1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



183 



saving a soul. Already over $300 of the first fruits 

 of tlie sale have gone on its mission of mercy — 

 treasures laid up in heaven, where moth and rust 

 can not corrupt, nor thieves break tiirough nor 

 steal. 



BEE-KBEPIXG FOR FEEBLE WOMEN. 



When I bpg:nn worliing with bees in the spring I 

 could be on my feet but 2 or 3 hours each day; con- 

 sequcntlj", Mr. Axtell had the greater part of the 

 bee-work to do; but each day I would go out a while 

 in the forenoon, and then again in afternoon, saving 

 all the strength possible for that work. Before the 

 middle of the season I could be on my feet longer, 

 and accomplish more, than he, ai many a day I 

 worked more than 12 hours on my feet, with good 

 appetite and good digestion too. 1 don't know 

 whether it was the bee-stings, the outdoor air, or 

 the love of the woi-k, or altogether, that have done 

 more for me thfa thousands of dollars spent in 

 doctor bills. 



When taking off full racks (40 lbs. of honey) I 

 could not lift them, neither could my girls; but both 

 together, we could, by careful lifting, set it on the 

 little express hand-wagon, and haul it to the honey- 

 house. The honey was brought home fiom the 

 other apiary in better condition, and also with less 

 work, by leaving them in the same racks they were 

 built in. But when taking out only a few sections 

 from each hive we would place them on end on a 

 division-board, and my girl would carry them to the 

 house and fill up rack; or when I would find a great 

 many racks full, and I thought one of our hands 

 could go over with us the next day, 1 would mark 

 such hives. When the hand went over he would al- 

 ways bring back a carriage-load of honey — 600 or 

 700 lbs. He would carry and pack the honey, my 

 girl would carry the smoker, and I took off honey 

 and put most of iho sections back in. 



CHILBKEN AS IIELl'EKS. 



When closing the harvest I found it paid well for 

 four of us to work together; or any other time, 

 when not needed to watch swarms, one to carry 

 honey, one to sniokc, one to take off, and one to put 

 back sections. Be tie got so she was valuable help, 

 and I could nearly trust her alone to take off and put 

 in sections, l>y having a little oversight. Hannah 

 could smoke the bees; and as she could not speak 

 one word of English when she came, in August, 

 from Sweden (and Bet tie came a few months before, 

 and Charley only a year before), they were longer in 

 learning; but Swedes make the best of help when once 

 taught — at least, ours do. They are faithful, kind, 

 and perfectly honest; but it is a great task to teach 

 them, both how to talk and how to work, at the same 

 time — especially girls; but we love them, because 

 they are good. 



Mr. Axtell has just bought a new two-horse tread- 

 power that he is to-day fitting up — he and a car- 

 penter, so as to run his Barnes' saw and other cir- 

 cular saws, as his old one-horse power did not give 

 force enough to suit him. Then we want to have 

 our sections all in racks, and with starters in, ready 

 to set on hives when needed. My girls can nail the 

 sections this wintei-, and they love to make them. 



WET CLOTHS, TO STOP ROBBING. 



When taking off the last honey, and fitting up for 

 winter, four or five of us would all work with one 

 hive, and the work would be done so fast that bees 

 could not injure each other by robbing, as we would 

 commence so early in the morning that we would 

 get through a dozen or twenty hives before they be- 



gan to fly; and as soon as a hive was finished, if a 

 wet cloth as large as a large towel is laid all dripping 

 wet close up to the etitrance, so close that a bee can 

 not get out or in, it will stop robbing, and is not so 

 much trouble as to hanj? a cloth over the front so as 

 to prevent bees getting out or in. The bees in the 

 hive will always push their way out, but the robbers 

 will be driven away by the wet. We discarded the 

 tent two or three years ago, as it was too slow work. 

 We seldom have a case of robbing now, and wet 

 cloths have alwaj's stopped it. 



My girl and myself would take down second 

 swarms from trees, by waiting until a part had clus- 

 tered; then hold under the cluster a peach-basket 

 suspended on a pole; then with another pole, but 

 Ughter (a bamboo tishing-pole with a hook on the 

 top), shake the limb, causing the bees to drop Into 

 the basket. The basket ought not to wave or swing 

 around. We liked the basket better than the swarm- 

 ing-boxes, as given in Gleanings. The boxes are 

 too heavy. The idea of the basket on the pole, I 

 think, we alsj saw in Gleanings after we had tried 

 it. 



AN IDEA IN GETTING SWAR.MS BACK. 



I have this year brought back neai-ly half of my 

 second swarms, and those with undipped laying 

 queens (weak colonies are more apt to come back), 

 by simply opening the hive just as the last of the 

 bees are coming out, and taking the remaining 

 bees, and shaking in front of the hive. If they have 

 not already begun to cluster they will often come 

 back. As it is always necessary to go through such 

 hives and cut out queen-cells and give egs^ and lar- 

 vte to hives with unfertile queens, there is no time 

 lost in doing so. I have often had such swarms try 

 to get into other hives which I happened to have 

 open when they were swarming. The roar of the 

 bees in open hives seems to call them back. Mr. 

 Axtell says he never has much success in bringing 

 them back in that way. 1 always try that method 

 when entirely alone, as I am not always strong 

 enough to hold up the pole, and shake the bees at 

 the same time. It requires strength to do both 

 rightly. If I am sure the issuing swarm has an un- 

 fertile queen, as she is generally first out, I have 

 often stopped the swarm in this way also, when car- 

 iufc for bees alone, and no help is near. I close the 

 entrance when about one-fourth of the bees have 

 come out; sometimes this will stop them, as the few 

 bees that are out with the queen seem to think there 

 is not enough of them to make a respectable swarm, 

 and the bees in the hive will give up trying to swarm. 

 Possibly a queen might once in a great while be lost 

 in that way; but when one is alone it is best to 

 choose between the two evils of losing either the 

 queen, or both the queen with the swarm, as our 

 Timber Apiary is in an apple orchard of very large 

 and tall trees. 



HYBRIDS EQUAL TO ITALIANS. 



Our hybrid colonies this year gave us just as much 

 honey Ver colony as our Italian bees. The greatest 

 amount given by any one hive that we kept a record 

 of was 300 lbs. comb honey and about i combs of 

 brood. They swarmed late, but we took away most 

 of their brood, and gave back the sjyarm. It was a 

 hybrid colony. 



FRO.M FOUR TO SIX, AND 400 LBS. OF HONEY. 



Our pastor's boy, 13 years old, Willie Gruld, who 

 was with us in May and June, had two colonies 

 which we had given him on his work the year be- 

 fore. They gave him 400 lbs. of honey, and increased 



