792 



GLEANlJV^GS 1^ BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



this point ; and if they do as well, we s 

 be glad to grant them the same privilege 



HOW WILLIE STARTS INTO THE BEE BUSINESS 

 AGAIN. 



My pa has 68 colonies. I had a swarm, but the 

 other bees robbed them this summer, and they died. 

 Mr. Dukes found a bee-tree this summer. Pa help- 

 ed chop the tree and fit the bees up for him, but it 

 was too late for them to gather enough honey for 

 them to live through the winter without feeding, so 

 he told pa if he would come and get them he might 

 have them. So we went and got them, and then pa 

 gave them to my brother and me. You see, Mr. 

 Root, by this letter we are going to try the bee 

 business again. Willie Bolton, age 10. 



Stanley, Ohio. 



DOWN IN SUNNY FLORIDA, WHERE ORANGES GROAV. 



We ha%'e no bees. I should like to get one or two 

 hives of bees, so we should not have to buy honey. 

 The orange-trees are white with blossoms. The 

 bees get plenty of honey from the blossoms. I am 

 going to school now. I like it very well. I have 

 learned a great deal. 1 wish it were about four 

 months longer. It is about the only chance I shall 

 have to go. We ha%-e plenty of flsh and oysters. 

 A few weeks ago I saw Mr. Muth pass our house. 

 I was very glad to see him. 



Hawk's Park, Fla. George F. Gl.a^wson. 



Do you really mean, George, that it was 

 our friend C. F. Muth, of Cincinnati, whom 

 you sawV I didn't know before that he was 

 visiting in Florida. We Avish he would 

 write to us some letters, and tell us about 

 his trip. 



A JUVENILE TELLS HOW TO MAKE A HO.ME-MADE 

 extractor; how to hatch a QUEEN- 

 CELL IN A HENS-EGO SHELL. 



My brother has 21 swarms of bees: they have 

 done well this summer. I do not know how much 

 honey they made. My brother made an extractor. 

 He took a bucket and put a stick across it. Then he 

 took a piece of sieve and put it on a square wood- 

 en frame, and fastened two of these frames to a 

 round iron running up through the center of the 

 bucket, and through the stick on top. He then put 

 a wheel on the end of it, and a crank to turn it 

 round with. One day I had a queen-cell in my hand, 

 and the queen came out of it. We hatched a queen 

 under a hen, in an egg-shell. K.\tie Briggs. 



Deposit, N. Y. 



I think, Katie, your brother must have 

 had a pretty large bucket ; that is, if his ex- 

 tractor will take frames of the ordinarv size. 



shall 



a little girl WHO LIVES NEIGHBOR TO FRIEND 

 W. S. HART. 



I thought I would write you a few lines. I got 

 the books that you sent me. They are nice books 

 to read. The little book has some pretty stories in 

 it. Mr. Hart is our friend. He has a nice lot of 

 bees. He gets a good price, but he has nice honey, 

 I think. Papa used to keep a few hives of bees, 

 but ho does not keep any now. I will send you 

 some orange-blossoms. Minnie Mendel. 



New Smyrna, Fla. 



Thank you for your promise of orange- 

 blossoms, Minnie. 'We should be real glad 

 if you would give us a good long letter, 

 telling us more about Mr. Hart's apiary, and 

 what he is doing. We would willingly pay 



you for such a letter. And, by the way, the 

 little boys and girls who live near bee-Keep- 

 ers could do us quite a service by visiting 

 them and making reports of what they see. 



WHAT IS IT? 



My grandfather had some potatoes under some 

 straw, with just the least bit of dirt over them, and 

 they do real well; but what I want to tell you is, 

 that in under the straw was something curious. I 

 do not know what to call them. They are about 

 the shape of an egg, a little smaller than a common 

 hen's egg. He found one about two weeks ago, 

 and in three or four days he found three more. 

 They were all rooted together with little fine roots, 

 and he buried them in the ground. He kept one of 

 them to show to folks. In about one week he pour- 

 ed some warm water over them. The next morn- 

 ing both of them were up. He buried the other one 

 then, and poured warm water over it. It came up 

 in a little while. They were about five inches tall, 

 and about half an inch through the bottom, and 

 about a quarter of an inch through the tops. They 

 look like the stem of a toadstool. 



My grandfather was 87 years old in September. 

 My brother got an Italian queen, and in 21 daya 

 there were young bees in the hive. 



Woodstock, O. Perl Z. Cranston, age 13. 



From your description, Perl, I should sup- 

 pose it was a sort of mushroom that your 

 father found. May be it is the mushroom 

 we use for food ; but I didn't know before 

 that they could be transplanted as you 

 mention. 



A CASE OF robbing; a sw.\rm that s. mothered 

 from being closed up. 



We had 8 swarms this summer, but we have only 

 7 now. Our neighbor has 14 swarms, and we are 

 bothered with them all the while. Pa says they car- 

 ry the honey out of our hives as fast as our bees 

 can gather it, and he has to feed them for the win- 

 ter. It was a very warm day on the 38th of Septem- 

 ber, and the robbers were so strong that pa had to 

 shut our hives, and it was so hot that one of the 

 swarms smothered, and he took the hive and carried 

 it down cellar, for he thought that he could «ave the 

 bees; but on opening the hive he found almost all 

 the bees were dead, and their combs were all melted 

 down. Katie Zebr, age 10. 



Indian River, Lewis Co., N. Y. 



Friend Katie, your papa learned a lesson 

 in regard to the danger of shutting bees up 

 when the weather is very warm. It is never 

 safe to fasten bees in, especially when they 

 are excited by robbing, or something of that 

 kind, as yoiirs were, unless they are very 

 closelv watched. 



A SWAR.M THAT HUNG ON A LIMB 6 DAYS. 



I was up to my Uncle John Noftsier's, and we 

 went out. I saw a swarm of bees hanging on a limb. 

 I asked why they didn't hive them, and they said 

 they hived it twice already and it didn't stay in the 

 hive, and then they looked and saw that it was a 

 swarm that he got in the spring, and had no more 

 honey, and had left the hive. It had been hanging 

 there three days when I was up there, and he said 

 that it stayed there three days more, and then they 

 starved and fell off. Lena Zehr, age 12. 



Indian River, Lewis Co.,TS^. Y.. Oct. 23, 188.5. 



Why, Lena, wasn't that cruel, to let that 



