1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



303 



Fig. 4. Into a machine gun nest. Capl 

 at th 



out in trucks and automobiles fur- 

 nished by the Red Cross and were 

 under the direction of the Recon- 

 struction Division of the Army. On 

 their arrival they were given a dem- 

 onstration in handling bees, with a 

 discussion of the life history of the 

 colony and a brief talk on just what 

 it is that the beekeeper has to do. 

 At first they were given frames to 

 handle from which the old bees had 

 been removed, so that there would 

 be no casualties. A few of the men 

 who had been through gas attacks 

 and barrage fire took to the bushes, 

 but most of them stuck it out, and 

 their courage increased as time went 

 on and no fatalities occurred. Then 

 they were taken to the apiary — with- 

 out veils, because the supply which 

 had been ordered had not arrived — 

 and some honey was removed from 

 the hives. A small extracting outfit 

 had been set up out in the open and 

 a few gallons of honey were ex- 

 tracted. A movie man came out for 

 the occasion, and I think he tried 

 to get a picture of that operation. 

 If any real beekeeper ever sees that 

 movie I trust that he will not think 

 that we advocate the methods there 

 shown, for it was difficult to uncap 

 artistically with a few dozen hands 

 ready to catch the cappings as they 

 came off the knife. 



Perhaps the most interesting part 

 of the afternoon for the more timid 

 men came after the honey was in a 

 bucket, for the women of the local 

 Red Cross unit then appeared with 

 hot biscuits and coffee and we went 

 back in the grove beside the house 

 and re-stored that honey. 



The accompanying illustrations 

 give an idea of the good time and 

 serve also to show something of the 

 character of the new house and 



in Deming, of the Reconstruction Division 

 right 



grounds used for the Bee Culture- 

 Laboratory and apiary. The date 

 was May 27. and while there were 

 some supers on the colonies more 

 were added later. The bees were 

 really ready for more then. Note 

 the fine windbreak of the apiary and 

 the arrangement of the colonies :n 

 groups of four for convenience in 

 winter packing. And if the reader 

 has any qualms about the making of 

 too many beekeepers, or any selfish 

 ideas about keeping the beekeeping 

 business all to himself, please note 

 the poor fellows with one leg. One 

 man had his jaw shot to pieces and 



it is being rebuilt; several had a 

 hand off and there were other in- 

 juries which do not show in the il- 

 lustrations. Perhaps the question 

 may be raised whether disabled men 

 can handle bees successfully, but 

 this has already been answered by 

 those who in spite of such disable- 

 ments have made a success of com- 

 mercial beekeeping. Of course, most 

 of our guests will not go in for bee- 

 keeping, but there are many more 

 who were not with us on May 27. 



Among the illustrations is one of 

 the Bee Culture Laboratory at Som- 

 erset, Maryland (cover.) It needs 

 no discussion to show that this is 

 more comfortable than an office in 

 the middle of Washington, and it is 

 right by the bees. The office was 

 moved here on February 1, and the 

 bees were also moved at that time, 

 which is somewhat unusual. How- 

 ever, the moving did not start brood- 

 rearing, as was feared, for there is 

 nothing worse for a colony than to 

 have brood-rearing start out of sea- 

 son. It took careful moving to pre- 

 vent this. After the moving onlv 

 part of the colonies were re-packed, 

 but the weather was so mild that no 

 harm came to the unpacked colonies, 

 and they are all busy storing honey. 



Washington, D. C. 



Cellar Wintering 



THE following letter may prove 

 interesting to many who prac- 

 tice cellar wintering. Although 

 it is probably best to spend the most 

 of our space in trying to tell bee- 

 keepers how to winter their bees, an 

 occasional report of failure may 

 prove beneficial. The writer of the 

 following, received last May, pre- 

 fers to keep the incognito, but we 

 can vouch for his veracity: 



''For many years I have had both a 

 home and outyard of bees. The home 

 cellar where the home bees are win- 

 tered, is under our dwelling house, 



Fig. 3. The boys who had been "over the top" 

 among the bees 



not too sure of themselves 



