September, 191 1 



American T^ee JonrnaJj 



Bee-Keeping ^ For Women 



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



Bee-Keeping for Working Girls 



Editor Digges. of the Irish Bee Jour- 

 nal, finds no difficulty in recommend- 

 ing the industry of bee-keeping as a 

 profitable occupation for girls whose 

 allowances are small. He says: 



" If $50 would come in handy as an incre- 

 ment; if $100 would help to balance receipts 

 and expenditures; if $150 would pay for ex- 

 tra tOQues and gowns, extend a needed holi- 

 day, or serve some other useful purpose, 

 there is no real reason known to us why 

 such sums should not be raised by any dili- 

 gent girls, suitably situated, who would set 

 to work at bee-keeping. As work, it de- 

 mands no extraordinary physical strength; 

 it is healthy, invigorating, fascinating; it is 

 recreation as well as work; it is a nature- 

 study, lifting the mind above the humdrum 

 affairs of ordinary domestic life; free from 

 danger in itself, it offers a safe retreat from 

 the male bore, who is usually in terror of 

 bees; and it is an occupation that suits itself 

 most agreeably to the quiet temper, gentle 

 touch, and patient, persevering attention to 

 detail, which women and girls, much more 

 than men, can bring to bear upon it. 



A Good Price for Honey 



No, I would not like to be without the 

 American Bee Journal so long as I keep 

 bees, which will oe as long as I live. I hope. 

 I love them dearly; they are doing well for 

 me. considering the pasture they have. I 

 have IQ colonies, and run for comb honey- 

 pound sections wholly. I get 25 cents per 

 pound. Is not that good ? 



Raymond. .\. H. Mrs. A. E. Laurence. 



You are certainly to be congratulated 

 on the price you get for your honey. 

 As long as you are able to dispose of 

 it at such a price, would it not be a 

 good thing to keep a larger number of 

 colonies ? 



Taking Off Honey — Keeping Empty Combs 



I never have any trouble taking off 

 supers of comb honey; in fact. I wish 

 I could take off some each day. as each 

 section of nice white honey makes me 

 smile. I take the smoker and brush- 

 broom, and then open the hive very 

 carefully, and raise up the cover of the 

 super, and smoke the bees until they 

 leave the top of the super ; then I pry 

 it up with the handy Ideal hive-tool. 

 (I could not do without it.) I lift the 

 super off, lean it against the hive, put 

 on the cover, and set the smoker on 

 the hive-cover; pick up the small 

 brush-broom, and brush all the bees I 

 can off the super, then carry the super 

 (which is sometimes pretty heavy for a 

 woman to carry) to a table under a 

 shade-tree, some distance from the 

 hives. On the table are two small 

 sticks to set the super on, and to keep 

 from crushing bees, for I never kill a 

 bee if I can help it. With the hive-tool 

 I pry out the sections and holders, 

 piling the perfect sections in a pan 

 very carefully, and putting back into 

 the super the unfinished sections with 

 starters to till the super again. I then 

 carry the super back to the hive, use 

 the smoker freely, and put the super 

 on the hive. 



Then I send word to the neighbors 

 that I have taken off some honey, and 

 John and I have biscuits and honey for 

 supper. 



Empty Brood-Combs HuiNED in Winter 



All people have troubles of their 

 own, but I want them to know of some 

 of mine. In the fall of 1910 I had some 

 nice, straight brood-combs which I 

 had saved during the year from colo- 

 nies I had united, and. of course, 

 meant them to hive swarms on in 1011. 

 Each brood-comb represented its 

 weight in cents. Part of the combs I 

 stored down cellar on a swing-shelf, 

 in a dark room, and the rest in a light 

 room upstairs. Imagine my dismay to 

 find, last spring, that the combs that 

 were upstairs were eaten into shreds 

 by a hairy bug or worm, such as v/ork 

 on dried beef; and the ones in the cel- 

 lar were spoiled by the bee-month, 

 which, after making the combs useless, 

 had gone into winter quarters in nice 

 beds all along the brood-frames. I 

 did not suppose the combs would be 

 harmed through the winter months, 

 but they were spoiled. 



Ohio Bee-Woman. 



Tlie Bee-Veil and Bee-Stings 



BY KATE LOWE UKAHAM. 



O bee! I can hear your loud hummlngr; 



I want to get close to you. dear: 

 But the 8tln& in your tall keeps me fussing— 



The tale of a stingf Is what I much fear. 



