378 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



tlie book, credit you witli .50 cents, and you 

 can liave it in money, or any thing you may 

 select from our list, as you choose. Tell 

 your ma that I do not think she needs to 

 fasten the sheets at the top with melted wax 

 at all. 1 think you will do tip top with the 

 dictionary, JMartha (that is my sister's name 

 too), for you Avrite already a great deal bet- 

 ter than some of the big "men who send for 

 queens, etc. 



I am a boy 11 years old. Papa gavo me a swarm 

 of bees on my tenth birthday. They swarmed last 

 week, and so I have s'ot two swarms of bees now. 

 My school has just closed. Papa has got 125 swarms 

 of bees. They wintered nicely; he lost only 5 last 

 winter out of 115. Papa has a swarm that has 

 swarmed every day for two weeks. I have two sis- 

 ters and one brother. Cat.ly Dinks. 



Fulton, Oswego Co., N. Y., July T, 1881. 



Now, f'ally, you tell your pa I wouldn't 

 have a hive lluit swarmed every day for two 

 weeks, "nohow." I would break them all 

 up into "little bits," and give each " bit" a 

 frame of unsealed brood, and make them 

 raise queens. Your pa must be a ])retty big 

 bee-man, if he can winter like that every 

 time. 



I have not seen any letters fram Cottage Grove, 

 so I thought that I would be the first to write from 

 here. I was 10 years old on the first of Feb. I hste 

 to expose my ignorance in writing to an editor. 1 

 have never been to sohool but a few days in my lite, 

 but my sister and I study at home. I study Apple- 

 ton's Fourth Reader, Harper's Geography, Quacken- 

 bos' Ariiiimetic, and writing, and take music lessons. 

 I have made up my nund, that if this letter is put in 

 the waste basket, I will try to write a better one 

 next time. Papa an'l I put 23 swarms of bees in the 

 cellar last November, and you may well guess that 

 we had pretty sorry faces when weonly found 10 live 

 swarms this spring. Now please don't put my letter 

 under Blasted Hopes, for it sounds so had. And pa 

 has now only si.x good swarms. Papa uses the Lang- 

 stroth hives; he makes them himself; he made a new 

 extractor, and extracted over 50 lbs. of honey last 

 summer, but bethinks he won't have any surplus 

 honey this year. Not one of our neighbors have 

 saved a single swarm. Emma Guiinee. 



Cottage Grove, Dane Co., Wis., June 12, 1881. 



Why, Emma, when you started out with 

 your letter I w'as afraid so much book learn- 

 ing for a girl of 10 years old would spoil her 

 entirely for any thing useful; but if you real- 

 ly helped your fathei- to —to lose 12 swarms 

 of bees, 1 guess I won't think so after all. 

 Did you really help very much when he put 

 them in the cellar? You know I don't want 

 my class of girls to get a habit of bragging 

 too much ; it would not look well before all 

 this great company. Don't you think so? 



This is a splendid honey year. There Is a fine crop 

 of red and white clover; there is a good crop of 

 linn; it is in the prime now. Papa bought 20 three- 

 frame nuclei of Mr. Henderson, Murfreesboro, 

 Tenn. They are now pretty fair stands. We have 

 extracted about 10 gallons. I have to do the ex- 

 tracting, for papa is superintendent of 'the fair. I 

 take out the frames and then extract it, and then 

 put the frames back in the hives. Our fair is im- 

 proving; they have got a half-mile track. Every* 



body who has seen the fairground says It is the 

 nicest in the State. Freddie L. Cbaycraft. 



Salem, Wash. Co., Ind., July 6, 1831. 



AVell, Freddie, are you sure your pa didn't 

 help some about the extracting, even if he is 

 superintendent of the fair? By the way, 

 those half-mile tracks are sometimes bad 

 things for boys, and even men too. You 

 see, they get to driving fast horses, and be- 

 sides the time it uses up, the}; sometimes get 

 to be "fast" lioys. 



USES FOR PHOPOIilS. 



Children, you know what propolis is, do you not"? 

 Ha\e you ever tried to put it to any good use? I use 

 it in many ways, and there is scarcely a day that 1 

 do not use it for some thing. I noticed yesterday, 

 that bees were in a cap of a hi\e, and on examining 

 found that they came in through a hole in a honey- 

 box. I got some propolis, worked it up soft with my 

 fingers, and spread it over the hole. If I saw off a 

 limb from a tree, I cover the wound with it, to keep 

 out insects and rain. If the dipper leaks, it is soon 

 mended with it, and the wash-basin can be cured of 

 its leaky tricks by having a thin coating rubbed on 

 the bottom. Old pans and dippers, used for dipping 

 slop and feeding chickens, would be much better, if 

 their holes were mended in this way. Some roofs leak 

 around chimneys, which can be stopped by rolling 

 up propolis into little rolls, and fitting it in nicely in- 

 to the crevices, so that the shingles and bricks are 

 glued together, leaving no cracks for water to run 

 through. 



Some of you hnvc parasols or umbrellas with a 

 carved fish or dog's head on the end of the handle 

 for ornament. If you have not one of this kind, you 

 may have seen them. We have one, and on the 4th 

 of July our dog's head came off; it was so dry it 

 wanted to drink. Wo worked some propolis then, 

 and wrapped the handle with it, and put on the dog's 

 head again, cleaning off all propolis that oozed out, 

 after pushing it cm. To-day we tried to pull it oft', 

 but it was no go; it was just as if it had grown there. 

 Who will try propolis for budding and grafting? 



LuciNDA Harrison. 



Peoria, 111., July, 1881. 



\7ell, I declare ! I have wanted somebody 

 to study u]) some use for propolis ever so 

 long; and I have used it foi' mending leaks 

 in the bellows of smokers, for patching torn 

 queen-cells, leaks in honey-barrels, and the 

 like, but I had not got quite round to mend- 

 ing tinware with it. I wonder if it would 

 not mend crockery, if it was baked after- 

 ward to expel tlie" most liquid portion. I 

 know- it will stick fingers together when one 

 is in a hurry. 



FEEDING IN JULY TO KEEP QUEEN- 

 REARING GOING. 



now friend FLANAGAN DOES IT. 



N mj' last I asked if grape-sugar candy could be 

 made in hot weather, and intimated that I was 

 — ■ going to try it anyhow. Well, sir, I did so, and 

 made as hard, smooth, nice candy, this hot weather, 

 as I did in the winter. I gave it to weak colonies 

 and to nuclei to make or start the queens to laying, 

 and it is a perfect success. Our hot, dry weather 

 has dried up nearly all sources of nectar, and to keep 

 the bees rearing brood, feeding must be done. I 



