414 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



love to read the children's department. I find by 

 Question 108 that your correspondents, including 

 Prof. Cook, have never seen a worker-bee sting an- 

 other and leave its sting, in combat. This morning 

 I found one stung to death, and left dead on the 

 alighting-board, with the sting of the other left fast 

 to it. I will send the bee to you in this letter, as an 

 answer to your foot-note to the question. 

 Bnola, Ark., March :i, 1SS9. W. O. Dalton. 



Yes, the bee has got the sting left fast to 

 him. If you will turn again to pp. 138 and 

 139 you will see that we say, under certain 

 circumstances bees do sometimes leave their 

 stiugs in each other. 



HOW PAPA WATERS HIS BEES. 



I will tell you how my papa waters his bees. First 

 he takes a block, one cubic foot large, and makes 

 little cracks in the middle of it. 

 Then he takes a glass, puts it 

 over the can, then turns the can 

 over so that the water runs in the 

 little cracks, and the bees come - 

 and drink. Papa has 32 swarms P 

 of bees. One is dead, and one is 

 very weak. Papa had to feed his 

 bees this winter. In winter he 

 feeds them with powdered sugar and honey, mixed. 

 Papa is making an incubator. I thank you very 

 much for the nice writing-paper you sent me the 

 other time. I will try to make a picture of how the 

 block and can look. Emma Graeper, age 9. 



Westphalia, Ind. 



Your drawing is a very good one. While 

 it is not quite so finished as the engraving 

 which we have made, it represents the idea 

 just as well. We have given colonies water 

 in this way for a good many years. For the 

 last two or three years we have added a little 

 salt to the water, and hnd that the bees will 

 take the water much more readily. 



A DEVICE TO SEPARATE SIMPLICITY HIVES GUM- 

 MED TOGETHER. 



On page 90, Gleanings for Feb. 1, we noticed 

 Mrs. Chaddock and her husband had trouble in re- 

 moving the top story from the Simplicity hives. 

 We will try to help them out of it by telling about 

 the machine we use for that purpose. The accom- 

 panying drawing represents our idea. The post, B, 



which is about 3 in. wide and % of an inch thick, 

 extends from the hand-hole below, where a piece of 

 iron, A, is joined on at right angles to the post. 

 This iron fits into the hand-hole of the brood-cham- 

 ber. The post is joined to the lever, C, by a hinge, 

 about 3 in. from the end. The lever should be 18 or 

 20 in. long, and flattened off at the top to lit into the 

 hand-hole of the upper story. With this machine, 

 which is not patented, father has no trouble in sep- 

 arating hives, no matter how tight they may be 



glued. It should be made of hard wood. A com- 

 mon door-hinge will do to join the post to the lever. 

 Galena, 111. Hallett Bros. 



HOW PAPA GETS RID OP THE CODLIN MOTH. 



I thought I would tell you how my pa catches cod- 

 lin moths, and other moths and bugs. When fruit- 

 trees are coming into bloom he gets molasses-bar- 

 rels just emptied, and puts water in them. Then 

 he takes wire cloth and makes it in the shape of a 

 funnel, with a hole in the little end. Then he drops 

 it, small end first, into the barrel and fastens it to 

 the top of the barrel by bending the edge of the big 

 end of the funnel over the chime of the barrel. In 

 the morning he skims out the moths and uses them 

 for fertilizer for his fruit-trees. He covers it in day 

 time to keep out bees. George Hobbs, age 12. 



Middleport, O., Mar. 9, 1889. 



PAPA'S BEST HELPERS. 



I herewith inclose you a drawing which I made 

 with one of your polished cedar rubber-tipped pen- 

 cils. These scenes were enacted last summer in 

 my father's apiary, about the time P. Benson went 

 west. We were talking about what became of him 

 just as I was about to bend the little tree over (as 

 seen in first scene), in order that it might be reach- 

 ed and pulled over so that the swarm of bees that 

 had clustered near the top might be shaken down 

 in front of the hive. As I was creeping out a little 

 further, the tree broke, and down came tree-top, 

 bees, and all, in a bunch together, without a sting. 

 Father remarked, "That is what became of P. 

 Benson." 



SWARMING AND HIVING, IN TWO ACTS. 



Father says that his best helpers in the bee-yard 

 are the fountain-pump and my little sister Ella, 

 who may be seen in the drawing. The fountain- 

 pump is used to bring down the swarm, and sister 

 Ella brings the bee-veil and brush when needed. 

 Father adds, that every scientist should have these 

 helpers in the bee-yard, and a copy of Pilgrim's 

 Progress in the home. Walter A. Chapman. 



River Falls, Wis. 



Your drawings were very good, and we 

 have tried to reproduce them as nearly as 

 we could. It is a little remarkable that you 

 were not stung nor hurt, and we are all very 

 glad of the happy result. An accident from 

 which no great harm results is often the 

 best kind of a warning against the repeti- 

 tion of another, the result of which might be 

 tenfold worse. It is not safe to risk our 

 bodies on limbs of questionable strength, 

 particularly when after a swarm, for angry 

 bees may add to a broken arm hundreds of 

 stings. 



