(^ 



'^IMTERICA^ 



37th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., MAY 6, 1897. 



No. 18. 







MRS. A. A. SIMPSON. 



The subject of this sketch Is a resideut of Greene county, 

 Pennsylvania. She began to keep bees in 1887 — just l6 

 years ago — with 7 colonies of natives in box-hives. These she 

 transferred to Simplicity hives, and then Italianized them. 

 She has been very successful so far, and now has 60 colonies 

 in chaff hives. 



Mrs. Simpson commenced to ship bees and queens in 

 1889. She says it took her a whole season to learn how to 

 rear queens, after reading all she could find on the subject ; 

 and that one must have experience to know how to manage 

 bees. 



Later on, Mrs. S. added fancy poultry to her bee-business, 

 and now keeps three kinds — Barred and White Plymouth 

 Rock, and Silver-Laced Wyandotte. This works In nicely 

 with bee-culture, as many others have proven to their profit. 



Mrs. A. A. Simpson. 



Her chicks, she says, are all pets, and as fine as one can find 

 any place. 



Mrs. Simpson — like all the rest of her sex — is of a retlrine 

 disposition, and so it has not been our privilege to learn more 

 of the particulars of her life. We noticed, especially, that sha 

 failed to give the year of her birth, but as we bad the pleasure 



of meeting her at the World's Fair convention, we feel quite 

 safe in saying that she is as old as most women get to be — 

 which is 27, we believe ! Now, she cau't accuse us of " giving 

 away " her age, for we really don't know what it is. 



We agree fully with Rev. E. T. Abbott, who believes in 

 " woman's rights ;" and so we rejoice when woman exercises 

 her "right" to keep bees, which takes herout into the health- 

 giving sunshine, amid the beauties of Nature, and gives to 

 her buoyancy of step and fairness of feature and form. Mrs. 

 Simpson, like Mrs. Axtell, of Illinois, has evidently demon- 

 strated the value of out-door employment to women. It is 

 far ahead of the drug-store tonics, and much less expensive in 

 dollars and cents. 



What woman has done, woman can do. We trust that, 

 where possible, more of them will combine with their house- 

 keeping, that which will take them out into God's blessed 

 sunshine — bee-keeping and poultry-raising. 



The Editor. 



ftSE 



Important Points on Hive-Construction. 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



To begin with, do not think all my hives are constructed 

 upon the principles hereafter outlined, for it is not so. When 

 I first began I had some European bee-books and Quinby, and 

 built my hives according to their descriptions and devices. 

 Later on I became acquainted with the Langstroth and others, 

 and built some hives of some other designs. I never threw 

 away any, but some were modified, and I have now some six 

 or eight different kinds of hives, and a dozen or more different 

 kinds of frames. At this point I may say that for a honey- 

 producer who handles his brood-chambers the least possible, it 

 does not matter very much if all his hives and frames are 

 alike or not. But for a queen-breeder who has to make nuclei 

 and transfer his frames from one hive to the other almost 

 every day, such a state of affairs would be intolerable. 



THE HIVE-STANDS. 



To begin at the foundation, we will take the stands. 

 Mine are benches long enough to hold four or five hives about 

 12 inches apart, and 14 or 16 inches above the ground. The 

 legs of the stands are planted a few inches in the ground. The 

 hives, or rather the bottoms and brood-chambers, are securely 

 fastened to the benches. 



At the beginning I used loose bottoms and loose brood- 

 chambers on the bottoms, but after I had two hives carried to 

 the next pond, the bees drowned and the combs of honey 

 carried away, I concluded that a change of "base" would be 

 an Improvement. 



There are some advantages in having the hives off the 

 ground. It brings them to a convenient height for working 

 in a standing position. By having several together, those at 

 your side, while you are working at one, are very convenient 



