258 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 1. 



BEE-KEEPING FOR WOMEN; HOW TO AVOID the wheeled board, and shoved out so that I 



HEAVY LIFTING. 



A Valuable Article from »ne of the Most Exten- 

 sive Lady Beekeepers in Colorado. 



BY MRS. A. J. BARBER. 



My first practical work in producing ex- 

 tracted honey brought me face to face with 

 two very disagreeable things. These were, 

 lifting the boxes of honey, and working 

 among as many bees as we had to let in when 

 we opened the door to take the honey inside 

 the house. 



I finally tried the plan of putting common 

 bed-casters on a board made to fit upon my 

 Daisy wheelbarrow. Upon this board I put 

 my honey-box and run it into the honey -house 



without lifting at all. I had a small door 

 made, and had the hinges at the top instead 

 of the side. Under this door is a small plat- 

 form sloping gently toward the house with the 

 outer edge just as high as a Daisy wheelbar- 

 row. The illustration will show how the honey 

 goes from the wheelbarrow into the house. 

 ^When I get ready to take off the honey I 

 put a wheeled board on my wheelbarrow, and 

 put an empty hive-body upon it, and with 

 smoker and broom begin to take out my 

 frames. Most of the bees are shaken and 

 brushed off, the combs put into the hive-body. 



and, when it is filled, I run it into the house 

 without having to lift more than one frame at 

 a time or letting the bees that always follow 

 me get into the house. After the first load or 

 two my helpers have some empty combs. 

 These are put back into their boxes still on 



return them at once and use the same board 

 and box to get another load. In this way the 

 hives are closed up so there is no robbing. I 



have onl}' three boards at each apiary, and 

 they are all I need. In using the half depth 

 frames for extraciing I do not disturb combs, 

 but take the whole super. My hives are all 

 set in pairs or threes so that I can use one for 

 a table while at work with ihe other. When I 

 raise the super I set it on the next hive until I 

 replace the cover, then the super is stood on 

 end with the bottom projecting over the front 

 of the hive. I raise from 12 to 20 in this way, 

 and then begin at the first one and smoke the 

 tops of the frames a little to drive the bees 



through. When most of them have come 

 through they are swept off with a few strokes 

 of a Coggshall broom ; and as they fall in 

 front of their own hive they are all right. As 

 fast as they are cleared of bees the supers are 

 taken, two at a time, and run into the honey- 

 house. We use the same plan taking off comb 

 honey. 



When taking off honey, those hives that 

 have not filled their combs are marked ; and 

 next day, when extracting is out of the way, 

 they are looked over and dealt with according 

 to needs. Sometimes a poor queen is removed 

 and a better one given, or the colony may be 

 broken up and given to new colonies to help 

 them out. We have the tops Of our windows 

 arranged with bee-escapes, made of strips of 

 wire screen. The few bees that get into the 

 honey-house have no trouble in getting out, 

 as, on extracting days, we take out the sash so 

 that there is only the screen in the windows ; 

 and, though it is all home-made, and not very 

 pretty, it is quite effective in keeping bees out 



