Oct. 25, 1906 



899 



not the servant question, it is the housework 

 question. If some means could be devised 

 by which housework could be performed with 

 inspiration, zeal and enthusiasm, the servant 

 problem would solve itself; but this ideal 

 way of doing housework can be' carried on 

 only when the spirit is freed from the sense 

 of eternal drudgery." Which latter can be 

 6aid of all work. Most communities can fur- 

 nish a few strikingspecimensof unfortunates, 

 who are mainly so on account of a fear of 

 work clutching at their throats, but here in 

 the South, where for so many generations the 

 blacks were depended upon for all labor, 

 a great percentage of the common people 

 seem to be imbued with an inborn mortal 

 terror of anything which might be construed 

 into drudgery, or the shadow thereof. Were 

 there anything real connected with this bug- 

 a-boo, then there would be room for the ex- 

 ercise of patience; but when it is almost 

 totally imaginary, and sadly interferes with 

 good fellowship —real, old-fashioned socia- 

 bility—and runs along lines which materially 

 affect the bread-and-butter question, then the 

 thrifty want to call a halt. 



Industrious men or women fail to see that 

 loafers of either sex lend charm or beauty to 

 their environments, be these what they may. 

 In these days when to shirk, to lean, and to 

 beat, are accomplishments of which many 

 seem to boast, it is truly refreshing for one to 

 speak right out, as Mrs. Comstock has done, 

 and let us know there yet exists earnest and 

 honest souls. 



Her statement that " bee-keeping is one of 

 the best life-saving, nerve-healing avoca- 

 tions," will be sustained by many a bee- 

 keeper who has had, for remedial agents, 

 nothing else. 



The little cares that fretted me— 



I lost them yesterday 

 Among the fields, above the sea, 



Among the winds at play ; 

 Among the lowing of the herds, 



The rustling of the trees. 

 Among the singing of the birds, 



The humming of the bees. 



Because we can not work with bees and 

 think of anything else, she claims that a 

 change from any nerve-racking employment 

 to bee-keeping will prove as effective a rest 

 as a trip to Europe. Alas, how few women 

 realize what a change of employment would 

 mean to them ! Worn and fagged out by the 

 same wearisome round of toil, they seek re- 

 juvenation by the vacation route. Vacation? 

 Oh, yes, something intended to be revivify- 

 ing, but falls 6o far 6hort of its object that it 

 is a thousand wonders that all vacations have 

 not gone out of style long ago. Vacations 

 are all right, but when perverted by false 

 choice of place and manner of taking the 

 same, they often prove worse than useless. 



Where do most women of the class who 

 secure vacations prefer to spend them! At 

 an isolated seashore or lake village, or on the 

 farm, wandering at sweet will o'er wooded 

 hill and dale, where all of Nature's great 

 remedial restoratives may be enjoyed to an 

 unlimited degree? Ah, no, they seek the 

 fashionable watering-places where the hotels 

 are tall, and the bills taller— $27 a minute to 

 be in the same circle as the Van-in-its I Where 

 an entire change of attire must be undergone 

 at least half-dozen times a day just to hear 

 the silly men decide which is the more, or 

 most, becoming! Where the gowns are cut 

 low in front and back, the orchestra plays at 

 dinner, and the open-faced shirt parades after 

 6 p.m. ! Where you have difficulty in secur- 

 ing hanging room in the street-cars, and the 

 trains, autos, steamers, and every public con- 

 veyance, are crowded like sardines in a can ! 

 Where it is rush, boom, and hurrah at least 

 20 out of the 24 hours; five-sixths of the time 

 spent in revel or festivities, and the other 

 little one-sixth in which to gather up the 

 over-strained forces for a renewal of the fray 

 each succeeding day I 



Small wonder so many return to their posi- 

 tions in a more depleted condition than when 

 starting out on the long-anticipated vacation ! 

 A few there are who seek the rugged moun- 

 tain and the giant timber which soothe by 



American TSee Journal 



their grandeur, and the soft, long grass and 

 purling stream which oiler at once couch and 

 lullaby. All are not able to go to the moun- 

 tain ; such might bring the mountain to them, 

 by keeping a few bees which would pay bills, 

 and offer to an intelligent and inquisitive 

 mind a rich yield of thought, which shuts out 

 all other considerations. 



About the most serious drawback to bee- 

 keeping as a restful job, is the natural growth 

 of our individual ambitions — a growth which 

 surely indicates a renewal of general strength, 

 but a growth which sooner or later announces 

 in no uncertain manner that we have yet an- 

 other business on our hands which is demand- 

 ing our attention, though begun only as an en- 

 tertainment. But long before this stage is 

 reached we have enjoyed many a happy holi- 

 day, and many times have been lulled to rest- 

 ful repose by the contented hum of the 

 honey-bee, and have been charmed into real 

 or fancied security, which latter answers ad- 

 mirably by the indescribable fascination al- 

 ways attendant upon the pursuit. However, 

 were I to prescribe bee-keeping as a cure for 

 nerve-rack, the prescription would be accom- 

 panied by the cautionary advice, to be taken 

 in homeopathic doses. 



