312 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



September 



fees shall be payable annually and 

 delinquent members shall not be en- 

 titled to vote. 



II. 



Honorary membership for one year 

 may be conferred by a majority vote 

 of the members present at any regu- 

 lar meeting of the association. 



Honorary life membership shall be 

 conferred only upon those who have 

 rendered unusual service to the or- 

 ganization or who have attained un- 

 usual prominence in the beekeeping 

 field. A motion to confer honorary 

 life membership shall be presented to 

 the board of officers in writing and 

 must receive their unanimous en- 

 dorsement. After such endorsement 

 it shall lie over until the next annual 

 meeting and receive the unanimous 

 vote of members voting. 



III. 



The President shall preside at all 

 meetings of the organization and of 

 the board of officers. In his absence 

 the Vice President shall preside. 



The Secretary-Treasurer shall keep 

 an accurate record of the meetings of 

 this organization and of the board of 

 officers. He shall receive all moneys 

 due the organization and make dis- 

 bursements only on order of the 

 President. 



The board of officers shall have en- 

 tire charge of all meetings of the as- 

 sociation, shall arrange programs, 

 hire halls and attend to such other 

 details as shall be necessary. The 

 President shall appoint such commit- 

 tees as in his judgment are necessary 

 to conduct the business of the asso- 

 ciation. 



Bee-I^eping ^ fan Women 



Conducted by Miss Emma M. Wilson, Mareneo. III. 



Robbing 



My daughter (who lives next door 

 to me) and I determined to invest in 

 a few stands of bees and try to build 

 up an apiary, as we live in the edge 

 of a small town near a river with 

 timber and plenty of bee pasture 

 near. 



We read somewhere that one 

 should open the hives once a week 

 and cut out all queen-cells and keep 

 out burr-combs or correct anything 

 that seemed to need it. We did so, 

 and this week we went over all 

 our hives, cutting out about a dozen 

 queen-cells from six hives and cut- 

 ting out all cross-combs, etc. Imme- 

 diately the air was full of bees, both 

 at her hives and mine, and all the 

 bees at entrances of the hives seemed 

 to be fighting. After a few hours 

 they seemed to quiet down at my 

 hives, and things are going on as 

 usual, but they kept flying around 

 one of her hives for three or four 

 days, when she noticed that there 

 seemed to be nothing doing at it, and 

 opened the hive and found nearly all 

 the bees dead and the upper parts of 

 all the combs chewed up and every 

 drop of honey gone and about a gal- 

 lon of dead bees all over the combs 

 and on the bottom of the hive, chok- 

 ing up the front of it. 



It looked to me as if the hive might 

 have been full of fighting bees and 

 closed up the front entrance and 

 nearly the whole colony smothered 

 or starved. 



The weather in this part of 'the 

 country has been very hot and dry 

 and the clover bloom has burned out. 



Did we make a mistake in opening 

 the hives during this month? 



Pomona, Kans. Mrs. M. 



It is not really necessary to open 

 hives once a week. It is better not 

 to disturb the bees unless there is 

 some good reason for it. Once a 

 year is often enough lO clean out the 



burr-combs. Once in 8 or 10 days is 

 often enough to kill queen-cells, and 

 that only while there is danger of 

 swarming, although that extends 

 over a number of weeks, beginning in 

 most places at or a little before the 

 first surplus flow and closing with the 

 last. But it should be fully under- 

 stood that killing queen-cells will by 

 no means prevent swarming in all 

 cases. Sooner or later, in most 

 cases, the bees will swarm in spite of 

 killing cells. If you will read Dr. Mil- 

 ler's "Fifty Years Among the Bees" 

 you will see exactly how we manage 

 the matter when running for section- 

 honey. 



Fortunately, when running for ex- 

 tracted honey, you can get along with 

 much less trouble by using the Dem- 

 aree plan. Just before there is dan- 

 ger of swarming, or before any 

 queen-cells are sealed, put all but one 

 frame of brood in an upper story, 

 leaving the queen with one frame of 

 brood in the lower story with an ex- 

 cluder over it. In 8 or 10 days kill all 

 queen-cells above the excluder, and 

 that's all the killing of cells for the 

 whole season, with little danger of 

 swarming. 



It is hard to say with certainty just 

 what you did to start robbing, al- 

 though the probability is that you left 

 combs exposed when opening the 

 hives. At a time when bees are not 

 gathering, great care must be taken 

 not to start robbing. A very little 

 exposure of honey will do it; and 

 when you see that robbers are be- 

 ginning their work it is well to close 

 up the hive till another time. In a 

 time of scarcity there is generally a 

 little less danger of robbing in the 

 forenoon than later. Indeed, often 

 it is better not to have hives opened 

 after 9 a. m. 



As already hinted, prevention is 

 better than cure, but when robbing 

 has actually started, close the en- 

 trances so that not more than a very 



few bees can pass at a time, giving 

 the bees a better chance to defend 

 themselves. Pile up hay or straw all 

 around the hive and keep it well 

 drenched with water. Some make a 

 practice of carrying the robbed hive 

 into a cool, dark cellar, leaving it 

 there for a day or two, and putting 

 an empty hive in its place, returning 

 the hive to its stand in the evening 

 after the flight has ceased. Other 

 plans for managing cases of robbing 

 you will find in your bee-book. 



Women's Help in Beekeeping 



I have read what you say in the 

 July American Bee Journal about 

 having women take more interest in 

 the bee business. Had I not seen 

 your name as writer for the women's 

 department I would have thought it 

 from some bee-man, or some woman 

 who did not know the nature of a 

 beekeeper's wife or daughter, for, to 

 my knowledge, there is not another 

 industry where women take more in- 

 terest or do more to help the work 

 along than in the bee industry. But 

 here is where I find the trouble lies: 

 women are peculiar beings (being a 

 woman yourself, you ought to know.) 

 We need, expect, and must have a 

 certain amount of love, praise, and 

 attention ; and in this age, at a time 

 when women are so capable, and are 

 taking hold and helping in many in- 

 dustries, they should be counted in as 

 husbands' or fathers' helpers, as the 

 case may be. 



You take a man who starts out for 

 himself; as soon as he gets to a 

 place where he can have a hired man, 

 how quick he is to tell about it. But 

 it seems that a bee-man's wife or 

 daughter can work early and late — 

 yes, I have known cases where they 

 work all day in the bee-yard, come 

 home and get a late supper, wash the 

 breakfast and supper dishes (no 

 dishes at noon, for they take their 

 lunch), prepare food for the next 

 day — no telling how far into the 

 night it is, for they get no rest. Then 

 up the next morning ready for an- 

 other day's run. There are many 

 things that a woman can do, and does 

 do, to help in the business. 



I can recall one incident where our 

 folks were expecting to go about 18 

 miles to extract. I had just bought 

 50 pounds of peas to can, but that did 

 not stop me. I took peas and jars 

 with me (as we had a family living at 

 one of the bee-yards) and canned 

 them there. 



I assure you from the pictures we 

 see of eastern beekeepers' conven- 

 tions, there are many women's faces. 



We go to bee meetings and conven- 

 tions, and many women attend. What 

 for? After working hard the day be- 

 fore, to get good things together to 

 eat (most bee-men's wives and daugh- 

 ters are good cooks), they will make 

 a tasteful spread, which is one thing 

 always appreciated by the opposite 

 sex. 



Then there is selling honey. Why, 

 I have in mind one woman selling 

 from year to 3'ear , until now she is 

 quite an expert in the business. This 

 same woman and her husband attend 

 the conventions and bee-meetings. He 



