406 



ULj5A:t^iKGS IN BEE cul-TuliJ:. 



May 



learn all this V Surely not from father nor 

 mother. 



While speaking about letting children play 

 with neighbor's children, a friend made the 

 remark that evil many times comes from 

 letting the children make too long visits. 

 Let them go for an hour, or half an hour, 

 lierhaps, and l)e sure that they are taught to 

 be prompt and punctual. Be very careful 

 about letting them go away to stay over 

 night. Tlie paients should know exactly 

 when the cliildren retire to rest, and, ab(jvc 

 all things, the company they are with at 

 such times. Some poor Woman may say, in 

 despair, •• How can I, with all my cares, 

 keep su(;h unremitting watch as all this de- 

 mands V'" Dear mother, what is the most 

 important commission that God has ever 

 placed upon you ? Is there any duty or any 

 task in life tiiat comes any thing near being 

 so important as this one of bringing your 

 children up in sucli a way that they shall be 

 pure in heart V Those tliat are pure in heart 

 shall see Ciod. To them is this promise 

 given, and to none others. 



^EPei^i^is Dipceni^/i6iN6. 



A LOSS OF IS OUT OP 21 DURING WINTER; WHAT 

 KILLED THEM. 



XF you really long- for some " reports discourag- 

 /mF ing," I can furnish you witli iit least one such. 

 ^l If I do not take the " first premium " 1 shall at 



■*■ least hope my chances for second are very 

 fair in the line ot jioor success, or. if you 

 please, '■ awful bad luck," dm-ing the past winter. 

 And if you can " help us t)ut of our trouble," as 

 you intimate your ability to do, it will lie some 

 compensation for the "doleful story " of luy last 

 winter's experience. 



I prepared for winler. as early as Nov. 1, 31 col- 

 onies, rather stronger than usual. I packed in dry 

 leaves, and covered with carpet two or three thick- 

 nesses above, and with sutticient honey, as 1 

 thought, said good-by to them for the winter. I 

 did not say farewell for ever, tor I thought we 

 should meet again when the "flowers that bloom in 

 spring " should entice them and myself from our 

 winter quarters. But we didn't. Eighteen out of 

 that possible 31 have gone to gather nectar where 

 " ever}asting spring abides, and never-withering 

 flowers." At least they have "gone dead," awfully 

 dead, and will never again visit any flowers here. 

 " How did it happen'/" you say. Well, I wish you 

 would tell me. That is just what I want to And 

 out. If 1 can, and you thus help me out of my 

 trouble, perhaps I may be able ne.xt winter to save 

 more than one out of seven; that is, if 1 can hope 

 to increase to so numerous an apiary from my re- 

 maining trio of brave survivors. Now don't put 

 me in Blasted Hopes. I am not there at all. I am 

 not even discouraged, for— well, haven't I three 

 colonies left? and I dare say that is three times as 

 many as some poor unfortunates can boast who 

 last fall were beginning' to calculate what invest- 

 ments they would make of the profits of this year's 

 honey-crop. 



I presume you arc inijuisilive enough to wish to 

 know what manner of hive to attribute this loss to. 

 Well. I use three kinds of hives— the Chaff Ecle<^tic, 



the American, and a nameless hive made by a 

 neighbor by the name of Pierce, and 1 call it, hence, 

 the Pierce hive. It holds six frames, and is very- 

 deep— 18 inches by 10. My three surviving colo- 

 nies were in these hives. I am credulous enough to 

 think that the depth of these hives had something 

 to do with the safety of these lucky little fellows— 

 especially as in past winters my losses have been 

 chiefly in shallow-frame hives— Simplicity, etc. 



One other circumstauce 1 ought to mention, and 

 that is, that I had my bees on the north side of a 

 board fence, and lacing north. Did that have a 

 necessarily fatal effect y 1 have wintered that way 

 before. Do you ask why? Simply because I do not 

 own the south side of that fence. If I did I would 

 put them there. 



Tell me all about the reasons for my " awful bad 

 luck " the past winter, it you can. J. F. P.xtton. 



New York, May 4, l«87. 



Friend P., while I should hardly think 

 that putting bees on the north side of a 

 fence would be fatal to them. I should call it 

 a rather unfavorable location. While read- 

 ing your letter I v/as wondering if there 

 were not some starvation about it. You 

 say you left them with sufficient honey, as 

 you thouglit, but you don't tell us how much 

 was left wlun you found them dead. 1 can 

 not tell you where the failure came in, as 

 you state it; but 1 do think, that if you put 

 up your bees in clialf . packed as we describe 

 in the A B C book, you can succeed in win- 

 tering as well as others do. 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 



BEES IN NICE CONDITION. 



§ITR bees are in splendid condition, and 

 I think I never saw moi-e brood in the 

 hives at this time of year than now, 

 although the spiing is a little late. 

 These young Itees have come in at just 

 the right time, t\)r we notice that the old 

 bees wliich withstood the hardships of win- 

 ter so well are now becoming scarce. So 

 far we have not fed, as we desue to let the 

 bees clean out their combs entirely of all 

 remnants of lioney fed Irom last fall and 

 summer. A little later, if apple - bloom 

 should not furnish us honey enough we will 

 feed. 



It is over six weeks since we have had a 

 case of foul brood ; and if you could look 

 into the condition of our colonies, and see 

 the clean healthy brood, and tlie number of 

 young bees, I believe the most skepti(;al of 

 you would acknowledge that, so far as ap- 

 pearances are conceined. we have fully erad- 

 icated the disease. 



So confident do we feel that we have cured 

 foul brood, that we have decided to put the 

 two loads of bees from friends Rice and 

 Shook into our home apiary. We now have 

 240 fair colonies, with brood and young bees 

 in all stages of development. I believe we 

 never had a nicer lot of bees, or as nice- 

 looking queens as now, and we certainly 

 never had brood more healthy-looking. Un- 

 less some of our customers object, we will till 



