134 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JPeb. 



Every time our neighbors had a swarm come out, 

 they would come to pa to have him hive them, and 

 get a hivetf him to put them in. I visited the Louis- 

 ville exposition last fall. I saw the " baby engine," 

 and saw them weaving gingham. My u'ncle, James 

 M. Gray, had a hominy-mill there. Uncle James 

 has got bees, but he is afraid of them. 



Florence E. Coombes. 

 Memphis, Ind., Jan. 13, 1884. 



FROM 9 TO 20, AND $68.00 IN MONEY. 



Pa has 20 colonies. He reads bee journals and 

 books all the time. He had 9 colonies last spring, 

 and he sold bees and honey to the amount of $68.00, 

 and increased to 19 by swarming. He getsl6,-';j cts. 

 for extracted, 25 cts. for comb honey. We lieep 

 plenty for our own table, and ma puts it on the table 

 every meal — bread and butter and milk. I am afraid 

 of bees, but I can tell when they are robbing and 

 swarming. I know the queen, and can tell drones 

 and workers. Our honey candies in cold weather 

 now; but before we moved across the street, our 

 honey never candied. Pa is a carpenter, and makes 

 all hives. He wanted me to study the bee-books, 

 and read the journals, and be a bee-keeper. I am 

 almost nine years old. I should like the Giant Kill- 

 er. The clerk who opens the mail will please put 

 this at once in the purple basket. 



Johnny Lawrence. 



Linnville, Ohio, Jan. 28, 1884. 



Well, I declare. Johnny, yon deserve the 

 Giant Killer, and I thank you, too, for the 

 excellent report yon have given iis. But if 

 all the juveniles demand that their letters be 

 put into the purple basket, what will become 

 of the other folkjjj' 



another hive with open cracks, and split 

 from top to bottom. 



As I have been studying in the house a good deal 

 lately, I have noticed the bees considerably. The 

 old box hives that did not have caps on were wet in- 

 side, while those that had caps on were dry; so I got 

 all the caps I could, and put them on. Pa has kept 

 bees a good many years, and one winter tbe bees, all 

 but one hive, winter-killed, and that one was an old 

 box hive that was split clear up and down. We 

 have that one yet, and I believe it is the strongest 

 swarm we have, for it always sends out several strong 

 swarms. There are cracks on both sides of it; ono 

 of them is nearly half an inch wide, so we give our 

 bees plenty of air on top. There is one swarm in a 

 Langstroth hive that I do not believe will live until 

 spring, unless it is fed. Will you please tell what to 

 feed them? I have been studying my ABC lately, 

 and have got to " Hive-Making." 



Edwin J. Stickle. 



Macomb, 111., Jan. 35, 1884. 

 We have pretty good proof, Edwin, that 

 bees winter with ventilation such as you 

 mention, when they would die without it ; 

 but I believe there is such a thing as giving 

 too much ventilation ; for instance : Yester- 

 day was a warm day, and the bees were fly- 

 ing, and we examined some of the hives. 

 Well, they were found to be all right, except 

 one. This one was opened late in the fall, 

 to get some bees to put in with some queens. 

 Whoever opened it did not put back the 

 chaff cushions properly, and an opening was 

 left right up through to the cover. The bees 

 were all dead, and a good many of them had 

 crawled up througli this opening. Feed 

 your bees candy, as directed in your ABC. 



THE OIL-WELL. 



Papa has 11 hives of bees, and I have one. Six are 

 in the cellar, and six outside. But this cold weather, 

 from zero down to 30° below, we would rather have 

 had all of them in. Papa has an oil-well and a feed- 

 mill attached to the oil-well engine. He ground 

 about 4000 bushels of grain into feed the last year. 

 The mill is an 18-inch vertical buhr stone. The oil 

 we get, we use in the lamps just as it comes out of 

 the well. It is good oil, and safer than some of the 

 refined oil. It produces only three-fourths of a bar- 

 rel per day; was drilled in 1877. This is my first let- 

 ter. If you think it worth a book, please send Silver 

 Keys. Mary E. Somerville, age 8. 



Brady's Bend, Pa., Jan. 26, 1884. 



Well, now, Mary, that letter is a very in- 

 teresting: one — to me, anyhow. I once sunk 

 a well lor oil, but I did not get any. I 

 should think that three-fourths of a barrel 

 of oil a day, good enough to burn in lamps, 

 just as it comes from the ground, would be 

 quite a nice thing to have. Is it not won- 

 derful to think of getting oil out of wells? 

 I can remember when no one ever heard of 

 such a thing ; and what do you suppose they 

 had to read by eveniugsV Why, just greasy 

 tallow candles. 1 suppose some of you chil- 

 dren nowadays would hardly know what a 

 tallow candle is for. May God be praised 

 for the oil, as well as for the honey and all 

 other blessings. 



A COUPLE OF PRINTED LETTERS FROM GEORGE AND 



JESSE. 



MISTEK ROOT, DE.\K SIR:-I SEE SOME OF 

 THE BOYS AND GIRLS ARE PRINTING TO YOU, 

 SO I THOUGHT I WOULD PRINT YOU A LETTEK, 

 AS I CAN NOT WRITE. I HAVE TWO LITTLE 

 BROTHERS AND O.NE LITTLE SISTER. I AM 

 THE OLDEST OP ALL MY PA KEEPS BEES. HAS 

 ?5 SWARMS. ALL ITALIANS. MY LITTLE BROTH- 

 ER ALMOST TWO YEARS OLD USED TO FOLLOW 

 PAPA OUT W HE NT HE WENT TO WORK WITH 

 THE BEES. HE WOULD PUT HIS HANDS ON 

 TOP OF A CHAFF HIVE. AND STAND ON HIS 

 TIPTOES. AND THEN HE COULD JUST PEEK 

 OVER INTO THE HIVE. PAPA SAYS I MAY 

 SEND YOU A REPORT OF HIS BEES AND HON- 

 EY. HE COMMENCED IN THE FALL OF 1880 

 WITH TWO SWARMS, BOUGHT OP DAN WHITE; 

 IN188L EXTRACTED 120 LBS. HONEY. AND IN- 

 CRE.ISED TO SIX; IN 1883, EXTRACTED 900 LBS. 

 HONEY; INCREASED TO 16; 188.3. EXTRACTED 

 840 LBS., AND INCREASED TO 35. HE MAKES 

 ARTIFICIAL SWARMS, AND BREEDS ALL HIS 

 QUEENS FROM AN IMPORTED QUEEN HE GOT 

 FROM YOU. WE NEVER HAVE LOST A .SWARM. 

 GEORGE KNAPP, AGE 7. 



ROCHESTER DEPOT, O., JAN., 1884. 



I WANT TO PRINT SOME TOO. WE ALL GO TO 

 CHURCH AND SUNDAY-SCHOOL. MY PAPA'S 

 NAME IS N. A. KNAPP. HE SAYS. ASK MR. 

 ROOT IF HE EVER HAD A YOUNG QUEEN CO.M- 

 MENCE TO LAY AS LATE AS OCTOBER 2.5, AND 

 DRONES FLYING NOV. 4. MAMMA GIVES US 

 ALL THE HONEY WE WANT TO EAT. 



JESSE KNAPP, AGE 5. 



ROCHESTER DEPOT, O., JAN., 1884. 



Yes, Jesse, I have had queens commence 

 to lay as late as October, although I do not 

 remember that I ever saw any drones fly in 

 November. 



