1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTimE. 



69i5 



ments under a monarchical form ol' government, 

 where an idiot maybe born an aristocrat; bntwe 

 have only sell'-made aristocracy, and the canal-boy 

 or rail-maker can reach the hijihcst scat nndcroiir 

 government, as well as the great. Hut we would 

 advocate opening np all avenues to woman as well 

 as to man; that is, all that are retired and not calcu- 

 lated to degrade her, which, if she has a love for it, 

 we feel that bee-keeping could never do. Unless 

 there is a real fancy for this business it is a mistak- 

 en calling; for bee-keeping, like everything else, 

 must Ite entered into with the whole heart to i)rove 

 a success. But from practical exiierionce, and not 

 from theory, we can say tlnit the sixty colonies 

 which claim our daily individual attention area 

 real recreation. It leads the mind away from the 

 humdrum cares of life into the study of nature, 

 where its broad fields are spread out bef(n'e us, ris- 

 ing to the sublimity of its heights as far as the weak 

 human intellect can go as we watch the all-uncon- 

 scious bee go forth in its ceaseless toil. 



If all laborious work is to be taken away from 

 woman because it is unladylike, let it then com- 

 mence where the general health is most affected, 

 and the mind least diverted, that the sphere of do- 

 mestic life in general may be more bright and 

 cheerful. A Woman. 



Greenville, 111. 



PATENT DRONEI-BKOOD EXTRACTOR. 



CHICKEN SHORTCAKE. 



ElETHENEVER we had a lot of drones we used 

 to destroy them with putt'ljall, as some call 

 it, which can be put in the smoker, the 

 drones meantime having been set in a tight 

 box. A few puffs will make them senseless, 

 when they can be taken out and given to the 

 chickens, which will consume all of them before 

 they can fiy again. The reason why we did not 

 sulphur them is, that the chickens don't seem to 

 like them so well, nor do I think that they are so 

 beneficial to them when dead. 



When I was a boj-, and had but a few hives,! 

 would often kill most of the drones of a hive when 

 1 knew they were driven down to the bottom-board, 

 which the bees do when pasture gets scarce, or 

 after a young queen is mated. I lifted the hive 

 and put them through the above process. Rut the 

 best chicken-feed consists of drone-brood from 

 about 1.5 days old to mature; and what excellent 

 drone-brood extractors chickens are! I found out 

 accidentally, several years ago, when I had my 

 bees several miles from the city, as usiml, when 

 late one day I had transferred a few box hives. By 

 packing up, in a rush for the home train, I had 

 left a large piece of well-capped drone-comb on the 

 grotind, which I found, when I came back the 

 next day; but to my surprise I found the brood on 

 the upper side was all taken carefully out. As I 

 had noticed chickens around there, it struck me 

 that nothing else co\ild have likely taken it. I 

 turned the comb up the other side, an<l soon had 

 the chicks to extract it. As we had a lot of chick- 

 ens this year, and ])lcnty of box hives to transl'er, I 

 had plenty of what we call now "chicken short- 

 cake," for which all the drone-brood was used. As 

 Iran short of hivfs for want of time, I inverted all 

 my remaining box hives, cut out all the drone- 

 comb, before it could hatch, with ray hoe shaped 

 instrument. 



Now, friend Root, I know that you have not 

 much sympathy with jiatcnts or i)atent men; but 

 as it seems to be fashiomtble to call every thing 

 an invention, I leave it with you to decide who is 

 the one entitled to the patent— the chicken or my- 

 self, for extracting drone-brood. 



C. H. LUTTGENS. 



Hammonton, N. J., .Tuly, 1880. 



Friend L., no doubt your sns'Sfstion is a 

 valuable one. I presume you use chickens 

 of just the riftlit a^e, for" I could imagine 

 that large fowls migh4 tear the combs badly. 

 1 should think the food would be very stim- 

 ulating to the chickens ; but is it not rather 

 expensive ? Would it not be bettef to pre- 

 vent the rearing of drone-brood by removing; 

 all the drone-comb V 



KITCHEN CONVENIENCES. 



FUIEND TERRY GIVES US SOME USEFUt, SUGQfcS= 

 TlONS IN THE MATTER. 



fRIEND ROOT:— Now about those impfovP- 

 ments indoors. We will take the kitchen 

 tlrst. Here the farmer's wife and daughters 

 spend a large part of their time. The inter- 

 ests of humanity demand that the air in 

 this room be at all times as pure as possible. Th« 

 farmer who works out in the open air Is healthy 

 and robust, as a rule. Now, the kitchen should be 

 as near an approach to open air as it conveniently 

 can be. A tent would be about perfeetion, for 

 summer; something to keep the rain and sun off 

 during the heat of the day. while allowing a per- 

 fectly free circulation of air at all times. Practi- 

 cally, about the best we can do is to have the 

 kitchen in a wing by itself, with outside doors and 

 windows on at least two sides. Then over these 

 doors and windows on each side I would build a 

 large porch. This allows almost as free a circula- 

 tion of air during the summer as a tent would, and 

 the women-folks have one chance at least for as 

 good robust health as the men have. The windows 

 shou'd have pulleys and weights so the upper sash 

 can be let down or the under one raised very easily 

 for ventilation during cold weather, no matter if 

 it takes a little more fuel. What is a little wood en' 

 coal bj' the side of good health? A physician in 

 the Northwest tells me that, to save coal, which is 

 quite valuable there, many make their houses very 

 tight, and never ventilate any more than they can 

 help, and the result is often a In-oaking out of 

 typhoid fever, from breathing such filthy, impure 

 air. 



It has often amused me to see people who were 

 extremely neat and clean in every other particular 

 so extremely filthy in the matter of ventilation. It 

 is a serious nnitter; but It is so inconsistent to 

 work so hard to have those pans and dishes and 

 clothes so perfectly free from a trace of dirt or 

 filth while one is breathing the filthiest kind of air. 

 Every l)reath from our lungs is defiling the air, as 

 are also the eiininations from the pots andketllis. 

 The neat housekeeper is constantly washing her 

 hands, when thej- become soiled lin the least; why 

 not wash the air, when it becomes almost sicken- 

 ing from the impurities in it'/ It is far more im- 

 portant tFiat you should. Dirty hands would only 

 offend the taste, while dirty air is .seriously injuri- 

 ous to health. Let the outdoor worker, when he 

 comes into his wife's kitchen, and can "scarcely 



