256 



GLEAJSINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



steam wiped off the ceiling and sides of the room 

 occasionally, keeps the room clean and healthful. 



I do not think it healthful to live above a cellar, 

 unless the greatest care is given to remove all de- 

 caj'ing vegetables, and moldy boai'ds and barrels, 

 and dead bees from the bee-room. One winter we 

 went west for a visit, and were gone one month. 

 We left the house unused, except as our hand came 

 inuto watch the temperature in the bee-cellar, and 

 to open the cellar door when too warm. When we 

 came home the rooms were dripping with moisture 

 from the bees (about 135 colonies in the cellar). 

 Even on the door of the clothes-room, water stood 

 on the inside in great drops, and the bee-i-oom is 

 plastered overhead. There seems to be a great deal 

 of moisture e.xhaled from the bees, so that it is well 

 to have a stove in a cellar to keep the bees dry as 

 well as warm; if damp and then cold, I think it 

 gives them watery honey, a cold, and the result is 

 the dysentery. 



Our bee-cellar is 20 X30 feet. In it we have at date 

 113 colonies, packed above and at sides of brood- 

 nest with straw. We find, at a temperature of 

 about 43°, our bees keep the most quiet, so that we 

 have had to build a fire in the bee-room a good 

 many days this winter. A few times the room be- 

 came heated to 60°, but no harm ensued. By open- 

 ing the ventilator (sub-earth) and cellar door it soon 

 cooled off sufficiently, and the cellar walls seemed 

 dried off'. The air being iiurifled, the bees were still 

 and quiet. Bees need pure air as well as human be- 

 ings do. If the cellar smells impure, the bees be- 

 come uneasy, even if the temperatui-e is all right. 



The past season has been one of ])rosperity to us. 

 Honey has been low, but every thing else has been 

 correspondingly low. I do not think we should be dis- 

 couraged at all. Each one should develop his home 

 market, and trade as much of his honey as he can 

 for things he has to buy. We have never had a sea- 

 son yet but that we could have sold much more 

 honey than we had. We ship the greater part of 

 our honey to Chicago. 



Last winter we lost but four colonies in winter- 

 ing, and those were nuclei. We united late, and did 

 not know that queens were accepted. 



We began the spring of 1886 with 130 colonies. 

 Our increase, by natural swarming and building up 

 nuclei, was 77, and we took 13,000 lbs. of comb honey. 

 We keep our bees in two apiaries. Mr. Axtell 

 takes care of the one from home, as I have often 

 mentioned, while my hired girl and I take care of 

 the one at home, and do our housework. I don't 

 see but that we are just as successful as he is, and 

 he as we are. 



HANDLING FRAMES INSTEAD OF HIVES. 



We manage our bees without lifting the hives 

 very much, as neither of us is very strong, and 

 hives are heavy; but we carry frames instead of 

 hives, or, if necessary, take hives to pieces and car- 

 ry in parts, as they are not nailed, but clamped at 

 corners with a movable bottom-board. II it be- 

 comes necessary for me to work alone, I have a 

 small express wagon, as it is called. 1 can work a 

 rack out backside of hive, and place upon the wag- 

 on, and pull it into the honey-house; or if in a hon- 

 ey-harvest, I can pull the rack of honey out back of 

 hive and let it stand upon a nail-keg until noon or 

 night, and have the hand cari-y it in. I have not 

 for years dared to carry a pail of water, and yet I 

 can do all necessary work with bees without over- 

 lifting ; yet It pays me better to have a helper with 



me to do what lifting is to be done, and to take 

 steps for me. 



1 often get stung, but I do not fear bees any more 

 than I would sitting hens— not half so much as I do 

 our cattlejand horses. 



If a person is able to do any work at all, I can not 

 see why bee-work is too hard, as bee-work is easier 

 for me than housework. I look forward with plea- 

 sure to the coming spring, that I may again live 

 with my bees. No months are so delightful as May 

 and June, when I entirely release myself from all 

 other work as much as possible, and live with bees, 

 birds, and flowers. Before the summer is ended my 

 health so much improves I can do as much or more 

 bee-work than my husband, though, perhaps, I can 

 not go through as many hives as Ernest can. 



Roseville, 111. Mrs. L. C. Axtell. 



Perhaps I should explain to our readers, 

 that Mrs. Axtell uses a closed-end Quiuby 

 frame, therefore she can take tlie entire 

 brood-nest, or a part of the brood-nest, out 

 of the hive, leaving the bottom and sides 

 undisturbed. We are very glad indeed to 

 hear of the good report yoii made again last 

 year, and we are also very glad of the sug- 

 gestions you make in regard to having air 

 and sunshine in our kitchens. As you are 

 suffering from poor health, you are proba- 

 bly, like myself, more sensitive to the lack of 

 air and sunshine than most people ; but the 

 very minute I am writing these words I feel 

 that 1 must get out into the open fields, and 

 into the bright sunshine. I have been all 

 over the factory, looking aftei' things that 

 needed my attention and suggestions, until 

 my brain is tired ; in fact, I feel just now as 

 if there were but little left of me, any way ; 

 but I know by experience that half an hour 

 outdoors, where nobody shall ask me any 

 questions, and where I shall not be impor- 

 tuned to read something, and read it under- 

 standingly, will make me feel like a good 

 strong nian again. It seems to build me 

 up, as it were. I have been so many years 

 reading these letters, and deciding on the 

 contents, that 1 have lately got into the 

 habit of reading a letter clear through, and 

 not knowing a word of what I have read. 

 My reasoning faculties refuse to '"catch on " 

 unless they are obliged to by mental effort, 

 and 1 find it is as necessary to get out- 

 doors among the chickens, or down in the 

 lots by the brook, and dig in the dirt, as it 

 is to take my accustomed food and sleep. 

 God made the open fields and outdoor air 

 and the sunshine ; but I have sometimes se- 

 riously questioned whether he ever intend- 

 ed that man should make kitchens and 

 offices where human beings were to be shut 

 up, say more than half of the hours of day- 

 light. " At this time of year we have about 

 12 hours or more of daylight. Now, if I 

 could take every other hour outdoors I could 

 accomplish a good deal. 1 presume likely I 

 should enjoy it to be outdoors during every 

 hour of the twelve, but that can not very 

 well be. This we can do, however : We 

 can have lots of windows without any cur- 

 tains to them, and we can have them swing 

 open so easily, or rise up by weights, that 

 even invalids like you and myself (V) will 

 not dread the effort required to swing them 

 wide open when the weather will permit. 



