1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



89 



Tie it in a stout bag, and we do not care 

 how much it gets pounded up before it 

 reaches us. It is not an uncommon thing 

 for us to receive wax by express when all of 

 the wax would hardly pay the express 

 charges. For some years back we have been 

 much in the habit of using baskets similar 

 to the above, for shipping things by express ; 

 and this present season we are going to do 

 it still more. Half-peck baskets we fre- 

 quently use for sending things by mail. A 

 basket will really stand more banging 

 around than a box ; and a great many times 

 it will preserve the contents from injury 

 just as well as or better than a box. The 

 moral to all this is, that, when you have any 

 thing to send by express, be careful not to 

 have the package weigh a single pound 

 more than is absolutely necessary for the 

 safety of the goods. 



was hot and tired, then I thought, " What is the use 

 to be a married woman, if I have to work just like 

 a widow?" and so I went to where Mr. Chaddock 



BEE-KEEPING TOR WOMEN. 



BEVELED-EDGE HIVES; TAKING OFF HONEY, ETC. 



T HAVE about come to the conclusion that all 

 fflf this moaning and groaning- about bee-hives 

 ill being heavy to lift, and about bee-keeping 

 ■*■ being too hard work for women, is unnecessary 

 and uncalled for. If all the women who keep 

 bees will manage as Mrs. L. Harrison has always 

 managed, and as I intend to manage from this time 

 forth, they will not find bee-keeping such very hard 

 work. 



The next day after I came home from Peoria I 

 went to work to prepare the bees for winter. Last 

 spring I had nine colonies. Now 1 have twelve. I 

 had seven swarms to come out. Four of them went 

 to the woods, leaving the queen under a goblet on 

 a plate. Two of the four swarmed, and, before I 

 could do any thing, they went back into the hive. 

 The next time, they came out and went off without 

 settling at all. The other two hovered around the 

 barberry bushes awhile, began to cluster, then flew 

 away. I did not want any swarms. I thought there 

 would be no honey, and that they would have to 

 starve. I had a good many old combs and I put 

 them all on the hives, three deep in some places. 

 It was the easiest way to keep the moth out, and I 

 thought now was the time to prove whether giving 

 plenty of room would prevent swarming. I am 

 now convinced that nothing will prevent swarming. 

 If bees want to swarm, they will swarm. It does 

 not depend on a honey-flow. Some of those colo- 

 nies had not three days' rations ahead. It does not 

 depend on any thing— they just swarm. 



Well, they went on in a hand-to-mouth way till 

 toward the last of July; then the rains came, and 

 the oats rotted in the field— three hundred dollars' 

 worth. We never thrashed a straw. (This is the 

 price that I am obliged to pay for my 300 lbs. of 

 honey. Let me see: that makes my honey worth 

 about a dollar a pound, does it not?) The smart- 

 weed began to bloom, and the bees began to roar. 

 They tilled all those old combs, and the honey-box- 

 es; and when I went out there to take that hon- 

 ey off, I found I could not budge it. I had a chisel 

 and a hatchet, and I pounded and pried here and 

 there, but could not move it an inch. You see, all 

 that time while there was no honey to gather, the 

 bees had put in their spare moments plastering 

 those hives together with propolis. I worked till I 



"I POUNDED AND PRIED." 



was unloading apples and carrying them into the 

 cellar, and told him that I must have help. He 



" MUST HAVE HELP." 



donned a bee-hat, and worked the chisel and hatch- 

 et while I stood by and worked the smoker and 



1 



" HE WORKED THE HATCHET AND I GAVE ADVICE." 



gave advice. After he had worked awhile at one, 

 and torn off a side, he began giving bis opinion of a 

 man that would invent such a bee-hive as that. 



