120 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



■When you start around to see your ABC class, I 

 want you to call on us too. I think wo could show 

 you some curiosities on the mountains. Tliore arc 

 some of the prettioiit roclcs, some diamond-pidnted, 

 and any size or ehapeyou wish to see. On the ttip of 

 some of tlie^e peaks you cnn see for miles around, as 

 fnr as the eye can reach. Tliere are also l.-irore 

 springs of cool clear water in the caves, and at the 

 foot of s^mo of them. The people who live near the 

 mountains have the best of health, as a general 

 thing-. It is a splendid place for cattle-raising-. You 

 must come the first of the summer, if you want the 

 best honey we ha%'e, and huckleberry pies. The 

 mountains are covered with them. Our bees gather 

 the best honey from hucklelierry. 



I will send you a sample of silk. I raise mv own 

 sewing-silk. You can present it to some of your 

 daushters. Mary A. Sistrunk. 



White Sulphur Springs, Mer. Co., Ga., Feb. 6, 1883. 



Many thanks for your kind lett t, my 

 friend. I mnst confess T slionld veiy much 

 like to raakeyoii a visit in yottr pretty moun- 

 tain home. If huckleberry pies }?row all 

 over the nioiuitain, I shall come down there 

 sure, when George and Ernest ^et home to 

 relieve me from my post, for F am great on 

 pies. We have some huckleberry - bushes 

 planted down by the pond now, and we hope 

 to have five-cent huckleberry pies in our 

 lunch-room one of these days. — Many thanks 

 for the samples of silk : they are beautiful. 

 I presume you know how dearly I love to see 

 new industries started — something to keep 

 this great army of boys and girls busy, all 

 over our land. 



LETTKR FROin TEXAS. 



now I -MAN.VGED THE BEES THAT GAVE 520 LBS. OP 

 HONEY IN 24 DAYS. 



SN the first place, they were a verj' strong colony, 

 early in spring. They wanted to swarm the last 

 ■ — ' of March; kept them from it by giving- room, 

 and cutting out every queen-cell they started. The 

 4th of April I put on a second story, filled with fdn., 

 lifting two of the brood-frames from below, and 

 placed them in top story; replaced the bottom with 

 fdn. ; the queen showed a tendency to lay in the up- 

 per stories, and desert the bottom altogether. When 

 she filled all the combs above, I would drop them 

 down to the bottom story, and so on. April 10th I 

 set on a third story; the queentookto itat once,and 

 I worked them as before. April 30th Iput on fourth 

 story, and the queen acted same way; broke for the 

 upper, or top story, and remained in the third and 

 fourth stories quite awhile, not laying in the bottom 

 ones at all. I kept the brood down until every 

 frame in the hive was partly filled with brood. At 

 about the time the brood all hatched out we were 

 blessed with a " fearful " flow of honey. During the 

 24 days in which they gathered the .520 lbs., the queen 

 came down to the bottom story, and laid only in 4 or 

 5 frames. The bees stored honey so fast she had no 

 chance to lay. At about this time we were getting 

 behind with the extractor, and several times they 

 had the three upper stories sealed up solid; and to 

 keep them at work, I took 24 full frames of ho::cy 

 out of the three top ones, and set them away in the 

 honey- house in empty boxes, and left two full 

 frames in each story, and refilled with fdn. In a 



short time the whole hive was solid again, and by 

 thistim3 I had extracted out of the first, and .iust 

 lifted out full frames and set in empty finished 

 comlis. With the two set of combs we kept them at 

 work, oecasion.i Uy saving a pretty white frame for 

 comb honey. The above is, ;is near as I can remem- 

 ber, the way we managed them. ■■ E. J. Atchley. 

 Lancaster, Dallas Co., Texas, Feb. 13, 1882. 



ANOTHKR TOOL-BOX, 



WITH MtNUTE DIRECTIONS FOR MAKtXG. 



TyjrNCLOSED you will find a sketch of my combined 

 i\' comb-holder, queen-stand, work-box, etc. I will 

 "^ give the size of each piece, and you can make 

 one if you wish to. Fig. 1, A, 29xl0x;i in.; B, two 

 pieces of Ja lumber, 12i8 in. wide, 13 high, with a rab- 

 bet Ix^u at the top, for the ends of the frames; C, C, 

 two pieces ISlixliix'^a in. B ire a hole I's inch in di- 

 ameter in each piece, ■"„ in. from the end. Put a 

 IKi-in. screw in one piece, 2;'8 in. from the end which 

 has the i'a-in. hole in it. Let the screw project about 

 % in.; D, WlixHix'^i in.; bore a li-ia. hole in the 

 center; E, 23.xlJ4x 'a. Bore a ?4-in. hole in the cen- 

 ter. F, tool-box cover, two pieces 5^xl3J4x-''a in. 

 G, covers to comb-holder; two pieces, 20V4xTx'/2 in. 

 H, side of tool-box; two pieces, 13i8x6i8 in. S, hinges 

 to the covers of the comb-hclder, Sx^'sX^s in. M, is a 

 bolt 3 in. long, ^i inch in diameter. D, is a bar with 

 two short pieces of wood rabbeted and nailed on 

 each end of the bar. The bar will hold two combs. 

 It turns on a pivot at M. 



HY.VTT'S COMBINED WORK-BOX AND COMB-HOLDEK. 



The covers to comb-holder and tool-boxes should 

 have Yi in. slant. The latch, X, Fig. 1; B, Fig. 3. is 

 4x1 in. It holds the handle, as shown in Fig. 1, when 

 it is to be used as a queen-stand. The tool-boxes 

 are 12iaX4?.£xO inches inside, which is just right 

 for Simplicity cold-blast smoker. The tool-boxes 

 will hold veil, smoker, fuel for smoker, gloves, 

 queen-cages, tacks, screw-driver, scissors, knife, 



