"BEE-SPACE 
105 
own colored design for the carton, tlms 
securing' something so individual and at¬ 
tractive as to catch at once (lie eye of the 
customer. 
As a means of cultivating' calmness, pa¬ 
tience, and self-control the bee is a well- 
recognized factor. Bees can be, and often 
are, profoundly exasperating; and yet how 
worse than futile it is to evince that exas¬ 
peration by word or movement! No crea¬ 
ture reacts more quickly against irritation 
than the bee. She cannot be kicked nor 
spanked; and if we smoke her too much, we 
ourselves are the losers. There is only one 
way to manage exasperation with bees — 
that is, to control it; and this makes the 
apiary a means of grace. 
The money-making side of beekeeping is 
a very important phase in arousing and 
continuing the woman’s interest in her 
work. I think woman is by birth and train¬ 
ing a natural gambler, and the uncertainty 
of the nectar supfrfy and of the honey mar¬ 
ket adds to rather than detracts from her 
interest in her apiary. I know of several 
women who have made comfortable incomes 
and supported their families by beekeep¬ 
ing; but, as yet, I think such instances are 
feAv. However, I believe there are a large 
number of women Avho have added a good¬ 
ly sum yearly to their amount of spending 
money, and have found the work a joy 
instead of drudgery. Personally, I have 
had very little expei'ience with the commer¬ 
cial side of beekeeping. Once when our 
maddeningly successful apiary grew to 40 
hives when we did not want more than a 
dozen at most, and the neighborhood was 
surfeited with our bounty, Ave Avere “just 
naturally” obliged to sell honey. We en¬ 
joyed greatly getting the product ready for 
market, and Avere somehow surprised that 
so much fun could be turned into ready 
cash. As a matter of fact, both my husband 
and myself have absorbing vocations and 
avocations in plenty, so that our sole rea¬ 
son for keeping bees is because we love 
the little creatures, and find them so in¬ 
teresting that Ave Avould not feel that home 
was really home without them; the sight 
of our busy little co-workers adds daily to 
our psychic income. We are so very busy 
that we have but very little time to spend 
with them, and have finally formulated our 
ideal for our OAvn beekeeping, and that is 
to keep bees for honey and for “fun.” We 
shall have plenty of honey for our OAvn 
table, and just enough to bestow on neigh¬ 
bors so they Avill not get tired of it; and. 
fun enough to season life Avith an out-of- 
door interest and the feeling that no sum¬ 
mer day is likely to pass without a sur¬ 
prise. See Veils. 
BEE LEGISLATION. —See Laws Re¬ 
lating to Bees. 
BEE MOTH. — See Motii Miller. 
BEE PARALYSIS.— See Diseases of 
Bees. 
BEE-SPACE.— This term is applied lo 
spaces left by the bees both between combs 
they, build and between the parts of the 
hive and the combs. It A 7 aries all the way 
from 3-16 to 3-8; but 5-16 is considered the 
correct average. But in hive-construction 
it has been found that a space of ^ inch 
will be more free from the building of bits 
of comb and the depositing of propolis 
than a little wider spacing. Any less space 
than 3-16 will be plugged up with propolis 
and wax. See Frames. 
Father Langstroth, in the great inven¬ 
tion which he gave to the woild — the first 
practical movable frame—made the dis¬ 
covery that bees recognize and protect pas¬ 
sageways which are noiv called bee-spaces. 
Taking advantage of this fact he made a 
frame (for holding ctinb) so that there 
would be a bee-space all around between it 
and the hive, and a bee-space betAveen it 
and any other frame. All Avho preceded 
him had failed to grasp the fact that bees 
would leave such spaces unfilled Avith Avax 
or propolis. Before Langstroth’s time it 
Avas necessary to pull out frames stuck 
fast to the hives with propolis, or tear or 
cut loose the combs Avith a thin-bladed 
knife, befoi-e they could be removed for 
the purpose* of inspection. 
By bringing out his bee-spaced frame the 
“father of modern apiculture” solved, 
with one great master stroke, a problem 
that had been puzzling the minds of bee¬ 
keepers for centuries. 
In later years, manufacturers of hives 
have been compelled to recognize this great 
principle, that there are certain parts in¬ 
side of the hive that must be bee-spaced 
from every other part or else they will be 
