l88t 



GLfiAKlNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



fi25) 



A SELECTION. 



Listen to the lionf>v-lH'e 



As it fiances nurrily 

 To til.' little I'airii's' (hum - 

 HliiiiiiLinti. liiiiLiniiiiu'. hiiiiuiiiii^. liinii. 



Never idle. ii.'V.-r still. 

 HulumiHiC. luiiiiiiiiiiu'. luiiii. 



Geokoe Ellison. 

 Stateburg, Sumter Co., S. C, July 2;J, 1S87. 



HOW PA TAKES DOWN A SWAKM. 



When my father has a swarm up hig'h in a tree he 

 takes a long pole and fastens a bo.v to the end of it, 

 then he raises it up; aii<l when the box is under the 

 swarm he bumps it up against the limb till the bees 

 fall into the box, then he lowers it and puts them 

 into a hive he has ready. Ernest C. Hilton. 



Los Alamos, Santa Barbara Co., Cal. 



LOVING .JESUS. 



1 am seven years old, and I g'O to Sabbath-school. 

 I wish all little boys and girls who go would try to 

 get those to go who do not, and learn to love Jesus. 

 I think it is in Sabbath-sehool they will be taught to 

 be good, and to do good, and help other.s to learn 

 of Jesus. Jesus said, " Suffer little children to 

 come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is 

 the kingdom of heaven." Fkances Nelson. 



Talley Cavy, Pa., Mar. 18, 1887. 



folding sections. 



I put sections together at the rate of 660 per hour. 

 They were the one-piece sections. Pa has about 40 

 stands of bees. I have one. They have not swarm- 

 ed this year. They are all Italians. They made no 

 honey last spring, but are getting some from sutnac 

 now. Charles Weltv. 



Nashville, Mo., July 31, 1887. 



Try again, friend Charlie, and see if you 

 can not equal the record of Nettie Cranston, 

 as recorded on pa^e .5.50, July 1.5th. If you 

 turn back you will set' that the little girl has 

 nearly doubled your rate of folding. 



ESTHER'S LETTER. 



We drained our fish-pond, and did not find any 

 carp. The clover is jielding very little honey, on 

 account of dry weather, but we are getting some 

 rain now. The fog is very heavy, and the little 

 chickens don't like it. They make a very loud 

 peeping. Lem wants to go out and see what is the 

 matter with his chicks. He has the chicken-pox, so 

 he dare not, but he doesn't know it. The straw- 

 berries all dried up, but the grapes are fine. The 

 Concords are the largest, but the \'ergennes and 

 Pocklington have the least foxiness on the grape. 

 Esther Triedley. 



Silver City, Iowa, July 3, 1887. 



THE mosquito HAWK. 



Pa has two hives of bees. Brother George has 

 five, and 1 have one. We keep our bees in what is 

 called the Golden bee-hive. Pa says he does not 

 like it, because the loj) story is too small. He 

 knocked oft the bottom of the bottom story, and put 

 it on one of his hives instead of tlie small top storj'. 

 I am the one who attends to the bees and takes the 

 honey. What is called the " mosquito hawk " is a 

 great enemy to the bees. You see them every 

 evening Hying around the hives, and now and then 

 you see one catch a bee and go off. T like to work 

 with bees when they are not too cross. 



John.sonville, S. C. May 12, 1887. S. O. Eddy. 



how TO TAKE A SWARM DOWN KRO.M AN APPLE- 

 TREE. 



I should like to tell that other Kred (sec page 68) 

 how to take bees down from the tops of apple-trees, 

 without getting stung. Fasten the swarming-box 

 under the cluster, as near to it as possible. Take 

 one end of a ball of wooi-twine, climb the tree, tie 

 the twine around the limb just above the cluster, 

 then get down. Take the ball, and go away as far 

 as you please, and shake until the bees are all in the 

 swarming-box, then carry them to the hive. 



Fred Gillett, age 11. 



Brighton, Lorain Co., Ohio. 



QUICK CAPPING OF HONEY. 



My pa takes Gleanings, and he said he had nev- 

 er read of honey being capped in three days after it 

 was gathered. But we had some in 1886, and the 

 year before, that the bees began to cap the third 

 day after it was gathered. At the fair, pa talked 

 with a man who had been keeping bees for a long- 

 time, and this man said he had " never heard tell 

 of " honey being capped in less time than six days, 

 and we want your opinion. We took 9fl,5 lbs. of hon- 

 ey in 18f-'H. and increased from i;! to 19 swarms. 



Eaton, Preble Co , O. Lolo R. Flora, age Vi. 



I should say it was rather (luick work for 

 bees to cap honey over in three days after it 

 was gathered, iloney must have been com- 

 ing in at a great rate. 



DIFFERENCE IN LOCALITIES BUT A SHORT DIS- 

 TANCE APART. 



Our bees have not gathered enough honey to keep 

 them all alive. We have had to feed some. My pa 

 has 48 hives of bees. They are a little weak. Bees 

 all around us are doing well. Eight or nine miles 

 south and east they have had plenty of rain. If it 

 does not rain soon I don't know what bees are to do 

 here. Robert Willis. 



Jonah, Williamson Co., Tex., July 13, 1887. 



Yes, Robert , a distance of only a few miles 

 oftentimes makes quite a difference in the 

 honey crop. 



bees .\nd fish. 



My pa has a new way of feeding his bees. He 

 takes a little glass tumbler and fills it with syrup, 

 puts on the lid, turns it upside down, and it runs out 

 enough for the bees to eat it as fast as it runs out. 

 Pa is building a workshop and a granary, and he is 

 going to have a room in it to keep his honey to sell. 

 We have three fish-ponds. When pa goes to the 

 ponds every morning to feed the fish he smacks his 

 hands and calls them, and then he throws bread in 

 to the fish, and they come up and eat it. The cranes 

 eat up some of them. Pa saw a crane at one of his 

 ponds this morning. He shot at it, but did not kill 

 it. Susie Cooper. 



Traveler's Best, S. C, July 5, 1887. 



the CATAI.1PA-TREE. 



One year ago I made up my mind to liavc an api- 

 ary. As I was only thirteen years old, I bought one 

 colony which lias increased to three. The lolony 

 which I bought I have transferred into a Simplicity 

 hive. They have not made much surplus honey. 



We have the catalpa, or cigar tree, here, and the 

 bees work on them all the time they are in bloom. 

 If you were under the trees it would sound as if 

 there were a swarm going over your head. One of 

 my colonies seems to be very weak. Pa and I look- 