The little gold hands on your back. dear. 



Your eyes in such crowds on your head. 

 And those lovely antenna? so black, dear. 



Are so nice— but the sting-'s what I dread. 



The baskets you wear on your thlgrhs. dear, 



.\re big. and so goldenly packed : 

 And your wings are as fine as your eyes, dear. 



And the honey's so perfectly sacked. 



When you're sailing up close to the hive. dear. 

 And the landing's not easy to make. 



It's fun to see just how you dive. dear- 

 Like an air-ship not sure of its brake. 



Now the cactus and the greasewood are bloom- 

 ing. 

 And the sun's steering Northward again; 



You are working all day till the gloaming- 

 Each one of you working like ten. 



I've seen you dive down in the lilies: 

 I've seen you sail off on the wing: 



But I am not going to be one of the sillies. 

 Walking around with a terrible sting. 



That's why I sit on the fence, dear. 



.\nd watch you flock up from the place 

 Where pricklies and gold-balls are dense, dear. 



With this funny bee -veil on my face. 

 Socorro, Mexico. —Gldjuhigs in Bcc Cttlturt-. 



Bar le due Currants and Honey 



Pick over selected red or white cur- 

 rants, wash, drain and remove from 

 stems. With a sharp-pointed penknife 



make a very small cut in each berry, 

 and take out the seeds one at a time, 

 using a needle, so as to break the fruit 

 as little as possible. Use equal weights 

 of prepared fruit and extracted honey. 

 Put the honey in a preserving kettle, 

 and, when heated, add fruit, bring to 

 the boiling-point, and let it simmer 4 

 minutes. Skim out the fruit and put it 

 in small glass tumblers. Co'ok the 

 syrup until thick, and fill the jars with 

 it. Cover the top of the glasses with a 

 circular piece of paraffin paper, then 

 tin-foil, then 2 thicknesses of white 

 paper, fastened over the sides of the 

 glass with library paste and then tied 

 with a string. — W. H. Comp. 



Honey in Place of Sugar 



The Van Thomas Co., of Los Ange- 

 les, Calif., is making plans for a book 

 of recipes in which honey is used ex- 

 clusively for sweetening. This is a 

 move in the right direction. If the 

 mothers of our land could be brought 

 to understand the truth in regard to 

 using honey in place of sugar, its con- 

 sumption would be doubled in a very 

 short time. — Mrs. H. G. Acklin, in 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture. 



Honey-and-Oalmeal Cookies 



Granulated sugar, XYz cups; honey, 

 Yz cup; 2 eggs and a cup of melted 

 butter. You can put some lard with it 

 if you wish. Mi.x the sugar, honey, and 

 butter; then add eggs, and beat lightly. 

 Dissolve Yz teaspoonful of baking-soda 

 in 4 tablespoonfuls of hot water; one 

 teaspoonful of cinnamon, and Y^ tea- 

 spoonful of cloves ; one cup of finely 

 cut raisins; roll in a little flour; add 3 

 cups of flour; 3 cups of rolled oats; 

 mix all together and roll out on a 

 board to medium thickness; cut in 

 small cakes, and bake in a moderate 

 oven. Keep in an air-tight box. (We 

 never need the box, as they don't last 

 long around here.) — Wendt Brothers, 

 in (jleanings in Bee Culture. 



Honey for Burns and Chilblains 



" For burns and scalds pure extracted 

 honey is very good; it will generally 

 relieve the pain in a very short time, 

 and induce the wound to heal very 

 rapidly." A writer quoting the fore- 

 going from a medical work, records 

 that in a case which came under his 

 own observation, where a man had his 

 hands badly scalded, the cure worked 

 .favorably. The hands were dipped in 

 honey and wrapped in cotton wool, the 

 application being renewed in course of 

 time. 



As a consequence of moving about 

 in cold weather with damp feet, chil- 

 dren are frequently troubled with chil- 

 blains. Honey helps to cure them. Coat 

 a piece of cloth with honey and apply 

 it to the sore when the child is going 

 to bed. A few applications should 

 bring about a cure. — D. M. Macdonald, 

 in the British Bee Journal. 



I derive a great deal of information from 

 the pages of the American Bee Journal, and 

 will never allow the " measly " price of Si. 00 

 to come between myself and the loss of the 

 Journal. W. R. Ci^nningham. 



RayviUe. La.. July i. 



