148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



FEii. 



ANOTHER BEE THAT LOST ITS STING. 



Seoiiig that jou had proposed to the .iviveiiiles tlic 

 plan of removing the sting from a bee, to see how 

 long: it would live without a sting-, I was pleased 

 with the idea, so I tried it when pa was put tin}? up 

 bees to ship. One alighted on tlie smoker, and left 

 its sting. T put it in a cage and gave it honey, and 

 it lived only six hours and fifteen minutes. 



Concord, Ky. Cr.YDiE PunCEr-fi, age i:!. 



TlMtNINO THE ENTUANCES OF HIVES TO THE 

 NORTH TO PltEVENT FLYING. 



] i)lay the violin. Do you love iiiusicj' Pa had 17 

 stands of bees last spring, and lost one of them. 

 He winters them in chatf hives on summer stands. 

 He turns their entrances to the nojth, so they will 

 not tly out so much when the sun shines, and the 

 wind is chilly. They increased to :i5 stands last 

 summer, and made 4i;(! lbs. of comb and 470 of ex- 

 tracted hone}'. Pa uses metal corners; he thinks 

 they will pay for themselves in a short time. He 

 takes Gleanings, and T like to read the juvenile 

 letters. I don't work much at the bees, but pa 

 keeps fanc}^ poultry, and T help to take care of 

 them. WiLLMEK Horning. 



Malvern, Hi., Jan. 10, 18.'-C. 



FLORIDA, AND THE EFFECT OF THE T.ATE FltEEZE 

 THERE. 



I am going to tell you about the freeze we had 

 down here. We had a very hard freeze. J t killed 

 all the oranges on the coast. There has not been 

 such a freeze for fifty years. It killed the man- 

 groves all down. You can go in the islands and see 

 the big old trees all dead; they were killed 

 by the great frost fifty years ago. I don't think 

 that the bees will do much next summer, for the 

 mangroves will not bloom this winter. The palmet- 

 to will be the only thing that they will have to get 

 honey from. 1 don't think that any bees were kill- 

 ed by the cold. Our bees are all right now. AVe 

 have no orange-grove, but I suppose we are just as 

 well off, because the cold would have killed it. 

 The oranges are all frozen, and good for nothing. 



Eva S. Olawson. 



Hawk's Park, Fla., Jan. 'Zi, 188fi. 



does a noise induce BEES TO CLUSTER? 



T am going to tell you about our bees. This was a 

 very poor season for honey, but still pa managed to 

 get 700 lbs. of honey from 40 colonies, which increas- 

 ed to 50 by careful tending to keep (Town swarming, 

 M'hich our neighbor bee-keepers neglected, and 

 they did not get any honey at all. Pa said he 

 would like to see one of your Johnston pumps, and 

 he would like to buy one if they would suit him. 

 We take Gleanings, and all of us read it, and 

 like it very much. I like to read the letters very 

 much, and my sisters too. ily little sister Lillie 

 has to watch the bees in swarming time, and when 

 they swarm she rattles a tin pan till pa comes to 

 take them. Is it not funny how bees will settle at 

 the rattling? They seem to like music. 



Clara Lurker. 



Cold Spring, Ky., Dec. 21, 1885. 



It is funny, (Uara, especially if it is true, 

 that noise induces bees to cluster. You will 

 notice that the ABC" book suggests that 

 tlie noise drowns the shrill note uttered by 

 the advance guard, therefore tiiey liave to 

 stop to get reorganized again. 



BEES building COMB O.V A BUSH WHERE THEV 

 HAD CLUSTERED. 



There was a bee-tree cut not very far from our 

 house, and the bees settled on a Imsh and built 

 some comb, and the queen had laid some eggs in 

 it when papa went and got The bees. Papa takes 

 (iLEANiNGS and I read lots of pieces in it. 



Ashland, Mo. Robert Martin, Jr. 



Wluit queer freaks bees do have! I sup- 

 pose tlie swann you speak of got demoraliz- 

 ed when their nice little liome came down 

 with a great crash, and they were ready then 

 to take up with almost "any liome, even 

 though it be a paltry bush. We have heard 

 of circumstances like this before, but they 

 are not very common. A while ago, you re- 

 member, a juvenile told us of a swarm that 

 clustered under an old bench. Jt stayed 

 there all winter, and didn't die either. We 

 like to have the little folks report any thing 

 of this kind that is a little unusual in" regard 

 to bees. J^erhaps we shall find that many 

 things are not so uncommon after all. 



Erxkst. 



raising carp, .\nd results. 



My pa has a carp-pond. He made it last spring. 

 Ho sent to Mr. Kaler for a pair of two-year-old carp. 

 He paid i?5.00 for them, and $3.50 express, and sent 

 for 100 little ones about 4 inches long, besides. He 

 paid S5.00 for them and*3.U5 express. Fifty-seven 

 of them were alive. He drained his pond this fall. 

 The two big ones Aveighed about 3 lbs. each. The 

 57 were about 12 inches long. There were 1100 little 

 ones about 4 inches long, and he sold si.x of them 

 that were 13 inches long for $15.00; sold 43 of the lit- 

 tle ones for !|'7.00, and the rest he put back in the 

 pond. The (!arp-book said the carp bury them- 

 selves in the mud in the winter. That is a mistake. 

 My pa went to the carp-pond to-day and cut a hole 

 in the ice in the middle of the pond, and he took the 

 piece of ice out. It was 7 inches thick, and he saw 

 the carp swim around by the dozens. It was 10 de- 

 grees below zei'o this morning. 



Emma Jensen, age 11. 



Valparaiso, Neb., Dec. 10, 1885. 



Why, Emma, your facts are very impor- 

 tant, 1 should say. I guess Mr. Peirce, who 

 wrote the carp-book, will have to tell how it 

 comes that the carp were swimming around 

 when it was 10 degrees below zero. May be 

 the cutting of the ice disturbed them, and 

 will result in their death. I liave heard of 

 goldfish being killed by cutting the ice on 

 the pond. [ 



tearing down cells; how soon do voung 

 queens commence it? 



Let me ask you a few questions about bees. Do 

 you think that bees will do good where 1 live? I live 

 where I can sec the beach every day. How long is 

 it after the first queen hatches, that she tears 

 down the other cells? Sarah Soper. 



Ferndale, HumboltCo., Cal. 



By referring to the map I see you are sit- 

 uated in the northern part of California. 

 The great honey region, however, is more in 

 the southern part of the State ; but I should 

 think your locality would be fully as good 

 as Ohio and other States where good yields 

 are obtained. — A young hatched queen will 

 begin to tear down cells vei-y soon if not im- 

 mediately after she emerges from hei- own 

 cell. This would depend some on how vig- 