There's no reason under the sun why 

 women should not make money out of bees. 

 Because one happens to be a woman, is no 

 reason that she may not enter into most fields 

 of labor. False notions on such subjects 

 have ruined the lives of many in the past, 

 and are still seeking victims for the future. 

 How many good men — apiarists — have passed 

 on, leaving behind but little else except that 

 in which their hopes lay — the bee-yards — for 



their helpless families? Helpless! And, why 

 so i Because they have been short-sighted, 

 and did not take a kindred interest in main- 

 taining an existence with the loved one no 

 longer with them. Part of the bee-keeping, 

 at least, is usually carried on right at home, 

 and just why any woman would not take 

 enough interest to understand the methods 

 sufficiently well to sustain herself and family 

 in the event of being compelled so to do, is a 

 mystery. 



Many times have stricken widows applied 

 to me for advice and help, in their hour of 

 dire distress, because they knew not in the 

 least where and how to take hold to help 

 themselves. These same women had had 

 every opportunity to understand the bee- 

 keeping business; their husbands would have 

 been only too glad of their company and as- 

 sistance, not to mention the interest they 

 might have evinced; but those opportunities 

 did not last, and now they were drifting at 

 sea without rudder or oar. 



On the other hand, instances there are 

 where women have been able to take up the 

 work laid down by their dear ones, and push 

 that work to a successful finish. All honor to 

 them. 



Sisters, have you the opportunity of learn- 

 ing the bee business? By all means make the 

 best of that opportunity. Learn it just for 

 the enjoyment there is in it— just for fun, as 

 Mrs. Comstock expresses it. The time can 

 not be better spent, even should you never 

 need the knowledge gained; while the latter 

 might mean the difference between a shat- 

 tered, meaningless life and an active, helpful 

 one. Mart E. Null. 



Milan, Mo. 



ocfor Millers 



ucsfion-B^x 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, or to 

 Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 

 ' Dr. Miller does not answer Questions by mail. 



Finding a Queen In a Colony 



What is the be6t method of taking a queen 

 from a colony to which you wish to introduce 

 a new queen? As I am a beginner, I have 

 much trouble in securing the old queen. My 

 bees are blacks crossed with Italians. 



Kentucky. 



Answer.— The usual way is to look over the 

 brood-combs till you find her, for unless you 

 get the bees to running by too much smoke 

 or too rough handling, the queen will gen- 

 erally be found on the combs that contain 

 brood. You will use as little smoke as pos- 

 sible, and handle the combs very gently. If 

 the bees once get to running, close the hive 

 and try it an hour or so later. If you can 

 not get her in this way, you might sift the 

 bees through a queen-excluder, allowing the 

 workers to go through and the queen to be 

 caught. 



Similarity Between Caucasian Drones 

 and Workers 



Doctor, I am beaten. On pages 845 and 

 846, in the closing remarks of your answers 

 to my questions, you have drawn my atten- 

 tion to laying workers in the colony. There 

 was no brood, unless it was quite young, and 

 no drones except a few that may have gone 

 in there from other colonies, but the queen 

 was well received. I opened the hive two or 



three times the same day I introduced her ; 

 the bees were gentle, so I did not have to use 

 any smoke, and I found the queen quietly 

 moving amongst the bees, and all seemed to 

 wait on her, and none tried to molest her. I 

 clipped her wings before I introduced her. 

 I caught most of the drones in a queen trap, 

 and I found that only a few could go through. 

 There are no more drones hatching now, and 

 the queen and her workers look like other 

 hybrid bees. I have a colony of hybrid bees 

 by the side of it, and I have got down on 

 hands and knees to see if I could tell any dif- 

 ference in their looks, but I can't, and if I 

 took the label off the hive 1 doubt very much 

 if A. I. Root or any any other expert could 

 tell the difference. The young queen pro- 

 duces bees a good deal like the first, but 

 mostly Italians. The queens are marked — 

 one a good deal like a 3-banded Italian 

 worker, and the other like a tine Italian, the 

 abdomen being yellow with a black tip. It 

 seems to me this gives our queen breeders a 

 fine chance to sell their mismated queens for 

 a good price. Iowa. 



Answer. — Thanks for further particulars. 

 You opened the hive 2 or 3 times on the day 

 you introduced the queen, and found her 

 quietly moving about. That makes it pretty 

 certain that no laying workers were there, 

 and it may be that the queen was demora- 

 lized by her journey in the mails, laying 

 drone-eggs for a short time thereafter— a 

 thing that sometimes occurs The mystery 



