1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



765 



Vhen I reached home I told mine vife 



Dat I vas der only lifing. valking pee-hife. 



Ven I pegan poody quick to take off my bants, 



I got shtung some" more on my face lint my hants. 



Put she ran pehind de lace curtain to hide, 



Unt lafft till I dought she'd shplit her own side. 



Dat made me so mad dat I pegan crvin 



For her to come quick— dat I was a dyin. 



Dat sheared her. She crabbed de bants from de floor, 



Mit dem pees in, unt shlung 'em out of de door. 



Soon mit a broom she hat de rest all dead, 



Den she helped me shently on to mine ped; 



Unt for half an hour she vos busy as could be, 



Pullin' all dem pee-stiugers out of me. 



By dat dime I dell you, I vos a sight; 



I nefer in mine life vos shwelled up so tight. 



Soon some of dose vomen, vot gave me no chance 



Ven first dose pees crawled up mine bants, 



Came in, unt arount mine ped now clung, 



Anxious to see how pad I vos shtung. 



Den von vould tell me dis, unt von dat to try; 



Auoder vould tell me someding else to apply. 



I nefer knew before, until I met dese, 



Dat so many vomen hat been shtung py pees. 



Von said she knew if I vos packt in vet clay [avay. 



From my knees on down 'tvould take all der shwellin 



" Madam, you can see from der swell of mine htad 



I ought to be packed from my knees up," I said. 



She allowed vet clay vould, like any good rule. 



Work either up or down (said my wife, "On a fool"). 



We tried dis remedy after dey vent avay, 



Unt dat's der only reason I'm lifin to-day. 



If we hadn't, I'd been carried on in a gasket, 



As sure as der vos a hole in de boddom of dat pasket. 



A RECORD-BREAKING HONEY-OUEEN. 



I notice on page 603, where some one speaks 

 of a queen whose bees have filled 100 sections 

 with honey and "are still pegging away." 

 Now, I have a queen that has done better 

 than that, but she is not for sale. Her bees 

 have filled 7 supers of 28 sections each, mak- 

 ing 196, every one perfect, besides 45 pounds 

 of extracted honey. Last winter was very 

 severe on the bees in this locality ; and this 

 spring, out of 41 colonies I had only 12 that I 

 thought would do more than build up for 



winter again, and from these 12 I expected to 

 get only a small quantity of extracted honey ; 

 so I put on a super of extracting-frames the 

 20th of June. The bees I speak of seemed to 

 go right to work, and in a short time I ex- 

 tracted 45 pounds. I then put on 3 supers in 

 place of the frames ; and as fast as the bees 

 filled them I raised them, putting others un- 

 der until they had filled 7 ; then, fearing the 

 honey-flow was about over, and yet not wish- 

 ing to close them down too close, I gave them 

 a super of unfinished sections, and they com- 

 pleted them. Mrs. J. M. McLean. 

 Ft. Collins, Colo. 



[Well, now, Mrs. M., you just keep that 

 queen and rear daughters from her. See that 

 her colony winters well; and next summer, if 

 you do not get calls for daughters from this 

 queen, I shall miss my guess. We are quite 

 glad to give a free advertisement to any one 

 who has a queen that outstrips every thing 

 else in the yard. Oh, yes ! do not forget to 

 reserve one of her best daughters for us. — Ed.] 



DRAPER BARNS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF 

 COMB HONEY. 



I have been noticing, in the four bee papers 

 which I take, the comments on the large 

 Dadant hives (or Draper barns, as some style 

 them ) which you are to give a thorough trial 

 for the next three years. Well, I don't know 

 any thing about what they call (your) "local- 

 ity," but I do know that I have been experi- 

 menting with different sizes of hives, and 

 that, as a result of the same, I am transferring 

 all combs and bees to the large Quinby frame 

 (I simply cut out combs and set them in large 

 frames, hold the same in place for a few days 

 with one wire and two small sticks, and patch 

 out with foundation, and the bees soon make 

 a nice comb); so you see they are the hive for 

 me. Well, any way I know that / do not 

 want any small hive — buckwheaters that 

 swarm, such as Niver's locality calls for. I 

 secured a fine lot of the best and prettiest 

 white-clover honey this season that I ever 

 saw, in tall sections with fences, and from 

 " barns " too. What I want to know is this : 

 What is the exact outside size and length of 

 top bar of the large frames you are making? 

 are they the Quinby, the same size as those I 

 have been getting from the Dadants? 



Midway, Ky., Aug. 21. M. D. OFFUTT. 



[The barn frames that we make are 11 % 

 inches deep by 17^ lon#. Indeed, it is the 

 same thing as the regular Langstroth, but 2*4 

 inches deeper. — Ed.] 



BEE-VEILS, AND HOW TO WEAR THEM ; SUL- 

 PHURIC ACID FOR WAX. 



The extra Gleanings you sent is here. 

 Page 543, subject bee-veils, interests me. I 

 have tried wearing the veil as shown in the 

 picture, but in this locality bees too often 

 climb up inside the veil, while I abways want 

 them outside. To tuck the veil inside the 

 shirt collar is the instruction which comes 

 with the veil, I believe, and suits me better. 

 To hold my neck as prim as a deacon from 



