132 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Mar. 



the insertion of a queen on her own comb of brood 

 with adhering bees. 



While we feel under obligations to friend 

 Simmins for his experiments in this matter, 

 and also for so earnestly directing more at- 

 tention to this subject, I feel a little sorry to 

 see him so positive that his plan will work 

 invariably. If I make no mistake, it is ex- 

 actly the same thing that most of our read- 

 ers have done every year, in uniting nuclei. 

 Liif t the bees, combs and all, out of one hive, 

 and set them into the other ; and if either 

 one is queenless, there will ordinarily be no 

 trouble. It was once a favorite plan of 

 mine, to take a queen, comb and all, and set 

 it right in the center of any other colony ; 

 but after I had a fine queen stung, with 

 every bee that the comb contained, along 

 with her, I concluded there were exceptions, 

 and stopped. Since then we have used the 

 same plan for uniting bees so much, with so 

 few failures comparatively, it has occurred to 

 me that we had not given the matter suffi- 

 cient attention. A year or two ago some- 

 body said a queen could be let loose at once, 

 in a colony made up of combs and bees ta- 

 ken from several stocks, and all mixed up. 

 We tried it, but found them the most diflft- 

 cultto get to take a queen, of any in the 

 yard. Pure Italians will unite and receive 

 queens, almost any way ; but cross hybrids 

 are quite a different thing, for introducing 

 or uniting either. While I feel sure that 

 there will be failures with the above plan, I 

 would advise giving it a more thorough test 

 this coming season, and very likely we shall 

 find it a help. I am strongly in favor of 

 some plan by which the queen may go right 

 to work the day she is put in the hive ; and 

 many of you know how much I have said 

 about letting queens right into the hive 

 without any introduction at all. 



k^arlt^mi- 



IS BEE-KEEPING TOO HARD FOR WOMEN ? 



A CALirORNIA WOMAN'S EXPERIENCE. 



^p HAVE this morning finished reading December 

 Jji Gleanings; and though money is not plentiful 

 — ' with me, I would rather lose $10.00 than do 

 without the knowledge gained from that single 

 number, from the articles by Doolittle, about rear- 

 ing queens, Heddon on swarming-basket, and other 

 articles too numerous to mention. But not for this 

 am I writing to you now, but to answer a question 

 by a lady. Is bee-keeping injurious to woman, and 

 the labor too great? The best answer is practical 

 experience. 



I was in delicate health, every summer sick with 

 nervous prostration (caused by teaching during win- 

 ters), and malarial fever; and to overcome both 

 difficulties we exchanged our home in the rich San 

 Bernardino valley for one in the mountains. I 

 started bee-keeping with two swarms of black bees; 

 and as they were moved 50 miles in June, they 

 reached home in a sad plight — broken combs, 

 drowned bees; but by knowledge gained from ABC 

 and Gleanings, I built them into strong colonies, 

 and had honey enough for home use. Sick six 



weeks in July and August of 1879. Next year I 

 made one new swarm, and honey enough to buy 

 our flour for a year. Sick again in August and 

 September. Doctor thought it impossible for me to 

 recover, and for several months my arms were par- 

 alyzed ; but by spring I. could drag myself about, 

 but, oh so feebly! and I would work amongst the 

 bees, which I increased to 5 swarms. Day by day 

 my strength increased, and nothing seemed to bring 

 it back so much as the outdoor exercise, which the 

 care of bees necessitated. That winter I taught 

 school. In the spring I went back to my bees; in- 

 creased them to 14 strong swarms, and 3 light, which 

 lived through the most severe winter ever known in 

 Southern California. In 1882 the swarms were in- 

 creased to 40. We extracted over a ton of California 

 buckwheat honey, and about 300 lbs. of goldenrod 

 honey, and realized $143.00 from what we sold. 

 White sage was a failure, owing to spring cold and 

 summer drought. 



But the main point to be deduced from the above 

 is, that lam well, and owe it principally to daily ex- 

 cise in the open air, which my care of bees makes 

 necessary. I love the work, and am happy in doing 

 it, and mean to make it, in the coming year, my 

 chief means of support. There is much hard work 

 to be done, some suffering from stings, but the last 

 is mitigated by turning smoke upon the spot, after 

 taking out the sting. I know you are skeptical 

 about the smoke, but I have tried it upon persons 

 who had large swellings, and were made sick, until 

 I told them about using the smoker. 



We have a new honey-house, a railroad and car, 

 by whose aid the frames of honey will be relieved of 

 their sweets through the extractor, replaced in the 

 car, and pushed back to the hives. As there is a 

 slight descent to the honey-house, gravity will help 

 to move the cai-. 



I am fortunate in never having had a case of rob- 

 bing, or moths. The only real difficulty is in losing 

 queens when extracting. I shall have to use sepa- 

 rators, to keep the queen from combs to be ex- 

 tracted. 



NOT ALWAYS QUEENLESS, WHEN QUEEN-CELLS ARE 



STARTED. 



I sent you a card, that the honey Holy-Land queen 

 was lost in introducing, but think I was mistaken. 

 The bees did start queen-cells, but the bees now are 

 grayish, with yellow bands, which corresponds with 

 your descriptions of them. 



P. S.—l find, on looking at the above writing, that 

 it is very crooked, which was due to writing in a dim 

 light. Please excuse it. My hands have never en- 

 tirely recovered from the paralysis of three years 

 ago, and I feel it nowhere so much as when writing. 

 I hope you will continue to prosper. I believe that 

 in so steadfastly upholding the Christian faith by 

 word and act, you are djing much good. 



Mrs. W. W. Wilson. 



San Bernardino, Cal., Dec. 18, 1883. 



May the Lord bless you for your kind and 

 cheering words, my friend. Never mind the 

 cramped writing, when it tells of new life, 

 of health and strength gained, and that, too, 

 without the help of doctors or use of medi- 

 cine. I do believe that the great secret of 

 deliverance from ills of both body and mind 

 is some open-air exercise, with the enthusi- 

 asm you show in your letter. Show me an 

 invalid with enthusiasm in bees, berries, 

 flowers, or the like ; and if the enthusiasm 



