18S6 



GLEAN1]>JGS IN iJEE CULTUllE. 



747 



send you any thing you may choose, from 

 the :i>-cent counter. It' any of the other 

 juveniles can report upon tlie al)ove ques- 

 tion, we will do as well by them. In re- 

 f;'ard to your last (piestion, 1 should be 

 inclined to believe that the use of chone- 

 fdn. in tiie super would make little if any 

 difference in the amount of drone-comb 

 built below, though I can not say from ex- 

 periment. Perhaps friend Hutchinson can 

 clear up some of these things. P^unes-t. 



immm 



I^V' 



Every boy or Rirl, undtr 1') 



years of ape. who writes a 



letter for this departiiient, containing 



SOMK VALUABLE FACT, NOT GENERALLY 

 KNOWN. ON BEES OR OTHER MATTEli.S, 



will reeivelone of David Cook's e.Kcel- 

 leiit tive-eent Sunday-school books. 

 IJX' Many of these boolrs contain the same niat- 

 > ter that you liiul in Siindavschool I'ooks 

 costinirfronrSl.OOto SL.'iO. U' yon have had 

 one or more books, pive ns the names that we 

 may not send the same twice. We have now 

 in stock six ditt'erent books, as follows; viz.: 

 Sheer Off. The Giant - Killer, The Roby 

 Family, Kesriied from Eprvpt.and Ten Niprhtsln 

 aBar-Room. We hav<' .ilso ( »nr Homes, Part I., and 

 Our Homes, Part U. Hi-siiies the above ho(.ks, yon may have a 

 photograph of our old bouse apiarv. taken a yreat m.-iiiy years 

 aqro. In it is a picture of myself. ISIni' Eyes, anil I'addy.'anda 

 Riinipse of Ernest. We have also some pretty little colored 

 pictures of birds, fruits, flowers, etc.. suit.ible for framing. 

 You can h.ave .your choice of an.y one of the above pictures 

 or books for ever.y letter tfiat gives us some valuable piece of 

 information. 



"A chiel's amang ye takin' notes; 

 An' faith, he'll prent it." 



THE LANGUAGE OF BEES; A TALK TO THE LITTLE 



FOLKS ON BEE-TALKS AND "OLD HEN" 



TALKS. 



J HAVE been telling you something of 

 the way in which liees talk ; but bees 

 are not the only dumb friends (if. in- 

 deed. I may call tliem dumb) that have 

 their way of talking. Did you ever hear 

 your old biddy sing? It is true, she does not 

 inake very much music, but she is happy — 

 yes, happy as a bee when he sings forth his 

 notes of rejoicing while in the clover-tields. 

 Old biddies not only sing, but scold. 1 dare 

 say you liave tried to ])ut your hand under 

 an old sitting hen. What does .she say? 

 Something to this effect: "If you don't get 

 away right off I will — well, peck." How her 

 eyes do snap, and her cluck, cluck, has no 

 uncertain sound. That big old rooster, so 

 V)ig and so proud, how he does strut, worse 

 than Johnnie when in his first pair of pants ! 

 and as he mounts the fence he crows forth 

 his challenge to all the other roosters, '' 1 am 

 monarch of all I survey.'' When one of 

 your nice biddies comes oif tlu^ nest just aft- 

 er laying an egg, what does she say? " Cut. 

 rut, cut. cHf, k<(-d(ti\ cut ; " or, in our kind of 

 talk, "Look, look, look, look what / did." 

 Anotlier hen. a little jealous, perhaps, le- 

 plies, " Cut, cut, ka-Oar, cut.,'" oj.'. *' Well, well, 



what of it?'' The old rooster, if he feels like 

 it, thereupon claj^s his \nii,gs and—" Cork-a- 

 don-dlc-do!^^ or, "AVliat .great things vv can 

 do-o-oo!" Perhaps your nuunma may think 

 I am a little fanciful. Well, perhaps 1 am 

 in this last: lint I tliink we will all agree 

 that our old biddies can talk, and that ri.glit 

 plain. Por instance, the mother of a lirood 

 of chickens, on seein,g a large bird or hawk 

 lly over, utters a shrill cr.y, at which the 

 ciiicks may be seen to skulk off. When the 

 old hen esjiies a mouse or snake in the .grass, 

 she will utter a different note. The chicks, 

 instead of hiding in the grass, will stretch 

 their little necks to see where the danger is. 

 When the (»1(1 biddy Ihids a choice morsel of 

 food, she calls the chicks to her. It has been 

 estimated by a prominent writer on poultry, 

 that chickens have as many as twenty 

 different signals, or ways of talkin.g to 

 each other. Little folks, can you under- 

 stand all these si.gnals? Did you ever see 

 how an old rooster talks to his hens? It is 

 real funny. As I have told you, bees have 

 tlieir signs — or, if you please, their lan.guage, 

 by which they can express all their little 

 wants, needful for their purpose. The roos- 

 ter crows, the hen cackles, the (lueen-bee 

 zeeps ; the bee, by the peculiar behavior of 

 his wings and body, gives si.gnals, each of 

 which is intended for a purpose, and which 

 is understood by his kind. God has kindly 

 made all his creatures to know and under- 

 stand each other. 



Now^ little folks, I want you to watch and 

 study the actions of bees and chickens, or of 

 any of God's creatures. Jjearn how they 

 talk to each other, and tell us about it in 

 Gleanings. You will then see how well 

 God has done his work. Ernest. 



HOW A HOKSE WAS SAVED FKOM BEING STUNG TO 

 DEATH. 



Liist spriiifi- pu liiid a liorso plowing- in the fiardcii, 

 near a hive of bees on t!ie opposite side of the 

 fence, and all at once thc.y almost covered the 

 horse, Charlej', and nearly stung- hira to death. Pa 

 took one iioniid of soda and dissolved it in water 

 and rubbed him well with it, and in a short time he 

 seemed to be easy. The horse is well uow, and as 

 fat as a butter-ball. Pa has ™6 colonies of bees and 

 17 Simplicity hives. This has been a bad season for 

 honc.v, as it has rained nearly all summer. 



Shubuta, Miss. Bell Lockett. 



A friend two miles distant had his horses 

 stung so badly that he feared they wotild 

 die. lie did nothing for the horses and they 

 got well. Eknest. 



MAKING A I5EE-HOCSE BEE-PROOF. 



Pa has 150 colonies. He had but one swarm this 

 year. The bees did not do as well in the spring-. 

 When the peach-bloom was .just opening- there 

 came a snow and killed the l)lossoms. IJut the.v 

 are gathering- honey off the cotton bloom. Pa has 

 a bee-house, on the inside of which he has i)asted 

 paper all over to make it bee-proof. He has a 

 wire door that shuts on the inside, and a wooden 

 one on the outside. When he wants to extract his 

 honey he gets inside and opens the wooden door 

 and shuts the wire door. Pa likes your journal. I 

 like to read it too. Eliza Martin, ajje 10. 



Mark, Sebastian Co., Ark-, Aug-. IS, 1886. 



