1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



995 



the roucrh lumber or the hives ready to nail 

 together, at a reasonable price. 



Please do not infer from the above that I 

 have not had any experience in cutting up 

 lumber and making hives, for I certainly 

 have had. Twice one hand has come in 

 contact with the buzz-saw, to niy sorrow. 

 In going over this part of the business, it is 

 not only the matter of hives but there are 

 our sections, queen- excluders, separators, 

 clamps for holding the sections in their 

 place on the hives, crates for our comb hon- 

 ey—yes, even our queen-cages and labels, 

 and, many times, our glass; for all these 

 and many others we have to look to the 

 large manufacturing plants. Now, why not 

 go one step further, and, in sending in our 

 orders, include the necessary hives, and 

 have all come together in a good workman- 

 like manner, even if it should cost a trifle 

 more, which I have my doubts about, and 

 then for many years enjoy the pleasure of 

 knowing that you have all your bees in 

 good well-made hives? This part is certain- 

 ly well worth taking into consideration, for 

 it instills in us a certain pride in our business 

 which no man can expect to be successful 

 without. Don't for a moment feel that any 

 old ram-shackle thing is good enough for 

 you and your bees, but make up your mind 

 from the first that you will have every 

 thing connected with your business just as 

 good as any other man's, and then work 

 hard to accomplish it. 



Before I leave this subject I wish I could 

 impress upon the minds of all those about to 

 engage in bee keeping the importance— yes, 

 I might almost say the necessity— of adopt- 

 ing some one of the standard hives as soon 

 as possible. You must realize that you will 

 have strong competition in the future in 

 producing either comb or extracted honey, 

 and it will be necessary to have the very 

 best of every thing connected with the busi- 

 ness in order to compete successfully with 

 those who have these great improvements. 



Delanson, N. Y. 



WOMEN AND BEES. 



Why they Should and Should Not Keep them. 



BY A>fNA BOTSFORD COMSTOCK. 



[As promised in our last issue, we take special plea- 

 sure in placing' before you this article by the lady 

 whose portrait we presented on the front cover pa^e 

 of our July 15th issue. We have received a great many 

 articles on bee-keeping for women, but never one that 

 was more racy and readable than this. Like her book, 

 it fairly sparkles with enthusiasm. Our readers, espe- 

 cially those of the feminine persuasion, should not fail 

 to read it.— Ed.] 



Two questions invariably "pop up" at us 

 when this matter of feminine bee keeping 

 is discussed: One is, " Why shouldn't a wo- 

 man keep bees?" and the other is, "Why 

 should a woman keep bees?" Like most 

 other questions these may be answered more 

 or less rationally with proper consideration. 



Taking the "why shouldn't" question 

 first, we are bound to confess that nowa- 



days there is no effective reason why a wo- 

 man should not do almost anything that she 

 takes into her enterprising little head to do. 

 But quite aside from the consideration of 

 woman's prowess, there are one or two rea- 

 sons that might deter some of the faint- 

 hearted fair from undertaking bee-keeping. 

 There is no use of trying to gloss over the 

 fact that there is a great deal of hard work 

 and heavy lifting in the care of a profitable 

 apiary. The hard work is really no ob- 

 jection, as most women of whatever class 

 are at it any way. But lifting heavy hives 

 is certainly not particularly good exercise 

 for any woman, although I must confess 

 that I have never lifted half so strenuously 

 when caring for bees as I used to on the 

 farm when we moved the cook-stove into 

 the summer kitchen, accomplishing this feat 

 by our feminine selves, rather than to bring 

 to the surface any of the latent profanity 

 which seems to be engendered in the mas- 

 culine bosom when taking part in this sea- 

 sonal hegira. 



There are at least two ways of obviating 

 this feminine disability in bee- keeping. One, 

 practiced successfully by several women, is 

 through the use of a Boardman hive- cart, 

 which almost solves the problem if the bees 

 are wintered out of doors, and do not have 

 to be carried up and down cellar stairs; the 

 other method is to get some man to do the 

 lifting and carrying. It may be the hus- 

 band, the father, the brother, the son, or 

 the hired man; but as this work can be done 

 at a time which can be planned for, it is not 

 so difficult for the men of the establishment 

 to give the help needed. I am sure my hus- 

 band would say that I am quite enthusiastic- 

 ally in favor of the man solution of this 

 problem; but his opinion does not count for 

 much, because he loves the bees so enthusi- 

 astically that I have to beg for a chance to 

 work with them at all, although he virtu- 

 ously points out the hives to people as 

 "Mrs. Comstock's bees." 



Another "shouldn't" reason might be 

 that women are afraid of bee- stings. This 

 falls flat, from the fact that women are not a 

 bit more nervous than men in this respect. 

 This year when I was struggling to hive a 

 swarm from a most difficult position, an in- 

 terested man stood off at a safe distance in 

 a most pained state of mind. He was a 

 courteous gentleman, and he felt that it 

 was outrageous for me to have to do the 

 work alone, but he did not dare to come to 

 my aid, and I think he considered my te- 

 merity in dealing with the swarm as almost 

 scandalous. 



Thus having disposed of all the reasons I 

 can think of why women shouldn't keep 

 bees, I turn gladly to the more interesting 

 reasons of why she should look upon the 

 apiary as one of her legitimate fields of 

 labor. There are so many reasons for this 

 that I could not enumerate them even if a 

 complete number of " Bee Gleanings " were 

 given me for the purpose. So I shall speak 

 of just a few of the more cogent reasons. 

 I should put first of all, and as embracing all 



