October, 191 1. 



American Vee Journal 



299 



h=^^^^ ( 



Bee-Keeping ^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, II 



Brother Drone and Sister Worker 



That the Canadian Bee Journal has a 

 very bright correspondent who be- 

 lieves in giving proper credit to the 

 "fair sect" is witnessed by the follow- 

 ing: 



The Honey-Bee 



You are belted with gold, little brother of 

 mine. 



Yellow gold. like the sun 

 That spills in the west, as a chalice of wine 



When feasting is done. 



You are gossamer-winged. little brother of 

 mine. 

 Tissue-winged, like the mist 

 That broods where the marshes melt into a 

 line 

 Of vapor sun-kissed. 



You are laden with sweets, little brother of 

 mine. 

 Flower sweets, like the touch 

 Ot hands we have longed for. of arms that 

 entwine. 

 Of lips that love much. 



You are betlter than I. little brother of 

 mine — 

 Than I. human souled— 

 For you bring from the blossoms and red 

 summer shine. 

 For others, your gold. 

 — E. Pauline Johnson, in Cn/taJian A/,ji;j:int: 



A subscriber sends us the following 

 it reply to the above : 



The Worker-Bee's Reply to the Poet 



( IVfitU-n Ji>r thr Cmaditin lict- Junrtnil.. 



He is laughing at me. that brother of mine. 



Whom you have mistaken for me. 

 And says. "I work hard to be brother of 

 thine. 



Though brother I never shall be." 



He is belted with gold, that brother of mine. 



But gathers no nectar for you. 

 I bear my three bands, in an honest bee-line. 



Returning well laden, 'lis true. 



The gossamer wings of that brother of mine 

 Have never been sullied by work. 



That has torn into shreds my gossamer fine. 

 Though I was ne'er known as a shirk. 



Remember. Pauline, 'tis the sisters of thine 

 Who have done all the work of the hive. 



And won all the palms in the honev-bee line. 

 Whether now they are dead or alive. 



iSieried) 



Wokker-Bee. 



Sugar-Candy lor Winter Stores lor Bees 



For several winters I have been experi- 

 menting with candy for feeding bees. I 

 made a candy that differed from tlie "Good." 

 in that the s jgar used was ordinary granu- 

 lated, and I did not knead it into the honey 

 as strenuously as I might. I mixed it with 

 warmed honey. an<l put it into cheese-cloth 

 sacks which I laid over the frames. It was 

 quite a satisfactory feed, but there was 

 some waste, for the bees gnawed into the 

 sacks and allowed some to drop down. 



I also tried the hard candy mixed with 

 honey the winter before last, but discovered 

 its treacherous nature before it had done 

 much damage. Its failing is that warmth 

 and moisture make it somewhat fluid in 

 character, and it runs down among the bees 

 and ruins them I can corroborate the tes- 

 timony that sugar and water boiled into a 

 hard candy is admirable winter food. I have 

 a few colonieson the candy feed this winter, 

 and they are coming out In such condition 

 that I fail ti) sec hmu tfiev (uulti be bettrr. They 

 arc colonies in divisible hives. Since I have 



been working for fancy comb honey that 

 hive is preferred by me. 



The bees wintering on honey alone have 

 three hive-sections two containing the col- 

 ony and stores, and one above containing 

 absorbents. The few I am trying with 

 candy were colonies whose brood-nest was 

 contracted until honey-gathering ceased, so 

 they have but one section with bees and 

 honey. The 10 frames are like the regular 

 Langstroth in length, but are only 5 inches 

 in depth. That being so. I want to deepen 

 .the brood-nest a little, so I don't clap a flat 

 cake of candy over them, but cakes made in 

 "Ideal" bread-pans, specially arranged. 

 The illustration enclosed will show that 

 these pans are hinged together so that they 

 bake a cylindrical loaf. When I use them 

 for candy cakes t place them apart so that I 

 can mould 4 cakes, which. I should tliink. 

 weigh something like 4 pounds each. My 

 manner of placing them on the hives is 

 shown by illustration. Two set across the 

 frames, a half-inch stick under, convex side 

 down, an inch or so apart from each other. 



and another cake turned over the gap with 

 the flat side down, gives a solid candy roof 

 and lots of surface against which the cluster 

 comes. If the frames below are fairlv well 

 filled with honey. ^ cakes are enough. If 

 there is but little honey I would use 5 cakes, 

 arranged as shown in the illustration. 



When they have as mine do' natural 

 stores and candy, too, the candy is first con- 

 sumed. The moisture from the cluster goes 

 up on the candy and moistens it so that the 

 bees can feed. I have packing over the 

 candy, but //(/('/-i «('/ get as wet as that over 

 the bees on natural stores often does. As I 

 have said, the bees with candy seem in the 

 very best condition. I made a close exami- 

 nation of one of these hives a month ago. 

 and found brood and eggs in two frames. 

