July 9, 1903. 



THE AMERiCAN BEE JOURNAL. 



441 



[ Our Bee-Heepin$ Sisters] 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Getting Ready for Alfalfa. 



Our bees are doing' fine, considering the cold spring- and 

 queenless colonies. I am putting sections together and fix- 

 ing supers for the alfalfa flow the first of July. 



Mrs. G. W. Knowles. 



Rio Blanco Co., Colo., June 24. 



Does All the Work Herself. 



I have been keeping bees since 1895. I now have 17 

 colonies. I lost five during the winter and spring. I do all 

 the work with the bees myself, and send and get the hives 

 in the flat and put them together myself. 



I like "Our Bee-Keeping Sisters" department very 

 much. I turn to it the first thing when I get my Bee Jour- 

 nal. I have no suggestions to make regarding it. 



St. Joseph Co., Mich., May 30. Mrs. L. Mack. 



Watering- Bees at their Doorstep. 



I see in last week's Journal, June 11, that E. E. Hasty 

 requests me to report later on, as to the extent I succeeded 

 in getting the bees to take the water I provide at their door- 

 steps. 



It is three years, I believe, since I first gave them water 

 at the hive-entrance. I don't wait for them to have any 

 other place to go. It is when the air is chilled and they 

 need water, and they come out and find it handy ; they don't 

 feel like going far if they can get it near by. They take it 

 and go back. I have the entrance the full width of the 

 front of the hive, so I put it at one side of the hive. The 

 pieces go under the hive in front, as I said in my descrip- 

 tion, and they take the water all summer unless I would 

 forget to fill it through the day. As I said, they were not 

 large enough, and I have some made after the directions in 

 the " A B C of Bee-Culture," a small board with grooves in 

 it, and use a 2-quart fruit-can for the water. Where the 

 hives are in pairs one will answer for two hives. I put it 

 on something so that it will be about as high as the bottom- 

 board, and not more than half a foot from the hive. I don't 

 know as. my bees are any wiser than any others. I think 

 they are pretty good-natured. 



If this is not plain or satisfactory, E. E. Hasty will 

 have to tell me where I have not made it plain. 



Cumberland Co., N. J. Mrs. Sarah J. Griffith. 



It is very true, as Mr. Hasty says, that bees will " wade 

 right through water at their door, and go off to the old 

 familiar watering-place." But he will notice that Mrs. 

 Griffith does not wait for any other watering-place to be- 

 come an " old familiar " one. Right in that is the secret of 

 of her success. She trains them to right habits in their 

 youth, " and when they are old they will not depart from 

 them." If care is taken to get the bees accustomed to a 

 certain watering-place early in the spring, much trouble 

 at the watering-troughs of horses and cattle may be pre- 

 vented. 



A Bee-Keeping Sister on a Texas Ranch. 



I bought 600 acres of land last June, and am now farm- 

 ing and running this big corn, cotton and truck faim my- 

 self. My home is in Chicago. I was a city-raised girl, and 

 this is my first farming. They will eat tomatoes from five 

 acres of my farm in Chicago. I began shipping June 1. I 

 never saw one raised before, and raised the plants for the 

 five acres in a hotbed planted Jan. 10 ; raised 25,000 plants 

 myself with the aid of a hired man, who did the hard work 

 at SIO per month. And I have the best and earliest live 

 acres of tomatoes in Cherokee County. I expect to get 

 S2000 for them, net. I could tell you more, but do not vant 

 to take you from your all-important subject — the bee. 



I have always traveled, and while visiting my husband's 



brother in Indiana, last year, I became interested in the 

 bee. He takes the Bee Journal, and has a large apiary. I 

 thought my farm would bo incomplete without the bee. 

