62 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Jan. 



HUMPIE AND DUMPIE. 



Pa has 8 hives of bees. I had 3 pet chickens. 

 Thfirmmos were Iliimpie and Dumpie. One died. 

 1 don't know which it was, Dumpie or Humpie. I 

 am going to school. I am ia the Second Reader. 



Emma Cram, age G. 



Dividing Ridge, Pendleton Co., Ky. 



Well, now, it is a little sad, friend Emma, 

 if you can not tell whether it was Humpie 

 or Dumpie that died. I suppose it must 

 have been one or t'other, sure. 



A GRAND PLACE TO KEEP BEES. 



As I want Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, I thought I 

 Avouid write a letter to you for one. My pa has 

 bought ten acres of land between two big hills, to 

 keep his bees and chickens on. It has 13 aci-es in it. 

 Three acres are cleared, the rest is in timber. Pop- 

 lar, linn, dogwood, redbud, locust, sourwood, soft- 

 maple, and hundreds of acres of white clover, cat- 

 nip, motherwort, milkweed, blackberries, and fig- 

 wort, growing all around the hills. Pa thinks it a 

 grand place, to keep bees. 



Middleport, O. Laura M. Hobb.?, age 10. 



I agree with your papa, Laura. Between 

 great hills, where the bleak winds could not 

 well strike the hives, Avould be one very de- 

 cided advantage ; and those uatural caves 

 you speak of, it seems to me would be the 

 very nicest place in the world to winter bees 

 —and very likely to spring them also. Ask 

 your pa if it is not nice to find a cave where 

 the bees will escape frosts, and yet be en- 

 abled to fly out whenever the weather is 

 warm enough. I have often thought of 

 such a place, and it has seemed to me that a 

 natural cave would come nearest to it of any 

 thing. 1 am a little afraid, however, that it 

 might be cold and damp in the summer time. 

 If so, they would probably have to be set 

 outside. 



such a noise as a chick of your age might be 

 expected to make. I am afraid now that our 

 clerks were so careless as not to send two 

 books, so I will have another one sent right 

 off. Uncle Amos never means to show par- 

 tiality to his little friends. 



HOW TO introduce A QUEEN INTO A BOX HIVE; 

 BY ONE OP THE JUVENILES. 



My pa keeps bees, and has nothing but the box 

 hive. For the information of those who are like 

 him, not able to buy the Simplicity, I will tell how he 

 introduces Italian queens. He takes a chisel, and 

 pries the top off the hive, and then he cuts all the 

 comb off that sticks to the top ; then he blows smoke 

 in at the entrance till the bees all come out at the 

 top; then he catches the queen, then takes the cage 

 with the new queen, and sets it into the hive on top 

 of the comb, and lets it sit there 24 hours; then he 

 lets her out, and she crawls down between the 

 combs, and the bees receive her gladly. He has In- 

 troduced five queens with success, and never lost 

 one. Edgene Cooper, age 9. 



Sherman, Sangamon Co., 111., Dec. 3, 1883. 



Well, I declare, Eugene, you have given 

 the most rational plan I ever heard of for 

 Italianizing bees in box hives. It can be 

 done, no doubt ; but if every thing does not 

 go just right, it seems to me it would work a 

 good deal like a man trying to chop wood 

 with his hands tied together. 



from maine to california; from a couple of 

 wke juveniles. 



We came from Maine to Florida one year ago, and 

 like It very well ; have had no frost yet. Father has 

 13 swarms of bees. They gather honey every day. j 

 We take it out as we want it to eat. We have just I 

 moved into our new house. I have a wheelbarrow, I 

 and helped to move lots of the things. We have 30 

 orangc-irees. Mother reads the Juvenile to me. l| 

 would like one of the little books very much. I read 

 every day in my primer. I can read, and spell 

 words of three or four letters. I am learning to i 

 print letters. I shall print you one myself soon. j 



Freddie L. Green, age 5. ' 



Emporia, Fla., Dec. 10, 1883. 



I go with papa when he goes to the bee-houso to i 

 work. I am not one bit afraid of bees. When I first j 

 began to work I used to peek around the corner of 

 the hives, and got my fingers stung a good many 

 times. If you don't want to hear a big noise when 

 Fred's book comes, send me Jack the Giant-Kiiler. 



EmporiB, Fla., Dec. 10. Shelly Green, age 3. 



Very well done indeed, my little friends. 

 But I presume it was your mamma who 

 wrote the nice letters you send. I do nat 

 think your mamma composed it all, espe- 

 cially that concluding sentence from our 

 three-year-old friend. I suppose the idea is. 

 Shelly, that if Freddie had a book, and you 

 did not have one, there would be just about 



MOVING bees and CUTTING BEE-TREES. 



My brother George bought one swarm of bees of 

 Mr. Frank. He has not brought them home yet. 

 When is the best time to move them? Uncle William 

 Gibson came to our house, and he found three bee-, 

 trees. He cut two of them, and got the honey; the 

 owner of the trees would not have the other one 

 cut. It was an old elm, and of no account. They 

 were afraid the boys would cut the tree, so he and 

 his wife built up a big fire and stayed by the tree all 

 night, and in the morning they cut it and took the 

 honey. They got six pailfuls of it. What do you 

 think ought to be done with them? 



Martha E. Gagle, age 10. 



Fort Recovery, Ohio, Dec, 1883. 



I think, Martha, a very good time to move 

 bees is during spring, when the weather is 

 not very cold. If they can be moved on a 

 sled when the snow is soft, it shakes them 

 up less than a wagon would. — In regard to 

 that bee-tree, I should by all means say, let 

 the owners have it. In olden times, when 

 forests were open, it used to be customary 

 to accord the bees and honey to the one who 

 found the tree ; but now when our forests 

 are comparatively small and all fenced up, I 

 should say the bees and honey ought rather 

 to be considered the property of the owner 

 of the land. Of course, if the man who 

 owned the bees should follow them to where 

 they went into the tree, it would be an easy 

 matter to prove it was his property ; but 

 where bees are found as those were, 1 should 

 just let the matter drop. If the people who 

 own the tree feel like giving your uncle some 

 honey to pay him for liis trouble in finding 

 them", of course it would be all right ; but if 

 they do not choose to do so, I should say all 

 right, any way. It never pays to quarrel 

 with neighbors. Do you think it does, Mar- 

 tha? 



