MAY 15, 1916 



queen; but it is a difficult matter to tell 

 what a box hive may contain, so I made the 

 offer of $3.50 for the whole outfit just as it 

 stood. He was glad to get it, and said he'd 

 be better suited when the last one was gone. 

 My family insist that he gave me the bees 

 and sold me the honey at half price. 



It was not possible to get the bees at 

 once after I purchased them; and when 

 they were finally brought to the house, sev- 

 eral of the colonies had gathered honey in 

 such quantities that two men had a bit of a 

 struggle getting the hives up the steep grade 

 that separates river bottom from plain. 

 From about six hives we strained out 300 

 pounds of honey, and rendered about 30 

 pounds of pure yellow wax. 



There is no more fascinating thing in 

 beekeeping to me than transferring bees 

 from an old box into a nice modern hive, 

 and then watching them hustle. Of course, 

 sometimes the hustle is missing along with 



397 



the queen ; but with good care they nearly 

 always make good colonies, and sometimes 

 a really choice queen is discovered, as in the 

 case of one colony in this lot. She has eight 

 out of the ten frames entirely filled with 

 brood, and the cappings of their honey are 

 pure white. Those white cappings are the 

 only sign of black blood they show, and I 

 never handled gentler bees. 



Last year, on the invitation of Miss L. D. 

 Clark, of the California University Farm 

 Extension work, I went to Davis, Cal., 

 where the 44th fruit-growers' convention 

 was held, and spoke twice to crowds of 

 women on the possibilities, profits, and 

 pleasures of beekeeping for women. My! 

 but it was great to see the interest shown, 

 and I know there are women from Shasta 

 County to San Diego who are keeping bees 

 at present because they feel that a woman 

 can do so successfully. She certainly can. 



Hughson, Cal, 



STARTING WITH A SMALL LATE SWARM 



BY JEAN WHITE 



My own first experience with bees came 

 about rather unexpectedly. I had always 

 been much interested, but had delayed pur- 

 chasing any, fearing my lack of knowledge 

 might cause me to lose them. I had a well- 

 defined determination to own a swarm or 

 two of bees some day, but hoped to have an 

 opportunity to learn more about them than 

 I could get from a book, altho I had read a 

 good deal about them. 



One hot afternoon in mid July the men 

 came in from the hayfield and said that a 

 swarm of bees had settled on the trunk of a 

 small tree by the roadside about five feet 

 from the ground. In my wildest dreams of 

 honey and honeybees I had never dreamed 

 that a swarm would come to me; but I had 

 no mind to let them leave me if I could 

 avoid it. The men were wet with perspira- 

 tion, and dared not mix up with such fieiy- 

 tongued visitors, so it was distinctly up to 

 me to take them. 



I got out my bee-book and turned to the 

 chapter on hiving, and hastily perused it. 

 A veil and gloves and a box for a hive were 

 needed. I found a box about fifteen inches 

 square, and nailed a board across the open 

 end, leaving a slit an inch wide not covered. 

 I put on my shade hat, tied a big chiffon 

 veil over it and around my neck; put on 

 thick driving- gloves, got a big turkey wing 

 and a white table-cloth, and started out to 

 experiment. My heart pounded fiercely 

 with fright; but I would not give up to it, 



so I spread my table-cloth at the foot of 

 the tree and as far around it as possible; 

 set my improvised hive on the cloth with the 

 opening toward the tree-trunk, and boldly 

 began to brush that clustered mass toward 

 the ground. They clung more or less to the 

 wing, and I brushed them into the opening 

 of the box with hand and wing, and here I 

 discovered that tight kid gloves are not a 

 very successful protection Sor my hands; 

 for where the kid stretched' tight over my 

 knuckles they stung thru it, tho not able to 

 leave the sting in the wound. After a while 

 one got on my veil over my chin, and lanced 

 me finely thru the gauze stuff before I had 

 presence of mind enough to slap it and put 

 a stop to its mischief. I kept at work, and 

 soon had the satisfaction of seeing the 

 crawling mass hurrying into the box. When 

 nearly all were in I left them, as it was 

 nearly night. 



T did not go near the bees again until 

 after dark. They were quiet in the box, 

 and I wrapped it in a piece of mosquito- 

 netting and carried it to the house. Then 

 I drove to town and procured a second- 

 hand hive. I wanted to shake them info it 

 that night, but was told that I had better set 

 my hive where I wished to establish it, and 

 shake them on to the entiauce-hoard in the 

 morning. This I did, and accomi)lished the 

 feat without accident. When T removed my 

 veil the night before, I bathed the stung 

 places with a strong solution of chinosol. 



