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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



CONDUCTED BY 



Mrs. JeanJe Mtitelgy, 

 Floyd, Hunt Co., Tex. 



^-»-^^^^-*^ a ^"»-' 



How to Begin Bee-Keeping. 



As I am often asked, " How shall I 

 begin bee-keeping ?" I will try to tell 

 you the best I can. 



First, you should get some bees, then 

 by subscribing for a bee-paper and get- 

 ting a bee-book, begin the practice with 

 the theory, and you will succeed faster 

 and surer. Some of us might read ag- 

 ricultural papers all our lives, or for 

 years, then put us in the field to secure 

 a crop, and we would most likely fail ; 

 so we need the practical part as well as 

 the theoretical. 



It depends altogether upon what kind 

 of a person you are, as to how many col- 

 onies you should start with; one colony 

 would be a plenty for some, while others 

 might run 50 profitably from the start. 

 Be a little bit your own judge about 

 that. 



It will be a nice little experiment to 

 buy your start in box-hives, and try your 

 hand at transferring, going by the direc- 

 tions in your book. After you transfer, 

 and find you have been successful, you 

 might venture again, etc. But, by all 

 means, do not get excited, and upset the 

 whole thing. Should you fail on the 

 first experiment, try again. And, by 

 the way, if you do not at the beginning 

 make up your mind to promptly meet 

 all failures with a renewed determina- 

 tion to succeed anyhow, you had better 

 quit before you begin, as bee-keeping is 

 as apt to give its disappointments as 

 other branches of our rural industries. 



Some will tell you to start with frame 

 hives, by all means ; but, if I had to 

 start again, I would get the cheapest 

 bees I could find, and transfer, as that 

 is a bit of experience the beginner first 

 needs, and my instructions are for the 

 beginners with limited means, and I 

 would have you start right, so as to have 

 as few disappointments as possible, as 



those with plenty of means may make a 

 failure, and not hurt them much, but 

 when one puts his all into an invest- 

 ment, he would like to be sure of some- 

 thing back. 



So, get some bees in some box-hives, 

 transfer them, and after you get started, 

 and think you can afford it, get some 

 Italian queens from some reliable 

 breeder, and Italianize your apiary. 

 Move step by step, and be quick to 

 "catch on" to everything you hear 

 about bees at conventions and other 

 places, and especially from those you 

 know to have made the pursuit a sue-' 

 cess, and you will soon learn what it 

 used to take bee-keepers years and 

 years to learn. 



I will, from time to time, give bee- 

 keeping " from the stump " up to the 

 present management, the best I can, 

 and the veterans will please excuse us. 



Recipe for Keeping Fresh. Meats. 



Seven pounds of common table salt, 2 

 pounds of brown sugar, 2 ounces of salt- 

 peter, 2 ounces of black pepper, and 2 

 ounces of cayenne pepper, to 100 

 pounds of meat sliced thin (boneless). 

 Stir the ingredients all together, place a 

 layer of the compound and a layer of 

 meat into an earthen vessel, weight it 

 down, and it will keep any length of 

 time. 



Quick Introduction of a Queen. 



A man living five miles from me had 

 a queenless colony, among which were 

 laying workers, putting two to six eggs 

 in a cell. He came to me for an Italian 

 queen, and kept her in the hive five days 

 before risking her release ; on the sixth 

 day she was thrown out dead. 



Last Friday he came for another Ital- 

 ian, and was going to try them again, 

 when another neighbor came and told 

 me he was going to "rob" a box-hive, 

 and that if I wanted the bees I could 

 have them for helping him " rob." 



The owner got the honey, and I took 

 the bees, while the man with the laying 

 workers took the black queen and instead 

 of giving the Italian queen to the vicious 

 colony with the laying workers, he 

 divided another large colony, and gave 

 them the Italian, then turned the black 

 queen loose at the entrance of the hive 

 with the laying workers, and let her 

 run in. 



He says that the next morning she 



