3i2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Apr. 



We don't use any kind of alighting-board; our 

 bees are nearly all located on pasture ground. The 

 stock keep the grass short about the hives. I don't 

 think I should like sand or dry dust at the entrance 

 of hives. E.France. 



1 find it makes but little difference. I believe 

 that bees soon learn to use the most convenient 

 and natural places to alight, but I do not believe 

 that the laden bee prefers any other alighting- 

 place to a vertical surface. Watch them in a box 

 hive with a front hole part way up the front side. 

 See what a large proportion will alight on the side 

 of the hive. It makes no difference whether that 

 hole is at the top or bottom. As they come to the 

 hive laden, with their abdomen hanging down, they 

 delight to alight upon an upright surface. They 

 are built just right for it, you know. Yes, sir, I 

 always keep a bare spot on the ground in front of 

 the entrance. I use sawdust in conjunction with 

 the hoe. James Heddon. 



Now, in view of my answer to 119 1 should 

 say the best alighting-board in the world is 

 a clean piece of ground, right round the en- 

 trance, covered with sand or sawdust. As 

 the sawdust is liable to catch fire from the 

 smoker, we have of late years adopted white 

 sand. But this white sand would not an- 

 swer at all unless you keep weeds from 

 growing in it ; therefore you want to make 

 your sand white with common salt, about 

 once a year, and then you have it. By no 

 manner of means can we afford to have our 

 bees knocked down and wearing their wings 

 into ragged strings by buzzing them against 

 grass and weeds when they are trying to get 

 into their hive. Some have argued that the 

 bees will get just as much honey, even if 

 they do have to crawl through the grass and 

 weeds. Please remember, friends, that a 

 bee gathers honey until his wings are worn 

 out ; and I shouldn't wonder if the life of a 

 worker were shortened almost half by buzz- 

 ing against the grass and weeds I have seen 

 in some apiaries, while trying to get into 

 the hive. I do not like a board, because it 

 warps under the influence of the sun and 

 rain. True, it can be cleated ; but even 

 then the sun will pull the nails out, and 

 toads and spiders, and may be snakes, will 

 get under the board. The sand and salt 

 make a clean job of it. Some experiments 

 have been made with cement ; and in Cali- 

 fornia, where they do not have any frost, I 

 think it would answer admirably. A nice 

 flat stone, with the bottom-board of the hive 

 lapping on the stone, so no grass or weeds 

 could get between the stone and the bottom- 

 board, would do splendidly. I am not sure 

 but that we could get pieces of sawed flag- 

 ging, one foot wide and fifteen inches long, 

 cheap enough so they would be worth all 

 they cost. You would have an entrance 

 and dooryard then that would last a life- 

 time. The cold stone might give the bees 

 the toothache on frosty mornings, unless it 

 be true that they never fly when the stone 

 would be cold enough to be disagreeable. 

 Friend Heddon's reasoning is good ; but I 

 do not like that hole in the front end of 

 the hive, because it chills the brood-nest ; 

 and when the same hive is used for an up- 

 per story, you have an entrance where you 

 do not want it. 



Every boy or girl, under 15 years of age, who writes a let- 

 ter for this department, containing some valuable fact, not 



GENERALLY KNOWN, ON BEES OR OTHER MATTERS, will receive 



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

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

 Sunday-school hooks costing from 81.00 to $1.50. 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 have also Our 

 Homes, Part I., 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 

 for 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. 



BEES IN THE CELLAR DID THE BEST. 



Last fall my pa packed 59 swarms of bees for win- 

 ter. He had 38 in the cellar and 21 outdoors. He 

 lost 2 of those that he left out. Pa says it seems as 

 if those he put in the cellar almost doubled. I have 

 a little brother. He will be 3 years old the 10th of 

 April. He is a dreadful little mischief. Sometimes 

 I help pa extract honey. The name of his extractor 

 is " Novice," and he says that means you. In the 

 spring of 188(i he bought 20 colonies of bees of Mr. 

 Hunt, of Bell Branch, Mich., and we commenced to 

 take Gleanings again, and I guess we always shall. 

 I like the little letters and your travels. Ma likes 

 Our Homes, and pa likes it all. That kite I got of 

 you is almost as good as new. 



Starville, Mich. Mabel M. Cook, age 9. 



THAT BABY SISTER. 



Yesterday, Feb. 22, the bees had a good cleansing 

 flight. Papa says they have consumed more honey 

 this winter than ever he knew them to do before, 

 and it has been a mild winter too. Upon examin- 

 ing them yesterday he found a great many colo- 

 nies short of stores, and two had starved. Mr. 

 Root, the notes that you have given us in Glean- 

 ings of your trip to California have been very in- 

 teresting. Mamma reads Our Homes to us Sunday 

 evenings. I like to see the pictures of the bee- 

 keepers. Why not give the picture of your little 

 boy Huber? I should like to see him, and pinch his 

 little fat cheeks. I can remember him as I saw 

 him a little baby. He had just learned to walk. I 

 have a little sister, 26 months old to-day, and she 

 weighs 42 lbs. She is just as dear a darling as can 

 be. Gertrude Seabright, age 9. 



Blaine, Belmont Co., O , Feb. 23, 1889. 



HOW BEES PROTECT FRUIT, AS TOLD BY A LITTLE 

 GIRL. 



My uncle has 30 swarms of bees, wintered in chaff 

 hives, doing well. He has mulberry-trees in the 

 yard with them, and they have berries on, and the 

 wild canary likes the berries as well as I. Uncle 

 has one tree among the bees, and the birds did not 

 touch them. It was full of berries, and from the 

 others we had to shoo the birds off. Auntie says 

 she is going to have uncle put a hive under every 

 tree, and that will be seven, and see if the bees will 



