i^AY 15, 191f 



395 



some honey than every ounce of courage 

 and all love for beekeeping. 



There have been many recommendations 

 regarding the kind of garb a girl should 

 wear. I acknowledge the men with trousers 

 have a decided advantage in some ways; 

 but, nevertheless, I am not going to follow 

 suit. I have found that with clipped queens 

 there is no climbing of trees or ladder's, nor 

 does any circumstance ordinarily arise 

 where skirts are really dangerous. There is 

 a possibility of bees climbing up, and some 

 women have spoken of being decidedly 

 annoyed that way. That has troubled me 

 very little, chiefly because I make sure the 

 bees never have such an opportunity. I 

 make it a jjractice not to walk or stand at 

 the front of the hive, at least without mak- 

 ing sure there are no stray bees just under 

 me. Then when operating I either sit or 

 kneel, with skirts well spread out. 



My preference is for a dress of white 

 with skirt long enough to meet high-topped 

 shoes. White is the coolest material possi- 

 ble, and it does not attract the bees as does 

 a thick dark goods. It seems strange that, 

 Avhile they sense one's vulnerable spots 

 around hands and ankles, they seldom at- 

 tempt to sting the body itself. I have no- 

 ticed that it is perfectly safe to wear a 

 waist of the thinnest, sheerest material, 

 while at the same time it may be necessary 

 for comfort to use gloves. My gloves are 



of the ten-cent cotton variety, with long 

 muslin uppers. At first these were dipped 

 in linseed oil to make them absolutely bee- 

 proof, but I do not mind now. I have be- 

 come sufficiently inoculated so that a sting 

 means not more than half an hour of dis- 

 comfort. At first my arms would swell and 

 tlu'ob so that sleep would be impossible for 

 two nights. I use a wire veil. I have never 

 known a bee to get inside. The wind does 

 not disturb it, and it does not tear on rose- 

 thorns or trees. 



I do not advise the large-sized hives, now 

 so popular among professional beekeepers. 

 The time of year when the necessity for 

 moving the hives is most liable to occur is at 

 swarming season (when the weight is prob- 

 ably the greatest) ; and the ordinary person 

 is so fearful of stings that assistance is 

 always difficult to secure. The eight-frame 

 hive weighs fifty pounds and over when 

 full, and is quite heavy enough to handle. 



I have spoken of the advantage of bees 

 as a hobby; but there are other things that 

 will come from an intimate association with 

 them besides a mere study of animal life or 

 a possible fuiancial gain — gentleness of 

 touch, a quiet manner, self-control, a keeii 

 sense of obsei-vation, a deeper, broader 

 knowledge that will give a more sympathet- 

 ic understanding of all the wonders of our 

 universe. 



West Chester. Pa. 



A BEE IN A CALIFORNIA BONNET 



BY PliORENCE B. RICHARDSON 



The bee has been in my bonnet for so 

 many years now that I cannot imagine a 

 bonnet trimmed otherwise. My courage was 

 pretty good when I first reached the Golden 

 State, for I had read all the lovely railroad 

 prospectuses and all Dr. Cook's interesting 

 articles in Gleanings; and when a fine 

 swarm alighted on a tree near our new 

 home I promptly hived it in a fruit-box 

 with a couple of slats hastily nailed in. You 

 see, when a person has always lived in a 

 city, and kept bees on a city lot, where 

 swarming had to be kept down and no stray 

 swarms ever by any chance allowed to get 

 away, why, a whole big swarm in a tree 

 with no one's name tagged on to it looked 

 pretty big to me. 



Well, that swarm never did seem to do 

 much, mainly for want of attention, I guess, 

 or may be it was because of too much — one 

 is never sure until afterward that he did 

 just the wrong thing at the right time or 

 the right thing at the wrong time. 



However, one of our valley winds — more 

 like a hun-icane — came along and entirely 

 demolished combs, bees, and all. The hive 

 remained as a reminder of what might have 

 been had I done thus and so. 



After a time, however, I had an oppor- 

 tunity to buy ten colonies of bees in old box 

 hives at my own price, the owner saying 

 he'd "much rather run into a bunch of wild- 

 cats than to tackle a colony of bees." To 

 digress a bit, I've often found that these 

 " wildcat " people have either never been 

 stung, or else once or twice has been the 

 limit of their experience; and to see them 

 go fishing and get chewed alive by black 

 flies, or to see them sit on their porches 

 and get liberally stung by mosquitoes with 

 never a murmur in either case, is, to a rabid 

 beekeeper, a bit inconsistent, to put it 

 mildly. 



When I first saw those bees they didn't 

 look very strong, and, with the excei)tion of 

 three colonies, I expected to have to re- 



