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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



June 



MAY GliEANINGS. 



SOME KIND WORDS IN POETRY AND PROSE. 



fJlHERE Is more of the breath of spring and the 

 perfume of flowers among- the pages of Glean- 

 — ' iNGS for May, than in all the outside world of 

 nature in this part of the great American continent. 

 Yet, untoward seasons have their lessons and uses. 

 Here are some of them done into rhyme. 



1ST MAY, 1882. 

 Though winter lingers, May is here,— 



Blight, cliarming, beauteous May, 

 Tlie sweetest month of all the year 



For worship, work, or play. 



This morn, when four degiees of frost 



The early-riser saw, 

 A doubt arose : has natxire lost 



The sway of springtide law ? 



Faith, too, inquired. Has earth forgot 



That ordinance of heaven. 

 Spring-time and harvest-time shall not 



Cease always to be given >. 



But as the day wore on, the sun 



Shone out with genial ray; 

 The air grew warm, and nature won 



A victory for May. 



Not always does the unchanging woid 



Fulfill itself so soon ; 

 Yet, doubts that in the morning stiiied 



Are oft removed by noon. 



Life, like the year, beholds its May 



Caught with a wintry nip ; 

 But , through each cold and wintry day, 



Let faith maintain its grip. 



For soon the cheerful sun will shine, 



And winter all depart. 

 While proofs of life and power divine 



Gladden tlie trusting heart. 



But I took up my pen to jot down a few running 

 comments on the May number. Friend Hutchin- 

 son's opening article is interesting, and suggests 

 what I have often thought; namely, that bee-keep- 

 ers ought to visit one another more. If I could af- 

 ford the time and money, I would like nothing bet- 

 ter than to make a summer tour among them. Per- 

 haps this pleasure may yet be in store for me. 



Friend Brooks's plan of catching a swarm without 

 letting it cluster at all, is good for those who prac- 

 tice the clipping of queens' wings. I do not, and, 

 with the Jones gate, there is no need of maiming 

 and crippling the beautiful creatures. Therefore I 

 hope that queen-wing clipping will become obso- 

 lete. 



Martin's bee-tongue register is a triumph of in- 

 genuity, but 1 shall want a coat-of-mail more than 

 this delicate measuring instrument, when the apis 

 dorsata becomes a native of the New World. 



Mr. Abbott's communication about bees voiding 

 dry excrement is to the point. Is it not time for 

 Prof. Cook to "rise and explain" on that subject? 



I mean to try friend Pierce's plan of transferring, 

 the first chance I get. The only difficulty I see about 

 it is getting off the cover without breaking things 

 up generally. 



But I must hasten to what most interested me in 

 the May number,— 



FOSTER'S HOUSE APIARY. 



Have you ever turned over an idea in your brain, 

 got it developed, and then been chagrined to find 

 somebody ahead of you? That is how it was with 

 me when the picture of our friend's house apiary, 

 and the description of it caught my eye. He has 

 tried it too. Well, I am glad it isn't patented. My 

 idea was the same in principle, but on a larger scale 

 — sufficiently extensive to provide accommodations 

 for extracting, storage for hives, etc., all under one 

 roof. Would not a more extensive plan obviate the 

 diflaculty of having the entrances too close? The 

 objection, perhaps, will bo, that then the bees will 

 not keep one another warm. But I think a colony 



fit to winter is able to keep itself warm with sulfi- 

 cient outside protection. I think this idea will grow 

 in favor, and be improved upon as our more thought- 

 ful bee-keepers come to consider its advantages, 

 and experiment upon it. I amglad you are smitten 

 with it, because I think your active mind will assist 

 in working the thing out to greater perfection. 



"Gallup on Ventilation," p. 233, and "The Lang- 

 stroth Hive for Wintering," p. 241, will reward care- 

 ful thought. Bees can resist a low temperature, if 

 dry; but excess of moisture is fatal to them, what- 

 ever the temperature. This is one of the main points 

 to be studied in all attempts to master the problem 

 of uniformly successful wintering. We can all win- 

 ter successfully sometimes; but who has discovered 

 the secret of doing it cuery time? I will say that I, 

 for one, have lost faith in all schemes of upward 

 ventilation, and intend, whatever else, to have my 

 hives hcrmcUcaUy scaled on top. I fancy if there is 

 a coraer where the heat can be absolutely retained 

 without dampness, bees will survive any kind of a 

 winter. 



OUR HOMES. 



I can only take time now to thank you for this de- 

 partment in the May number. It suggested a ser- 

 mon to me which I preached, first to myself at 

 home, and afterward to my congregation. How 

 much may be done in the way you point out so well, 

 to store honey in the domestic hive, where it is so 

 much needed, both by the adult workers and the 

 young brood ! And if, instead of trying to throw 

 the blame of our faults and sins on others, avc would 

 repent of them before an all-seeing and infinitely 

 holy God, we should be humbler, holier, happier, 

 and, what is most of all important, more useful. 



Wm. F. Clarke. 



Listowel, Ont., Can., May 12, 1883. 



Many thanks for your kind words, friend 

 Clarke; but may I ask if you really think 

 the Jones bee-guards are to be depended on 

 to restrain the queen as well as the drones, 

 so as to answer the same purpose of clipping 

 a queen's wingV They work beautifully to 

 get out the drones, as we tried to-day. A 

 swarm was purchased full of drones and 

 drone brood ; but as they were hybrids, it 

 was quite desirable to get rid of them. The 

 heads of the drone brood were sliced olf, 

 the bees all shaken outside the hive, a guard 

 put over the entrance, and in a twinkling 

 every drone was outside, while the bees went 

 in without trouble. 



HOAV TO GET B.4SSWCODS FROM CUT- 

 TINGS. 



HOW TO DO IT ON A LARGER SCALE. 



SI READ A. C. Kendel's article and yours on bass- 

 woods from cuttings, with interest; but not 

 ' having had the time to give you my experience 

 sooner, I will give it now. 



A. C. Kendel is perfectly right as far as he goes; 

 but to give it to those who wish to try it next season, 

 I will give it more in detail. All those having a 

 greenhouse can easily get along by changing one of 

 the side benches which run over the flue, or hot- 

 wator pipes, into a propagating-house by boarding 

 up the sides to confine the heat, which will then pass 

 into the sand, to give the necessary bottora heat. 

 The sand on the benches need not be more than 4 or 

 5 inches in depth; the glass overhead to be shaded 

 by slats or whitewash, so as to let plenty of light in, 



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