Feb. 21, 1907 



H^^^^C 



American T^ee Journal j ^^ 



151 



■i'f^^ 



prove all right, even as it did unex- 

 pectedly with me, when I moved my 

 bees in December. 



Bee-Keeping for Farm Boys and 

 Girls 



Once more the Christmas bells have rung, 

 and again the happy New Year is given to the 

 contented and happy people of Canada. This 

 is the time ot year for municipal elections, 

 conventions, and of annual meetings of the 

 different societies of the land, and it is well 

 that the people (farmers included) should 

 take stock of how they are prospering in their 

 calling. The farmers of Ontario have one 

 very great advantage over those of the West, 

 in that they can carry on so many different 

 branches of farming. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I propose another line of 

 husbandry which 1 would recommend, espe- 

 cially to the young men and women, and that 

 is bee-keeping. I see no reason why the 

 farmers' sons and daughters of Ontario could 

 not keep a few hives of bees. I do not know 

 of any greater luxury on the farm than 

 plenty of honey. There are very few people 

 who do not like a dish of honey, but I believe 

 a great many people think it is impossible to 

 keep bees without getting stung. I have 

 kept a few colonies for the last 25 years, and 

 there is no more 'danger in opening a hive of 

 bees than in leading a young horse to water, 

 when you understand them. In the first 

 place, there is no insect that the temperature 

 of the weather affects so much, and then it is 



so very easy to protect yourself that the dan- 

 ger of being stung is nothing. 



My outfit consists of a veil fastened to an 

 old hat, coverinir neck and face, then a pair 

 of harvest glovis and a smoker lilled with 

 rotten wood and a coal, and 1 am ready for 

 business. Of course, the most ot the work 

 with bees is done in warm weather in summer. 



I do not recommend any one to rush in 

 heavily until he becojiies acquainted with 

 them. I trust these few ideas will set some 

 of our young farmers to trying a colony in 

 the spring, and they will lind both pleasure 

 and proUt in bees.— A Fabmeb, in Farmer's 

 Advocate. 



The foregoing^ is a sensible sugges- 

 tion and worthy of the consideration 

 of a good many farmers. True, all 

 farmers will not make bee-keepers, but 

 a few bees on many farms would not 

 only be a source of income, but also 

 an attraction to growing boys and 

 girls, if they are properly instructed. 

 Many farmers follow the practise of 

 giving calves, lambs, etc., to their 

 growing boys, and allow them to man- 

 age the same as a source of income for 

 the boys' own use. Why not give the 

 boy a colony of bees for the same pur- 

 pose ? 



Methinks, if more of the farmers 

 would follow this or similar plans, a 

 great many more boys than is now the 

 case would be content to stay on the 

 farm. 



Conducted by EiiMi M. VViLauN, Marengo, iii. 



Qrowing Sweet Clover 



I have just returned from the annual 

 meeting of the Nebraska State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association at Lincoln, where 

 we had an interesting meeting, with a 

 larger attendance than usual. 



Of course, sweet clover was up for 

 discussion, and the point was brought 

 out that it was sometimes difficult to 

 get a stand when seed was sown in 

 spring. It was also shown that some- 

 times when it did not come up soon 

 after sowing the seed remained dor- 

 mant until the following spring, and 

 then made a good stand. Now, my ex- 

 perience has been that the seed that 

 falls and stays out all winter germi- 

 nates much more quickly and evenly 

 than seed that has been gathered and 

 housed until spring. 



I have found, too, that it is slow 

 work getting sweet clover if one sows 

 seed in great weed-patches. Sweet 

 clover will run out other weeds if it 

 gets a fair start amongst them, hut, 

 like alfalfa, the plant is fine, and 

 rather delicate at the start. 



I get sweet clover to grow in weed- 

 patches, but I don't do it with seed, but 

 with transplanted roots. Get them out 



as early as you can, and they come 

 strong and vigorous, ready to cope 

 with anything, and hardly seeming to 

 know that they have been moved. 



