. December, 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



415 



she didn't get the place. Some one who 

 perhaps knew more about "pulls" than 

 about bees, ruled that she was ineligible 

 because she was a woman ! 



So Miss Haggerty went back to her 

 work as a schoolraa'am in the city of 

 Xew York. But she took her interest 

 in bees with her, and it occurred to 

 her that in the "nature work" of the 

 school there might be more of interest, 

 and certainly more of nature, if the 

 children had to do with real live bees. 

 Suggesting the idea to Miss Sarah 

 Goldie, the principal, the latter thought 

 so well of it that she purchased some 

 bees at her own expense. A reporter 

 of the New York World tells about it, 

 and with fewer errors than reporters 

 generally make when trying to tell any- 

 thing about bees. He says : 



There are 240,000 teachers in Public School 

 No. IQO. on East 82d St.. all working without a 

 cent of pay from the city. The principal 

 subjects which they teach the 1400 children 

 in the school are industry, loyalty, fearless- 

 ness and cleanliness. They also add a lot to 

 the fun the pupils have, and frequently a 

 sample of the teachers' shop-work is sent to 

 the members of the Board of Education in 

 the shape of honey that needs no Govern- 

 ment stamp to guarantee its purity. 



These teachers are the bees that fill 3 hives 

 on the schoolhouse roof, and another in the 

 assembly room on the the third floor. All 

 they demand of the city is the polien in the 

 flowers of Central Park, and they go after it 

 themselves. 



With all those bees and with all those 

 children in the same school, there is only 

 one case of stinging on record. The victim 

 was a little girl in the fourth grade. She 

 didn't scream, or jump, or kill the bees. On 

 the contrary, she stood the t»ain with the 

 heroism of a martyr to science and let tlie 

 insect take its own time in removing the 

 stinger and in leaving her hand. For she 

 had learned in the course of the bee lessons 

 that the stinger is the end of the bee's intes- 

 tine, and that if it is torn off by a blow or 

 jump on the part of the person stung the hee 

 dies. And the very next composition day 

 that little girl wrote the best essay of the 

 week on bees, taking tlie sting for her spe- 

 cial subject; and she got the customary re- 

 ward of a box of the school honey for her 

 theme. That incident surely justifies the 

 placing of fearlessness in the special curri- 

 culum of the hives. 



Furthermore, that stung child hasn't any 

 doubt about what she is going to do for a 

 living when she gets through going to school. 

 Like many of her schoolmates, she is deter- 

 mined to keep bees, on a city roof if she can. 

 and if not there, in the country. 



At the youthful grammar school age nearly 

 all these children know practically every- 

 thing that it is necessary to know about bees 

 and the production of honey, to go into the 

 business, to say nothing about all those 

 moral qualities that, according toihe school- 

 books, the " little busy bee" is supposed to 

 instill. 



Preparing Bees for Outdoor Wintering in 

 Cold Climate 



Few of the sisters do business with 

 bees on so large a scale as Miss Ma- 

 thilde Candler, and as she has wintered 

 bees successfully outdoors as far north 

 as Wisconsin, it may be profitable to 

 learn just how she does it. This she 

 gives in the Bee-Keepers' Review. She 

 has been using tarred felt as a winter 

 packing for 6 or 7 years, and for the 

 past 3 years has wintered 300 colonies 

 thus packed with but little loss. She 

 says : 



I put a bee-escape board on each hive. Oti 

 this I place an empty comb super, and fill it 

 with planer shavings or sawdust: then I put 

 the tarred felt around the hive. 



The packing or telt is in two parts— cover 

 and sides are separate. The side paper is 

 as high as the two brood-chambers, and tits 

 snuulv around thehive. with i> incbesallowed 

 for lap. and is fastened together at the back 

 with a piece of lath. 



The cover paper is of tarred felt, the full 

 width, and long enough to reach well over 

 on the side paper. It is then folded snugly 

 down over the top. and kept in place by lath 

 nailed on all 4 sides. The hive-cover is then 

 placed on the paper cover and the job is fin- 

 ished. 



One nail in each lath is enough. I used to 

 tack a piece of lath on each of the 4 sides at 

 the bottom of the paper, but for the last 2 

 years have not done so; if the paper fits 

 tight, and is carefully pressed around the 

 corners, it does not seem necessary. 



No doubt the top packing is a very 

 important part. Although she has 

 tried it only one winter, and that a 

 mild one, she is quite pleased with dry 

 sod as a packing instead of planer 

 shavings. She says: 



I placed the sod. cut the size of the top of 

 the hive, grass side down, on top of the es- 

 cape-board which is on each hive, and under 

 the paper cover, which kept it nice and dry. 

 On top of all is the regular hive-cover. 



Although I have used sod as a top packing 

 only one winter, and that a very mild one. 

 yet I cannot see why it should not be as good 

 as sawdust or other packing, even in severe 

 winter, provided it is well dried out when 

 put on. and kept so. It is ever so much more 

 convenient for me than any other top pack- 

 ing I've ever used. It is right at hand, easy 

 to cut with a sharp spade, easy to handle, 

 holds its shape, and does away with the 

 need of an extra super to hold the packing. 

