182 



gleawi:ngs m bee cultuhe. 



Apr. 



THE RESUIiTS OF ONE ^VOMAN'S BEE- 

 KEEPING. 



FIFTEKN 2-H()USE WAGON-LOADS OF COMB HONEV. 



(Continued f mm last month.) 



CjvUK experience has been, that it is very difficult 

 W to get sections ell filled in the sides of brood- 

 Irames in the body of hive in poor seasons, 

 and as our hive is a larg-c one (Qiiinby Improved), 

 we had a good many sections partly built, left from 

 la&t year, and some fr m year before. This year 

 every thinff was tilled, from the bottom of the hive 

 to the top; and as the colonies were so strong, and 

 so much honey coming in that about halt' of the col- 

 onics received a seciuid story, in which the rack on 

 the hive \Tas raised up when half or two-thirds full, 

 and an empty luck set on below; sometimes both 

 racks W(ju1'J be liait-hvd at once and all below, mak- 

 ing abo„t ICO lbs. all taken off at once. Then we put 

 in a divisiou-buard bi-ijw, and tiled to shut off the 

 bees from the side room below, generally setting in 

 large broud-frames, covering over with tin separat- 

 ors to keep out the bees. Then we set an empty 

 rack on tup, 40 lbs. c^ipacitj', and used the ring, or 

 two-story, for top boics on other hives that needed 

 top boxes. Very often by the time we could get 

 around to the first hive we would find that the bees 

 had found a way into the covered brood-frames be- 

 low, and had them full, or half full, of nice new hon- 

 ey, and the rack full also. In some cases we needed 

 to tier them up again. Some hives in the latter part 

 of the season were so full of bees it seemed they 

 could not do without the second story. 



HONEY STORKD ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE HIVES. 



We had four cases of building under the hives. 

 Before we would find them the nice white comb 

 would be seen sticking out by the side of the hive; 

 but that was, in each case, because the bees had 

 swarmed, and a clipped queen had run under the 

 hive, and the bees had gone under there instead of 

 returning into the hive. The bees in the hive had 

 raised anothtr queen before we found them, in two 

 cases; and as the other two were queenlcss, possi- 

 bly a truant swarm had found a home under one or 

 two of the hives. 



MRS. AXTELL'S "help." 



Mr. Axtell and myself had our hands so full we 

 could not possibly keep up with the bees, especially 

 about six weeks in the fall. During the June and 

 July harvest they had filled all the sections we had 

 prepared for the whole season. As soon as Mr. Ax- 

 tell could leave the Timber Apiary, •I'i miles away, 

 he was obliged to oversee his harvest and haying, 

 and start his horse-power saw, and make a new sup- 

 ply of sections, so 1 was obliged to take my carriage, 

 with a small boy part of the time, and the rest with 

 one of ray Swede girls (she could speak but lew 

 words of English), as bees were swarming every day, 

 and honey needed to be taken off, 400 to 500 lbs. per 

 day. Another precious little Swede gii 1 at home, 16 

 years old, had the care of the bees. She sat out un- 

 der the maples, and nailed sections; when a swarm 

 would come out she ran and caught the queen in a i 

 cage, and laid it on the entrance-board, stopped up ! 

 the hive, and set a nail-keg (bored full of holes) j 

 over the queen; one side of keg raised a little; then j 

 ran and touched Mr. Axtell, and told him a swarm [ 

 needed care, if he was sawing, as he could not hear \ 

 the bell ring. The girl in the house generally called 

 Mr. A., instead of Bettie, our bee-girl; sometimes 

 he would be in the hayfleld, and two or three swarms 



would bo out before word came to him; but tJiat, I 

 think, was the way the bees got under the hives, as 

 sometimes she did not find the queen, and she said 

 the bees went back. These girls did not come to 

 live with us until July, and never had worked with 

 bees before. Considering their inexperience in bee- 

 work, they did exceedingly well. Bettie learned to 

 make sections well, and as roptd/y as almost any 

 man. The girl in the house also would nail sections 

 when through work (we prefer nailed sections to 

 dovetailed). 



It was a chase for awhile to keep up with the bees. 

 Three times we thought we had given all the room, 

 and more than they could possibly fill; but on going 

 again to their hives we would often find every sec- 

 tion full, and sometimes every one sealed. When 

 we came to a hive toward the close of the harvest, 

 that seemed to need no more room, for fear of their 

 [ not having room before getting around to them, 

 I and we thought not best to raise the rack for fear 

 ! they would not seal It over before the close of har- 

 j vest, we set a rack on top, then the top box, or a 

 "ring," as we call the rough wooden tiering-up box- 

 es. Often when we again came to the hive we found 

 the top rack half full of honey, and the lower one 

 finished. We ran out of racks to hold the sections 

 at one time, for the second story, so we set on the 

 second story and filled it up with sections, which 

 did not work so well, as the sections would general- 

 ly get more or less out of shape; but the bees would 

 fill them with honey all the same. We had help, but 

 we could not trust thera to put in the sections with- 

 out working with them, as it is, we think, very par- 

 ticular work to have them put in just right, so the 

 bees will not build the combs bulged when not using 

 separators. We like to keep the full unsealed sec- 

 tions all together, then next to them a section ?.i 

 full; next, one V2 full, then ?4. Even if sections are 

 full of foundation, if placed nTxt to a full comb un- 

 sculcd they will often lengthen out the cells to the 

 full comb, and then build a thin one of the founda- 

 tion. If we can not grade them cown, we like to 

 put the empty section next to a sealed comb, or 

 sealed on one side, or very nearly s >. When honey 

 is coming in fast, and the sections left in the hive 

 are in about the condition the bees would build 

 them, they are generally straight and true; but we 

 think it pays to go over the apiary often, and cut 

 out the little flanges that some colonies seem to in- 

 sist on building. 



Through the girls not knowing any better, and our 

 haste, we got several racks on without starters; 

 and as there were no separators In them, the bees, 

 some colonies, built long combs straight through 

 from one section to another, instead of following 

 the section-bar. Of course, such racks were remov- 

 ed from the hive. We ran out of white combs and 

 foundation, and as soon as we found the bees had 

 gone below into the brood-frames we had tried to 

 fasten them out of, we got all the nice comb we 

 needed there, by leaning them next to the entrance 

 at night, and bees would remove all the honey by 

 morning. 



15 Two-nonsE wagon loads of honey. 

 The 30,000 lbs. sent to Cbiciigo made just 15 two- 

 horse wagon-loads. The wagons with top boxes on 

 were all full but the last load. You may be sure my 

 heart went out with those crates of honej-, inwardly 

 praying that God would bless them and take care of 

 them, and that every crate might be the means of 



