89(3 



GLExVNINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1.5. 



pose that tho graliam flour was the cause of the 

 infidelity, or was it simply because those who 

 were skeptical in their theology had a prefer- 

 ence for graham flour? Nevermind: if we can 

 not agree on theology it is comforting to know 

 that we shall pretty nearly agree on the health- 

 fulness of graham bread. 



■ — • — ^ 



MRS. AXTELLS EXPERIENCE AT THE KEO- 

 KUK CONVENTION. 



SHE CONSIDKi; 



THE HALF-DKI'TH EKHIT HIVE^ 

 FOR Wf)MEN. 



Friend Root: — I see, from reading Glean- 

 ings of Nov. 15. that you also was one of the 

 number that enjoyed the International hugely. 

 Yes, that is just the word that would describe 

 Mr. AxtelFs and my enjoyment of that conven- 

 tion, and I heard quite a numlier express them- 

 selves as its l:)eing one of tlie best, if not t/ie 

 best they ever attended. Judging from the 

 way people acted, they must have enjoyed 

 themselves, as they would get together at 8, or 

 half-past 8, A. M., and remain up to 12 o'clock, 

 then iiurry out to their meals, and back again 

 to connnence the meeting at 1:30, and then re- 

 main clear up to dark. Gas was lighted, and 

 some one would remark that we were not doing 

 ourselves justice to remain so long, and asked 

 that some one make a motion to be dismissed, 

 when we would hurry fout to our rooms and 

 meals, and back again for an evening session 

 that held up to about 10 o'clock; and. what 

 was strange, each meeting was just as interest- 

 ing as the first, and no one seemed to grow tired. 

 If one grew tired of a position, he felt at liberty 

 to change it or go out of the room; but I notic- 

 ed they generally came back very soon. Now, 

 why was all this enthusiasm, if it was not that we 

 are engagc^d in a very interesting pursuit? Mr. 

 Axtell felt that his work was such he did not 

 know how to leave; and. not feeling well, I 

 had to coax hard to get him started. I could 

 see it almost made a boy of him again; audi 

 thought that, if wrestling were a test of boy- 

 hood, there were several boys there— old gray- 

 headed boys. 



I should have liked to see more ladies there. 

 I wondered why tliere wei'e not more, when 

 almost always the apiarist's wife or mother or 

 sister takes equal interest with him in the bees. 

 Was it because both could not leave, that one 

 or the other had to stay at home to do chores, 

 ook after the family, etc.? I felt almost like 

 accusing the bee-brethren of wanting the good 

 times themselves. 



From the little snatches of talk between 

 meetings, as we met in the hall or in the sitting- 

 room, at our meals, or in our rooms, too, we 

 gleaned many useful thoughts. We liked the 

 idea advanced by a Mr. J. D. Adams, of Nira, 

 Iowa, that of being thorough in all we under- 

 take with bees, as well as farming; of making 

 two blades of grass grow where others made 

 but one; of keeping the highest grade of poul- 

 try and taking the best of care of it, so that a 

 small flock would pay better than twice the 

 number of mongrels uncared for. 



Dr. Jesse Oren, of Mount Auburn, Iowa,, puts 

 his bees in the cellar every fall, and goes to 

 Florida, where he has a nice home also, to win- 

 ter. He says one can buy an acre or two and 

 build a small house, and live very cheaply if he 

 wishes to. He can plant the ground to orange- 

 trees, which come into bearing very quickly. 

 Dr. Oren, before putting bees in the cellar in 

 the fall, burns Imlf a pound or more of sulphur 

 in the cellar, to kill the mold-spores. Since doing 



so, his brood - combs never mold. In plac- 

 ing his hives in the cellar, the first hive is plac- 

 ed at an angle of 45 degrees, with tlie bottom of 

 the back end of the hive resting against the 

 side of the cellar, and the entrance toward the 

 floor. The next hive is placed in the same po- 

 sition, with the back end of the bottom resting 

 against the top of the first, and so on until a 

 row is placed clear across the cellar. The 

 quilts are loosened around the edges, and left 

 on: tiieu he lays a board on top of the first row, 

 and proceeds to place another I'ow on top of the 

 board, in the same position as the first row, 

 and so on until he has all the bees in that cellar 

 he cares to put in — from 325 to 2.50, I think he 

 said. He makes a compact body of them, and 

 leaves them but a few inches apart in the I'ows. 

 lie leaves them undistui'bed until setting-out 

 time in the spring. The hives being raised at 

 the back, the dead bees all fall out, and can not 

 choke up the hive. He said he had wintered 

 thus some 20 years, and is generally very suc- 

 cessful. He closes up his house and cellar, as 

 he winters in P^lorida. Thus he escapes our 

 Northern winters. He is about 20 miles from 

 O. O. Poppleton, in Florida. The doctor is a 

 very methodical man, keeping a close account 

 of all his incomes and expeiises. and can tell 

 each year just how much liis bees net him. 

 The past year he made his bees pay, as liis hon- 

 ey brought him several hundred dollars. I do 

 not remember the exact amount, but it was a 

 fair income. I think he said he had two farms 

 besides. He says he never bothers with small 

 colonies, but tiers them up, putting one on top 

 of the other, thus preventing increase also. 

 He first began the study of the ministry; but 

 as his health failed him he took up the study 

 of medicine and then of bees. 



I was pleased with most of the countenances 

 I met at the convention. Intelligence beamed 

 from many eyes — as much so as you would meet 

 at almost any other gathering. 



It was a real pleasure to see so many clean- 

 faced young men, and clean lips not stained 

 with tobacco, as so many of the young men of 

 to-day are not ashamed of the tell-tale quid 

 punching out in their cheeks. I was sorry, oh 

 so sorry! to know that to such lips was offered 

 the wine-cup that biteth like a serpent and 

 stingeth like an adder. 



PKACTICAI. OR ORNAMENTAI.. 



At the tea-table one asked of another if the 

 lady sitting at the further end of the table was 

 a practical or an ornamental bee-keeper. The 

 question was handled along from one to anoth- 

 er until it reached Mrs. J. M. Null, of Miami, 

 Mo., for whom it was intended. Her answer 

 was, " If 6000 lbs. of extracted honey, taken 

 from 114 colonies the past season, by my own 

 hands, except an occasional day's work from a 

 hired man, constitutes me a practical bee- 

 keeper, then I am practical." She also stated 

 that she purchased her own supplies, as her 

 husband was very much afraid of bees, and 

 had his hands full of his own work — proprietor 

 of the Miami House, and owner of two farms. 

 She said she became interested in bees by read- 

 ing Gleanings, and bought and brought some 

 bees liome, placing them some distance from 

 the house, as her boarders had great fear of 

 bees, and were hori'ified to think of her keeping 

 bees; but by and by. being emboldened at see- 

 ing her woi'k with them, they would come so 

 near that she had to tell them they might get 

 stung, as they were trespassing upon the 

 grounds of the bees. Her neighbors, also, were 

 becoming more interested in bees. 



A bee-keeper when heddon was a boy. 

 A very intelligent old gentleman by the name 

 of B. Taylor, who said he had been handling 