 This colony of Carniolans will be a rousing- 

 big one by the time I want it to be so. 



Eighty of my colonies are wintering on 

 honey, pure and simple, and as I do not ex- 

 tract from the brood-chamber, and we gen- 

 erally have a good fall flow, the bees have 

 grom 30 to 50. or even more, pounds of honey; 

 but if I had a strong demand for this honey, 

 and plenty of help to extract and bother 

 with the candy. I would prefer to have all 

 of th^m wintered with candy cakes on top. 

 as I have described. I consider it the iJcal 

 way. and if I were going to use sugar at all. I 

 would not think of giving it in the form of 

 syrup. I do not think ttiat enough emphasis 

 is put on the absorbent nature of the candy, 

 which I consider one of the very best fea- 

 tures of this method. The colonies are kept 

 drier— consequently warmer. Also. I can 

 see that, for me at least, spring management 

 is going to be simplified. As the honey is 

 left for spring feed, the " bugaboo" of "su- 

 gar in the sections " is disposed of. In some 

 experiments the candy was given to save from 

 starr'ation. In mine, it was given at the time of 

 /•reparitit' for winter, as a part of their sup- 

 ply, which I consider much the better way. 

 (Mrs.) A. L. Amos. 



This is exceedingly interesting. The 

 Good candy with granulated instead of 

 powdered sugar has the advantage that 

 we are a little more sure of pure sugar 

 with the granulated (the pure-food law 

 may change that), and it is more con- 

 venient in some places to get the gran- 

 ulated. The disadvantage, as you give 

 it, is that the sugar falls down and 

 wastes. If the bees do not carry it out, 

 but merely let it lie on the floor of the 

 hive, could that not possibly be saved 

 in the spring to be fed in liquid form ? 



The idea of the absorbent character 

 of candy-cakes is interesting, and still 

 more the idea that the candy will be 



consumed before the honey. But 

 where the hive is filled up with good 

 fall stores, there ought to be a pretty 

 big advantage to induce one to replace 

 the honey with candy, if for no other 

 reason than to relieve the market of 

 just so many pounds of honey. 



From what you say, it must be that 

 you use the double bread-pan, allowing 

 you to make 4 cakes of candy at one 

 time. Likely this is because the single 

 pan would need to have the parts 

 propped to keep them from rolling, 

 although it would cost a trifle less to 

 use the single pans, and also be a trifle 

 easier to get the cakes out of the single 

 pan. In either case there would be a 

 permanent investment of about .5 cents 

 for each cake that would be made at 

 one pouring. 



[We wish to say that the foregoing 

 by Mrs. Amos was written several years 

 ago. Since that time she has passed 

 away. It should have been published 

 long ago, but just came to light re- 

 cently. — The Editor.] 



The Sisters Do Bee-Work 



I have been thinking for a long time 

 ot writing and telling the sisters I 

 would like to hear from more of them. 



.\ man. last fall, asked me if I really 

 did the work in my bee-yard ; I said, 

 " Yes, the most of it." He said he did 

 not think that many of them did. The 

 most of them, he thought, did the light 

 part, but had a man do the most of it. 



Now, Timothy does not help me at 

 any of the bee-work, only in eating 

 honey. So far as he is concerned, I 

 am no better off than an old maid. 



Two of my friends keep bees, and I 

 know they do their own work, for 

 one of them is an old maid, and I was 

 for a long time, and would be yet if it 

 were not for Timothy. 



Now, the work is such that almost 

 any woman of average strength and 

 intellect can do it, or the most of it. I 

 try not to have much heavy lifting to 

 do. When it is necessary to lift a hive, 

 if I can't get some one to help at one 

 end, I just get an empty hive and soon 

 put them where I want to — one or two 

 frames at a time — then pick up the old 

 hive and put it in front. One or two 

 whifs of the smoker, and the bees are 

 all in the new place ! I never move 

 them, though, unless I just have to — 

 sometimes when they swarm and I 

 want to move the old hive and put the 

 new hive on the old stand. 



I take the American Bee Journal and 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture. I don't see 

 how any one can do without one or 

 both, and l/ten sometimes I get both- 

 ered and want to know something, and 

 I ask Cousin Jimson Ragweed. He is 

 real good to advise one. I don't use a 

 veil or gloves very often. I just wear a 

 sunbonnet and keep the smoker handy. 

 I don't like a veil. I can't see very 

 well with it. The one I have I made 

 out of mosquito-bar, with a piece of 

 silk tulle in front. 



I don't get very many stings. Coal- 

 oil will stop the pain the quickest of 

 anything I ever tried. But one time I 

 got one on my foot, and I had to band- 

 age it. 



Now, sisters, let us hear from more 

 of you about the work. I know we do 

 work. Millet Hay. 



