504 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



CASTOR OIL INSTEAD OF CROTON— A TIMELY COR- 

 RECTION. 



Please correct the mistake in Gleanings, May 15, 

 p. 41.5, in Tommy Brown's letter. It should read, 

 castm- instead of croton oil. It would be very dan- 

 gerous to use croton instead of castor oil. 



Tommy's Mother. 



We are very sorry to have had such an 

 error in our columns, especially in the juve- 

 nile department. We hope, however, that 

 mothers will have good sense enough not to 

 administer croton-oU to an innocent child, 

 as it would result in almost instant death. 

 Will the friends please take notice of the 

 above? 



FROM 30 TO 47, AND 5000 LBS. OF HONEY. 



My pa commenced the season of 1885 with 30 

 stands. He took .5000 lbs. of extracted honej-, and 

 increased to 47. He has sold 4 stands, and given 

 Aunt Em one. Pa takes Gleanings, and has your 

 ABC book. He says he could not well do with- 

 out them. Pa and I were looking at the bees 

 the other day, and one stung pa on the finger, and 

 lost its sting. I put it under a glass, on a plate, and 

 fed it honey. It lived 41 hours and 25 minutes. I 

 put one with it that had not lost its sting, and it was 

 lively when the other was dead. 



Jonah, Texas. Eugene Willis, age 12. 



turning THE CRANK TO AN EXTRACTOR. 



Pa has 32 colonies. We have one of your extract- 

 ors, and pa says it doesn't throw any honey out at 

 the top at all. Pa takes Gleanings, and I read the 

 children's letters. Pa extracts all his honey, and I 

 help turn the extractor. We have never had any 

 honey candy yet, no matter how cold it was. 1 

 have to walk 3 miles to school. 



Mt. Erie, 111. Matie Heidinger, age 10. 



Turning the crank to the extractor is an- 

 other way to help papa during the honey- 

 flow. J^ittle folks can make themselves 

 useful in a great variety of ways if they 

 really think so, can't they V If you have beeii 

 using an extractor for many years, friend 

 Matie, it is certainly a very singular fact if 

 you have had no candied honey. Ernest. 



CLIFFORD'S EXPERIENCE WITH A COLONY OF 

 BEES. 



Last June I bought 3 hives of bees. The first hive 

 that swarmed came out four times, and the fourth 

 time they alighted oh a bush. I took a smoker and 

 a hiver. I smoked them first, and put a hiver un- 

 der them and shook the bush and then they fell into 

 It and I spread a sheet in front and put the bees on 

 the sheet, and after awhile they went into the hive. 

 If they were i-estless I put a sheet over the hive un- 

 till they were quiet. They are Italians. When we 

 put them in the cellar we had five, and we closed 

 them too tight. We put over the frames two thick- 

 nesses of cotton and placed the top on. We went 

 to a bee-man and he told us that we packed them 

 too tight, and he told us to take the top off and put 

 a chaff cushion on the top. Clifford Lees. 



Port Dover, Out., Canada. 



THE RESULTS OF STANDING IN FRONT OF THE EN- 

 TRANCE. 



My mamma has three colonies of bees and an ob- 

 ' servatory hive. Some young ladies were looking 

 at the observatory hive. They stood in front of the 

 hive, Ifnstead of at the side, and a bee stung one of 

 them by her eye, and a bee darted into another 

 one's hair, and such a fuss she made I They all 



laughed to see her pulling her hair down to find 

 the bee that did not sting her. Our bees are making 

 very nice honey now from the new mint or penny- 

 royal. The young lady Avho was stung, on her way 

 home had to cross the Wairoa River on a fallen 

 tree. She fell off into the water, and joined the 

 others in a hearty laugh. Jessie Hyde, age 11. 

 Otau, Auckland, New Zealand, Feb. 4, 1886. 



horses STUNG TO DEATH— A WARNING. 



When pa had a few swarms of bees, a man tied 

 two horses near them. Pretty soon they heard a 

 noise. The men ran out and cut them loose. One 

 horse ran home. The mare and colt were stung to 

 death. The man was stung- very badly. 



Morocco, Ind., April 1, 1886. Elva Skinner. 



Your letter is another one of the oft-re- 

 peated warnings, to be careful with our 

 dumb animals near the bees. Frightful ac- 

 cidents have occurred, and will occur, so 

 long as big folks, and little folks too, are 

 careless. Only just the other day, while our 

 new span of Clydesdale horses were cultivat- 

 ing near the outskirts of the apiary, a pass- 

 ing swarm of bees took a notion to alight 

 upon the head of one of the animals. Joe, 

 for that was the horse's name, kept switch- 

 ing his head at the bees as if tliey were flies. 

 Had not " my pa '' almost scolded the driver 

 to make him" realize the danger, and hurry 

 the horses away, I am afraid our handsome 

 big Clydesdales would have torn every thing 

 to pieces, or possibly have shared as bad a 

 fate as that of which you speak. Ernest. 



DOES MUTILATING UNSEALED BROOD ENRAGE 

 THE BEES? 



My papa has nine swarms. The other day, when 

 he was looking at his bees, he broke a little brood- 

 comb open that was in the milky state. This made 

 the bees angry, and they chased the hens and 

 chickens around the yard pretty lively for awhile. 

 Some of the bees came to the house and got caught 

 in a spider's web on the back porch. The spider 

 came down expecting a fat breakfast, and he took 

 the bee in a loving embrace, but went back in a 

 hurry. Mamma said the bee stung him. He stay- 

 ed hid for two or three hours; then mamma got 

 him out to see if he was dead, but he seems to be as 

 lively as ever. We have 74 hens and 1.58 chickens. 

 I take care of the chickens and help take care of 

 the hens. I keep account of the eggs laid. They 

 laid 112 dozen last month. We set 17 hens on 233 

 eggs and hatched 176. The last of April, when papa 

 took the sections off, he found one colony had put 

 honej'in some of them, both upper and under sides. 

 Clara Lindsey, age 10. 



Harford, Susq. Co., Pa., May 24, 1886. 



Yes, friend Clara, I think you are right in 

 supposing that bees are sometimes enraged 

 when their unsealed brood is mutilated to 

 any extent. Yet it is quite possible that, 

 when your father broke the comb, he jarred 

 the bees on the frames. Tliis of itself would 

 be sulflcient to anger the bees.— Your father 

 evidently is an old hand at the poultry busi- 

 ness, or he never could manage so many. 



MINNIE DOES NOT AGREE THAT HONEY IS NOT 

 GOOD FOR COLDS. 



I have just been reading Gleanings, and in it I 

 saw Miss Tessie Taylor's letter. It is very good for 

 a ten-yearold girl, but T do not agree with her al- 



