Oct. 11, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, II 



Bee-Keeping as a Business for 

 Women 



Objections to bee-keeping as a busi- 

 ness for women are very nicely met 

 and answered by Mrs. Anna Botsford 

 Comstock, of New York, in Gleanings 

 in Bee Culture, who says : 



Two questions invariably "pop up "at us 

 when this matter of feminine beekeeping is 

 discussed: One is, " Why shouldn't a woman 

 keep bees?" and the other is, " Why should a 

 woman keep bees?" Like most other ques- 

 tions, these may be answered more or less 

 rationally with proper consideration. 



Taking the "why shouldn't" question 

 first, we are bound to confess that nowadays 

 there is no effective reason why a woman 

 should not do almost anything that she takes 

 into her enterprising little head to do. But 

 quite aside from the consideration of woman'6 

 prowess, there are one or two reasons that 

 might deter some of the faint-hearted fair 

 from undertaking bee-keeping. There is no 

 use of trying to gloss over the fact that there 

 i6 a great deal of hard work and heavy lining 

 in the care of a profitable apiary. The hard 

 work is really no objection, as most women 

 of whatever class are at it anyway. But lift- 

 ing heavy hives is certainly not particularly 

 good exercise for any woman, although I 

 must confess that I have never lifted half so 

 strenuously when caring for bees as I used to 

 on the farm when we moved the cook-stove 

 into the summer kitchen, accomplishing this 

 feat by our feminine selves, rather than to 

 bring to the surface any of the latent pro- 

 fanity which seems to be engendered in the 

 masculine bosom when taking part in this 

 seasonal hegira. 



There are at least two ways of obviating 

 this feminine disability in bee-keeping. One 

 practised successfully by several women, is 

 through tne U6e of a Boardman hive-cart, 

 which almost solves the problem if the bees 

 are wintered out-of-doors, and don't have to be 

 carried up and down cellar stairs; the other 

 method is to get some man to do the lifting 

 and carrying. It may be the husband, the 

 father, the brother, the son, or the hired man ; 

 but as his work can be doDe at a time which 

 can be planned for, it is not so difficult for 

 the men of the establishment to give the help 

 needed. I am sure my husband would say 

 that I am quite enthusiastically in favor of 

 the man solution of this problem ; but his 

 opinion does not count for much, because he 

 loves the bees so enthusiastically that I have 

 to beg for a chance to work with them at all, 

 although he virtuously points out the hives to 

 people as " Mrs. Comstock's bees." 



Another "shouldn't" reason might be that 

 women are afraid of bee-stings. This falls 

 flat, from the fact that women are not a bit 

 more nervous than men in this respect. This 

 year, when I was struggling to hive a swarm 

 from a most difficult position, an interested 

 man stood off at a safe distance in a most 

 pained state of mind. He was a courteous 

 gentleman, and he felt that it was outrageous 

 for me to have to do the work alone, but he 

 did not dare to come to my aid, and I think 

 he considered my temerity in dealing with the 

 swarm as almost scandalous. 



Anna Botsford Comstock. 



There, does not that meet the ob- 

 jections in as racy a manner as could 

 be desired ? Is there any sort of sense 

 in saying that a woman is more afraid 

 of stings than a man ? And is she at 

 all likely to make anymore fuss about 

 the pain of the sting ? Does a man or 

 a woman make the most fuss about a 

 toothache ? 



Really, the only valid objection for 

 which there seems any sort of ground 

 is as to the matter of physical strength. 

 And doesn't many a woman exert 

 more physical strength in the course 

 of 24 hours than her liege lord, even 

 though he be able to lift a greater 

 number of pounds? The man who 

 carries on bee-keeping extensively is 

 tired out at the end of the day's work, 

 not so much because of the exertion of 

 any great amount of strength at a 

 time, as of the continuance of it, and 

 for real endurance, hour after hour, pit 

 a woman against a man, any time. 



While endorsing Mrs. Comstock's 

 view that help can be had at the heav- 

 iest parts of the work, it may be perti- 

 nent to ask whether Mr. Man never 

 gets help in the same way. 



" Making Money by Keeping Bees " 



Woman's Life, a journal presumably 

 published in Ireland, contains an arti- 

 cle on " Making Money by Keeping 



Bees," which, according to quotations 

 in the Irish Bee Journal, shows that 

 writers for women's journals in Ireland 

 are not a whit behind their sisters in 

 this country when it comes to substi- 

 tuting the imagination for actual ob- 

 servation in the apiary. Just a few 

 items over which the editor of the 

 Irish Bee Journal makes merry with 

 genuine Irish witi may be here given : 



" No apiari6t is so greedy as to claim every 

 section which the bees have made; some are 

 always left in a frame in the center of the 

 hive to supply the queen and her subjects 

 with food during the winter." 



" During the long, cold months when 

 flowers are conspicuous by their absence, the 

 bees must be fed regularly with artificial pol- 

 len and with a stimulating syrup." 



" Sometimes, however, it is absolutely nec- 

 essary to dispense with a 6warm to prevent 

 overcrowding, and when this is the case the 

 top frame should be removed and the bees 

 shaken off into a skep or bee-box and offered 

 for sale, either privately or by advertisement, 

 and should it be a good swarm, weighing 

 something under 20 pounds —bees are always 

 sold by weight — it is worth about a guinea. " 



" The queen is usually kept in the center of 

 the hive, shut off by the ' queen-excluder,' 

 through which only the bees, whose duty it is 

 to feed her, ever dare to enter." 



There, can any Yankee sister beat 

 that ? Leave some sections in the 

 center of the hives for winter stores .' 

 Practise stimulative feeding in winter ! 

 To prevent overcrowding, "dispense" 

 with a swarm by shaking off some- 

 thing under 20 pounds — say a hundred 

 thousand bees! Wonder how many 

 pounds of bees will be left in the 

 mother colony. Evidently it would 

 not do to have too many such colonies 

 in one place, for when 20 pounds are 

 shaken off, they are to be put into a 

 skep or bee-box and offered for sale. A 

 good market for such prolific bees 

 could easily be found in this country. 



Neither does the article lack in pic- 

 torial illustration, for Editor Digges, 

 evidently deeply impressed, says it is 

 " decorated by a radiant girl in a pretty 

 dress and sunbonnet, standing before 

 2 skeps, and gently feeding 11 flying 

 bees with a sprig of double holly hook." 



Conducted by Moelet Pettit, Villa Nova, Ont. 



Storing Empty Combs 



Theoretically, the room in which 

 empty combs are to be stored should be 

 perfectly free from mice. But, since it 

 is usually impossible to exclude mice 

 from the room, one must make a stren- 

 uous effort to exclude them from the 

 supers or hive.-, in which the combs are 

 kept. If carefully piled after all en- 



trances have been closed, this is not a 

 difficult thing to do, although careful 

 and precise work must be done that no 

 cracks or uncovered places be left. A 

 small hole will let mice in, and cause 

 the loss of all the combs in an entire 

 pile of supers. And it is surprising 

 what damage a few mice can do. 



Where one has a honey-house suffi- 

 ciently large, the problem of where to 

 store empty combs is readily solved 



