72 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



Thanks, friend Emma, for your excellent 

 description and drawing. The device may 

 in some apiaries prove to be very handy. 

 We should be glad to have some one else 

 make one and try it, and then rei)ort in 

 Gleanings. The only possible objection 

 to it is, that there may be too many " fixins " 

 about it. 



GRANDPA'S BEES ; PACKING FOR WINTER IN 

 MATTED HAIR. 



Grandpa has 47 colonies of bees, all in Simplicity 

 hives. He is wintering them on summer stands, 

 packed in maple leaves, gathered from the trees in 

 the street. He puts a large case around each hive, 

 then fills it with the leaves. My grandpa thinks 

 that matted hair is the best thing to pack bees in 

 for winter. Matted hair, such as is used for wind- 

 ing steam-pipes, to prevent the condensing of the 

 steam, is what I mean. Make the hair into mats 

 and cushions, to fill in on the sides and top, and fill 

 dummies for the inside of the hive. 



Sidney G. Gorden. 



Athens, Pa., Dec. 23, 1889. 



PAPA'S BEES AND MY TAME DOVES. 



Papa has 56 colonies of bees. We had a good crop 

 of honey last year. He shipped his best honey to 

 Cincinnati. Papa had two colonies cast a swarm 

 that skipped to the woods, without clustering. We 

 saw them come out, and followed them a distance. 

 I had two pairs of doves. One pair was white, and 

 one colored. A cat got at the white pair, and cut a 

 gash with her teeth in one's neck, and killed one of 

 them. Papa saw the cat come after the other dove, 

 and he shot the cat. Another cat got the other 

 white dove. The second pair, one of them died be- 

 cause it ate too much. The other, a cat ate. 



Greene, la., Jan. 5. Chris. Shirer, age 12. 



A COLONY OF BEES THAT HAD DOMICILED UNDER 

 SOME BRANCHES IN THE OPEN AIR, AS RE- 

 PORTED BY A lUVENILE. 



1 wish to tell you of a swarm of bees that was 

 found in the open air by a German who worked 

 three miles from home. On coming home one Sat- 

 urday night he came across the lots and woods. 

 Just before he emerged from a thick piece of woods 

 he stepped upon a large log, and walked toward the 

 top of the tree. As he got near the top, where the 

 branches spread out as large as a man's thigh, he 

 jumped off on to the ends of the limbs; and as he 

 did so a lot of bees came after him, and stung him 

 badly. He looked closely up under the branches, 

 and saw honey-comb hanging down. He came aft- 

 er father; and when father went up there to get the 

 honey and bees, he said he was surprised to see so 

 much old comb. Some of it was old, and black as 

 tar, and some of the honey was candied down quite 

 hard. The bees had attached their combs to three 

 of the branches, where they had grown out near 

 the main body. The branches stuck up nearly 

 three feet from the ground, and the combs were as 

 large around as a bushel basket, and came almost 

 to the ground. Several pieces of old combs had 

 dropped off, and something had dragged it further 

 under the log, and eaten some of it. The top was 

 well protected from the weather by the large limbs, 

 and by brush that had been thrown upon the large 

 branches by wood-choppers several years before. 

 Father said the bees must have been there three or 

 four years, by the looks of the combs, and a bee- 

 hunter had lined bees into that very part of the 



woods, but could never find them, because he al- 

 ways looked up into the high timber for the bees. 



The German got four large pails of honey. Some 

 of it was nice, but most of it was old and black. 

 Father got the bees, and a lot of old combs for wax. 

 1 have been to Sunday-school almost evei-y week for 

 three years, and I learn from 7 to 15 verses to re- 

 peat. Frank Reed, age 9. 



Milford, Wis., Jan. 1. 



0UR P0ME3< 



Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniqui- 

 ty.— Heb. 1 : 9. 



The above words were addressed to 

 Christ Jesus our Savior ; and they were 

 spoken by God himself unto his only belov- 

 ed Son. We gather this from the eighth 

 verse of the first chapter of Hebrews, the 

 verse above the one from which our text is 

 taken. This verse commences, " But unto 

 the Son he saith." The latter part of the 

 verse reads, " A scepter of righteousness is 

 the scepter of thy kingdom." By referring 

 to the margin we see that the word " right- 

 eousness " may be supplanted by " straight- 

 uess," so as to read, " A scepter of straight- 

 ness is the scepter of thy kingdom." As I 

 use this word righteousness again a little fur- 

 ther on, you will please keep this thought in 

 mind. Now, please notice that the words 

 of our text are the language of the great 

 God of the universe to Jesus Christ his Son. 

 " Thou hast loved righteousness and hated 

 iniquity." The remainder of the verse reads, 

 "Therefore God, even thy God, hath 

 anointed thee with the oil of gladness above 

 thy fellows." There is something to me 

 wonderfully interesting in this thought, 

 that God himself spoke words of commenda- 

 tion and praise to Jesus the Son of God. 

 He spoke words of praise and kindness to 

 his own child, as you, dear reader, may pos- 

 sibly have spoken them to your own child. 

 What does this imply ? Why, it implies the 

 wonderful thought that Jesus, like our- 

 selves, had the freedom to choose between 

 righteousness and iniquity. In one sense 

 there was a possibility of his having chosen 

 iniquity. The way was open before him as 

 it is before us ; and he might have given 

 way to foolish, silly temptations, had not his 

 love of truth and purity and goodness pre- 

 vailed over human weakness. He chose, of 

 his own free choice, righteousness, and God 

 was pleased that he did so. He loved him ; 

 and just think how feebly we are able to 

 comprehend God's love for Christ the Son of 

 God. Oh how I do wish I could write this 

 bright morning only of love and goodness 

 and purity ! How I wish I could be helpful 

 to you by speaking only of that class of hu- 

 manity who do love righteousness and hate 

 iniquity ! but I know from past experience 

 that I can not be helpful to you unless I 

 point out the evils we are to guard against ; 

 and I can not do this unless I tell you of my 

 own actual experience. Your letters tell 

 me day by day that the practical, every-day 

 occurrences that I bring in here are the ones 

 that do you good. Now, do not be troubled, 



