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JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



Mar. 



jiary's father's assistant. 



My father has 75 swarms of bees, all wintering out 

 of doors, packed in chaff. I haA'c to watch them in 

 swarming- time, and have to step lively, when half a 

 dozen swarms come out at once, to wait on pa while 

 he hives them. He sold al>out a ton of surplus hon- 

 ey. We have had a very hard winter here. The 

 bees have not bad a good fly so far. AVe don't know 

 how thej' are wintering. 



Mary E. Wheatoss, age 11. 



Deposit, Broome Co., N. Y.,reb, 25, J883. 



HOW IDA SWARMED THE BEES. 



Pa has some bees. One day when he was away, 

 one of the colonies swarmed. My brother, who is 

 six years older than I am, tried to hive them; but 

 he got stung, and left them for me to hive. I put 

 on pa's veil, and got them all into three boxes. I 

 covered them up so they could not get out, as I 

 thought. But when I came to look at them they 

 were all in one box. The box was turned upside 

 down, so I put a board under it. Wilfred helped me 

 to carry it into the barn. We left them in the barn 

 until pa came home. I hived another swarm after 

 that. Pa gave me ten cents apiece for hiving them. 

 My sister Fanny has been stung only once all the 

 time we have had the bees. This is the first time I 

 have written for any paper, I hope next time to do 

 better. Ida Singleton, age 13. 



Cleveland, 0., Feb. 20, 1883. 



A WARNING TO PAPAS. 



I Will endeavor to tell you how my papa makes 

 candj- for his bees, trying to remember the " red 

 lights." And though it may seem to you like the 

 old story of "Cap'n Rice, he gin a treat," I shall 

 have to tell it in my o^vn way. He made the candy 

 of granulated sugar, grape sugar, and wheat flour. 

 He did not have very good success, however; it 

 would not harden, and papa got it all over his hands 

 and trousers. When he touched any thing it re- 

 minded me of Aunt Jemima's celebrated plaster 

 — "the more you tried to pull it off, the more 

 'twould stick the faster." He is now reading the 

 ABO, and thinks he will improve his candy by add- 

 ing more granulated sugar. Papa bought four colo- 

 nies of Italian bees in chaff hives, so we now have 30 

 colonies in good condition. Clara E. Ghubb. 



Key, Belmont Co., O., Feb. 2T, 1883. 



Thank you for remembering the "red 

 lights," Clara." _________ 



what a SHEPHERD DOG DID. 



A neighbor of ours is a sheep-dealer. He buys 

 sheep around here, and then ships them to Chicago. 

 One night the sheep would not go into the car. He 

 would not have got them in at all, had it not been 

 for his dog. It happened this way: He would carry 

 one or two in, then they would run out again. They 

 kept it up this way until they were tired out. Then 

 just as they were about to give it up, his dog came 

 to his help. Three minutes after the dog came, the 

 sheep were on board. As soon as he got through he 

 went back home. The man lived about two miles 

 across the fields from where he loaded the sheep. 

 All this happened at midnight one day last week. 

 IRVIN AOKiNS, age 14. 



Union Mills, Ind., Feb. 25, 1883. 



So you see, Irvin, that even a clog has his 

 work in life, and he can do his work even 

 better than a man can do it. 



A JUVENILE LETTER FROM THE COTTON-FIELDS. 



Pa found a swarm of bees last summer on a mes- 

 quite-tree. Then it swarmed again. We got TO lbs. 

 of honey in caps on top of the gums. Pa sent for 

 some Simplicity hives. His letter got lost, and came 

 back to him; but he started it again. I have a hive 

 of bees of my own. I picked cotton at $1.C0 a hun- 

 dred, and made over $10.00, besides helping pa pick 

 his. He raised 8 bales. To-day is bright and warm, 

 and bees are awful busy bringing in pollen. Where 

 do they get it? 



We have a big patch of turnips that stood all win- 

 ter, and are now in bloom; and this morning, when 

 papa and I were getting "greens," we saw lots of 

 bees on them. May be that is where they get the 

 pollen. Pa copied my letter, and says it is too long. 

 If so, throw it aside. Arthur Goodrich, age 7. 



Hanover, Texas, Feb. 24, 1883. 



Very good, Arthur. I don't think your 

 letter is too long. We are very glad to hear 

 about the cotton. I think it was the turnips 

 the pollen came from. 



now MR. T. LET ONE COLONY STARVE. 



Our bees arc wintering nicely. Part are buried 

 and part are in cellar. One swarm starved in Feb- 

 ruary, with lots of honey. It was queenless last 

 fall, and pa gave them a small swarm that was in a 

 box, by setting the box on the honey-board. The 

 bees remained in the box, and there were no winter- 

 passages in the combs below, so they could not get 

 at their honey when it was so cold. Pa says we 

 must not let any more starve. We had lots of hon- 

 ey last year. AH was sold mostly at one stoi-e. It 

 brought 20 cts. per lb. in cigar-boxes; 22 cts. in sec- 

 tions; 13 cts. extracted. W, S. Timmerman. 



Fayette, Iowa, Feb. 23, 1883. • 



Why, W., do you have the bees store 

 honey in c;V/ar-boxes '? I should suppose the 

 honey Avoukl be flavored wirh tobacco. 



THE WAY MARY AND HEIl BROTHER GO TO SCHOOL. 



I am a cripple. I can not walk to school, so my 

 brother Willie and I go to school a horseback. 



Fayette, Iowa. Mary L. Txmmerman. 



That is right, Mary ; go to school, even if 

 it is some trouble. 



FROM 12 TO 89, AND 400 LBS. OF HONEY. 



Last spring my brother had 12 swarms of bees; 

 they have increased to 39, and he got about 4000 lbs., 

 of which 3000 was extracted, and 1000 comb honey. 

 He uses the Langstroth-hive bottom, and Hat top. 

 Some of his bees are in the bee-house, and some are 

 on the ground, covered with straw and chaff. He 

 has a stove in the bee-house, and builds a fire in it in 

 the cold weather, to dry it off. I have got no bees 

 of my own, but I helped him get the honey and ex- 

 tract it. 



THE QUEEN THAT GOT LOST AND PELL IN A PAN. 



Last spring the bees would fly out, and I watched 

 them some of the time; but I took a book with me 

 to read, and 8 or queens were lost by swarming 

 when nobody was around. One day when we were 

 extracting we found a queen in a pan near where 

 we were at work. Brother did not know how she 

 got there, but he thought she had got on his clothes 

 and dropped off; but the next thing was to find the 

 hive she belonged in. He then caged her, and placed 

 her in the hive he thought she belonged in. 



Burton Harrington. 



Homestead, la., Feb. 2G, 1883. 



