^50 



GLEANINGS In bee CULtURE. 



May 



Grandpa had 53 swarms of bees in the fall, and 

 now he has only 20. My papa is a Methodist preach- 

 er. Mabel Potter, age 7. 



\Vone-.vcc, Wis., April 2-t, 1885. 



FKO.M ONE OF OUll FLORIDA JUVENILES. 



My papa has a few hives of bees. We have 19 lit- 

 tle chickens. We have a dog and 8 pigs. They are 

 Mi-owiug fast. We have 9 pigs, with the old one. I 

 liave a cat. . Letitia Lttch. 



Hawks- Park, Fla., April 6, 1885. 



ONE LEFT OUT OF THREE. 



My papa has one stand of bees; he had three last 

 fall, but two died. We have not had any honey 

 from them yet. Papa never wears his veil when he 

 is hunting for the queen; he is not afraid of them. 

 Len.a w. Briogs, age 11. 



Eddyville, Mass., Feb. 6, 1885. 



CHARLEV'S REPORT. 



Papa has had bad luck with his bees this winter, 

 tor it has been very cold here. We had a lai-ge 

 snow here yesterday, but it is nearly all gone now. 

 It was so cold that papa thinks that some of his 

 liees are frozen to death. He has one hive that has 

 lost its queen, and is nearly dead. If it dies, that 

 will bring his number down to C9. 



Windsor, N. C, March 23. Chas. Harden. 



A SHORT LETTER ABOUT .MIST.\KES. 



It is a mistake to put off feeding until the nights 

 become cold. Better bo too early than too late. It 

 is a mistake to use up all the pots, kettles, pans, 

 spoons, stove-hooks, and other things upon which to 

 play the dead-march, when a swarm has started on 

 an excursion to the groves. B. B. Gillett. 



Allerton, Wayne Co., la., April 9, 1885. 



SAVED 103 OUT OF 115. 



We have had a bad winter. It was awful cold, 

 I'ut papa's bees wintered well; lost only two out of < 

 105. The weather was warm last week; the blue- j 

 birds and robins were singing their merry songs, 

 and the bees filled the air with their busy hum, | 

 which made us feel as if spring were here; but it 

 has turned cold again. Charlie Nebel, age 11. 



High Hill, Mo., Mar. 9, 1885. i 



FROM 4 TO 7, AND .503 LBS. OF HONEV. 



My pa has 15 colonies of bees. He looked at them 

 the other day, and found two of them dead. He 

 had 7 swarms of bees from lour colonies. We got 

 500 lbs. of box honey. We winter them on their 

 summer stands. We pack them in chaff hives. 



Johnny CARTRifiHT. 



Weltouvillo. X. v., April 13, 1885. 



how ELMOR DEFENDED HIS SISTER. 



We have one swarm of bees. One day ray sister 

 and myself were watching the bees work, when one 

 stung my sister. She had never been stung before, 

 and it made her jump. She started to run, and ran 

 right toward me. I tried to get out of the way, 

 luit she kept coming to me. But 1 got away and 

 she went into the house. Er.MOR Wir.soN. 



.Vllerton, Iowa, Mar. 6, 1885. 



•MARKIXO HIVES. 



I am a little orphan-girl, and live with my married 

 brother. We all love to read Gleanings, and work 

 with the bees. You say in A B C, when the hives 

 are close together there should be some mark on 

 their homes so they would not get lost. To help the 

 little bees, my brother has their hives all in a row, 

 and nicely painted, one blue and the next one white, 

 so on all through. I love their blue-eyed baby-boy. 

 He calls his little wagon " hut O." 



LiLLlE CURRESS, agC 12. 



C.oodland, Iiul., March 13, 18^5. 



HONEY FRO.M THE PERSIMMON. 



My papa has 9 hives of bees. Last year he got 250 

 lbs. of comb honey from six hives. The honey from 

 the persimmon-blossom was the best of all. The 

 bees make more honey from the persimmon than 

 fi'om any other source. The beeS work on it from 

 morning till night. Wo use the Langstroth hive 

 with jiound sections. I love to help take honey. I 

 ;im not afraid of the bees. 



Linden K. Shepherd, age 9. 



Kciifs Store, Fluvanna Co., Ya., Feb. 26, 188.5. 



TWO QUEENS IN A HIVE. 



We have si.v colonies. Mamma sold two for hives. 

 I have two colonies of bees. One has got four 

 i|ueen-cells. I went to look at my other one, and a 

 bee stung me just below my eye, and it hurt so 

 badly that I could not see. 1 do not get stung 

 olten; but when they do sting me it hurts; you 

 ought to have seen my face. Have you ever heard 

 (if two queens living together? We had such a ease 

 last fall. They kept building queen-cells, and we I 

 divided them twice, and after that we looked in 

 and found a young (pieen, and we let her stay; and 

 this si)ring. when we looked in, the old one was 

 gone. Lizzie Witte. 



McGregor, McLennan Co., Texas, Apr. 23, 1885. 



Yes, Lizzie, it is quite common to find 

 two queens in a hive, under the circum- 

 stances you mention — an old one and a 

 young one, mother and daughter. The 

 A B C boolv will tell vou all about it. 



taking THE BEES OUT OF THE CELLAR. 



It is pretty warm here to-day, but there is a lot ol 

 snow. We carried out 8 swarms; they had a gootl 

 fly but it is rather cold yet. My pa was looking at a 

 strong swarm, and he found a young Italian drone. 

 Is it not early for them in this cold country? In 

 looking over the bees in the clamp, pa found one 

 dead with dysentery since my last; that leaves us 

 3 dead out of 30, up to date. There are small parts 

 of the fall wheat bare, and it looks very well. When 

 I received the big envelope to-day I opened it, ex- 

 pecting to get a price list; but, lo and behold! to 

 my surprise I found the beautiful book, Pilgrims 

 Progress. I do not know how to exi)ress my thanks. 



Shelburne. fan. Charles E. Thompson. 



LITTLE zoos LETTER. 



I is rich now. Tozzer boy say, " How is oo rich?" 

 I has the doodest light when the sun dets up, de 

 puttiest dreen grass and fowers, and the dew-drops 

 shine on 'em like the diamonds in your ma's rings; 

 den after while the nice berries come on 'em; we tan 

 eat 'em or dry 'em, tin ha^ve 'em (ui the table and in 

 our iiay-house. We tins dem up and down the nice 

 roads along dem pretty fences and the banks of the 

 creek, and blances; den the pretty birds sing for us 

 while we gather them, and we gets dood tool water 

 to drink. When the pretty light goes out over the 

 hills, the pretty stars i)eep out and sliine right on 

 me, an I spec my eyes shine right at 'em too. To/.- 

 zer boj- says 'em aint mine, but ma says da is; that 

 the dood man gims 'em to me, and all of us. So I 

 feels rich with all these dood and pretty things, des 

 waltln' for me to tall 'em mine. Zoo. 



