The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-04-18
SHE Is A BEE FARMER.
A FORMER sTENocRAPHER HAPPY
IN A NEW CALLING.

PFoat IN the Honey 90 This Management
81 tho Farm She Raises Ducks Aiso.
Near Chazy. N. Y, is the smallest
live stock farm that ever made a pro
NJ for a farmer. The proprietor Is
woman, who was a successful New
York stenographer until compelled by
typewriters' paralysis to seek another
occupation.
Her stock farm is less than four
acres in extent. She owns no COWS,
horses or pigs, and chickens are no
ticeable chiefly by their absence, vt
despite this lack Of the animals com
monty found on farms it is safe to
say that her property pays her a bet
ter return than many Of the one and
two hundred acre farms surrounding
her.
Her specialties are Pekln ducks ana
bees. The former she sells to hotel
while the honey is shipped through the
east. In speaking of the bees to a
correspondent of of the New York Sun,
she said:
pretty small fry, but have found
them just about the most profitable
I live stock one can raise. Not long ago
from 10 hives. | gathered a ton and a
half of honey in four days, worth at a
low figure more than 5000. This was
only part of my crop for the season,
and have since gathered several
tons more of the finest light honey,
not to mention the yield from the buck
wheat crop.
THE bad weather Of last July was
bonanza for bee farmers. 1t was ideal
weather for flowers and not only kept
the bees working long hours but also
gave an exquisite flavor to the honey.
The ripest fruits are the sweetest, and
so are the ripest blooms.
my man Pete and worked from
morning till night doing nothing but
remove the honey from the hives, and
carrying new frames for the bees to
! fill. By the time We had reached the
back of the yard the frames we had
! emptied at the front were full again
II was exciting work while the honey
burst lasted
How many bees have in all? Oh,
something like a couple of millions,
suppose. 1t is said that the average
hive contains from twenty to forty
thousand AMI have 10 hives. Next
summer l shall increase to a 100
hives. I have plenty of pasture for
that number, think.
II DO not want to make the mistake
Of overstocking my range Two years
ago a man in Vermont had 500 hives,
which he ran for comb honey to sup
ply a large restaurant in Boston. lie
got bad season and not only had no
honey to sell, but he had to buy a ton
Of sugar to feed his bees during the
winter months.
They don't thrive on sugar, either.
1t doesn't pay to overstock your pas
ture, and neither does it pay to try
substitutes for honey on which to win
ter the bees.
Some people have tried taking all
their honey to sell when the marker
was good and then feeding glucose at
two cents a pound during the winter.
In a very short while all their bees
were dead. Even the best refined glu-
cose contains a trace of sulphuric acid,
which is rank poison.
THE bees Of course travel a good
deal further than the limits of my lit
tie farm to get their sweets. In fact,
they make very little honey from the
place itself. The three chief crops
count on are the basswool, clover and
buckwheat blooms in the order named
II get a light crop, say half ton,
from the herbs which ripen in the
spring before the Eastwood blooms,
and another in the fall This honey is
really valuable for medicinal purposes,
having the properties Of several cura-
tive herbs.
Through the summer the bees draw
largely for their honey upon the vari-
GUS fruit blooms strawberries, rasp-
berries, currants, grapes, apples, etc.,
and the wild flowers are also a never
failing source. In a three-mile drive
last summer l counted 20 varieties of
bloom on which the bees were at
work. The clover honey is the bright
est and most healthful The later
crops, particularly the buckwheat
honey, is dark and the flavor not so
good
Il supply the market with extracted
honey only. The bees can make sew
eral pounds of honey in the time it
takes to construct a pound of honey
comb, SO prefer to keep them at the
more remunerative labor
ITO extract the honey the combs
are nut in a machine which rntatas