560 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



u 



and it would save him many dollars and much 

 trouble. He said he always kept bees; he loved the 

 little pets, but had never g-ot much honey, or real- 

 ized any profits. Pa told him from the same num- 

 ber of hives, 4, last year, he got two barrels of de- 

 licious honey, and increased his bees to 10 hives; 

 sold one barrel of honey on an average for 13;4c per 

 lb., and two swarms of bees for $10.00; boug-ht 5 

 swarms more for $5.00 each; lost 3; have 11 

 swarms now; but, pa takes Gleanings, and that is 

 the difference. Loannie Fishek. 



Napoleon, O., June 18, 1884. 



Very good, Loanna, I am glad to know that 

 you and papa knew just what to do, and were 

 not afraid to go right to work and do it. I 

 should think your papa must be real well by 

 this time, from tlie account of tlie work you 

 did. 



CUTTING A BEE-TREE. 



ouk fiuend mahai.a b. chauuock tel,l.s us 

 e.kactijY how it was done. 



P^APTH agroin to cut the bee-tree, and he 



R/ wanth you to come," said little Kinney 



.j^' Phillips one morning- last week, as he 



■*^ peeped through the screen-door at me. 



I told him that I had a bad cold, and could 



not go; but in a few minutes, " papth " came to see 



about it himself. 



Irving and Johnnie Phillips had found a bee-tree 

 a few days before, and, as it was on our land. Broth- 

 er Phillips offered to cut the tree and give us the 

 honey, while he would keep the bees; but as he 

 had never handled bees much, he wanted me to go 

 along to put the bees in the hive. 



He said he would send the buggy for me, and we 

 were soon on the way. The buggy was a veritable 

 " one-hoss shay," and I climbed in, and took Harry, 

 and I told all the other children to walk behind and 

 pick up the pieces. 



Arrived at Brother Philliijs's, wo changed horses; 

 i. e., they took the gray horse from the "one-hoss 

 shay " and put it and another to the big farm wagon 

 that had the hay-ladders on, and we all got on— 

 Mrs. Phillips and her five children, 1 with my four, 

 and away we went, over hill and dale. Brother 

 Phillips had gone on with the ax. 



The bees were in a giant oak, and Bro. Phillips 

 drew many a long breath before it fell to the earth. 



The children, who had been hiding behind brush- 

 heaps and ti-ee-trunks, now came forth; but the 

 bees soon scattered them again, and Johnnie Phil- 

 lips said, " I'll tell you what, boys, there's more real 

 fun in cutting a bee-tree than in a Fourth of July; 

 I "—just then an angry bee stung him on the cheek, 

 and he i-an away, crying out, " O mamma ! I am 

 stung! look out there, boys! take to the brush, 

 take to the brush, everybody." 



While Brother Phillips was chopping a hole to get 

 at the honey, the bees kept flying about him, and 

 he kept shaking his head, and dodging; so I offered 

 him my bee-hat. Now, when I wear a bee-hat I al- 

 ways tie the curtain down with a long shaker-blue 

 calico apron, made to button around the waist; and 

 as I am only a moderate-sized woman, and as Broth- 

 er Phillips will weigh 300 if he weighs an ounce, the 

 strings would not reach around him, and his wife 

 had to brefik the strings off her sun-bonnet to eko 

 them out. And a picture he was! Sometimes tho 

 ax ,woiild eatcji in tJi/^ long apron, nprl Mrs. PhilHpf; 



would call out, "Don't cut your feet off!" Then 

 the apron would blow straight out in the wind, then 

 hang at half-mast awhile. We laughed till our jaws 

 ached. 



When he reached the honey, my work began; and 

 as fast as the children came up I gave them great 

 hunks of it to eat, and little Kinney was standing 

 on a big limb near me, with his hands and mouth 

 full of dripping sweetness Avhen a bee stung him on 

 the little toe. He dropped his under jaw, and the 

 honey rolled out, and with it an awful Itfiwl; and 

 amid the splutter of words, we made out, " Takth 

 off, papth! take off! ith stingin," and "pai>th " took 

 it off. 



After putting all the good brood-combs into the 

 hives, and the nice white honey in pails, wc set the 

 hive over the bees and came home. 



The next morning. Brother Phillips came to help 

 us stack wheat; and as soon as the men saw him 

 they made such a racket that I went out to see if a 

 circus were going by, and 1 did not wonder that 

 they laughed; his upper lip hung clear down over 

 his chin, and when he talked it flopped up and down 

 like shaking a feather bed, and he could smile out 

 of only one eye, and laugh with one side of his face; 

 but he was able to talk. He said, " I went out early 

 this morning to bring the bees home, and Lib fixed 

 me up in a veil, and she made a hole in the veil over 

 my mouth, so that I could got my breath, and I went 

 out there and stirred them up, and they made a bee- 

 line for the hole in that veil. It did seem to me that 

 there were six hundred bees inside, prancing round 

 on my neck and ears. I threw the veil away, and 

 ran half across the wheat-field before they left me. 

 They stung me most everlastingly; but, I'll go out 

 and get them to-night." Mahala B. Chaddock. 



VICTOR'S DESCRIPTION OF HIS PA- 

 PA'S MISHAP. 



AND SOMETHING ABOUT MOVING BEES IN WAGONS 

 GENEUALLY. 



fA has 30 hives of bees. We do not have to win- 

 ter our bees here. We moved here March 14, 

 1884. Pa bought most of his bees after he 

 came down here. I will tell you of a scrape 

 he got into when he went to move his bees. 

 We lived 18 miles from here before we moved. 

 Pa took a mule and cart, and started for here with 

 8 hives of bees on the cart; but when he got about 

 a mile from there, two of the hives fell out, and pa 

 did not know it until he got about five miles fur- 

 ther. When he found it out he got down and took 

 the mule, and went back to look for his bees. When 

 he found them they were bursted open, and so cross 

 that they stung him very badly; but at last he suc- 

 ceeded in getting them up and out of the i-oad, so 

 people could pass. Then he returned to the bees he 

 had left; and when he got there a few of the bees 

 were out of the hives, and he had to kill those that 

 were out of the hives before he could gear his mule 

 to the cart again. When ho got here he had six 

 hives, with one smothered. 



We consider the holly and persimmon our best 

 trees for honey in this country, but the latter 

 makes our best and favorite honey, and is equal to 

 clover honey. Pa does not either smoke nor chew 

 tobacco, and never has and never will; but he has 

 already bought him a smoker. Pa is not any 

 more afraid of ^pes than he is of flies. He has not 



