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146 



TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Mr. France then made the an- 

 nouncements. 



The President appointed Messrs. J. 

 L. Byer of Canada, O. L. Hershiser of 

 New York, Charles H. Weber of Ohio, 

 and Henry C. I>adant of Illinois as a 

 committee to distribute the numbers, 

 and get the names of the members in 

 attendance. 



PTes. York — We will bring up the 

 question of committee just before we 

 adjourn for dinner. We ought to have 

 several committees', but we will ffive 

 the ladies the honor this time, and 

 begin with the paper, "What a Wo- 

 man Can Do With Bees," by Mrs. S. 

 Wilbur Frey of Sand Lake, Mich. 

 In the absence of Mrs. Frey, I will 

 ask Mr. Angus, our reporter, to read 

 this paper. 



Mr. Angus read the paper as fol- 

 lows : 



'<WiHAT A WOMAN CAN DO WITH 

 BEES." 



It seems I have a rather hard sub- 

 ject to write on. About all that I can 

 do is to tell you a little of my ex- 

 periience, and express a few of my 

 views on the subject. 



Bee-keeping is a business that is 

 seldom carried on on a large scale by 

 ladies, although I know of no business 

 that a lady can make a greater suc- 

 cess of than bee-keeping, provided 

 she is adapted to the handling of 

 bees. 



When I was at the convention in 

 Lansing, last winter, I met a Mich- 

 igan lady wli'O was caning for and 

 managing 160 colonies, mostly for 

 com'b honey. She was very enthus- 

 iastic, and said she wa;s securing good 

 crops. I know of only two others 

 who are managing large bee-yards. 



There are several ladies in our lo- 

 cality who own a few colonies of bees. 

 They are successful and enjoy the 

 work. They find both pleasure and 

 profit in their small yards. The bees 

 not only furnish lioney for their tab- 

 les, hut furnisih considerable sipending 

 money, besides. 



Last, but not least, swarming time 

 with all its noise and excitement is a 

 day that is eagerly looked forward to 

 (by both the children and the owners 

 of a few colonies. It is quite differ- 

 ent with those that count their col- 

 onies by the hundred. 



I regard bee-keeping as a healthy 



business. I do not know that I was 

 ever laid up a day with sickness when 

 it was necessary to do bee-work. 

 You get enough fresh air and riding 

 between yards to give you an appe- 

 tite, and enou'gh .stings to cure your 

 rheumatJism, if you work bare-handed, 

 as I do. 



If a lady makes a success of bee- 

 keeping on a large scale, she must 

 not expect to have much time to. sit 

 in the rocking chair, swing in the 

 hammock, or write long articles for 

 the bee papers. When the bees are 

 'working, "the automobile would be 

 just the thing for out yards." On the 

 other hand, she must adapt herself to 

 circumstances, and work early and 

 late, if necessary, in order to secure 

 a crop or control swarming. She will 

 need to be a good horse teamster, as 

 there are many pleasant rides both 

 morning and evening, if she is well 

 located with out- yards. 



Bee-keeping is fascinating to most 

 people who are able to handle bees. 

 It is like a continued story — there is 

 always something just ahead that you 

 want to learn about them, or an ex- 

 periment that you want to try. I am 

 confident that there are a great many 

 ladies that are better able, and better 

 situated, to handle large bee-yards 

 than I, if they only had the necesssary 

 knowlecfge and a love for the business. 



I have taken care of bees for the 

 past 22 years. I am the, mother of 3 

 children, the youngest being now 8 

 years of age. My time has been occu- 

 pied with various duties to such an 

 extent that it has been impossible for 

 me to give more than half my time 

 to bee-business during the working 

 season. With the little time I have 

 been able to devote to the busdness, 

 I have taken care of 150 to 200 col- 

 onies the largest part of the time dur- 

 ing this period of 22 years. I have 

 never failed to secure a paying crop 

 in the poorest season. I am a pro- 

 ducer of comb honey. You all know 

 it is much easier to produce extract- 

 ed, although in my experience the 

 section-honey pays much the better. 



Order is one of Heaven's first laws. 

 In no place does it need to be ap- 

 plied more than in bee-keep4ng. 

 EJverything that you do must be in 

 apple- pie order or all your efforts will 

 have been in vain. 



This is my motto: "Never put oft 



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