820 



GLKANJNGS i:N BEE. CULTUilE. 



Apr. 



der if this is generally considered^ good for 

 colds. Ernest. 



V.'II.L AN ENTRANCE CLOSED WITH ICE DURING THE 

 WINTER, RF.rULT IN DEATH TO THE SWARM ? 



My pa's bees increased from 3 to 6, and g-athered 

 110 pounds of cap honey. One of his swarms had a 

 fly last Tuesday. AVhen they got into the snow, the 

 chicliadees would pick them uj) and eat them. The 

 entrance to one hive got closed up with ice. Would 

 the liees have died if pa hadn't opened it '! They had 

 a chaff cushion over them. Carroll P. Miner. 



Taylor Center, N. Y., Jan. ~'8, \%n. 



It is a little liard to say ; at all events it is 

 much safer to have the entrance in winter 

 unobstructed, and full width. Ernest. 



A POOR CALF IS A VICTIM THIS TIME TO THE BEES. 



I like bees. Papa boug-ht two hives in the spring-. 

 He increased to T swarms, besides 3 which went to 

 the woods. My papa is a brick-maker and a farmer. 

 I have a little brother three months old. His name 

 is Huber. Papa got the name out of Gleanings. 

 I was sitting in front of the bce-hivcs one day last 

 summer. One of the bee?, walked up my sleeve and 

 stung me. Mamma tore my dress to get it. Papa had 

 a calf tied under a tree near the beehives. Papa 

 was working with the bees. They got cross at him 

 and chased him into the root-cellar. Then the bees 

 went for the poor calf. Papa went out and untied 

 the calf, but then it was so frightened that papa 

 could not hold it. You ought to have seen them 

 run through mamma's garden. The onions and my 

 pretty flowers were all alike to him. 



Tessie a. Taylor age 10. 



Shelby, Oceana Co., Mich., Feb.. 1886. 



No wonder the poor calf got demoralized, 

 and made a raid through your mamma's nice 

 garden, and I am not sure that "■ more rope" 

 would have been of very much service eith- 

 er. I verily believe that the next report of 

 this kind will tell of the lusty squeals of 

 some poor unfortunate pig that has been 

 sticking his nose where he ought not. Bees 

 will not, as you know, allow their homes to 

 be tampered with ; and sliould some burly 

 hog poke his great snout near their homes, 

 I am afraid our big fat friend would fare 

 the worse. Let us be careful, little folks, of 

 these dumb friends, and keep them away 

 from the bees. Ernest. 



"WHAT IS GOOD FOR RATS IS GOOD FOR CHICK- 

 ENS;" A NAUGHTY ROOSTER. 



My pa, with his incubator and a brooder, raises 

 lots of chickens. The rats liothered our chickens 

 some, and pa got some poison for them. He put it 

 under the floor, and my little brother Charley got it 

 and gave it to the chickens. He said if it was good 

 for rats it was good for chickens too; but it killed 

 the chickens. I am at my grandfather's, in Gallon. 

 He keeps bees, and takes Gleanings. The bees 

 were worlcing like every thing last week. They 

 flew well in February, and on the 11th of that month 

 they gathered lots of pollen. Grand]>a says he 

 never saw bees do that before. He thinks they got 

 it at the flour-mill. Last spring he had but one col- 

 ony, and this winter he has seven. Grandma tliinks 

 honey and butter Avarmed together is one of the 

 best things for a cold that she can get. Grandpa 

 felt very bad when he heard of the fire you had. 

 He heard that all your shops were burned down, 

 and he thought he would not get Gleanings any 



more; but he was very glad when he heard it 

 wasn't any worse. Bertie M. Mumford, age 9. 

 Gallon, Crawford Co., O., Mar. 22, 1886. 



What is good for little girls is good for lit- 

 tle boys ; what is good for chickens is good 

 for rats ; but what is good for rats is not 

 always good for chickens, as experience tells. 

 Last' summer the rats were eating more of 

 the chicken-feed than the hens did. I de- 

 termined that I would get rid of the nuisanc- 

 es, so I put some "rough on rats" in one 

 of their holes. But the sly creatures seemed 

 to think that what '' was good for rats was 

 good for chickens," so they pushed it out of 

 the mouth of their hole. I happened to pass 

 by about ten minutes after, when, lo ! the 

 huge Brahma rooster was trying to get his 

 biddies to eat some of the poisoned bread at 

 the moiitii of the hole. Quickly jumping 

 the fence I gave one big" shoo," and made a 

 lunge for tiie lord of i lie feast. The hens, 

 like good biddies, ran off; but the old roost- 

 er— do yoit think he did? No, sir; he tried 

 hard to swallow a big chunk of the poisoned 

 bread. I chased him around the poultry- 

 house, and yet he persisted in his efforts to 

 swallow that chunk of bread. Finally, as a 

 last resort, I '• knocked the wind out of him," 

 as the boys say. This so disconcerted his 

 lordship that the bread shot out of his mouth. 

 Do you think he felt grateful toward me ? 

 Not a bit of it. Like little boys who have 

 been punished for things that they ought 

 not to do, his wonted pride changed to an 

 air of injured innocence. So, little boys and 

 girls, when you have been punished for tak- 

 ing or meddling with things that you ought 

 not, remember the story of the rooster, and 

 think what it may have saved you. The 

 rooster's punishment saved him. 



Thank you, little friend, for what you say 

 in regard to honey as a cure for colds. Our 

 grandmas are pretty good judges of " what 

 IS good for little folks," and no doubt honey 

 and butter will prove very effective. 



Ernest. 



HOW to prevent the liABBITS FROM GNAWING 

 THE TREES. 



I would have told C. H. Sargent, page 829, 1885, 

 liow pa keeps the rabbits from the small fruit-trees, 

 but I could not have sent him Avord in time to do 

 him any good this winter. My pa slips a drain- 

 tile over the tree. This protects it from " varmints" 

 in winter, and does not need to be removed until 

 the tree fills the tile. If longer tile is wanted it 

 may be ordered at the Iciln. 



James Sheneman, age 13. 



Pharisbui-g, Ohio, March 1.5, 188,5. 



The drain-tile would answer very nicely, 

 but I should think that they would be rath- 

 er expensive ; and when the trees get big 

 the tile would have to be broken to get them 

 oft'. We are not troubled with wild rabbits 

 in this section of country to any extent ; but 

 we have had some experience with Huber's 

 tame rabbits. During the past winter we 

 have kept them in our poultry-yard, where 

 are several small evergreen "trees. From 

 these the rabbits stripped the bark as liigh 

 as they could reach, although they had a 

 great abundance of cabbage-leaves and other 

 waste vegetables. We had to send them all 

 back to friend Fradenburg, of whom we got 