I have done considerable transplant- 

 ing, as well as scattering seed by the 

 roadside, and with excellent results; 

 and, as I told the bee-keepers at our 

 annual meeting, I have not heard any 

 grumbling from the neighbors, al- 

 though it did come to my ears that a 

 certain agent had remarked on the 

 thicket of " weeds " along the road " so 

 a fellow could hardly get through." If 

 I had only bought a sewing machine 

 from him he would have managed to 

 get through, and without grumbling ! 

 (Mrs.) a. Iv. Amos. 



Comstock, Nebr., Jan. 19. 



Cleaning Sections of Honey 



Dear Miss Wilson :— I was much 

 interested in your report in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for Dec. 27, on the 

 question of cleaning sections for the 

 market. I must confess that Dr. 

 Miller's statement amazed me at the 

 time ; it was so far beyond anything I 

 have ever done myself. On the other 



hand, to do only 4 cases a day seems 

 extreme in the other direction. That 

 would be 2 hours to a case. 



I have never sat a whole day at one 

 time cleaning sections, but I have 

 often timed myself in cleaning cases, 

 and I think my average was about half- 

 an-hour to unpack and clean each case 

 of 28sections. Like you, I find it much 

 easier to clean sections in cold weather, 

 but, then, all the fine honey I could 

 put on the market in July brought me 

 $2.75 to $3.00 a case ; in October I got 

 only $2.40. So I had to put extra labor 

 against extra price. 



I do not exactly know what a T-super 

 is, but when I read of Dr. Miller and 

 other bee-keepers sitting and standing 

 on their supers, I was glad I used the 

 ordinary section-holders with wood 

 separators. 



When I take my supers off the hives 

 I clean roughly with a hive-scraper 

 out-of-doors, and then bring them into 

 the honey-house. There I unpack and 

 handle each section separately, putting 

 it into an empty case as 1 finish with it. 



This year I had girls working for 

 me for a few days. When I unpacked 

 they scraped a super in about 20 min- 

 utes each, but when left to unpack and 

 scrape themselves, they did 12 to 14 

 cases a day, each working 8 hours a 

 day. I did all the grading and pack- 

 ing myself. I do not think it would 

 be possible to do all the work as you 

 do in the bulk. There is a great deal 

 of propolis here. I took a lump from a 

 hive one day and weighed it for curi- 

 osity. It weighed an ounce. 



Just at present I can not call myself 

 a bee-keeper, for my brother has sold 

 his ranch here and I have sold my bees, 

 and intend going to California next 

 week. However, I am too much inter- 

 ested in bees to do without them for 

 very long, though this may be the last 

 time I shall sign myself — 



January 9, 1907. " Colorado." 



That's just the trouble, if you did 

 know what the T-super is, and how to 

 use it, you would not be so well satis- 

 fied with the section-holder, I think. I 

 have used both, and much prefer the T- 

 super. 



Don't let the matter of emptying the 

 T frighten you. It is only an extreme 

 case when you have to sit or stand 

 upon it, and even then it is not so very 

 difficult, as sitting or standing upon 

 them is not very hard work. I am sure 

 you could empty supers very much 

 more rapidly with the T than with the 

 section-holder. You will readily see 

 that they are not so very difficult to 

 handle when I tell you that I have 

 emptied hundreds, yes, thousands of 

 them. 



The matter of cleaning sections 

 alone, if there were no other advan- 

 tages — and I think there are many — 

 would decide me in favor of the T. I 

 think I could never be satisfied to use 

 a holder that necessitated the handling 

 of sections singly. I do not know just 

 how bad propolis is with you, but we 

 have the reputation of being in a very 

 gluey region. 



So you are going to California to 

 live. I almost envy you. I hope that 

 you will not be long beeless, and that 

 the change will not lessen your inter- 

 est in the sisters' corner. I trust we 

 may still hear from you often. 



