couches and a 

 cook-stove and a table and a few chairs— 

 and my books" 



And her bee-library is a gem. It contains 

 almost everything reliable that has been 

 written about bees, including the more in- 

 tricate text-books thatonly interest experts: 

 for she plunged into the industry with truly 

 scientific spirit. 



Only the other morning something hap- 

 pened at one of the hives that puzzled her. 

 She took a low-hanging rocker out to the 

 hive and sat there for over two hours watch- 

 ing for developments. Then she went back 

 to the camp, took down her books and be- 

 gan to stud>' it out: and she studied until 

 she caught sight of her husband coming 

 down the lane. 



"Well, little woman." he called, "how 

 goes it ?" 



She looked at him in amazement. "Fred, 

 is it half past b ?" 



"It sure is; but it's quite likely to be at 

 this time of night— you robust little rascal." 



"But I sat down here at 3 o'clock, and I 

 didn't suppose I'd been here more than an 

 hour." 



And that is why her bee-work is curing 

 her. She is completely absorbed in it. She 

 loves her bees. And they love her — I know 

 they do. She need never wear any protec- 

 tion from them: she is never troubled when 

 they swarm; and she holds animated con- 

 versations with them as if they were really- 

 truly persons. 



She has not only worked up a steady de- 

 mand for her honey, but she sells the fully 

 equipped hives and gives lessons in bee- 

 culture right there at her camp: she also 

 goes afield to help other bee-keepers with 

 their swarms, and she is a bee-mine of in- 

 formation for miles around. She is a mem- 

 ber of the Massachusetts State Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association and the National Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association: and, best of all, she feels 

 as if her life were worth the living, and she 

 is every day gaining physical strength and 

 mental poise; and her happy mental atti- 

 tude has completely driven away her former 

 morbidness. Alice Spencer Geddes. 



Wakefield. Mass. 



Among the thousands of women who 

 feel that life is not worth living be- 

 cause they are in the same physical 

 condition as was Mrs. Susan E. How- 

 ard, the lady referred to in the fore- 

 going, there are doubtless many who, 

 like her, would find rejuvenation from 

 a working acquaintance with the busy 

 little denizens of the hive. The pity of 

 it that more of them do not find it out! 



In Favor of tlie Sisters 



D. M. Macdonald, in the British Bee 

 Journal, referring to the fact that the 

 Canadian Bee Journal has followed the 

 example of the American Bee Journal 

 in having a department of bee-keeping 

 for women, says : 



" This is a healthy feature in apiculture. I 

 know none of the small cultures which can 

 hold a candle to our craft, when viewed as 

 an occupation suited to the gentler sex. and 

 I see no reason why many of them should 

 not take a place in the front rank of apicul- 

 ture. ' 



-Grow- 



Getting Bees to Worit in Supers- 

 ing Sweet Clover 



Dear Bee-keeping Sisters —I wonder 

 if any of you are ever troubled about having 

 your bees start work in the supers. This is 

 the way I have just now treated a very re- 

 fractory colony: 



Hive-body No. i was clogged with honey. I 

 had previously raised quite a bit of the 

 brood into hive-body No. 2. with an excluder 

 between, and had them building cells ac- 

 cording to Doolittle. The curious part of it 

 is. they did not seem to plan swarming until 

 I placed a super of sections between the 

 two. 'Then they sulked and hung out. I gave 

 some of this unsealed honey to other colo- 

 nies to ripen, but to no purpose. They could 

 think of nothing but swarming. So now I 

 have placed the super on the hive-bottom, 

 with a wire-screen between it and No. 2. 

 leaving an entrance at the back of No. 2. 

 Above this, with an excluder between, is 

 No. I. with the queen. 



All this may not be quite orthodoxy, and 

 not according to the bees' instincts (to 

 swarm). But when those bees have gone 

 down through thf excluder, and out of the 



back door of No. 2. and around to their own 

 entrance to find no queen, no honey, and no 

 brood— in fact, no home, only those despised 

 sections— I wonder will they work in them ? 

 Will they still be minded to swarm ? 



After a few days I will re-arrange on the 

 old plan, perhaps making nuclei of the 

 brood in No. 2. 



Another little kink may not strike some 

 favorably on account of the work; but like 

 some husbands and perhaps a limited num- 

 ber of wivesj I was determined to have my 

 own way. 



I have some land which raises very good 

 crops of sand-burs, but I preferred sweet 

 clover. I do not care to throw away money 

 and time on seed that lioesit' t catr/i, so I began 

 to experiment. First. I tested my seed and 

 found that the germination was all right. I 

 then took old paper sacks used for cement 

 or flour, and with a lath for a ruler, marked 

 and cut strips the width of the lath, and 

 from 8 to 12 inches long, according to con- 

 venience in cutting the strips. I wound 

 these twice around my finger, as one thick- 

 ness of paper is hardly strong enough, and 

 fastened the ends with a pin. As pins can 

 be had at 4 cents for 4 papers, they are not 

 expensive. 



■These little circlets I placed on one open 

 end in a large dripping-pan— a board would 

 serve as well; filled them with moist, rich 

 earth, and planted a few seeds in each one. 

 When these little bottomless paper plant- 

 dishes are well filled with roots. I shall set 

 them out in rows, not more than 2 feet apart 

 ipreferably after a rain), not removing the 

 paper, and as deep as the plants will admit. 

 I propose to keep down weeds as carefully 

 as if I had set strawberries. I am in hopes 

 that in a year or two the seed from these 

 plants will fill the ground, and I will let them 

 have full possession 



If I find that the sweet clover honey is in- 

 ferior to basswood. I can mow it just before 

 the basswood flow. 



As I am running a 20-acre farm— recently 

 purchased— with only a i2-year-old boy to 

 help me. you may be interested to know more 

 of my bee-keeping experience. Part of this 

 land is swamp that has been drained, and is 

 very rich. A lovely grove on the back of 

 the place, mostly basswood. will be put out 

 to timothy and alsike, and will be used as 

 pasture for my dairy. I think I will set here 

 and there plants of sweet clover, and watch 

 the struggle for supremacy. I shall find out, 

 too. if my cattle will eat the sweet clover. 



I intend to make a tall hedge of a variety 

 of perennial flowering vines around my bee- 

 yard, as I am not far from the road, and I 

 can enjoy the beauty as I work with my bees. 

 Many other things I have planned, which 

 will require time and labor, but I dearly 

 love it all. Emily H. Jackson. 



Kibble. Mich, 



We will be quite curious to know 

 how you come out with your experi- 

 ment. One would hardly expect the 

 bees to do much in those sections, and 

 if they do work on them, what will they 

 do with their pollen? You will not 

 want them to dump the pollen in the 

 sections, and what other provision is 

 there for it ? 



We have never found that sections 

 placed under brood-combs were nice 

 and white, bits of dark wax from the 

 brood-combs being used, more or less, 

 to seal the sections; but we never used 

 wire-cloth between, only the excluder, 

 and that may make a difference. 



Your method of setting sweet clover 

 plants should surely be successful 

 where the soil makes it difficult to get 

 a catch. You certainly deserve a good 

 stand as the result Of so much labor; 

 let us hope you will get it. 



By all means let us hear from you 

 again. 



Tin vs. Galvanized Steel for Honey- 

 Tanks. — E. D. Townsend says in Glean- 

 ings in Bee Culture that all his honey- 

 tanks are of galvanized steel, but that 

 he shall use tin hereafter. "Tin is 

 easier to keep clean, but the main point 

 is, honey is not injured if allowed to 

 stand in tin as it is in galvanized steel." 



