8 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



Jan. 



postofflce, and then went home with nothing for 

 company but my own thoughts, and my pockets full 

 of mail. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Hogersville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



Friend 11., althougli I very often tell young 

 bee-keepers to have fewer colonies, and take 

 better care of them, I do not know but that 

 it is sometimes well to advise them to have 

 more colonies, and take better care of them ; 

 and I do not know but that I should do so in 

 your case. As you have 28 now, and will 

 probably have pretty nearly all of them in 

 the spring (?), i presume you will next sea- 

 son show us that you can handle a larger 

 number as profitably as you do a few.— I 

 should have been very glad indeed to have 

 passed the Sabbath witli you, friend II.; but 

 I was urged to stay with quite a number of 

 others in the same way, and some of them 

 were veiy urgent too. When I got almost 

 home, my own son got almost out of patience 

 with me because I wouldn't stay with him, 

 Here is what he wrote about it :— 



Dear Mother:- I heard that pa came through Ober- 

 lin yesterday, and I was (Tc;/ much dis;ippointcd to 

 think I did not know of it in time, so as to be at the 

 depot. If I had, I should have endeavored to make 

 him stay over Sunday; and I don't see why he 

 didn't when he had such a good opportunity. But 

 as he is one of those impatient home mortals, I 

 think I can excuse him. Next time, I wish he would 

 inform me a little in advance, for I think I could 

 capture him. 



Mr. House sends his respects to all Medina friends, 

 and told me to give pa a "free lecture" for not 

 stopping in Oberlin, for he thinks he missed a good 

 deal. Ernest. 



Oberlin, 0.,Dec. 11, 1881. 



Come to think of it, I believe this is the 

 first time one of our ovvn children ever be- 

 fore penned a word for Gleanings. Well, 

 I knew my duty was at home. The great 

 stack of letters that awaited me lay heavily 

 on my shoulders. Just one illustration: 

 Eriend Doolittle almost got cross, because 

 one of the. clerks had charged him .^8.00 for 

 40U printed postal cards. The clerk said it 

 was according to the list, which was true, 

 but the list also said five hundred would be 

 only $(i.OU. Shall I hire somebody to look 

 after all these things ? I never yet knew of 

 anybody who would look after things as 

 well as the one to whom the things belonged. 



THE CYPRUS APIAKY. 



OUR FRIEND FR.\NK BENTON IN niS HOME ON 

 CYPRUS ISLAND. 



fl^HE photograph the best and largest that could 

 be obtained here, shows only a small part of 

 the apiary, whose foreground is ciit otf, and 

 which extends some distance to the right, and a part 

 of which is the large iuclosure back of the house. 



The costumes of Greeks, Arabs, and Turks, with 

 the group of camels, give to the view a decidedly 

 Oriental air. The camels have just arrived from the 

 interior of the island, and the attendants are busy 

 removing their loads of clay cylinders — the native 

 bee-hives. A Turkish woman belonging to the car- 

 avan stands near. 

 In the group at the loft is a priest of the Greek 



church, with a Greek citizen, and a Greek porter, 

 the latter being about to start for the steamer land- 

 ing, with a case of bees for shipment, while the two 

 former are watching that '■'Amcrikanos" manipu- 

 late a hive of bees. " But, can they be handled thus 

 with so many people and animals abaut?" asks some 

 one. Certainly they can, if one knows how to man- 

 age them, and has u bit of patienc?. 



CYPIUOTE CLIMBING A TREE. 



Most of the hives shown in the picture are plain 

 boxes, of about 3000 cubic inches capacity, designed 

 to hold medium-sized colonies for queen-rearing — 

 all queens being reared in full colonies. The whole 

 apiary is devoted to this branch of bee culture, and 

 of course movable combs are used exclusively, the 

 loose-fitting Langstroth being employed to the ex- 

 clusion of all other styles. The size, however, is 9 

 inches deep by 10 long outside. Twelve of these are 

 placed in one story, but sometimes twelve more are 

 put into a second story, placed above the other. But 

 even on four of these combs, a queen with plenty of 

 young bees and a good supply of honey will winter 

 here. 



