1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



71 



Pa, having the stands in a low place, the water rose 

 80 high as to lift them up off the ground, and then 

 they all turned over and froze and drowned togeth- 

 er, 80 that we lost every one of them. We did not 

 even save a stand to get a start from, so we are 

 without bees now. I am trying to get a start now, 

 in hopes of doing as well as papa did before he lost 

 all of his. Fred J. Hailes. 



Hondo City, Texas, Dec. 19. 



Every boy or girl, under 16 years of age, who writes a let- 

 ter for this department, containing some valuable fact, not 



GBNKRALLT KNOWN, ON BBES OR OTHER MATTERS, will receive 



one of David Cook's excellent flve-cent Sunday-school books. 

 Many of these books contain the same matter that you And in 

 Sunday-school hooks costing from 81.00 to 81.50. If you have 

 had one or more books, give us the names that we may not 

 send the same twice. We have now in stock six different 

 books, as follows; viz.: Sheer Off, Silver Keys, The Giant-Kill- 

 er; or. The Roby Family, Rescued from Egypt, Pilgrim's 

 Progress, and Ten Nights in a Bar-Room. We Ikave also Our 

 Homes, Part 1., and Our Homes, Part II. Besides the above 

 books, you may have a photograph of our old house apiary, 

 and a photograph of our own apiary, both taken a great many 

 years ago. In the former is a picture of Novice, Blue Eyes, 

 and Caddy, and a glimpse of Ernest. We have also some pret 

 ty little colored pictures of birds, fruits, flowers, etc., suitable 

 tor framing. You can have your choice of any one of the 

 above pictures or books for every letter that gives us some 

 valuable piece of information. 



TOO WARM IN THE CELLAR. 



T love to go to Sabbath - school. My papa is a 

 blacksmith, and he also keeps bees, and is in the 

 supply-business. He put seven stands into the cel- 

 lar, but had to take them out again, as the weather 

 was too warm and they worried too much. 



Killbuck, O., Jan. 8. Nellie Bauer, age 8. 



A swarm THAT WOULD CLUSTER ON HIGH LlMBg. 



Papa likes to take care of bees, and to watch their 

 movements at work. He transfers bees for people. 

 Last summer I helped watch them in swarming- 

 time. One swarm went to the woods and alighted 

 on a big maple-tree, nearly fifty feet from the 

 ground. Papa climbed up the tree and sawed the 

 limb off, and the bees dropped off and went to a big 

 beech. He then sawed off that limb, and then 

 caught them in a big bag, and hived them and 

 brought them home, and they went to work right 

 away. Edith M. Cayward, age 11. 



Hall's Corners, N. Y., Dec. 30. 



A swarm of BEES FOR A PIG; ENGLISH WHITE 

 RABBITS. 



Pa has 18 swarms of bees. I thought I would try 

 bee-keeping, so in the spring 1 bought a pound of 

 bees (including the queen) for two dollars, and kept 

 them over summer till fall, then I traded them off 

 to pa for a pig. I am a temperance boy, and do not 

 intend to smoke, chew, or drink. I have a pair of 

 English white rabbits with pink eyes. Their food 

 in the winter time is clover hay, oats, apples, 

 bread, and crackers. My cousin George gave them 

 to me when they were quite young. They have 

 grown finely. I keep them in a large box at night, 

 and in the day time I turn them out on the barn 

 Hoor. Albert Borton, age 11. 



Flint, Mich., Dec. 26. 



LOSS from A flood. 



I wish to relate a few serious accidents which 

 happened to my father's bees. He started in with 

 two stands, which he bought of a negro in Hondo 

 City some two or three years ago. From those two 

 stands he increased up to 52, which were nearly all 

 Italian bees. I believe he got a queen from you; 

 anyhow, it was in 1887 that he had the misfortune 

 to lose them all by a heavy rainstorm that fell. It 

 rained for six hours as hard as it could pour down. 



HOW PAPA WEIGHS HIS FRAMES. 



I will show you how 

 papa weighs his frames 

 in autumn, to see if his 

 bees have enough honey 

 for the winter. The scale 

 shown in the picture is 

 one of your 10-cent scales. 

 Papa says my pole is too 

 short in comparison with 

 the other things seen in 

 the picture. It is to be 

 1x2, and 6 feet long. 

 Freddie H. Graeper, 



age 11. 

 Westphalia, Ind., Dec. 23. 

 Very good, friend 

 Freddie. But after a 

 little experience in 

 weighing we tliink 

 you and your papa can guess at the weight, 

 at least near enough for all practical pur- 

 poses. That's the way we do. 



PAPA'S UNCAPPINO-BOWL. 



I will try to explain 

 to you papa's arrange- 

 ment for uncapping his 

 honey. In the picture, 

 No.l is a wooden bowl 

 about two feet across. 

 No. 2 is an eight-gallon 

 jar. No. 3 is a board 

 on which the bowl is 

 fastened with a screw. 

 No. 4 Is a cross laid on 

 the bowl, fastened with 

 cleats. No. 5 is the 

 frame of honey. No. 6 

 is a piece of wood 

 screwed to the cross so 

 that it can be turned 

 around. No. T is an up- 

 right piece which is 

 fastened on one side of 

 the piece which can be turned around. No. 8 is a 

 loop of wire used to hold the frame. No. 9 is a hole 

 and a piece of tin in it for the drippings. At the 

 bottom of the wooden bowl is a rack made of pieces 

 of wood nailed together. The use of the wooden 

 bowl for uncapping honey is not papa's invention. 

 He found it in an old Gleanings. But the upper 

 part is papa's invention. It improves it very much. 

 He can uncap both sides before he puts it in the ex- 

 tractor, by turning the part on top of the cross, as 

 both sides can be uncapped at the same time, if 

 there are two at work. He never has any trouble 

 by combs breaking for him, even if they are not 

 wired, because the frames always stand upright. 

 Papa has used it about five years already. 



Emma Graeper, age 9. 

 Westphalia, Ind., Dec. 4, 1889. 



