American Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man ."—Washington 
Keg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 113 
For the Week Ending June 21, 1924 
Number 25 
/ 
A Woman and a Swarm of Bees 
How I Got Started and Made a Success of Bee-keeping 
A LARGE swarm of bees settled on my’ 
lilac bush early in May, three springs 
ago and since that time I have been an 
enthusiastic bee-keeper. The press of 
other work has prevented my going into the 
By SHEBA C. HARGREAVES 
The hive cost $3.75 with one super, but it was 
necessary to secure a smoker which cost $1.50. 
I was advised by the expert in charge of the bee 
, £ i . . v o . ^ vv auviacu uy ute expert in cnarge oi me Dee 
usmess or profit; bee-keepmg for me is really supplies at the seed store not to economize on 
in the nature of an avocation, though I am sure the smoker—the cheap ones have a bad habit of 
it could easily be made a paying vocation at any going out at a critical moment. Through the 
ime. summer I bought other necessary tools and sup- 
I am at a loss to understand just why women plies. When it was time to remove the super full 
do not take up the keeping ol bees as a side line, of honey, I secured a board with what is known 
tor there is really very little work m caring for a as a bee escape set in the middle of it. This^ 
tew hives ol bees and most of this may 
be done during the winter evenings or at 
times when there is no rush of other work. 
Of course there is a psychological mo¬ 
ment for performing the few simple oper¬ 
ations around the hives in the spring, 
but it is a blessed relief to find some form 
of life that does not beg to be provided 
with food at all hours of the day. For 
weeks together all the bees ask is to be 
let alone and they give more in the way 
of return for their care and the outlay of 
capital than chickens or any of the other 
enterprises open to women. 
Of course some women would be afraid 
of being stung, but there are two ways of 
meeting this difficulty—the first is to pro¬ 
vide suitable clothing so as to make a 
sting rare and then if one receives a 
chance sting to payjno attention to it. 
A person who lives in deadly fear of conse¬ 
quences had best let bees alone, for they 
are highly intuitive and know at once and 
have no respect for those who are afraid of 
them. A calm gentle disposition and a 
steady hand are necessary in making a 
success with bees. 
But I set out to tell the story of my 
first season’s experience with a swarm of 
bees. Of course in my inexperience I 
made many blunders which could have 
been prevented had I read up on the sub¬ 
ject before undertaking to care for them, 
but in my case there was no time and 
events fairly crowded each other before I 
had gotten a grasp of the situation. 
The swarm was a very large one and a 
very early one. At what I thought was 
a risk of life and limb I cut off the branch and 
It is rather strange that women do not take more readily to bee-keeping 
it is work for which they are particularly fitted by nature. . .” 
placed it carefully in a clean box until a hive 
could be brought out from town. The hive is 
really a wonderful invention, containing, as it does, 
the frames which prevent the bees from making 
the combs solid inside the lower part which is 
called the brood chamber. This is really the home 
of the bees. The box which fits on the top is 
called the super; it is filled with the little boxes in 
which the honey that can be spared is stored. 
The hive which I secured had eight frames in 
the brood chamber; this is the standard size, 
though they are made with ten frames. I am 
rather inclined to the belief that the eight-frame 
hives are best for women, for they are lighter and 
easier to handle, though it is claimed that more 
honey can be secured by housing the colonies 
in ten-frame hives. There is a difference of 
opinion among professionals in regard to the 
matter, so it is, no doubt, a matter of individual 
preference. 
device when placed between the hive body and ___ OUWIM:i ttlJU ULUer 11Lue 
the super about 24 hours before time to take off necessities would come well inside of $5 so that 
TnO On Y*\£iT* nn I 1 /-»I Ann L it . 1 ' i i 1 • . a A . . _ r> 
tionally good season from their standpoint. The 
fifth of July a swarm emerged. I remember 
that I was very much pleased; I was able to hive 
them and they did very well, becoming a strong 
colony, though they produced no extra honey 
that first season. Now, I would not permit a 
new colony to swarm, for they swarm at a sacri¬ 
fice of honey and are very likely to weaken them¬ 
selves in numbers so that they will not survive 
the winter. 
The original colony in spite of the swarming 
produced a super full of clear white honey—they 
made it largely from the white clover 
which is abundant in this locality. If I 
had known how to prevent their swarm¬ 
ing no doubt the yield would have been 
48 pounds instead of 24. But 24 pounds 
pleased me very much considering that it 
was the first I had ever had any hand in 
producing. I remember that honey was 
retailing for thirty cents a pound that 
season and I estimated that the honey 
yield just about covered all the expense 
of the colony, besides leaving me at the 
end of the season with two strong colo¬ 
nies. Though the second hive was not 
paid for by the bees. 
The next season the yield was 48 
pounds for each hive with one swarm 
for sale. I have never kept more than 
two colonies, as the aim is just to pro¬ 
duce honey for our own use. Of course, 
swarms escape if they are not watched 
very closely, then there are bad years to 
be reckoned with, but taken year in and 
year out each colony will produce an¬ 
other strong colony, in fact, the problem 
is to keep a small apiary within bounds 
where natural swarming is permitted. 
The professional bee-keeper resorts to 
artificial swarming and can build up an 
unbelievable number of strong colonies 
from a single colony in a season. 
Not every woman who wishes to start in 
the bee business would wait until a swarm 
came to her. Most of them would cast 
about for a stand in a hive after they had 
studied a while on bee-keeping. The price 
of a thrift colony in a new hive is $15 for 
an eight-frame hive, and $17.50 for a 
ten-frame hive. The smoker and other little 
an investment of $20 would be sufficient to 
make a start. Of course prices would vary 
somewhat iwith the locality; in sections of the 
country where the bee industry is carried on 
extensively it might be possible to secure a start 
for less money. 
But the beginner should be very cautious 
in 
the super, will clear the super of bees—the little 
trap allows them to descend into the hive but 
prevents their returning. This cost 75 cents, so 
that all told my actual outlay of money for that 
hive the first season was $6. 
My bee costume I arranged myself out of cloth¬ 
ing which I had. I sewed mosquito netting to a „ 
hat with a large brim and fastened it down under buying bees. “Small bee-keepers will often sell 
a heavy coat. Some loose old gloves with heavy a swarm of bees in an old hive for very little, 
canvas sewed on tor gauntlets so that there was Many times these are strong colonies and free 
no gap between glove and sleeve answered very from disease but there is always a risk in starting 
well. At first I tried to work m skirts, but this was in this way. It is well also to be sure of the vari- 
disastrous—the bees have a way of attacking just ety of bees—the pure bred Italians are considered 
above the shoe tops. Later I wore khaki trousers the best all around variety for this country The 
which were securely fastened down over the shoes, native black bees are terribly savage and hard to 
1 lound that 1 had greater confidence if I knew it manage, and some of the other imported breeds 
was impossible lor the bees to reach any part of are not considered particularly hardy. Of course 
my anatomy. . t the professional can change the variety in a short 
lhe colony grew amazingly. It was an excep- {Continued on page 576 ) 
