1886 



GLEANINGS IN J3EE CULTURE. 



849 



sired to get a black queen out of a colony. 

 We like the Feet process of introducing 

 queens. By it we can take out one queen 

 from a colony, and replace her by another at 

 the same operation. Tlie Peet process very 

 rarely fails with us when tlie cage is proper- 

 ly fastened to the comb ; and Neighbor II. 

 says he can not remember that it ever failed 

 with him. 



PACKING BEES IN LONG BOXES FOR 

 WINTER. 



FEEDING, ETC. 



■ Y lather purchased a swarm of bees about 

 five years ago, and three years later he 

 gave me a swarm. We sell no bees, but 

 keep them for their honey. Wp generally 

 winter from 1.") to 20. Some winters are 

 unfavorable for bees— the winter of ]88f, for ex- 

 ample. Last winter we did not lose a sing-le swarm. 

 I will give you a brief description of the way I 

 manage mine in winter. W^hen cold weather 

 sets in for earnest, I take the bees from their sum- 

 mer stands and place them in long boxes which 

 will hold about Ave swarms each, placing the 

 hives far enough apart in the boxes to pack dry 

 straw and chaff around them, constructing a pass- 

 age by means of two cleats nailed to a board, and 

 placed at the mouth of the hive. This allows the 

 bees to pass back and forth whenever the weather 

 is suitable, and you think best. I always select a 

 dry place, and have the bo.xes at least 30 inches 

 from the ground. If it is where winter is severe, it 

 is well to place a few cornstalks about them, as 

 this protects them from piercing winds and frost. 

 To make sure that they have enough honey, I lay 

 two or three small sticks across the brood-frames, 

 and place a card of honey upon them. This allows 

 them to pass over the frames; and if they are 

 short of honey they will have this card to fall back 

 on. If there happen to be a bright sunshiny day 

 during winter, it is well to let them take a tly; and 

 then is a good time to see if they have honey 

 enough to last them till spring. By the way, I 

 generally change the cloth which is in the sur- 

 plus-chamber, and give them a dry one, as the oth- 

 er will be frozen if there is any moisture to freeze. 

 They are always damp or musty, and it is a good 

 plan to give them an airing. If I don't have honey 

 to feed them I make a thick syrup and turn it into 

 some empty comb and place it over, just the same 

 as I would the honey. When spring comes I place 

 the hives back on their sunnner stands, and give 

 them a clean bottom-board, as this saves the bees 

 from carrying out the dead bees. 



When it is time for them to begin hatching 

 Drood I give them some salt and water to work 

 on, and also some stimulative substance, such 

 as rye dour and oatmeal. I hardly ever make an 

 artificial swarm. I always 'ct them swarm natu- 

 rally. If I want them to make honej' instead of 

 swarming, I look them over and kill all the queens 

 but one; also give them more room to work in. 



We use sections placed in a crate on top of the 

 hive. This crate holds 24 1-lb. sections. A good 

 strong swarm of bees will fill from two to three 

 of these crates during the summer. Some do 

 even better than that, but the ayei-age swarm fills 

 about two. Arthur W. Jkwett, 



Mason, Mich, 



KITES. 



A LITTIiE TALK TO THE .JUVENILES. 



no has not enjoyed the sport of flying 

 a kite? Did you never have a string 

 broken, or have the kite come down 

 in a tree-top, or across some building? 

 Did you never get tired out in try- 

 ing to make a kite tly, when there was not 

 wind enough? and then some other day, don't 

 you remember that the wind blew too hard 

 and broke the string, or made the kite dive, 

 in spite of various nondescript articles tied 

 to its tail? Well, I have for many years 

 wondered why somebody did not start to 

 making kites by machinery — kites made 

 of such carefully selected, light, strong, 

 straight-grained wood that they would fly, 

 almost without any wind. Sometimes I 

 have threatened to start a kite-factory my- 

 self, but I never got around to it. 



Only a few days ago some of the clerks 

 said there was a man hunting for me, who 

 had a patent kite. I found liim, and we 

 soon made a trade. They used to sell their 

 patent kites for 2.5 cents ; but when 1 spoke 

 about buying a thousand, he got so excited 

 about it he coitid not talk straight ; but I 

 bought the thousand kites, and paid him the 

 money ; and instead of selling them for 2.5 

 cents," I am going to sell them for an even 

 10 cents. May be you would like to see what 

 they are like. Well, over the leaf is a pic- 

 ture of the institution, tail and all. 



This kite is made portable. The sticks 

 that compose it can be folded up just as you 

 would fold up a fan, and then they can be 

 straightened out again. The paper is gum- 

 med around the edges, like an envelope, so 

 all you have to do is to spread out the sticks, 

 lick the edges of the paper, and paste it up, 

 then hitch on the tail and string, according 

 to the printed instructions, and there you 

 are, all ready to fly it. 



Yesterday there was a pretty good breeze, 

 and so Iluber and I started out to try one of 

 the new kites. It shot right up out of my 

 hands, and Huber just laughed and danced, 

 and bubbled over with enjoyment while I let 

 out the string, so it could go away up high. 

 He said it was surely going to run against 

 the clouds. But what do you think it did 

 do? Why, I was getting ready to let him 

 hold it, and was giving him a great amount 

 of caution about not letting the string slip 

 through his fingers; and to make doubly 

 sure. I told him I would tie it around his 

 waist. He said he would not let it go, but I 

 thought I would not trust him. Now, then, 

 what do you suppose papa did? AVhy, he let 

 it slip through his fingers ; and instead of 

 running against the clouds, it just toppled 

 over and sailed away over across the railroad 

 track, and the string got tangled in an en- 

 gine. Well, papa got tlie kite down from 

 off the building, untangled the string and 

 straightened it out, and spent more than ten 

 cents' wortli of time in getting every thing 

 all right. But I thought it was better to 

 teach Iluber to take care of property, even 

 if it did sometimes take more time tlian it 

 was worth, than to teach him another lesson 

 by going into the counter store and getting 

 a ncAv one. Well, we took the string over to 



