4-50 



GLEA^liNGS i:>I UEE CULTUUE. 



June 



tfi), and tliis great volume of dried air is 

 sufficient to take up and absorb all the 

 moisture contained, so tliat the accumula- 

 tions of several weeks, from a hirge scliool, 

 may be carried away on a common wlieelbnr- 

 row. This foul air, charged with dami)ness 

 and gases, is set free from the top of a large 

 shaft, or chimney, which carries it up so 

 higli in the air that ils presence is never no- 

 ticed in the neighborliood. 1 do not know 

 just how^ the arrangement works in the 

 summer time. Probably sufficient heat is 

 maintained to keep the current of air pass- 

 ing up the large chimney. For towns and 

 lural districts.! am inclined to tliink, how- 

 ever, tluit tiie plcin I suggested is the cheap- 

 est and safest, especially when the owner of 

 the premises has a little plat for plants and 

 fruit. 



DO BEES HEAR? 



OK DO TUEV FEEL THE VIBIiATIONS? 



0N page 305, Ernest saj's that queens do not 

 "zesp, zeep," for their 'Own pleasure. Why 

 not? If a queen is "chock full" of happi- 

 ness, what is to hinder her letting- off a lit- 

 tle of the pressure in the shape of an audible 

 " zccp, zeep"? or if she is in a strange place, ex- 

 pecting every mcment to be her last, with her heart 

 rising up in her throat, as it were, wouldn't It re- 

 lieve the nervous pressure, and perhaps save her 

 life, to let off the "zeep, zeep"? Once I knew a 

 boy. He was a bad boy. He went to a Fourth-of- 

 July celebration, and he would climb trees. His 

 mother and his two aunts and three sisters spent 

 all the forenoon pulling him down by the feet; but 

 while they were eating dinner he slipped away and 

 climbed a tree, fell out of it, and broke his arm. 

 The doctor came and set it then and there, the boy 

 yelling, one heart-piercing yell after another, all 

 the time. The women - folks promised him candy 

 and peanuts, lemonade, and ice-cream if he would 

 only hush; but the doctor said, "Let him j-ell all he 

 wants to. It's good for him— relieves the nervous 

 pressure." The boy was scared, all broken up, and 

 the explosive sounds from his lungs eased him off 

 and he soon went to sleep. 



If bees feel thing3, vibrations of the air, and un- 

 derstand them, perhaps the zeep, zeep, causes a vi- 

 bration that they feel and understand. 



Years ago, on the last day of school we had a pic- 

 nic. All the children, with baskets and buckets and 

 bouquets, marched out to the woods to eat dinner. 

 Among the children, laughing and running, was a 

 deaf girl; she could not hear the least sound; but 

 in addition to her laugh she uttered a shrill sound 

 that sounded more like a horse in pain than any 

 thing I can think of. She was having a splendid 

 time; but the sound she made from time to time 

 did not tell the story. Another time, on our way 

 home from church we stopped a few minutes when 

 she and her sisters were swinging; and while we 

 talked with one sister the other swung the deaf 

 girl; and each time, as the swing went up, the deaf 

 girl uttered that piercing sound; this time it was 

 fear, but it had exactly the same sound as her notes 

 of gladness at the picnic. It puzzled me, that the 

 sound to express Joy and that for fear should be 

 the same, and I resolved to find out if all deaf per- 

 sons make the same sounds, but have npygr had 



opportunity to do so. This girl afterward married, 

 and lived within about a>) rods of the railroad. She 

 had two little girls, ai:d they were always playing 

 about, i-ometimes on the railroad. I worried over 

 the matter for years, and cften thought I would 

 stop and ask her to watch the children, but 1 was 

 not very well acquainted. Finally I did ask her if 

 she was not afraid to let the children plaj- on the 

 railroad. 



"No," said she, " I always know when the train is 

 coming— I feel it, and I look out for them." She 

 was not born deaf and dumb, liut lost her hearing 

 from scarlet fever wIk'h alioutajear oLl, before 

 she had learned to talk. 



As to the queen piping to call out the swarm, I 

 thought we were taught that the queen did not 

 man-jge the swarming; and if her piping means joy 

 or fright, perhaps she felt the excitement that was 

 all through the hive, and gave voice to it. Who 

 knows? Maiial.v B. Chaddock. 



Vermont, Illinois. 



Mrs. ('., you liave certainly given us some 

 new ideas on the subject, and there is no 

 doubt Init that you are rigiit. The deaf girl 

 knew how to utter only one sound, so she 

 used that sound on all occasions. She was 

 sometliing like the amateur fiddler, who ex- 

 plained to liis audience that he knew only 

 one tune, and therefore -he always played 

 that tirst. Strange, wasn't it? Well, now, 

 may be it is the same way with the queen 

 and her " zeep, zeep, zeep." 



DO BEES HEAR ?— SOMETHING FURTHER. 



You say that bees can hear a queen if she is on 

 a frame held at some distance from a frame with 

 other bees. Can they hear if one frame is on the 

 ground, and the other in j-our hand? or do they, 

 when they make a piping, jar the comb enough so 

 it will telejihone the jar to the other bees ? I tried 

 it in this way: I fed them a teaspoonful of honey at 

 the entrance every night this spring; at the same 

 time I hit the spoon on the bottom-board (mine 

 are portico hives), and they always came out at the 

 signal, and it would start them buzzing if I rubbed 

 my finger lightly on the hive. I then took a bell and 

 rang it when I fed. I practiced this Avith my 49 col- 

 onies every night for some time, always hitting the 

 hive in some way before they would start. Now, if 

 they hear, why wouldn't they take the bell as a sig- 

 nal without my first jarring them ? J. L. Hyde. 



Pomfret Landing, Conn., May l\ 1886. 



STARTING BEES INTO SECTIQNS. 



CAN HYBItlDS BE H.\.Nr)LED AS E.4SII.Y AS IT.iL- 

 lANS, IF MANAGED RIGHTLY? 



■JTp BEE-KEEPER said to me last spring, " Why 

 gfl^ do you let your bees swarm, if 3'ou want 

 j^P honey and not an increase? " 

 '*^*^ I answered, " If I knew how to jircvent it I 

 would never have them swarm." 

 He answered, " Keep thpm busy— too busy tq 

 swarm." 



I took the frames out last season as soon as they 

 were filled. I had one swarm. This season I have 

 not had a swarm so far. Six colonies are just fill- 

 ing sections right along, as fast as I ever saw them 

 filled. I had some trouble to get two colonies to go 

 up into ttie sections, but I put a frame of brood iu 



