298 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



section - machines seen in the foreground. 

 He was trying to disengage a section-blank, 

 which was caught. Instead of talcing an 

 iron hook wjiich is provided for the purpose, 

 he used his hand. We give you tliis fact, in 

 order to impress upon the minds of you who 

 have to do with saws or hive -making ma- 

 chinei'y, to be careful ; be afraid of the 

 saws ; rememl)er the terrible consequences. 



OUR P. BENSON LETTER. 

 Luv & Beafstake & Beestings. 



A ROMANTS. 



TNTO the life of evry 1 cums a time which taken 

 1^ at the flud leads on to forchune. Sitch a time 

 ^l hed cum into the life of Emmy Jane. That 

 •*■ was her 1st name. Emmy Jane Cary was her 

 fool name. She was a hansum creetur, fare as 

 the dooy breth of a mornin zeffer in the witching- 

 cam of twilite revery. Her parents on her father's 

 side was a fHrmer, with four (4) sons and three (3) 

 dotters. Emmy Jane was 1 of the dotters. Wil- 

 ly Davis hed been keepin compenny with her, but 

 for sum time now a cool strain of teelin hed groad 

 up atwixt them. 1 no oil about the koz of it but I 

 druther not tell. Willy told me in confidents. Suf- 

 fize it to say that the g-ap kep gittin wider an wider. 

 You no sitch things are up to go that way. He was 

 hotty & she was proud, & nether wood give in a 

 inch. 



EMMA .JANE AIND POOR WILI^Y. 



But the e})Ock into her life to whitch I refurred in 

 the beginnin was about to arrive. Willy hed bin up 

 to Jack Wilsen's to git a settin of eggs from Jack's 

 muther, not that Wilsen's hed enny better breed of 

 hens, but thay are ap to do better if you change 

 eggs. Nowadaze peaple makes a fuss about thor- 

 rowbred fouls & all that sort of thing, but bless you, 

 thay was jist as good chicken pie years ago when 

 thay diddent no enny thing about breed.s oanly to 

 change eggs now and then. But Ime gettin off the 

 subjeck. Curuss how a buddy will run from 1 thing 

 to anuther. Now thares Dan Jones. Heal com- 

 mens to tell sumthing and run off on to sumthing 

 else & like enuff forgit all about what he started on. 

 Its reel try in to lissen to sitch t'okes. So as Willy 

 was goln by Emmy Jane's he kep his hed doun jist 

 as if he diddent care a speck for her. That was the 

 way with both of them, coald & indiffernt outside 

 but all the time heed a give his oald boots to make 

 up, & she wurshipt the verry ground he trod on. 

 But jist then he heer a offul screech, and lookin 

 round he see it was Emmy Jane. The bees was af- 

 ter her and she was a gittin lively, a yelpin evry 

 step. Willy was afeared of bees but he summond 

 oil his 40tood and went to sucker her from the im- 

 pending dainger. He 1st poot the eggs carefool like 



in the fents corner. Eggs doant hatch near so good 

 if thare shook up mutch, but it doant hurt them 

 nun for cookin. Emmy Jane hed thread her aperu 

 over her hed, so the bees coodent git at her, and 

 when Willy cum ui> a strikin wildy with both hands 

 them bees jist piled onto him. & give it to him in 

 both ize. You dot to a seen him. Thay was mourn 

 30 stings, and in lessen 2 minites boath ize was jest 

 about shut. That fetcht Emmy Jane. She sez to 

 him, sez she, "() my poor Willy," sez she, "are you 

 killed 'i"" "Not quite," sez he. "O," sez she "and 

 you risked yure life to save me." And then she got 

 him in the house and pored camflre & salleratus in 

 his ize, & tied raugh beef on them & he toled her 

 thay never hed bin a thing atwixt him & Dell Stull, 

 that he hed jist gone thare to git a yellow rose bush 

 and wuzzent waitin on Dell at oil, but when Emmy 

 Jane got mad he was too proud to explane. 



Menny yeers has i)ast, and Mrs. Davis, she that 

 was Emmy Jane Cary, helv)S take care of the aperry 

 & Willy refers with joy to the time when the bees 

 got him back Emmy Jane. 



P. Benson, A. B. S. 



THE CHAFF HIVE VS. SIMPLICITY. 



AN A B C S EXPERIENCE. 



T SHOULD like to know why my bees are breed- 

 'M ing so much faster in the Simplicity hives than 

 W they are in the chatf hives. I looked at my 

 "*■ bees on the 20th, and found in a Simplicity 

 hive a good-sized patch of brood and young 

 bees already hatched out. They are hybrids. The 

 queen is an Italian dollar queen. I got her from J. 

 W. K. Shaw last si)ring. The queen must have be- 

 gun to lay about Jan. 1st, or a little after, when the 

 mercury was about down to zero. We have had a 

 cold winter. Snow fell on the oth about six inches 

 deep. Some of the other colonies are in chatf hives, 

 and they began breeding only a few days ago. They 

 are strong swarms, on six L. frames, with plenty of 

 stores, and well packed with chaff, according to 

 your directions in the ABC book. The bees in those 

 chatf hives are hybrids, and of the same lot of 

 queens as the one in the Simplicity hive. 



I do not find that the chatf hive has many advan- 

 tages over the S. hive. 1 have blacks and full- 

 blood Italians in one-story Simplicity hives, with 

 chatf packed on each side, and a thin cloth over the 

 frames. A little chatf' is spread over the cloth, and 

 a Simplicity cover put on. They are in fine condi- 

 tion now. Some have sealed brood; some have 4 

 frames and others only ;i; and I expect them to 

 come through good strong colonies in the spring. 



We have certainly had a hard winter. I think the 

 most of the bees here in box hives have died. Some 

 absconded last summer; some were killed in the 

 fall, and a good many have frozen this winter. 



I like friend Doolittle's method of introducing 

 queen-cells. I had my queens purely mated, rear- 

 ing them late in the season, by keeping Itahan 

 drones in a queenless colony. 



I like Gle.\nings so well that 1 am always anx- 

 ious for it to arrive. I can not atford to do without 

 it. I have read a good many bee-journals, but 

 Gleanings is the best of any that 1 have read. 1 

 like to read your Home talks. It makes me feel 

 like calling you brother in i)lace of friend. Your 

 goods are always the best, and always give satis- 

 faction. C. F. Gbubb. 



Jubilee. Davidson Co., N. C. Jan. 29, 1887. 



