188.^ 



CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



569 



Huber has had some by this time. You seem to 

 have hart bad luck with your chickens. Dut if you 

 had washed the eggs clean in luke-waini water they 

 would have Vieon as likely to hatch as at first. Of 

 90 little chickens hatched, we have lost but ten. 

 Well, T will close by telling- you that to put a swing- 

 up in or near the bee-yard is the way to get the 

 children to watch the bees in swarming- time. Papa 

 always puts one up for us, and we like it pretty 

 well. I'tuft- I. Hf.attv, asre 14. 



Shaw's Landing, Pa., .June 2il, 18Sri. 



HARD f'lDKn "HAKD" OX BKF.S. 



My brotherin-law lives about fifty yards from 

 where we do. He had a barrel of \-inegar sitting 

 out in the yard maliing, with a cloth tied over it. 

 His bees cut a liole in It, and they got drunk. They 

 were stumbling- about, and slinging and falling- all 

 over the i)lace. This is the truth. Did you ever 

 liearof bees getting drunk belore? He covered it 

 up, and the next day they were all right. 



Collinshurg-, La. .Tohnmf. DrnxKY. 



Yes, friend Johiuiie, I liave lieard of bees 

 getting drunk before, but T have always 

 been a bttle iiicredulons. Are vdii snretbey 

 did not get their wings daubed so tliev conld 

 not fly, tliat made them tumble abotit in tlie 

 dirty Hees are ai«t to do this when fed in 

 the open air with any kind of a feeder, un- 

 less the honey or syrup is made very thin by 

 adding water to it. 



his face. I g-uess he must have sweat some, for it 

 was a very warm day. Well, my sister Nettie 

 plucked up courage and went up and shook them 

 all ofl, and never got stung, and then we got them 

 in the hive all riaht, and did not have any more 

 trouble. Tva A. Pfck, age V2. 



.Tackson, Mich., .lune ">, ISS,"). 



REPORT FROM A .irVEMT.F. 



Our bees were gathering honey lively until bass- 

 wood ended. The honey which the bees gathered 

 so far is of the fluest quality that we ever see or 

 tasted— so white and sweet. 



Ligonier, Tnd. A SrsscniBEH's Sox. 



ABOUT THAT UEE TRF.K. 



My pa and uncle robbed four bee-trees this sjJring 

 and we had sonu' very fine honey and sold the liees- 

 wax for 12'; cents a pound. We tried to save some 

 bees from the trees, but could not; they would not 

 go in the hives. My i)a found a little oak this 

 spring- that had a swarm of bees lodged on it. He 

 took his ax and c\it the tree down ami tried to save 

 the bees but failed. He left the hive there all night, 

 and in the morning the bees were all gone, so he 

 brought the hive home. We have a great many 

 wild flowers here, and some wild honey in the woods. 

 I am anxious to learn about bee-raising, and if 1 

 can get the money I will take Gleanings, and try 

 to raise bees. I love flowers and so do they. I have 

 my window gardi'ii of Howeis, and we are independ- 

 ent girls; we saw and nail our own flower-boxes, 

 and iml up the shelves, and 1 think we can make a 

 hive. Sak\ii L. Martin. 



Bayou Chicot, La. 



HOW WK. HIVED A SWARM OK UEES. 



One day last spring my father had gone away, and 

 while he was away the l)ees svsanried. Well, I ran 

 to the field after my cousin, who is about 20 years 

 of age. He was working for my father. We did 

 not think he would be of much help, because he 

 was such a coward around bees. Well, they had 

 alighted on a big limb— so big that we could not cut 

 it off, because it would spoil the tree, so we spread 

 a table-cloth on a stand, and then placed the hive 

 on it under the bees. We dared not go up so close 

 as to shake the limb, so my cousin took a long rope 

 and went up to the limb very carefully, and tied 

 the rope to it; then all of us— my sisters and broth- 

 er, cousin, and luyself— got hold of the rope about 

 a rod from the limb, and then we would all jerk at 

 the same time. Well, we managed to get a few of 

 them off, but not enough to amount to anj-^ thing. 

 My cousin got stung three or four times, and then 

 he had his overcoat and mittens on, and a veil over 



NETTIE and her EDIMATED HEX. 



T have an old hen, and her name is Mabel. She 

 has IS little chickens. T take her and set her on a 

 box, and tell her to sing me a song, and she will be- 

 gin and sing a few moments; and if slie does not 

 sing long enough T tell her to sing some more, and 

 then she will sing until T tell her to stop. I keep 

 Mabel and her chickens in a coop. One morning all 

 of her chickens jjot out of the coop and went off in 

 the pasture, and I went and got her and asked her 

 if she knew where her chickens were, and she an- 

 swered me in some language, 1 do not know what 

 kind; sol took her luit where her chickens were, 

 and I asked her if she was glad I took her to her 

 chicks, and she answered me. My old hen is a pure 

 buff Cochin. There is a lady who engaged our eggs 

 one year ahead, so as to be sure to get the pure 

 butt Cochins. She takes all the eggs we have to 

 sell. We keep abo\it :K) hens. My brother keeps 

 bees; he has three colonies. 



Woodstock, o. Nettie Cicasston, age Hi. 



WIXTF.HINO outdoors WITHOUT ANY HIVE; A RE- 

 PORT FROM ONE OF OUR .Il'VENI I.ES. 



Mrs. Mary Anderson, near Anlrim, fiuernsey Co., 

 ()., had a swarm of liees .li.ly 4th, 1S8I. They hived 

 them in a new box. In an hour they came out and 

 went back; liut instead of going in th(>y went un- 

 der the bench and built combs extending from the 

 bench to the ground, a distance of 12 inches, and 20 

 inches in width. They had no protection except a 

 picket fence, and a few loose boards that stood on 

 the west side to prevent the snow from blowing in 

 on them. In this condition they wintered success- 

 fully while sevei-al other stands on the bench died. 

 One of their neighbors, a Mr. Grillith, transferred 

 them in the spring, and pronounced thein good. 

 They were the black, or brown l)ees. The lady who 

 owned the bees lives about four miles from our 

 house; and as it was something new to me about 

 bees, I thought 1 would write it to yon. 



Anna B. McGrew, age 10. 



Milnersville, O., .Inly 8, 1885. 



Friend Anna, there are a good many cases 

 on record quite similar to yonrs ; and 1 be- 

 lieve that a great many times our bees would 

 winter all right if put" under a bench, with- 

 out any hive at all. where they now die by 

 the hundreds and thousands. These cases 

 point clearly to the fact that our bees are too 

 closely packed up ; that is, they do not have 

 air enough; and such facts have come to 

 light year after year for almost centuries. It 

 is doubtless true, that they will do better 

 with some protection than with no protec- 

 tion at all ; hut the protection ought to be in 

 such shape that it permits air to pass freely, 

 around and through the cluster of bees. A 



