1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



899 



the stalks of the cabbiig-cs, and the stems of the 

 weeds and grass; and the boys told me that they 

 saw the oak-trees in the woods just covered with 

 bees. Now, all of you will say, " ^hy did you not 

 extract ail that foul stutl', and Ired sugar syrup? 

 Your bees will all die." 



Well, I did not have an extractor. I suppose if I 

 had sent for one it would have cost me ten dollars; 

 then the sugar, say $40.00, so 1 would have paid out 

 $50.00, and then taken the risk of wintering them. 

 But if they all die, I can buy a pretty good start of 

 bees with fifty dollars. The hives are just full of 

 bees, many of them young. 



After I had packed those that are to winter out- 

 doors, I took pieces of broken sections, as does 

 Doolittle, and wrote, "This colony scratched around 

 and provided its own winter food," and put one in 

 the top of each hive on the chaff. Then for the 

 united ones I wrote, " This colony is composed 

 of two others that could not gather enough 

 honey to winter on." I did this so that I may know 

 which is which ne.xt summer. Seems to me I'd 

 rather have bees that can get enough to winter on 

 when those just beside them, apparently as strong 

 in bees, have only half enough. 



Now about this honey-dew. The frames are not 

 filled with it; all of the frames have a streak of 

 white-clover honey along the top, some reaching 

 half way down. This is as good as any thing could 

 be; and if it should prove to be an open fall they 

 may get all that honey-dew eaten before the hard 

 winter sets in. 1 want to say, if it won't make this 

 letter too long, that I like Mr. Doolittle. I have 

 liked him a long time. Every thing he says sounds 

 good and genuine. 



BEE-KEEPING FOR WOMEN. 



Bee-keeping is too hard work tor women. Seems 

 to me I've said this somewhere before. They say 

 that all good preachers preach the same sermons 

 over every seven years. Well, if good preachers do 

 that; a poor writer may be pardoned for writing the 

 same letters over now and then. I say, bee-keep- 

 ing is too hard work for women, and I know by my 

 own experience that it is so. I have done all other 

 kinds of work on the farm but help thrash— I never 

 did that, except to thrash out buckwheat with a 

 flail. I have set out hedge-plants day after day; I 

 have planted evergreens and larches; I have raised 

 strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries; I have 

 raised and sold vegetables; I have hilled up celery; 

 I have mowed grass, loaded on and unloaded hay; I 

 have bound wheat and oats and rye; I have husked 

 corn day after day for six weeks; I have done all 

 and every kind of housework at one time, some- 

 times with a baby in my arms, but I never had any 

 kind of work to make me as weak and sore and 

 nerveless as working with bees. 1 feel as if I 

 had been pounded with a base-ball bat from head 

 to heels; I ache all over. I have wondered some- 

 times if the poison from the bee-stings has any- 

 thing to do with it. No one need tell me that bee- 

 keeping is suitable work for women, preachers, and 

 invalids. I know that liee-keepers ought to be 

 giants, with nerves and every thing to match. I am 

 going to quit keeping bees. First, because I am 

 not in a good location; second, because it is too hard 

 work; third, because all ray family are mad when I 

 bring the bees into the house, as I am obliged to do 

 whenever I take off honey or honey-boxes. I used 

 to think, a long while ago, that the reason I did not 

 have more honey was because I did not have bees 



like other people's. I sent and bought other peo- 

 ple's bees. Then when I did not have any 400 lbs. 

 from a single hive, 1 thought those other bee-keep- 

 ers lied; but now I believe every word they say. 

 I do not care where they live, nor who they are; I 

 believe them, for I am a bee-keeper myself. 



Mahala B. Chaddock. 

 Vermont, 111., Nov., 1887. 



My good friend, in your third paragraph 

 you make a pretty good point. If it is true 

 that it would cost ^40.00 for the sugar, I be- 

 lieve I should have to decide as you do. If 

 the stores they have already would be worth 

 nothing on the market, you would really l)e 

 $40.00out ; but your extractor would be worth 

 as much after you are through with it as be- 

 fore, or pretty nearly so. I think it is true, 

 sometimes at least, that it will do to let the 

 bees take their chances, to a certain extent ; 

 and if they die, buy new ones in the spring. 

 I am presuming, however, that bees can be 

 bought at a moderate price in the spring. Of 

 late years, a good deal of the time they can 

 be bought ^or almost what it would cost for 

 stores to winter them ; but this may not be 

 always true. We used to figure a dollar's 

 worth of sugar should keep a colony, even if 

 almost entirely destitute of winter stores. 

 Well, S40.00, then, will purchase sugar 

 enough for 40 colonics ; but $40.00 would 

 hardly purchase mere than 10 colonies, even 

 if yoii let the owner keep the hives. I pre- 

 sume, however, that you mean that you 

 could soon increase from 10 to 40. The hon- 

 ey-dew, it should be remembered, is by no 

 means certain to kill the bees. We have had 

 quite a few reports of bees wintering nicely 

 where the honey-dew was properly evaporat- 

 ed and sealed up. — In regard to the hard- 

 work part of bee-keeping, I believe there are 

 quite a number of your sex, my good friend, 

 who can make out quite a different story ; 

 and then, again, it is not so much whether 

 the work is heavy or hard, as it is whether 

 or not the heart is in it. I would very much 

 rather bank up celery till it makes me puff 

 and sweat, than to sit here dictating matter 

 to the stenographer ; but perhaps if I had to 

 bank up celery from daylight till dark, I 

 should be glad to have something easier a 

 part of the time. Is it not true, that we 

 make a mistake when we adopt altogether 

 hard work or altogether light work ? 



REDEEMING FEATURES OF A POOR 

 SEASON. 



PREPARATIONS FOR A HONEY-FLOW; WEST VIR- 

 GINIA IN 1887. 



§AY what you will, the fact still exists, " Misery 

 loves company;" and this is why the bee- 

 keepers of this little State fall in line with 

 \he great army of crest-fallen ones in Blasted 

 flopes who got left in 1887. That this great 

 disaster which has l)efallen our pursuit is not with- 

 out its valuable lessons, is evident. 1. It will put a 

 <iuietus to the croaking about manufactured honey. 

 3. It will rid the country of both the old and the 

 new crop, and once again establish prices that will 

 justify the production of honey. 3. It will decrease 

 the number of bees, as well as the number of bee- 

 keepers, and h?nce both production and competi- 



