262 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1917 



■^ 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



under way before those set out later be- 

 come prepared to protect themselves against 

 a general onslaught. On such days it is 

 best to wait till 3 or 4 o'clock in th? after- 

 noon, then work as rapidly as possible. 

 Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



Letters from a Beekeeper's Wife 

 " The Honev House," April 1, 1917. 



Dear Sis : ^ 



Witli forsythia and \7i0lets blooming, 

 frogs croaking and Rob's hammer sounding, 

 I really believe that spring has come. The 

 hammering means that we (Rob doing the 

 work and I the encouraging) are putting up 

 the honey-house we have talked about for 

 so long. I am delighted to think that at 

 last I'll be rid of the big tank from the back 

 of the stove and all the sticky mess of bot- 

 tling in the kitchen. Every bit of the prep- 

 aration and care of honey is to be done in 

 the honey-house. There are to be two big 

 tanks to hold it all and a power extractor, 

 and we are putting in all the little labor- 

 saving devices that Rob had put in the 

 kitchen for me after your visit. We work- 

 ed over the plans just as you showed us 

 how for the kitchen, and I believe that we 

 are almost, if not quite, crazy now on the 

 subject of economy of motion. 



That's our slogan, and the children have 

 taken it up and watch everything we do to 

 see if they can't catch us "wasting muscle 

 and nerve energy." The girls have a sys- 

 tem of marks and keep count to see if the 

 one whose turn it is has to make more than 

 one trip to the kitchen to carry out plates 

 and bring in dessert. 



When it came to planning the honey- 

 house, Rob and I went thru every motion 

 from the time the frames of honey are car- 

 ried into the house until the cases of bottles 

 are carried out, to see that every arrange- 

 ment of tools, tables, and appliances will 

 make for economy of motion and nervous 

 force. Do I talk like your much quoted 

 efficiency expert? To begin with the door, 

 it swings both ways so that one can go in 

 and ou(^ with hands full, and the work be- 

 gins just inside the door. From there on it 

 goes on right around the room, the tables at 

 the ]»i-oper heiglit, tools for each process 

 keiit at the place where that work is to be 

 done, etc., and it all ends up at the other 

 s'de of the door, wliere there is space to 

 slack tlic crates of bottled honey. To have 

 all the work on one floor has necessitated a 



little extra outlay for a honey-pump, to 

 jnimp the honey from the extractor into 

 the tanks, but the one-floor plan simplifies 

 things for us and saves many steps. 



Fur instance, a tray on wheels carries a 

 super full of frames to the capping tanks. 

 There we'll stand ready to take out a frame 

 with both hands. Then one end bar rests 

 on a nail for the purpose on a bar of the 

 ( apping tank, thus freeing the right hand, 

 which will reach for the steam uneapping- 

 knife right under the hand on the edge of 

 the tank. The cappings will fall into the 

 lank where they are to drain, the knife is 

 replaced and the frame is placed on a rack 

 where Rob can reach it easily. We have 

 not put in a capping-melter yet. Rob will 

 work at another part of the capping-tank. 

 When enough combs ai'e uncapped, he will 

 put them into the extractor, which is beside 

 him. Doesn't it sound fascinating? We 

 are eager to see how much time we'll save, 

 and to see whether it all works out as well 

 in practice as it does on paper. Of course 

 we probably have made some mistakes, but 

 we hope no serious ones. 



One more thing that Rob thought of was 

 a fan which goes with the power that runs 

 the extractor. That will be a wonderful 

 help. I don't mind being wet with perspi- 

 ration alone, nor sticky all over with honey 

 alone — but I abominate the combination ! 



I long to be outdoors hammering too, in- 

 stead of houseeleaning, but this is my job 

 and I must get to it instead of writing at 

 such length to my sister. There is so much 

 of woman's work that I don't enjoy and so 

 much of man's that I do, that I am glad it 

 is no longer taken for granted that women 

 shall do housework and notliing else. 

 " Woman's sphere " is the whole world now 

 if she wants it. I don't believe she does 

 want it all tho — anti-sutSragists to the con- 

 trary. I should hate to think that the time 

 would ever come when she would be the 

 dominant sex, as is the case in the beehive. 

 If the time ever did come, thousands of 

 years hence, that all men were fat and use- 

 less and lazy (there are plenty of such 

 drones now, goodness knows!) and all the 

 women but one did the entire work of the 

 country, made the laws and saw that they 

 were carried out, do you suppose that these 

 stern females would be as relentless as the 

 woi-ker bees? At the approach of winter, 

 would they starve their husbands and carry 

 )iart of the childi-cn outdoors to freeze, for 

 fear there would not be enough bi-ead to go 

 round? I shudder to think of it! Would 



