THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



57 



Little Ah Sid. 



Little Ah Sid 



Whs a Christian kid — 



A cute little cuss, you'd declare — 



With eyes full of fun 



And a nose that begun 

 Higli up in the roots of his hair. 



Jolly and fat 



Was this frolicsome brat 

 As he played through the long summer day; 



And he braided his cue 



As his father used to 

 In Chinaland, far, far away. 



Once o'er the lawn 



That Ah Sid played on 

 A honey-bee Hew in the spring, 



" Melican butter-fly," 

 "Cried he, " Ki Yi," 

 "Me catchee and pull off uni wing." 



! hen with his cap 



He gave it a rap — 

 This innocent, busy bee — 



And put its remains 



In the seat of his jeans, 

 For a pocket ne'er had the Chinee. 



Down on the green 



Sat the sardine, 

 In a style that was strangely demure, 



And said with a grin 



That was brim full of sin, 

 " Me mashee um butterfly, sure." 



Little Ah Sid 



Was only a kid, 

 Nor could you expect him to guess 



What kind of a bug 



lie was holding so snug 

 In the folds of his loose-fitting dress. 



'• Ki ; Ki -yip'- ye," 



Ah Sid cried, as he 

 Rose hurriedly up from that spot, 



" Ki-yi ; Yuk-a-Yan, 



l>;ffn um Melican man — 

 Um butter-flv bellv much hot." 



Double-cased Hive.— We have 



elsewhere expressed a strong prefer- 

 ence for a light form of hive, with an 

 outer casing of similar Light wood and 

 a pretty roomy space between k and 

 the hive proper. It is just aquestion 

 whether our views regarding the need 

 of this space being filled with warm 

 material or not will require modifying, 

 but so far as we have deemed any- 

 thing beyond the simple air-space it- 

 self unnecessary. And the terrible 

 severe winter through which our bees 

 are now passing — unprotected by any- 

 thing except the bare hives and outer 

 cases — will surely test the point thor- 

 oughly. We never liked the littery 

 mess a bushel of chaff or cork-dust 

 makes when removing it — so far with- 

 out bad results; and if the bees are all 

 right this year, we shall consider that 

 chaff j)acking may well be dispensed 

 with. 



Just one word of advice in conclu- 

 sion: Never attempt to winter a lot 

 of weak colonies. Six strong stocks 

 will do far more woik than a dozen 

 weak ones ; therefore, when stocks 

 cover less than five frames in Septem- 

 ber, join two together before packing 

 up for winter. — Bee-Keeper's Record, 



Double vs. Single-walled Hives. 

 We have on another page referred to 

 the fact of our own hives and bees be- 

 ing, through circumstances beyond our 

 control, left to take their chances of 

 wintering safely, without being in any 

 way specially prepared for it. They 

 were thus left until the 31st of Janu- 

 ary, when an opportunity offered for 

 paying them a visit. Having reduced 

 our apiary to ten stocks on coming 

 south, it was not a big job, but the 

 examination resulted very satisfactory 



