1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



127 



[For the American Bee Joumsil.] 



A Sister Beekeeper's Experience. 



May 15th, 1872, we received by express two 

 swarms of Italian bees, purchased of A. Grimm. 

 If any of my readers want bees that can sting 

 with a vengeance, and gather honey when the 

 common bees are starving, let them present 

 their compliments, and money to A. Grimm. 



The summer of '73, we increased by dividing 

 as follows : We removed a frame of brood with 

 the queen and adhering bees to an empty hive, 

 filling up with empty frames ; moved the hive 

 from which we took the queen, placing the new 

 colony in its place. In the fall we had three 

 strong swarms, and one weak one. 



My " better half" has no faith in beekeeping. 

 He would say, " You will lose them all this 

 winter." If you wish to have a woman succeed 

 in an undertaking, oppose her ; she will be de- 

 termined to succeed. 



Our hives are the two-story Langstroth. We 

 prepared them for out-door wintering, by un- 

 covering holes in honey-board, spreading on 

 coflfee -sacking, and packing cap with prairie 

 hay, placing corn-cobs on top. Moved them to 

 the east side of the house, placing them so that 

 their projecting covers touched the house and 

 each other, forming a continuous roof. The 

 intervening space between the hives and house, 

 and between each hive, was packed firmly with 

 hay. We placed empty hives at each end, 

 packing them firmly. All the exposure was in 

 front. On very cold or windy days, boards 

 were placed in front, and removed in fine 

 weather. 



On the fourth of January, our bees had a 

 purifying flight, and also in February. The 

 last of February we placed little boxes of un- 

 bolted rye flour, also sugar syrup and water un- 

 der the coffee-sacking in the cap. On mild 

 days they soon were busy dusting themselves 

 in the flour. 



We left the bees in their winter quarters un- 

 til very late in the spring We all know how 

 much better it is for us to retain our flannels 

 until warm weather comes, as the chilly winds 

 of spring are harder to bear than still, cold 

 winter days. We must have, in the coldest 

 weather, fresh air and sunshine, and our bees 

 shall have it, too, if it' does take more honey. 



When the weather was warm we removed 

 them to the shade of cherry-trees ; and as we 

 ladies have the fever of house-cleaning in the 

 spring, we thought the bees might like it, too ; 

 so we moved each swarm to a new hive, giving 

 their old home a good scrubbing with brush, 

 hot water and soap, rinsing well with boiling 

 water. Next day returned the bees to their 

 old hive ; each bee giving an obliging hum. 



We never failed in the coldest weather of 

 visiting our bees and tapping on their hives. 

 They always answered with their hum, "All 

 right." Our bees came forth in spring strong- 



er and more vigorous than when placed in win- 

 ter quarters. 



The past season we increased our bees by ar- 

 tificial swarming, as follows : By taking two 

 frames of brood and adhering bees from three 

 hives, making six frames, and placing them in 

 an empty hive, with two frames of empty / 



comb at each side. Placed a caged queen on .'V 

 the frames for twenty-four hours ; before re- 

 leasing her, sprinkled all thoroughly with 

 sweetened water, to which the essence of sweet 

 anise had been added ; using a little fine broom- 

 corn broom to do the sprinkling. We filled 

 the vacant places from which we took the 

 brood with empty comb, bought of an obliging 

 beekeeper. In two weeks we again took brood, 

 as we never disturbed the laying queen. 



Our four swarms we increased to sixteen ; we 

 were afraid we had not observed the adage 

 " make haste slowly," yet we had a natural 

 swarm on the thirtieth of August, making sev- 

 enteen. We fed weak swarms during the 

 drouth ; am now feeding for winter. 



W. M. Kellogg, in the September Journal, 

 tells us that A. Grimm has a bee-feeder " that 

 beats everything, and a handy smoker." Why 

 could you not describe them ? You excite my 

 curiosity, which is peculiar to my sex, without 

 the means of gratifying it. 



My stings have been many ; the best remedy 

 I have found for a sting is, not to be stung. I 

 now have a bee-dress, which is bee-proof A 

 hat made after Langstroth's directions, and 

 gauntlet gloves, to which I have added about 

 six inches of cloth, extending up the arm ; 

 over this I slip an elastic. I prefer small buck- 

 skin gloves to India rubber, having tried both. 

 The smoker that we use is an old-fashioned 

 frying pan, being light and having a long han- 

 dle. 



No lady need be afraid of keeping bees for 

 want of knowledge. We have uniformly found 

 the bee brothers courteous and obliging, never 

 tiring of giving any infoimation desired. 



LuciNDA W. Harrison. 



Peoria, III, Oct. 10. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bees and Hives at tlie Cincinnati Exposition. 



Editor American Bee Journal : In 1872 I 

 visited our Exposition several times, and was 

 much interested, especially by the show of 

 bees and the different ways of handling them. 

 Mr. Faulkner, of Vevay, had a hive of bees, 

 got up in his peculiar style, in which he uses a 

 large number of boxes, around and on top of 

 the main hive. He claimed to get more honey 

 in his way than in other ways of managing ; 

 but I noticed that he had what he called a 

 feeder on, and occasionally replenished it from 

 a reservoir which he had under the shelf. He 

 said he fed them to make them finish the cap- 

 ping of some cells which were left uncapped 



