1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



61 



country, on a farm. My papa farms, and runs a 

 steam sawmill. We all like Gleanings. My little 

 sister and I claim the Juvenile. I g-o to school every 

 day, and help do the evening and morning work. I 

 have a young horse: ho is so kind and gentle that I 

 can drive and ride him any place. Don't you think 

 girls ought to learn to manage horses too? 



Flora J. Wright, age 12. 

 Millerstown, Perry Co., Pa., December 24, 1«83. 



Yes, Flora, I do think that girls ought to 

 learn to handle horses. And for that matter, 

 they ought to learn do every thing useful, 

 so that in case of emergency they may be 

 found useful as well as ornamental. Do you 

 not agree with meV 



CLARA AND HER PAPA AND THE BEES. 



My father has 18 stands of bees. This summer, 

 when the bees swarmed, my eldest sister and I had 

 to watch them, and when they swarmed we would 

 have to run to the shop. Papa is a tailor, and is the 

 only one in this town. He is very busy most of the 

 time. The bees take a great deal of papa's time, but 

 he does not care. He gave mo a stand this summer, 

 and says 1 will have to tend them. One time a 

 swarm came out, and we were cleaning house, and 

 they did not settle for a while, and we did not know 

 what to do, because papa was not at the shop; but 

 pretty soon they settled, and then we were glad; but 

 when I went out again to see them, they were all go- 

 ing back into the hive, and papa said it was because 

 the queen did not come out with them. Do you 

 think that was the reason? Our bees here in Iowa 

 mostly make the honey of white and red clover. 

 The boys take their hats and catch and kill them; 

 I think they are wicked. One time papa talked to a 

 ■ boy for killing one, and told him how bad it was, and 

 then he was sorry. Clara Madson, age 12. 



West Branch, Cedar Co., Iowa, Dec. U, 1883. 



I think your pa is right, Clara. They went 

 back because they did not discover the 

 queen among them, iiees could not very 

 well go to housekeeping without a queen. 

 That would look like a home without a 

 mother. ^ 



ARTHUR'S REPORT. 



My pa put 63 swarms of bees in the cellar the 15th 

 of November; commenced in the spVing with 47 

 swarms; ran 10 hives for extracting; did not allow 

 them to swarm, and got IGOO lbs. from them, and sold 

 it here at home for 10 and 12 cents. My pa shoes 

 horses Ihis winter, but I think I would rather learn 

 to handle bees, as I like honey very much. I read 

 the Juvenile. I like to read about little Peter, and I 

 should like to see him and hug him. I think Peter 

 Is a good name, for Peter was a good man. 



Arthur Hulet, age 11. 



Vilienova, Chau. Co.. N. Y., Dec, 1883. 



But, Arthur, your pa could not work with 

 bees in winter very well, were he not a black- 

 smith. 1 think it is a pretty good plan to 

 learn to shoe horses, or do something useful, 

 while the bees are buried up in the snow, or 

 put away in the cellar ; because if one de- 

 pends entirely on bees, you know they may 

 have a season or two when they would not 

 get much surplus. After one has got estab- 

 lished in business, and has got a little laid 

 away for a rainy day, he might, with his (iU 

 colonies, devote his whole time to it proht- 

 ably, winter and summer — that i.s, provid- 

 ing he made his own hives and honey-boxes, 



or something of that sort.— Many thanks for 

 your kind words to little Peter; but his 

 mother says we must all call him Huber 

 now. I should be very glad to let you give 

 him a good hug, if you were here ; but he 

 has got so large now 'that it takes a pretty 

 smart boy of eleven years to handle him 

 easily. 



A LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA. 



Father went out to see the bees this evening. He 

 rapped at the door of one hive to see if they were at 

 home; he received no answer, and finally he opened 

 the door and peeped in, when, lo and behold! not a 

 single live bee was to be seen. The brood-apart- 

 ment was filled with comb, but no honey or bees 

 were to bo found. Well, they had been overpowered 

 and robbed, and then turned over and helped to car- 

 ry away their stores of surplus honey. We rapped 

 on all the other hives, and they leaped out and told 

 us they were at home. We stopped up the entrances, 

 leaving 1^ or 2 inches opeii^ and will watch them 

 sharply. We have fine warm weather all the time, 

 so the bees are flying briskly nearly every day. We 

 have sold about $225.00 worth of honey from 10 

 swarms of bees. I don't know whether we have the 

 right to be called apiarists or not, because we have 

 never yet been able to find a queen, although I have 

 looked and hunted, and hunted and looked for them. 

 Accept our thanks for the tine collection of beautiful 

 labels which you sent us. We have no Italian bees. 



Two years ago we got some spider-plant seed 

 of you. Not one single solitary seed ever came up, 

 so I have no experience with It. I think the cause 

 was because they arrived too late in the spring, as 

 the dry weather came on immediately after. Our 

 warm spring weather comes on from four to seven 

 weeks earlier than yours. Phacelia is our great 

 honey-producing plant. It blossoms from April to 

 Septe/nber, and our bees work on it like little de- 

 mons all the time. You lay great stress on your 

 honey candying during cold weather. We are not 

 troubled that way, for we never have any cold freez- 

 ing weather at all— nothing worse than a heavy 

 frost. I suppose you keep urging Blue Eyes and 

 Ernest to pile more wood into that stove, to keep 

 their papa from freezing. I do wish you would come 

 here, where warm weather rules eternally. 



Ferndale, Cal., Nov. 20, 1883. C. C. Drake. 



Now, my friend, you are mistaken about 

 piling in the wood. We not only warm our 

 factories by steam, but we send this same 

 steam over to the house, about 400 feet away 

 from the factory, and the steam-pipes do the 

 warming there most beautifully. All the 

 engineer has to do is to pile in the coal, and 

 then turn the valves so as to let the obedient 

 steam go just where we want it ; and with it 

 we can warm up the room quicker than any 

 stove you ever saw would do it. It seems to 

 me simply wonderful, although we have 

 been using them a. good many wrecks. — In 

 i regard to that spider-plant seed, I am afraid 

 we got hold of some that was not good, and 

 in our great rush of business last year it was 

 sent oft without being tested. If all the 

 friends who got spider-plant seed last year 

 that did not grow will write us a postal card 

 telling us so, we will send them a package of 

 better seed free. I suppose the phacelia you 

 mention grows wild in California. We have 

 had it in our garden here to some extent. 



