S70 



(il.EANlMtlS IN IJEK CUJyi'Ulit:. 



Nov. 



SOMETHING FROM WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 



There are a great many wild flowers out here, 

 which are full of honey. If we had some bees we 

 ounld have honey to sell, and all we could eat. Te- 

 anaway City is growing fast. We live one mile from 

 town. Seth S. Seaton. 



Teanaway City, W. T. 



ASHES IN FRONT OF THE ENTKANCK. 



Pa takes Gleanings, and he says he would not 

 do without it. He throws ashes on the snow in 

 front of the hive, to keep the bees from falling in 

 the snow, and freezing; he thinks it does good, and 

 wants to know your opinion about it. 



Yocumtown, Pa. Hattie Fetrow. 



Very likely the ashes would answer a good 

 purpose, if the bees fly while the snow is 

 on the ground ; but we have never found it 

 necessary to use any thing. 



CORA'S LETTER. 



Papa had 9 stands, and increased to 28 by the in- 

 formation obtained in your books. Most of our 

 bees swarmed, and papa hived them. They went to 

 work nicely. I am not afraid of bees. I go all 

 around the hives. I love to read little folks' letters. 

 Papa is going to send for some carp. We have 

 some nice places for ponds. Cora Thompson. 



Bristol, N. C. 



"A BEE-PATCH' 



Frank, a small boy, saw some bees on some gold- 

 cni'od flowers, and went home and said to his 

 mother, '' You can't guess what I have found." 

 " No," said his mother. " I found a bee-patch." 



Nolandville, Tex. Charles Normand. 



I suppose the little boy meant that he saw 

 a field literally covered with humming bees. 

 It is a pleasant sight, isn't it, to see the bees 

 thus busily engaged? IIow happy they are ! 

 Bees never get into mischief when they 

 have something to do in the fields. You 

 know, " Satan finds some mischief still for 

 idle hands to do," and little bees are no ex- 

 ception when they are idle. 



melvin's brother's 300 colonies. 



I go to school every day, and read in the third 

 book. My studies are arithmetic, grammar, writ- 

 ing, and drawing. I have two brothers, bee-keep- 

 ers. One brother commenced with 3 colonies last 

 year, and now has 28. The other brother has 300. 

 I help to attend to them in the summer, and watch 

 them when they swarm. I like honey very much, 

 and sometimes I get a sting. Melvin L. Moore. 



Pelham Union, Ont., Can., Oct. 23, 1887. 



the bee. 



Bees live between 6 and 8 weeks In the honey sea- 

 son. The drone lives about as long as the bee, but 

 sometimes the bees kill them befoi'e they get very 

 old. The queen sometimes gets to be very old. 

 She doesn't do any outdoor w6rk. She generally 

 lives through the second or thli-d season. My 

 brother has four stands of bees. The bee Is a very 

 particular little Insect. If the hive doesn't suit 

 them they leave It. C. J. Fox, age 13. 



Brookville, O. 



neli,ie's report. 



My papa has 30 stands. He gave me one hive, and 

 1 got $2. .50 worth of honey. We sell the extracted 

 at 10 cts. a pound. We have one of your extractors, 

 and like it real well. Papa took his wax-extractor 

 to the fair and got the first premium last week. 



Our bees did the best of any one's around here. 

 We got over 1000 lbs. of honey. We take Glean- 

 ings. It is papa's favorite book. 



Nellie Dickman, age 14. 

 Defiance. O., Sept. 7, 1887. 



recipes for honey-cakes. 



1 send you two good honey-cake recipes. 



Poor Marl's Cake.— One egg, broken into a cup, 

 and beaten a little; fill up the cup with sweet milk; 

 take one cup of honey, half a cup of butter, one 

 teaspoonful cream tartar; half a teaspoonful of 

 soda. This is a good cheap cake. 



Sponge Cake.— One cup of honey, three eggs beat- 

 en .to froth, half a cup of sweet milk, two table- 

 spoonfuls of melted butter, one teaspoonful of 

 cream tartar, half a teaspoonful of soda; flavor to 

 taste. Add flour enough to make a light sponge. 

 This recipe makes a nice jelly or cocoanut cake. 



Edgerton, Kansas. Wilbur Endly. 



WINTERING bees UPSTAIRS. 



My pa caught a swarm of bees, and made a hive 

 and put them in it. He had never tried to keep 

 bees before, and so he thought he would put them 

 upstairs, and they all died. Then he bought another 

 swarm, and now he has nine. He had a swarm that 

 was packed, and he did not unpack them soon 

 enough. The comb melted and fell, and it smother- 

 ed all of the bees. My pa takes Gleanings. I like 

 to read the .iuvenlle letters. Jessie Bryner. 



Bloomfield, Pa. 



Friend Jessie, I am glad you have told us 

 of your papa's failure, for it gives me an 

 opportunity to say that I hardly ever knew 

 of bees wintering successfully in an upper 

 room. The changes of temperature are too 

 great. In the coldest weather it will be too 

 cold, and in the warmest weather it will be 

 too hot, in spite of any thing we can do. I 

 do not quite understand why the combs 

 should melt and fall down on account of the 

 packing. Our chaff hives are packed both 

 winter and summer, and we never knew of 

 our combs melting down, unless the bees 

 were fastened in the hives. 



HOW to pick up bees. 



We have a few stands of bees. I said I was not 

 afraid of the bees, so one day I picked one up on 

 my finger, and it stung me. One day my ma was 

 hiving the bees, and they stung her all over the 

 head. Kate Neff, age 8. 



Cleve, Polk Co., Iowa. 



Friend Katie, you didn't pick up the bee 

 right. You remember, perhaps, about a 

 year ago I gave some instructions how to 

 pick up bees. You were first to practice on 

 drones, as they crawl over the comb. With 

 your thumb and forefinger, grasp the wings 

 and you can pick up the drones without a 

 bit of trouble. Keep on practicing wdth 

 drones until you have learned the knack of 

 picking them up without hurting them. 

 Having done this you can then with more 

 security pick up the worker-bee. You must 

 be sure to grasp hold of both wings, other- 

 wise he will turn over and make you feel in- 

 clined to let him go. It is one of the little 

 fine arts of bee-keeping to fill a queen-cage 

 with a dozen bees or more, in a half-minute. 

 It can be done, and has been done, by those 

 who know how. 