 It feels nice and warm when I slip my hand 



under the sod. In a few cases I put it right 

 on top of the regular hive-cover, and then 

 put paper over the whole. 



Formerly she put the paper cover on 

 top of the regular hive-cover, but now 

 puts it under, as it thus lasts longer. 



Poor Honey Season, But Sister Thank- 

 ful—Favors Pictures 



We have 125 colonies mostly in lo-frame 

 shallow hives. On account of the drouth we 

 got no honey at all until the middle of Au- 

 gust. Cat-claw was a failure, mesquite was 

 a failure, sumac was a fifth-crop, live-oak 

 was a third-crop, but we have much to be 

 thankful for; they kept us on corn-bread 

 and beans, a change of clothes apiece (there 

 are 8 of us. and enabled us to keep up with 

 the subscriptions to several much-needed 

 periodicals, magazines and journals, and I 

 need hardly say that the American Bee 

 .journal is one of the most appreciated; and 

 the bees accumulated enough to winter on. 

 We hope for better times next year. 



Pray do not leave the illustrations out of 

 the American Bee Journal. As well leave 

 out the butterflies and birds from a garden! 

 I have, for one. written a postal to our friend 

 C. L. Grigsby, of El Casco. Calif., requesting 

 him to send along the photographs he men- 

 tioned, and I hope to see them soon on the 

 pages of our much-appreciated Journal. 



(Mrs., I M. E. Pri'itt. 



Vancourt. Tex.. Xov. if. 



nap*" 



^^^^'^P?5!P 



Oli^cellarteou- 



Fool Bee and Wise ]>Iotli 



Tlie busy bee, as we may see. 



Improves each shining hour; 

 And yet compared with any moth 



It lacks for mental power. 



From dawning light till dewy night. 



It toils with restless wing. 

 That man may steal its store, and then 



Eat every blessed thing. 



The moth will let a fellow sweat 



To pay the tailor's bill. 

 Then all the lazy summer months 



On clothes will eat its fill. 



—SeUctcJ. 



l>ivisible-Brood-Cliaiiiber Hives 



These were a hobby of E. D. Town- 

 send, but he now has this to say about 

 them among other things in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review : 



There are some very nice features about 

 the divisible brood-nest hive, but, as a whole, 

 it is disappointing. The main disapi>oint- 

 ment comes from the financial side of the 

 proposition; caused by the bees not breed- 

 ing up sufticiently strong during the two 

 months previous to our main honey-flow in 

 June. 



It is not the intention of this article to give 

 the impression that this sectional hive is a 

 compU'te fai/iirr. but the results obtained 

 with this hive, in comparison with the Lang- 

 stroth hive, are 15 to 20 percent less in sur- 

 plus honey. 



Per contra, Editor Hutchinson says : 



For nearly a dozen years I had the Heddon 

 hive in my apiary, using it along-side the 

 Langstroth. perhaps 50 hives of each kind, 

 and I never noticed any particular difference 

 in the way that the bees bred up in the 

 spring. I was not lookinu for any difference. 



ii'U L. living pal tiuuLir iiutice. but if there was 

 a dilTerence. it was not sufficiently notice- 

 able to attract my attention. 



A Cheap Bee-Feeder 



R. B. Ross, Jr., in the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, gives this description : 



Take the cover of a lo-pound penny-lever 

 honey-pail, place it upside down on a block 

 of wood, over which it easih" slips; with a v 

 inch wire-nail and hammer, punch from 12 to 

 i^ holes through the cover, but avoid making 

 the holes too large by driving the nail too 

 far. If the holes are about the size of the 

 lead in an ordinary unsharpened pencil they 

 will be just right. 



Now fill the honey pail as nearly full as 

 you can— for a lo-pound feed— push the cover 

 on tight, and the feeder is complete. 



In practice I place ,3 or 4 thicknesses of 

 newspaper directly on the frames, first tear- 

 ing out holes about 2H inches in diameter, 

 wherever you wish to set a feeder lusuallj- 

 one feeder is enough, per colony). Quickly 

 invert the feeder over the whole, put on 

 empty hive-body and cover, and feel assured 

 that the bees will do the rest in a few hours 

 without any danger of leakage or loss. As 

 soon as feeding is finished, the pails can be 

 washed out, dried and used at once for stor- 

 age and sale of honey, as they are undam- 

 aged. The perforated covers, costing but a 

 cent or two. represent your actual invest- 

 ment in feeders. 



New York Bee-Keeper Shig-ged 



About the middle of October, Stephen 

 Davenport, a bee-keeper located at 

 Indian Fields, N. Y., was visited by two 

 well-dressed young men from Cox- 

 sackie, with the apparent intention of 

 buying some honey. After selecting 



