116 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



lead one into the habit of laying it to poor 

 luck when things go wrong, while in reality 

 there is no such thing — only your failure to 

 attend to some essential. 

 Seven Valleys, Pa. 



«^-*--» 



A BEE-KEEPERS REMINISCENCE. 



BY WM. BKUCUS. 



Years ago, when I first began my apicul- 

 tural career and knew all about bees, I said 

 one morning to my wife, "My dear, we're 

 going to stay home this forenoon. The bees 

 won't swarm to-day." 



I began to busy myself by turning my at- 

 tention to the lawn, humming at times lit- 

 tle ditties, and breaking out vigorously at 

 times in a deep bass voice which one of our 

 friends heartlessly said sounded like a saw- 

 mill in distress. In the midst of one of 

 these outbreaks of feeling I was brought 

 back to the reality of every-day life by the 

 exclamation, "The bees are swarming ! " 



Upon reaching the bee-yard I found a 

 swarm circling around without the slightest 

 regard for any one's feelings. The bees final- 

 ly met in convention on a huge limb high 

 up in an immense oak. My heart sank 

 within me; but hope returned, and I got the 

 ladder. I made up my mind to sweep the 

 senate, secure a majority in the house, shear 

 the committee on rules of its power, and to 

 make some innovations that would teach 

 those bees where they were going to get off. 

 I tied one end of a rope to my ankle and 

 the other end to a basket, and mounted the 

 ladder, scaling the trunk above the ladder 

 like a monkey. 



The campaign was nicely planned, and ev- 

 ery thing should have terminated well, but 

 " the best-laid plans of mice and men gang 

 aft agley," as has been said by the poet. 



1 reached the bees safely, and found that 

 they were full-blooded hybrids. Two or 

 three bees faced about and stared in an un- 

 mannerly way that is always disconcerting 

 to a sensitive nature: but I proceeded to pull 

 up the basket in a calm and nonchalant 

 way, as if the danger were a pastime, while 

 my wife looked on proudly from below. I 

 then proceeiled to scrape off the bees with 

 unerring hand. It was then that those hy- 

 brids made an exhibition of themselves 

 thiit was entirely out of place. One, with 

 foul intent, harpooned me on the hand; 

 another went up my sleeve; but when they 

 advanced in solid phalanx and made a 

 flank movement, pouring in a volley of poi- 

 soned arrows through my thin denim trou- 

 sers, I became disgusted and made up my 

 mind that I wouldn't hive bees that acted 

 in that disgraceful way. I began to retire 

 then. 



"Don't come too fast," said my wife. I 

 assured her that I couldn't. I was taking 

 full advantage of gravity, although it was 

 not intentional. Fortunately the rope, 

 which was attached to my ankle, was fas- 

 tened to a limb of the tree, and thus was 

 prevented the disfiguring of the lawn. After 

 a long interval (at least so it seem^ed to me) , 



my wife, who had gone after a knife, reliev- 

 ed me of the monotony of swinging, sus- 

 pended by one leg, like a pendulum, fight- 

 ing valiantly, and with perfect presence of 

 mind, the bees which had taken advantage 

 of the absence of a bee-veil, and were, with- 

 out feeling, burrowing in my hair and cling- 

 ing tenaciously to my face and neck. Even 

 after I had gone into the house, had cared 

 for the stings, and had fallen asleep, my 

 slumber was disturbed by the eternal buzz, 

 buzz, buzz of swarming baes. 

 Cadott, Wis. 



FLIES AND MAGGOTS FOR POULTRY. 



BY THOMAS DEWEES. 



As an interested reader of Gleanings I 

 can not refrain from having a part in the 

 discussion concerning the use of stale meat, 

 maggots, and the like as a food for poultry. 

 That chickens may be used as scavengers is 

 altogether correct; as, when supplied with 

 such or allowed access thereto, they will eat 

 all sorts of filth and corruption. But if we 

 are going to use them for this purpose let 

 us, for the time being at least, discard them 

 as a food for our own bodies. That the 

 quality and quantity of the blood is depen- 

 dent on the amount and character of the 

 food, is a fact well understood; also that it 

 is from this life-giving current that every 

 fiber and tissue of the animal body derives 

 its strength and is built up. 



Understanding this, I have about the 

 same use for eggs and flesh of fowls laden 

 with such loathsome germs as those must 

 be that have been subsisting on jiutrid flesh 

 and worms that are a product of the same, 

 or, in fact, any decomjiosing or fermenting 

 substance. 



Now for an intelligent solution of this 

 problem, I want to invite readers of Glean- 

 ings to make the following test: Take from 

 your flocks a thrifty fowl and place it in 

 clean comfortable quarters, and supply it 

 with clean and suitable food, with fresh pure 

 water, for a period of from eight to ten days; 

 then kill and prepare it for the table; then 

 in like manner prepare one that has been 

 allowed to run at large, or perhaps fed as in- 

 dicated. Note the diflference in flavor, and 

 decide for yourselves. Also the same differ- 

 ence may be observed in the eggs from hens 

 receiving nothing but clean pure feed. 



Now as to the destruction of flies, if I am 

 not mistaken the fly that deposits its eggs 

 on the flesh and decaying animal matter is 

 a particular kind of green fly, often called 

 the blow-fly; and while it is sometimes an 

 annoyance it is one of the provisions of an 

 allwise Creator for the quick disjiosal of 

 these decomposing and offensive bodies that 

 poison and pollute the air we breathe. If I 

 am right, the more common fly that fre- 

 quents our houses deposits its eggs else- 

 where, very largely in manure-heaps, and 

 kindred places where there may be a little 

 extra warmth. 



Barnesville, O. 



