Jan. 23, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



55 



commodation. Suggestions had been asked from him and 

 Mr. Hoshal as judge this year. One suggestion had Ijccn 

 made to have the prize money for neat exhibit divided Ijy 

 the judges according to merit. 



As .soon as Mr. Pickett found clover was yielding well 

 he asked for the same building, but could not get what was 

 wanted. The grant should be conditional. 



Mr. Holtermann said honey exhibits were important, in 

 these days of keen pressure, and, what would be got, largely 

 depended upon the pressure that could be brought to bear 

 upon the committee. It was advisable to give the grant con- 

 ditionally. A motion was carried to this effect. 

 (To be codtiaued.) 



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Contributed Articles, j; 



fsr^-pfK. 



No. 1.— Bee-Keeping for Women. 



Some Practical Sugg'estions to Those Who Con- 

 template Going' Into the Business. 



BY EMMA WILSON. 



Is bee-keeping a desirable occupation for women — that 

 is, as a l)usiness? For some women, yes; for some women, 

 decidedly no. It all depends upon the woman. There is 

 no denying the fact that if you make a success of bee- 

 keeping you will find hard work and plenty of it. You must 

 be willing to work early and late during part of the year, 

 and give up a great many pleasures that some other occu- 

 pations would allow you to participate in, because bees must 

 receive prompt attention, and certain things must be done 

 at certain times even if there is a picnic or a tea-party you 

 would like to attend ; and sometimes it is hard to work when 

 nearly all your friends are taking their vacations and are 

 having such a good time, for their vacations are very apt 

 to come during the bee-keeper's harvest. 



If you are thinking of taking up bee-keeping as an occu- 

 pation it is well to take these things, into account, for 

 you will have to face them, and some hot day, when the 

 temperature stands at 90 degrees or 100 degrees in the shade, 

 you will feel very much abused that you have to work while 

 it is so hot, and others are playing. That is, you will be 

 likely to feel that way unless you are intensely interested in 

 bees, and to make a successful bee-keeper, be it man or 

 woman, a person must be interested in bees — yes, bees must 

 have a sort of fascination for one. If that is the case, you 

 will be thinking a good deal more about what your bees 

 are doing than about what your friends are doing, and you 

 will be surprised when they pity you for having to work 

 so hard, and sorry they have wasted so much sympathy on 

 you. For if your bees are only bringing in lots of honey, 

 what do you care if you do have to work hard and it is hot? 

 That is just the condition of things you want. The harder 

 the bees work the harder you are willing to work, for that 

 means a good harvest for you. 



Let me tell you, the hard part comes when the season 

 is a failure, and you feel you are not getting any returns 

 for your work; for even then the bees must be taken care of. 

 Can a woman successfully take care of bees? Yes, I think 

 she can, if she is the right sort of a woman, with lots of 

 energy and push, not easily discouraged, and possessed o£ 

 lots of patience. Some of the work will be pretty heavy, 

 and a sickly, delicate woman would be obliged to have 

 help, but I really believe a healthy woman can successfully 

 run an apiary entirely alone. I know of no healthier occu- 

 pation. Of course, you must be willing to take the slmgs ; 

 that is part of the business. Fortunately, the human sys- 

 tem becomes, in time, habituated to the stings to such an 

 extent that you are, to a degree, immune to the poison. 



I believe that women are, as a class, more patient and 

 persevering than men, and are particularly adapted to bee- 

 keeping. The great trouble is that they usually want to 

 rush things too fast, and commence with a larger number 

 of colonies than they are able to care for, when they really 

 know nothing whatever of the business. It is best to go 

 slow ; very slow at first. It is well to learn by experience. 



and sometimes the experience is fiuitc expensive. I do not 

 think I would try more than two or three colonics at first. 

 If you are successful with these, gradually increase your 

 number, always keeping in mind that it is much better to 

 have one strong colony than two we k ones ; for it is the 

 strong colonies that give us the honey, and a lot of sickly, 

 weak colonics are only an expense and not worth fussing 

 with. , ■ . 



It will probably take you some time to learn this, but 

 the lesson will have to be learned. Some way, a beginner 

 is always so anxious to increase her number of colonies 

 that it is hard to learn that it is not the number of hives 

 with bees that counts, but the total number of bees. After 

 you have become somewhat familiar with the business, 

 through exnerience and the study of a good text-book on 

 bees, you will not be so anxious to increase the number of 

 your colonies at the expense of their strength. 



About 18 years ago I was teaching, and my health 

 began to fail, and my physician ordered a change of occu- 

 pation and rest. I intended to rest one year and work with 

 the bees in order to be outdoors as much as possible, and 

 then go back to the schoolroom. I did not go back. In 

 fact, I doubt very much if I would be living to-day if I 

 had continued teaching. I have never been considered 

 strong, and yet I have never missed a day's work through- 

 out the entire honey season for 18 years, taking my share 

 of the hard as well as the pleasant part of bee-keeping. 

 For me it is very fascinating work, and I thoroughly enjoy 

 it. It is remarkable the amount of hard work one can endure 

 while working in the open air, when one's whole heart is 

 in the work. 



Perhaps the larger number of women who keep bees 

 can spend only a part of their time and keep only a lim- 

 ited number of colonies, instead of spending their entire 

 time at it as I have done. I feel sure there is much health 

 connected with such work, if no ereat amount of wealth, 

 and many a tired, nervous woman would be much benefited 

 if she could spend a few hours each day in the open air 

 working with bees, and, no doubt, add a considerable sum 

 to her pin-money, besides. McHenry Co., III. 



In-breeding as Applied to Honey-Bees. 



BY ADRI.^N CETAE. 



This is perhaps the most important point to consider in 

 our efforts to iniprove our races of bees. In-breeding means 

 using male and female reproductors of close parentage, even 

 brother and sister, or father and daughter. The more alike 

 are the male and female parents, or the more closely related 

 they are. the more surely will their characteristics and 

 peculiarities be transmitted to their offspring. On the other 

 hand, if the male and female parents are different in their 

 peculiarities, color, qualities, size, etc., all sorts of variations 

 may be expected in their descendants. 



Now, suppose we have an extraordinarily good queen. 

 If we can safely breed together her descendants, drones 

 and queens, and keep up the process through the successive 

 generations, the qualities of that queen will be transmitted 

 to her descendants ; not only transmitted, but also intensified 

 and fixed. The word "fixed" meaps that the offspring will 

 invariably possess the peculiarities of their parents. 



If, on the other hand, in-breeding can not be practiced, 

 we will have now and then to introduce some queens or 

 drones of outside and comparatively inferior stock. Their 

 offspring will necessarily be inferior and irregular compared 

 to those of pure stock. In a word, every introduction of 

 outside blood will be a step backward in our efforts to 

 create a superior race of bees. Needless to say, that it would 

 be a serious drawback. 



nature's way. 



The chief argument against in-breeding is that "it is 

 not Nature's way." In the state of Nature, mating between 

 close parents is the exception, rather than the rule. In many 

 plants, the female flowers are not on the same plant as the 

 male. In others, the pollen is so situated that it can not 

 fertilize the flower. Other nollen must be brought from 

 some other plant bv the wind or insects. The larger animals 

 roam about, and find for mates all but their close relatives. 

 Queen bees, ants and wasps mate away from home. 



-\-HY IS IT so? 



Why is in-breeding injurious? or why is it avoided by 

 the laws of Nature? I think I can give one reason, and I 



