1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



689 



then thickly curtained doorway when remov- 

 ing honey, causing the work in the neighbor- 

 ing farmyard to be carefully studied in order 

 to prevent " war " between the workers of the 

 hives and those in the rick-yard adjoining. 

 This trouble is now happily ended, and, thanks 

 to the super-clearer, we are told that " peace " 

 now reigns between both sets of workers, and 

 honey is removed at any time " even when 

 the neighbors are garnering their corn the 

 other side of the wmdbreak." The portion 

 of a building on the right is a Wesleyan chap- 

 el, but Mr. W. and family regularly attend 

 Beedon Church, in the parish of Hampstead 

 Norris, three miles from his own village. 



In addition to the home apiary, with its 

 over a hundred hives, shown in the illustra- 

 tion, Mr. Woodley has an out-apiary of fifty 

 to sixty hives at Stanmore, a little over two 

 miles from his house at Beedon. This entails 

 considerable labor during the summer months, 

 and the only help he gets in all the actual 

 work of both apiaries is that of Mrs. Woodley, 

 who may be taken as an ideal bee-man's wife. 

 To use her husband's own words, "she has 

 proved a true helpmeet in every thing per- 

 taining to the work in the apiary, either in 

 hiving and packing swarms, folding and 

 preparing sections for putting on the hives, 

 cleaning and glazing sections after removal 

 from the hives, for show or market, and thus 

 handling in some way nearly all the output 

 for the past fifteen years from both apiaries. 

 The only help we have is that of an old man 

 to watch for and hive swarms into straw skeps 

 of the out-apiary during the swarming sea- 

 son." Mr. Woodley further telJs us: "The 

 work of preparing the produce of our apiaries 

 for market is by no means a small job, the 

 bidk Vjeing in sections, while nearly every 

 parcel is double glassed with lace-paper edg- 

 ing in our well-known style, and each year 

 brings a wider demand for this form of ' put- 

 ting up,' without advertising of any kind. 

 In fact, the goods advertise themselves, and 

 inquiries reach us from distant towns for a 

 sample dozen, which invariably leads to repeat 

 orders." That our friend makes bee-keeping 

 pay seems fairly clear from the above; and al- 

 though his prices may not be so good as in 

 past years, he still holds his own, and for fin- 

 est selected glazed sections 



still gets the good old 



price of !?2.4'2 per dozen 

 wholesale, and correspond- 

 ing values for second and 

 third grades. 



The " home " which con- 

 tains the leading spirits of 

 this " Home of the Honey- 

 bees " must also be a busy 

 one, winter or summer ; 

 for, while the bees out- 

 side are enjoying their 

 winter's rest, the master and mistress ot the 

 "home" are busy the year through, bee- 

 work forming an important item at all seasons. 

 The mistress, we are told, varies her house- 

 hold duties with glazing sections as the orders 

 for these come in during the autumn and 

 winter, and in spring and summer with the 



multifarious jobs incident to a busy life. The 

 master also adds on to the labors of his trade 

 the continual care of the bees; breeding 

 queens, overhauling, cleaning, repairing, and 

 painting hives, and all the hundred items in- 

 cidental to the well-doing of a couple of apia- 

 ries two miles apart. A large correspondence 

 also occupies a good deal of time in certain 

 seasons; and when one thinks of the many 

 journeys (to and fro) to the out-apiary (all on. 

 foot), not forgetting the packing of — we 

 might say — tons of honey, so that it shall es- 

 cape d image from the tender mercies of the 

 railway porter, who will say that the bee-mam 

 — like his bees — is not "busy"? But this is 

 not all, for we learn of Mr. Woodley that the 

 public calls on his time are by no means few. 

 Our friend is secretary and agent to a large 

 branch of a benefit club, and vice-chairman of 

 the parish council. He is also district coun- 

 cilor and guardian, and acting overseer for 

 the parish of Hampstead Norris, besides being 

 a member of the Council of the Berks Bee- 

 keepers' Association, and of the Committee of 

 the Newbury District Bee-keepers' Associa- 

 tion. Mr. Woodley was born in 1846, and 

 Mrs. Woodley in 1852, so that our busy 

 friends are in the prime of life. — British Bee 

 Journal. 



PLAIN SECTIONS. 



Comb Honey from Fences and Comb Honey from 

 Plain Separators; No Ribbed Comb Honey. 



BY J. A. GOLDEN. 



]\[r. E. R. Root: — Your note was received 

 on the 22d, referring to my letter of last 

 spring in regard to my separator you speak of, 

 of which I had sent you a photo. After read- 

 ing 3-our letter I went to the bee-house and 

 took one of the middle rows of sections from 

 the super containing this style of sepaiator, 

 took my knife, and clipped off the most of 

 the propolis, took them to the machine, and 

 cleaned them. Then I took one of the mid- 

 dle rows from a super containing the Root 

 slatted separators, or fences, and cleaned 

 them; then took one of the middle rows con- 

 taining the plain separator, and cleaned them; 



then, placing them on the stand and piling a 

 few sections to the left of the three rows, to 

 show how nicely they can be tiered up or 

 crated, I took my Kodak and shot the whole 

 pile, and I inclose you a view of those sections 

 the result of my experiment with the three 

 kinds of separators, showing indisputable 



