THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



85 



youv earliest convenience. Make a 

 note of your successes and failures so 

 that you may profit by the former and 

 avoid the latter on future occasions. 

 Put your bees in front of that portion 

 of the house in which the most of 

 your work keeps you, so that you can 

 have an eye on them occasionally and 

 still attend to your duties. 



Do not neglect your bees and then 

 expect them to yield honey as though 

 they had first class attention, for if 

 you do you will surely be disappoint- 

 ed. Attend to their every want and 

 they will repay you handsomely for 

 the care and attention thus bestowed. 



I purchased one colony of black 

 bees in the winter of '79, in a common 

 box hive; knew nothing about them 

 except that they gathered honey and 

 could sting. I had never seen or heard 

 of such a thing as a smoker or book or 

 anything of the kind. I, however, 

 had a friend in a distant county that 

 knew something of bee culture and 

 had his bees in movable hives. He 

 sent me an old copy of The Bee-Keep- 

 er's Magazine. From this I read the 

 first thing I had ever seen in print 

 upon the subject of bee culture. I 

 sent for the directions how to make an 

 American hive, got a carpenter to 

 make two hives for me according to 

 the directions, and when my bees 

 swarmed I sent out and got some of 

 my neighbors to come and help me 

 hive them, and such a time as we had 

 can better be imagined than described, 

 suffice it to say that several of us were 

 terribly stung I had no starters even, 

 for I had never heard of such a thing 

 as comb foundation, so my bees in one 

 of the hives built their combs diagon- 

 ally across the hives instead of follow- 

 ing the frames as they should have 



done. This, of course, caused consid- 

 erable trouble and waste of comb. 

 After I learned better how to handle 

 and manage them I had to cut this out 

 and transfer them into other frames 

 so as to get them straight, I had such 

 a dread of being stung that I would 

 put nil' robbing them from day today 

 thinking that perhaps some one would 

 come that would help me or that knew 

 more about it than I did. Thus I 

 worried along for several years with- 

 out realizing anything like I should 

 from my bees. In the meantime I 

 subscribed for a magazine and got a 

 bee-keeper's text book which I read 

 and studied very closely. I had sent 

 to New York and got one-half dozen 

 ready-made hives and decided if I 

 ever was to make a success of it I must 

 not so much dread a few stings and 

 go at my work with a will and de- 

 termination to succeed at all hazzards. 

 I got a smoker, veil and pair of long 

 rubber gloves, the last of which I soon 

 threw aside, finding them a great 

 nuisance. I have since added a num- 

 ber of bee books and journals until I 

 now have quite a nice library upon 

 the subject of bees. 



I have raised 6000 lbs. of honey in 

 one season and ordered one hundred 

 hives at a time. I get them all in the 

 flat now and nail and paint them my- 

 self or have it done here at home. 



Now, don't you think I have a right 

 to say that a woman can make a suc- 

 cess in bee culture ? Any woman with 

 good common snise, combined with 

 industry and a determination to suc- 

 ceed, san do as well and perhaps bet- 

 ter than I have done. I have sixty 

 colonies of Italians and Hybrids, all 

 in apparent good condition at this 

 writing. 



Salado, Texas. 