 Besides, this is a great fruit country, and no bees. I have 

 75 acres in peaches ; Elberta comes in next spring. And I 

 knew the bee could do no harm, if it would not be a benefit, 

 to fertilize the blossoms. I started to look for some bees 

 and could find nothing but old-fashioned boxes of little 

 black insects. So I bought two colonies of them, sent for 

 the American Bee Journal, and my brother-in-law sent me 

 some patent hives, some frames with starters, and some 

 frames with comb, a smoker, knife, and cages to introduce 

 new queens, and a hook to handle the frames with. I then 

 picked up the Bee Journal to find out who sold queens, and 

 found an advertisement and sent for two tested queens. 

 The breeder has sent only one to date, but I introduced the 

 " lady," and to-day I was delighted to see my fine Italians 

 strong, and working side by side with their black sisters, 

 which are waiting to receive the high-bred mother, and 

 there is no comparison. They are not doing anything when 

 compared with the Italians. They (the blacks) were stronger 

 than the colony where I put the new queen, and now the 

 Italians have more brood, more honey, and more bees, than 

 the blacks. I will tell how I did it all. 



The first warm day I transferred the bees to new homes, 

 and went to feeding them, for they were very weak, b^ing 

 robbed close and full of moth, and no honey in the old 

 gums. I took an ax and broke open the boxes, shook the 

 bees in front of the new hive, took out what brood there 

 was, put a frame in to keep the queen down-stairs, and put 

 brood and what bees were on it in the upper section, and 

 went to feeding them to build them up before the Italians 

 came. When the " new lady " came my greed for bees got 

 me into trouble. I found them doing so well that I wanted 

 more, so I got another hive and three frames of brood, and 

 the bees that were on it, and armed with small scissors I 

 caught the "colored lady" and clipped her wing, and 

 placed her in front of the hive so she could run in. I then 

 got out a frame where there was some honey and pinned to 

 it the cage my brother-in-law sent me. I put the queen and 

 her escort in it, and covered it all up. Three days later I 

 looked in and found all the escort dead and the queen run- 

 ning around the cage. Then I turned her loose and went 

 away, hoping she would be received well, and to-day I have 

 a strong colony of fine bees. A man just came with the 

 other queen, so I will introduce her to-morrow. 



The bees then started to rob my nucleus, and the dead 

 bees showed me the struggle they were having. I shut 

 them up and fed them, but every time I opened up the hive 

 the robbing began. I fed the other colonies outside, and 

 the nucleus inside, to see if I could find out where the rob- 

 bers came from. Do not laugh. I could not find out, so I 

 shut up the nucleus and found a lot of bees around trying 

 to get in. I got a paper of starch, this fine patent starch, 

 and dusted it on them, and marked them that way. They 

 shook their wings as best they could and left after awhile 

 for the woods. Not a quarter of a mile from here we found 

 the tree, and a man claimed it. I did not jump his claim. 

 I was glad to get rid of it, so he cut it down and thinks he 

 started a colony, and I hope he has, for there are few if any 

 bees here. 



So this is the way a future apiary was started in Chero- 

 kee Co., Tex. There is only one man who pretends to keep 

 bees here in this part, and he has the old style. I will try 

 to meet him and get him to take the American Bee Journal 

 and show him the difference in bees. I like to read the 

 Journal, and especially the ■' Sisters " corner, as I think 

 the work suits ladies. My husband is a kind man, but he 

 has a railroad contract in Louisiana, and will not settle on 

 the farm until this fall, then I will have some more bees. I 

 am not afraid of being stung, and have only been stung 

 twice, and that was an accident. The bees got in my dress 

 and I crowded them. 



I love the bees. They work for us and board them- 

 selves for nothing, and I will always try to divide honey 

 with them. If ever I think I have learned anything that 

 will benefit a bee-keeping sister I will let her know through 

 the Jo&rnal. Georgia Mayer. 



Cherokee Co., Tex., May 25. 



Well 1 I should think it was a pretty big undertaking 

 for a city-raised girl to run a noo-acre farm, and there must 

 be considerable pluck in your make-up. I am very anxious 

 to learn how you succeed, how things foot up at the end of 

 the year. Please don't forget to write us an account of 

 your year's work. We may all want to move to Texas. 



