l48 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



JAIC. 



FROM IG TO 25, AND 2000 LBS. OF HONEY. 



My pa is a bee-keeper. He had 16 stands in the 

 spring; sold 3 stands, and has 33 now, and they are 

 all Italians. He has extracted 135T lbs. of honey, 

 and taken oflf about 750 lbs. in sections, and nearly 

 all of it is sold. G. W. Millek. 



Chariton, Iowa. Dec. 25, 1883. 



Mamma has one swarm of bees, but they did not 

 make any snrplus honey this year. My aunt keeps 

 bees. One year she had almost all of her honey sto- 

 len. Papa has about 40 cows, and I have two dogs; 

 one is a shepherd, and the other is a little spaniel. 

 1 am 8 years old. Charlie Baines. 



Norwich, N. Y., Dec. 30, 1883. 



Is it really so, Charlie, that there is any- 

 body so bad as to steal honey from a woman V 



THAT CHAFF HI^'E, ETC. 



Pa has just made a chaff hive. I tell you it looks 

 nice. Pa takes great pride in his bees. 1 suppose 

 that I have got to watch the bees all next summer. 

 I watch them kill the drones, going down on their 

 backs, killing them every minute. It is a great mys- 

 tery to mc how they know. To keep bees is a great 

 thing to learn. George B. Staples. 



Taunton, Mass., Dec. 29, 1883. 



WHAT WALTER'S PA DID. 



My pa keeps bees, and he took a queen-cell, and 

 put it into a nucleus. He looked in it one day, and 

 it had hatched, but he could not find her, and about 

 7 days after that he looked in the hive and found 

 her; and as he did not want two queens in one hive, 

 he took her and put her into another little box, and 

 set it by a hive, and the bees killed her. Please 

 send me Sheer Off, if I deserve it. 



Walter Livingston. 



McVey, Macoupin Co., 111., Dec., 1883. 



I think you deserve it, Walter. 



robbed " to death." 



My pa keeps bees. He has 30 hives of them. He 

 gave me one hive. I thought it had not enough 

 honey, and I fed it, and other bees found it out and 

 robbed it to death. Pa works at building houses, 

 and he makes all his hives. We get lots of honey; 

 he sold it for 25 ctB. John Spangler, age 13. 



Shady Grove, Pa., Dec. 30, 1882. 



When you attempt to feed honey, John, 

 you must be awful careful. I— tell — you— , 

 for it just sets those sneaking, pilfering bees 

 crazy when they get a " sniff " of it. 



MATTXE'S father's NOVEL WAY OF HATCHING 



queen-cells. 



Father has been keeping bees for over 25 years, 

 and has had good luck, except in 1880. We had 48 

 stands of bees, and they all froze but 3. The next 

 year they Increased to 7 stands, and in 1883 wo had 

 19 stands, after 3 had run off. I want to know what 

 you think of our way of hatching queens. Father 

 takes the queen-cells when they are about 8 or 9 

 days old, and puts them in little tin boxes, and puts 

 them under my old hen, and they hatch all right. 

 Mattie Coblentz, age 13. 



New Paris, O., Dec. 20, 1883. 



Thanks, Mattie; but we have heard of 

 the same thing before, only it was friend 

 Atchley, of Dallas, Texas, who did it, and 

 he used clam-shells instead of tin boxes. I 

 shouldn't wonder if a sitting hen would an- 

 swer very well in place of a lamp nursery. 



Do You CAHE IF A LITTLE glX-YEAR-oLD 

 GIRL WRITES A LETTER? I LIJjiE TO WATCH 

 PAPUA WqRW with BEES, A^D I LIJsiE H05;EkJ. 

 I SEE SOMh of y.^ LETTHRs H>.<;E ^E;>RLY 

 TclMcqLEO 0<aR. JOglE M. CoNDON. 



CLINTON, MO., DEC. 20, 1883. 



I should think they had " nearly " tumbled 

 over, Josie, when some of them are almost 

 down flat. To be sure, I care to have 6-year- 

 old girls write. I should like to know who 

 has a better right to write, even if their let- 

 ters are some of them "tumbled over." I 

 told the printers to tip the letters just as you 

 did, Josie ; but I guess they have got them 

 a little worse. Don't you think so ? 



THE BOY THAT HASN'T ANY BEES. 



I have no brothers nor sisters to play with me at 

 home. I don't own any of the bees either, but I 

 own a pet sheep named Chester. He can out-butt all 

 creation. I bad lots of fun when he was little, hold- 

 ing up my foot and letting him butt it. Pa says all 

 the fun is on the sheep's side now, as one of his 

 backings and charges is more dangerous than a 

 charge of pa's crossest hybrid bees. I forgot to say, 

 that pa has Italians, hybrids, and black bees. 



Wirt Edwards. 



Sebre, Webster Co., Ky., Dec. 23, 1883. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT IN A BAD FIX. 



Pa has 17 stands this winter. He makes his own 

 hives. He sold $10.00 worth last fall. We had lots of 

 fun last summer when they swarmed. Pa pounded 

 the bottom nearly out of mamma's dish-pan, trying 

 to settle them ; but they got away one Sunday. The 

 bees stung papa when they swarmed, and his eye 

 swelled so that he could not go to Sunday-school. 

 He was superintendent. We all laughed at him. I 

 have one brother and one sister. They are at school 

 to-day. I am lame, and can't go to school when the 

 roads are too bad to take a horse. Our schoolhouse 

 is a mile and a halt away. Dora Bunker, age 8. 



El Dara, Pike Co., 111., Dec. 29, 1882. 



TRIALS OF A MINISTERIAL BEE-KEEPER, REPORTED 

 BY HIS LITTLE GIRL. 



Papa lakes Gleanings, and I like to read it. He 

 takes a great deal of interest in bees. He took 

 about 1000 lbs. of honey this year. My brother Willie 

 often helps him. They both get a good many stings. 

 Papa often gets stung on Saturday, so when he 

 preaches on Sunday his eyes look very queer. 

 Everybody in the congregation knows that he keeps 

 bees, so they laugh at him a great deal, especially 

 the young folks. I hope you will think this effort 

 deserves a book; if you do, please send me Ten 

 Nights in a Bar-Room. 



Clarence B. Alexani:er, age 13. 



Dry Run, Pa., Dec. 19, 1883. 



mark's papa's 200 STANDS OF BEES. 



My papa has about 200 stands of bees. He gave 

 me a stand, and they are doing very well. He gave 

 my brother a stand. Papa got 2 more stands about 

 a week ago. My brother got stung, and I have not 

 seen him around the bees any since. My grandpa 

 gave me and my brother nine rabbits, but two of 

 them died. This is my first letter. I am going, to 

 school. Mark Barber. 



Langford, Col., Nov. 26, 1882. 



I guess your brother must have been 



