Glf) 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



brid or an untested queen? Mr. Micliener ask& if we 

 are not being imposed vipon, and getting back our 

 old bees again. I answer, no; the characteristics 

 of the Ciirniolans difl'er as much from the German 

 l)ecs as do tlie Italians. I think Mr. Michcner has no 

 need to regret that any of the Carniohm blood has 

 lieen introduced into his apiary, provided comb hon- 

 ej' is his object. 1 believe, friend I{oot, if you hold 

 your judgment on tliese bees until you have tested 

 tliem further, and until you get the reports of those 

 who are now testing them you will ha\e good reason 

 to change your views on them. Will yon please al- 

 low me to send you a Carniolan queen to test, and 

 give a report what you think of her? J. 15. Mason. 

 Mechanic Falls, Me., July, 1886. 



You are right, friend Mason. It is liarclly 

 to be expected that the workers from two 

 queens would be a fair test of the race in gen- 

 eral ; but if you will tiu'ii back to the article to 

 which you refer you will see that it is so 

 stated. Perhaps "we were a little hasty in 

 drawing deductions; at any rate, see what 

 Abbott L. Swinson says of tliem. We are 

 ready for reports now from others ; and as 

 it is hard to tell definitely from tlie worker- 

 Ijees raised from the daughters of the im- 

 ported Carniolans, I should like to have re- 

 jioits from the worker-bees from the hiiport- 

 al Carniolan queens themselves. 



THE FIRM OF JANE MEEK & BROTHER. 

 A Serial Story in Ten Chapters. 



liY EV. W. D. HAI.STON. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



BRIGHTENING PHOSPECTS. 



fOMMY thought over their debt day after day. 

 It worried him. He knew, from talking with 

 his father, that they should need at least 

 seven new hives and ten pounds of founda- 

 tion for another season. This would likely 

 increase their debt to thirty-six dollars, before they 

 would have any honey to sell. In the wood-shed 

 was a carpenter's bench and a number of tools, for 

 Mr. Meek liked to work with lumber. He also al- 

 lowed his children to use his tools, and had often 

 instructed them in the use of these tools. 



One da V Tommy had been at work making a rab- 

 bit-trap, and had just finished it when Jane came in 

 after some wood. She looked at the trap, and ad- 

 mired it very much, and then asked, "Why could 

 you not make our hives ! " 



Tommy said, "I believe I could, if father would 

 let me use that planed lumber that is upon the 

 joists." 



When they asked their father, he said, " If you 

 make hives that will answer, you can use the lum- 

 ber, free of cost, and I will also furnish you nails; 

 but if you merely waste my lumber and nails, or 

 make some old rattle-bo.x of a thing, and call it a 

 hive, I will charge you for both." 



Said Tommy, "I will be careful, and do the very 

 best I can." 



Mr. Meek then told Tommy and Jane to bring the 

 empty hive into the woodshed. He went there, 

 measured its different parts, and sawed out one 

 piece of each. These he directed Tommy to mark, 

 and use as patterns; and Tommy found them a 

 great help. 



For some days Tommy and Jane worked carefully 

 at the hive, and at length the first one was fin- 

 ished, and their father was asked to examine it. 

 He said it would do, but showed Tommy whei-e he 

 had made some mistakes, and also where it might 

 be improved. As Tommy always attended school, 

 when in session, the seven hives were not all made 

 and painted until May. One day, when the children 

 were from home, Mr. and Mrs. Meek were in their 

 stoi'eroom looking at their hives, and Mr. Meek 

 said to his wife, "If those children never sell a 

 pound of honey, what they are learning by engag- 

 ing in this work will more than pay all expenses." 



As the lumber and nails were furnised by Mr. 

 Meek, the seven hives cost only fl-.W, for oil and 

 paint. 



The four colonies were wintered in the cellar, and 

 placed in the yard the following spring. 



The one in which was the new queen was found 

 badly diseased. It had dysentery, and the hive was 

 in a filthy condition. After the bees had a flight, 

 the combs were removed by Mr. Meek to another 

 hive, and then warmly covered with cloths. It finally 

 rallied, and, by exchanging an empty comb for one 

 of sealed brood from one of the other hives, it be- 

 came strong by the time white clover bloomed. 



That winter there had been much snow covering 

 the ground, and protecting the clover; and in the 

 following summer there was a most bountiful 

 bloom of white clover. The children, under their 

 father's directions, had prepared cases of nice clean 

 sections, ready to be placed on the hives. They had 

 also prepared their frames for the lower storj' of 

 the new hives by fastening strips of foundation two 

 inches wide along the top-bars. They did this to en- 

 courage the bees to build straight combs. Long 

 before the time came for placing the sections on the 

 hives, they had all things ready; or, as Mr. Meek 

 expressed it, their dish was "turned up to catch the 

 honey." 



When they saw the white clover beginning to 

 blossom, sections for sin-plus were placed on the 

 hives. When these became filled they were elevat- 

 ed, and others put under them; and in this way the 

 bees were kept busy, and no sections were removed 

 until every cell was sealed. 



When swarms issued they were hived in nice new 

 hives, with wide starters of foundation In every 

 frame, and in a short time they had filled their 

 hives with nice straight combs, and had begun 

 work in the sections, a case of which had been 

 placed on all first swarms a few days after hiving. 



As abundant room for the storage of honey was 

 always afforded, and as the hives not shaded by the 

 trees and shrubberj' were well protected from the 

 sun by boards leaned up against them, there was 

 not much of a disposition to swarm. It seemed 

 that the honey so abounded in the white clover, 

 and they were so busy gathering it, that they for- 

 got all about swarming. 



They had only five swarms, so when the season 

 closed, the firm possessed nine colonies; but the 

 l)antry shelves were groaning under the load of 

 nice comb honey that had been placed on them. 

 There was not much basswood in reach of their 

 apiary, therefore this honej' was mostly from white 

 clover. 



After the clover-yield, all the hives, by Mr. Meck's 

 directions, were reduced to one case of sections, to 

 await the yield from fall flowers; but for some 

 reasoTi there was 710 honey gathered from that 



