710 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



RABBITS, ETC. 



One of my rabbits that I wrote about before has 

 nine young kids. I think one of the other does has 

 young ones too. We have got a pig, and we call 

 him Governor. Something has been killing our 

 chickens. I think it was a cayote. I like to hunt 

 (when I can find game), and shoot hawks on the wing. 

 I enjoyed the two books I got from you. I like to 

 shoot jack rabbits when they are sitting on their 

 hind legs. We got our first pair of rabbits from 

 A. A. Fradenburg. Do you ever get out of patience 

 because we children write so many worthless let- 

 ters? IKVIN Craig. 



Empire, Dakota, Sept. 3, 1884. 



No, Irvin, I never get oxtt of patience with 

 children's letters. I have far weightier trials 

 to try my patience than any thing that the 

 juveniles furnish. The Bible says we must 

 add to temperance patience, and to patience 

 godliness. Do you know where it says that? 



BEES THAT WOULD NOT STAY HIVED— AND BITTER 

 HONEY. 



My pa bought 4 stands of bees last winter. They 

 kept swarming till he had 13 stands, but the worms 

 killed out one this summer. He had a swarm that 

 came out one day that stayed in their new hive but 

 a little while till they went back where they came 

 from. The next day they swarmed again, and were 

 put in the same hive again; but they went back to 

 their old home once more. The third time they 

 came out again soon after breakfast, a larger swarm 

 than they were the other two days. This time pa 

 wet the hive with saltwater on the inside, and they 

 stayed then. 



Pa took out 4 frames of honey one day last week, 

 and we children were all around waiting for ma to 

 cut us out some; but the first we got did us for that 

 time. It was nice looking, but so bitter! Ma says 

 the bees must have got it from dog-fennel ; but pa 

 says he thinks they got it from poison-oak. 



Sparta, Miss. Hattie Hall. 



Friend Hattie, I hardly believe tlie salt 

 water had any thing to do with making the 

 bees stay, unless the dampness kept the hive 

 cool, which might have been one reason. In 

 hot weather, bees object to a hive that is 

 very warm— one having stood in the sun for 

 some time, for instance.— We should be glad 

 to know where the bitter honey comes from, 

 if your pa can find out. 



in her stead ; and the reason we do it is, be- 

 cause by changing the queen we change the 

 kind of bees. The queen, you know, lays all 

 the eggs, therefore she is the mother of the 

 colony ; so if we take away a black (lueen 

 and put in an Italian, pretty soon all the 

 black bees will be gone, and we shall have a 

 hive full of quiet yellow bees, in place of the 

 cross black ones. 



a good KEPORT FROM DOOLITTLE'S COUNTY. 



1 was so glad that you printed my letter that I 

 sent to you some two years ago, I thought I would 

 write to you again. My pa has now 118 swarms of 

 bees, but they have not given us much honey this 

 season— only 1100 lbs. Last winter and spring I 

 nailed over 40CO caps for pa, and when he took the 

 caps olT the hives I extracted the honey from almost 

 all the partly filled caps. It was just fun. The 

 honey would come out very quickly. Pa says he 

 will give me all the bees I can take care of when I 

 get older. He is feeding some of the bees now. 

 Some of the hives he raises up in front, and pours 

 the feed right in on the bottom of the hive at night, 

 Lasryear we got 6500 lbs. of honey. 



Fred G. Mason, age 10. 



Fabius, Onondaga Co., N. Y., Aug. 11, 1884. 



WHY do we INTRODUCE A QUEEN? 



I like to read Gleanings and the Juvenile. In 

 my holidays I went to Port Hope to visit Mr. Stoi-es, 

 a friend of ours, who has between forty and fifty 

 bee-hives, and also having a few of Gleanings I 

 began to be interested in them. He said I ought to 

 subscribe for it, so ma gave him the money to send 

 for it. My pa is an engineer on the Midland Rail- 

 way, so not having much time he has no bees ; but 

 in any spare time he has he is reading Gleanings. 

 I shall be 13, Sept. 34th. I like school and studies, 

 and was glad when school commenced. I am not 

 quite old enough to want a price list, as you sent 

 me one; but Hike reading and looking through it. 

 How and why do you introduce a queen into a hive? 

 Herbert Mook. 



Toronto, Can., Sept. 23, 1884. 



Friend Herbert, we introduce by taking 

 out the old queen, and putting the new one 



STRAWBERRIES IN APIARY, ETC. 



Many thanks for the book you sent me. I think 

 your neighbor was in about as bad a scrape as pa 

 was by not nailing the top of his hives on, for pa's 

 mule did not run away. We have some little straw- 

 berry neighbors too. Pa went after the sprouts 

 and bi-ought them home, and set them out. Then 

 they had to be watered every day, for the weather 

 was so dry that all of the leaves died on them ; but I 

 kept right on watering them until the roots began 

 to sprout. Pa carried some one-pound section box- 

 es full of honey to Washington, N. C, and sold 

 readily at 15 cts. per lb. They were a great curi- 

 osity in Washington, for the people had never seen 

 any thing in which the bees weighed their own 

 honey. Pa is making his apiary, and setting it out 

 with strawberi-ies until his trees grow large enough 

 to draw the strength from the ground, then he will 

 move them somewhere else. 



My school was to start yesterday; but on account 

 of diphtheria being here it has been put off until 

 the 24th inst. The Rev. Mr. Hughes, D.D., is princi- 

 pal. We have church and Sunday-school every 

 Sunday. I like very much to read Quinby's new 

 book on bee-keeping. It is a nice and interesting 

 book. I have a very nice rifie, but have not a 

 cleaner. Have you a rifle-cleaner in your counter 

 store? If you have, please lot me know the price. 

 My rifle is 22 caliber. 



After the wax has been in the extractor, how do 

 you. heat the extractor so as to melt the wax? 



Chocowinity, N. C, Sept. 11, 1884. E. V. Cox. 



Friend E., I have never kept any thing in 

 the counter store bekyiging to firearms. In 

 fact, I do not (piite believe in rifles or shot- 

 guns or revolvers— at least, I do not believe 

 we need them in civilized and intelligent 

 communities. If you look over the daily pa- 

 pers, yon will see that we are having deaths 

 and mutilated bodies almost constantly, be- 

 cause of accidents by firearms. If they do 

 more harm than they do good among people 

 in general, would it not be best to give them 

 the" go-by"? 



