18S4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



853 



they came out so thick that two or three swarms 

 were in the air at once, and sometimes they went 

 tojfether. If one swarm got settled, but did not get 

 hived before another came out. father would put a 

 cloth around thoin so they would not g-o tog-ether 

 until the other settled and was hived. We have a 

 great deal of honey. Father sent 1000 lbs. of honey 

 away, in lib. boxes. We have it strained, in 1-lb. 

 boxes, and in cakes. Annette P'ohd, age 13. 



Bishop Creek, Cal., Nov. ir>, 1884. 



Well. I should think you would make mon- 

 ey real fast, Annette, especially when there 

 are three swarms in the air at once. Thirty 

 cents in just a few minutes— whew I 



1.50 LBS. OF HONEY FROM 8 COI.ONIES OF BEES. 



My father has 8 colonies of bees; they all lived 

 through last winter, and are in pretty good condi- 

 tion for this winter. We got .')0 lbs. of extracted 

 honey and 100 lbs. of comb honey this summer. 

 They have not swarmed this season. My mother 

 and I hived two swarms of bees last summer, and I 

 helped my father to hive the rest that swarmed, and 

 never got stung last summer or this. The first time 

 they swarmed last summer they alighted on a small 

 tree near the ground, and mother tried to sweep 

 them down: but they got mad, and mother was 

 afraid they would sting her, and so I had to shake 

 them down. Father came home just as the bees 

 were all marching into the hive. 



1 have a pair of nice rabbits, one black and white, 

 and the other gray and white. I had a white one, 

 but it died, and I intend to get another. 



Edg.\r D. Moh.\n. 



Anderson, Madison Co., Ind., Nov. 24, 1884. 



to sleep. Brother Clark just now has a good 

 deal to say about the liibernating theory— a 

 condition" in which bees sleep all winter, aud 

 eat so little that we might say their board 

 costs next to nothing. I hope he is right 

 about it; but I am afraid, when we get to 

 ! work it down so a pint of honey will last a 

 swarm of bees all winter, that somehow 

 it won't work. 



BUTTER-AND-EOGS AS A HOXEV-PI-ANT. 



I send you this day a honey-plant for you to name. 

 We call it " butter and eggs." It grows on hill and 

 valley, on poor and rich land alike. When the 

 drought comes, and there is no honey in other flow- 

 ers, the bees go for it, as it has a plenty of honey, 

 and the frost has no effect on it. The bees were 

 working on it on the 4th of this month, and it is now 

 in its best flower. It blooms from early spring till 

 hard freezing weather. It grows from one to two 

 feet high. It is a beautiful plant, in foliage and 

 flower. 1 could send tons of plants and plenty of 

 seeds, if wanted. Laura M. Hobbs, age 11. 



Middleport, Ohio, Nov. 7, 1884. 



Thank you. friend Laura ; but I don't be- 

 lieve anybody will want seeds of butter-and- 

 eggs. 1 have known for some time that 

 bees Avork on it, but I believe, as a general 

 rule it does not amount to any thing. It is 

 a rather bad weed when it gets into pastures. 



HOW TO >VARM up a BEE-CELLAR WHEN IT GETS 

 COLD. 



Last winter pa had 23 colonies of his bees in the 

 cellar when the weather got so verj- cold, 22 degrees 

 below zero, and almost at the freezing-point in the 

 cellar. He was almost at his wits' end how to keep 

 them from getting too cold. At last he hit upon a 

 l)lan. He got large pieces of iron, and heated them 

 hot, then carried them into the cellar and hung 

 them up. They kept It nice and warm, and the bees 

 wintered well. The bees that pa left on their sum- 

 mer stands did not do as well as those he left in the 

 cellar. Chas. A. Seabright. 



Blaine, Belmont Co., O., Nov. 18, 1884. 



Thank you, friend Charlie ; but I do not 

 believe it Avould hurt your bees if the tem- 

 perature did get down" to the freezing-point 

 just a little while. If you have weak nuclei, 

 however, perhaps it miglit be a good idea to 

 carry in a big chunk of iron made quite hot. 

 I suppose an old anvil, for instance, after it 

 was once well warmed up, would keep the 

 cellar from freezing for 24 hours or more. 



no BEES ever sleep? 

 1 live with my uncle. He has 40 swarms of bees; 

 we started last spring with IH colonies; this has not 

 been a good season for bees; we got 600 lbs. of hon- 

 ey. We take Gleanings. I should like to know if 

 bees sleep. I like them, and 1 help to tend them. 

 We use your one-pound sections. 



Nettie Breckbilt-. 

 Kirkwood, 111., Nov. 24, 1884. 



8o far as we can discover. Nettie, bees do 

 not sleep; at least, they do not during the 

 working season. In the winter they assume 

 a semi-torpid state, which is very much like 



ROSA'S STORV. 



My papa keeps bees, and he has 9 stands. He has 

 3 kinds— Italians, hybrids, and black bees. Once we 

 had. a little fun with bees, my sister and I. We had 

 a plate of wax, and we wanted to stir it around, and 

 the bees came at us so that we had to " skip." My 

 sister got stung in the lip, and the bees came in my 

 hair, and we ran about the whole orchard. Once 

 my papa was at the spring, and he saw a long-legged 

 thing, and each one had a bee. What kind of insect 

 was that? Rosa F. Long, age 10. 



Millstadt, 111., Nov. 16, 1884. 



Why, Ilosa, I do not know how I can tell 

 you what those things were that had the 

 bees, without a little more information. 

 When you called them "long-legged things"' 

 I thought they might be cranes, or some 

 great birds wading in the water ; but after- 

 ward you called them insects. May be it 

 was the Asilus Missoin-iensis, or the Missouri 

 bee-killer. 



A .TUVENILE LETTER FROM ENGLAND. 



I thought you would like to hear from an English 

 boy again, and know how we are getting on in Eng- 

 land. The spring was rather bad for bees, as it was 

 very cold after some mild weather, and the bees 

 went out and were lost by the thousands; but as 

 the summer came on it was very good for honey; 

 we had a lot up to the first week in .July, and after 

 that it was cold and showery, so that the bees did 

 not get much honey from the white clover, which 

 was very abundant. Father worked his sections in 

 crates holding only a single row, putting as many 

 as four rows on a hive. He has had a lot of exti-act- 

 ed honey too. I helped father to fill the honej'-bot- 

 tles. He has between .50 and 60 stocks of bees, Li- 

 gurians and hybrid; also English and Carniolans. I 

 have 2 stocks; one of them swarmed, and I sold it 

 for 17 shillings. I got two first prizes for honey in 

 sections, and father got the silver medal at our 

 show held at Stratford on Avon, Shakespeare's 



