278 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Ape. 



They were both on one frame, but not on the same 

 side. One looked older than the other. We have 

 not lo( kcd at them this spring. They were put 

 away with pure linden honey, and no pollen, and are 

 alive, but are the most quiet in the yard. The wild 

 tiowers are just coming. The bees are looking after 

 them when it is so they can fly. I help to extract 

 honey, and look for swarms, and help what I can. 

 Lylk Reed. 

 Chester X Roads, Ohio, April 1,1884. 



HOW TO MAKE A SWARMINGPOLE. 



My father and mother have 26 hives of bees, and I 

 have one. My mother gave it to me this week. My 

 bees are in a box hive. My father is going to send 

 for a Simplicity hive. Our bees are near the orchard, 

 and often alight in the apple-trees, and are very 

 hard to get down. Last summer my mother got an 

 old wool hat, tacked it on a long pole, and held it up 

 for the bees to alight on. I think it is a good plan. 

 Lewis H. Egbert. 



Sandy Lake, Pa., March 29. 1884. 



Very good, Lewis. Any black substance 

 put on the top of a pole, that looks like bees, 

 will usually induce them to settle on it. A 

 ball of black yam is sometimes used ; and to 

 make it better still, some dry dead bees 

 strung on a stout thread, and would around 

 this ball, makes a very good swarming-pole. 



3000 LBS. OF nONEY FROM 50 COLONIES. 



Papa had 50 colonies of bees. I have one. My bees 

 are the prettiest in the yard. They are Italians. I 

 got my queen of Mr. Brooks. Papa gets lots of bees 

 of him. Papa lost several colonies this winter. We 

 got 3000 lbs. of honey last year. I got 50 lbs. We 

 had 18 colonies, spring count. We extracted nearly 

 every day, and I got tired. Can't you bring Huber 

 over to the bee-keepers' meeting next summer at 

 North Salem? I think It is some time in June. 

 Papa says Mr. Muth, of Cincinnati, will be there, 

 and I think you ought to come too. 



Gertie Orear, age 10. 



Ladoga, Ind., March 30. 1884. 



Well, I am very much obliged, Gertie, for 

 your kind words to little Huber. He has 

 never been to any kind of meeting, for the 

 very good reason that he would probably 

 break up any fair-sized meeting of any kind 

 in about fifteen minutes. He breaks up ev- 

 ery thing he can get hold of, or that happens 

 to come around, as it is.— It seems to me 

 that .8000 lbs. of honey was pretty well, was 

 it not ? 



HOW TO Keep squash-bugs away. 

 Sprinkle the plants with air-slacked lime as soon 

 as you see any bugs, and keep them well sprinkled 

 until they get to growing well. 



Ethel F. Coffee, age 9. 

 Freeport, Me., March 30, 1884. 



Friend Ethel, I think very likely the air- 

 slacked lime will do pretty well ; but our 

 bugs do not seem to care very much about 

 it. Prof. Cook recommends in his book, 

 " Injurious Insects," putting shingles each 

 side of the hill, and then pinching the bugs' 

 heads when you tind them under the shingles. 

 One of the men who work in the factory 

 here brought us some nice squashes, and I 

 asked him how he kept the bugs away, and 

 he said he had a plan of his own. After a 

 little pressing, he told what the plan was. 



He said he put so much fresh cow manure 

 around the hills that the bugs could not 

 stand the smell of it, and so they left the 

 young squash-vines to grow in peace. I 

 presume the bugs all walked off in disgust, 

 holding their noses, very likely, till they got 

 out of the neighborhood. Very likely his 

 application of strong manure helped the 

 squashes to grow, for squashes are rank 

 feeders, and will send out little roots all 

 along the vine, to grab hold of any kind of 

 rich manure that they may find. 



aunt lucinda and grandpa langstroth at the 

 convention. 



I am the little boy Aunt Lucinda saw at the con- 

 vention. I saw lots of folks there— Messrs. Hutch- 

 inson, Heddon, Newman, and others; but I did not 

 see you. You ought to have been there, and seen 

 Aunt Lucinda kiss Grandpa Langstroth, right be- 

 fore us all. They all laughed, as if they wished they 

 had been in grandpa's place. Papa took our bees 

 out of the cellar the 20th of March — 175 colonies; 

 put in 187 colonies the 20th of Dec. I am afraid of 

 bees. Hike to take a handful of drones, and make 

 the girls think they will get stung. 



Daniel Webster. 



Blaine, 111., March 25, 1884. 



Now, Daniel, you have gone and let the 

 cat out of the bag. And so Aunt Lucinda 

 kissed Grandpa Langstroth right before all 

 the people, did she V \yell, I guess it didn't 

 do any harm, after all. I am very glad in- 

 deed to see so friendly a feeling among the 

 veterans. So you like to scare the girls, do 

 you ? Well, if you scare them with drones 

 only, I guess it won't do very much harm. 

 Look out that you don't get hold of a work- 

 er-bee, though, when you think you have 

 only a drone. 



LUCIAN'S STORY ABOUT HIS PA'S BEE-KEEPING. 



My pa bought two swarms of bees in the winter of 

 1881. They died in the spring of 1882. Some bees 

 found the empty hives, and came to go into them, 

 and I threw some stones at them, and they alighted 

 on a wheelbarrow, and I told ma the wheelbarrow 

 was painted with bees, and she came out to see, and 

 ran and called papa, and he hived them. That swarm 

 increased to 3. We put them in Simplicity hives, 

 with chaff cushions and chaff division-boards, and 

 they wintered all right, and increased to 18. We 

 bought one swarm of Italians, and Italianized 6 oth- 

 ers. We found another in the fruit -yard, on an 

 evergreen, and pa went to one of the neighbors and 

 got two which they were going to take up, which 

 made 22. They swarmed so often that they didn't 

 make much honey— about 200 lbs., I guess, and pa 

 thought they did not have bees enough, so he went 

 to the woods and got 6 swarms and put in with them, 

 then he fed them as much sugar as he got honey, 

 then left them all on their summer stands, and put 

 11 of them on boxes, and packed them in chaff. He 

 built corn-shocks around the other 11. This week 

 we overhauled them all; found one swarm qu^en* 

 less; another very weak. We put them together, 

 which made a soodjswarm. The rest were all right, 

 only they were a little short of stores, so we made 

 some candy and fed them. 



Pa bought the ABC book and a smoker of you, 

 and Gleanings also; and of course I have to take 

 care of them. Lucian Darnell, age 11. 



Hinckley, 111., March 21, 1884. 



