212 



JUVENILE GLEAN'INGS. 



Apr. 



There. I must stop or I shall get this letter so long 

 that I fear you will not print it. I should like to tell 

 the girls and boys about my chickens and turkeys, 

 and how I made $9.75 last summer; but I shall have 

 to wait until next time. Harry E. March, per pa. 



Fidalgo, Whatcom Co., Wash. Ter. 



Very ^oorl indeed, friend Harry. I doubt 

 if any of the older ones could have told how 

 to open a hive better than you have done. 

 You must be a very ^I'eat help to your pa, 

 if you are with him all the time he works 

 andong the bees. I presume these bees you 

 are talking about are some that flew away 

 across the water so far. Xow, in regard to 

 cutting the wings all off close to the queen's 

 body, that is a little different from the way 

 we have been doing. Will you not ask your 

 pa if he is sure the bees are no more apt to 

 supersede such a queen? The reasons he 

 gives are new to me, but he may be right 

 about it. Friend Harry, we credit you $1.00 

 for your very valuable letter, and I am quite 

 sure the boys and girls will be very glad to 

 hear about your chickens and turkeys. 



APRIL SHOWERS, BEES, ETC. 



flHIS month reminds us of the old saying, that 

 " March winds and April showers bring forth 

 ' — ' May flowers;" and soon the time will come 

 when, if we have nothing else to do, we can notice 

 the changes our bees go through before they begin 

 housekeeping. First, we see the egg; then the lar- 

 va, or worm, is fed by the bees. Now the question 

 for some of you to answer is. What do they eat at 

 this stage? After a certain time the larva is sealed 

 up in its cell; and when it comes forth it has wings 

 with which to fly, and it seems to know how to use 

 them too. Yet some persons will tell you not to be- 

 lieve that we can ever change or become more beau- 

 tiful than we are. Why, we ought to grow more 

 beautiful every day! and more useful too. Do you 

 think that our transformation will be any more 

 wonderful than for the larva of the bee to become 

 the beautiful little Insect it is? 



While theje are so many beautiful things created 

 for our benefit we should not make ourselves un- 

 lovely, but keep our bodies clean, improve our 

 minds, and not forget that our souls must some day 

 return to God. 



It has been said, that " the greatest benefit can be 

 conferred on a city, not by raising the roofs of its 

 dwellings, but by exalting the souls of its citizens; 

 for it Is better that great souls should live in small 

 habitations, than that abject slaves should burrow in 

 great houses." E. M. 



■ — ^ i9» »* 



SAMMY AND HIS BEES THAT HE FOUND 

 ON A STUMP. 



WHAT WAS THE REASON THEY WOULD NOT RAISE A 

 QUEEN? 



fWENT one evening, the first week in July, to the 

 pasture to drive the cows for my ma, and found 

 — ■ a swarm of black bees on a stump about three 

 feet high. My pa had never kept bees at that time, 

 and had no hives. I went to one of our neighbors 

 and borrowed one old box hive, and pa put the bees 

 in that evening; but when I went in the morning to 

 look at them they were all on the stump again. Pa 

 put them into the hive again; but next morning 



they were back on the stump. Then pa went and 

 got a bee-man to come and hive them. He brought 

 a hive and a frame of bee-brood and put the bees in, 

 and they stayed. We brought them to the yard, and 

 they worked well for three weeks. Then they did 

 not work. Pa looked at them, but could find no 

 queen nor young brood. He bought a hive with a 

 strong colony of Italian bees, and put a frame full of 

 young brood in with my wild bees. Pa said if they 

 had no queen they would raise one. We looked at 

 them in three or four days, and they had made two 

 queen-cells. Pa thought they would be all right, but 

 they were not. When the brood hatched out that pa 

 put in, they had no move larva?, and nearly all the 

 bees are Italians now. After a few days he cut a 

 large queen-cell from an Italian colony, and said for 

 certain they would have a queen now. They took 

 care of the queen-cell, and in five days pa looked, 

 and the queen had hatched out. But we could not 

 see her. In about two weeks they had a patch of 

 drone-brood as large as my hand, but never any 

 more. 



But we could not find the queen. The last of Si p- 

 tember pa sent and got a dollar Italian queen, and 

 put her into the hive. She was a beauty, and the 

 bees were glad to see her. Pa fed them 10 lbs. of 

 white sugar in syrup; and when he put them away 

 for winter the first of November they had a young 

 queen, bees, eggs, and larva?. Pa put all hs hives 

 in boxes with chaff at the back, top, and both ends, 

 and left the front open. 



Oh, dear! I am so tired of writing; but no swarm 

 of bees ever had such a story to tell before, as my 

 stump hive. Sammy A. Woodruff, age 9. 



Greencastle, Putnam Co., Ind. 



You did have trouble, Sammy, it is true; 

 but I think they might have been managed 

 a little better, if you will excuse me. I am 

 inclined to think that their queen was left 

 on the stump, and that is why they went out 

 of the hive, and went back again. Had you 

 put a comb of brood in with them, when 

 they were first hived, they would have raised 

 a queen in a very little time. It is to avoid 

 just such mishaps that I have so strongly 

 advised always giving every new swarm a 

 queen. Again, when the new swarm has 

 been some time qaeenless, a laying queen is 

 much the safest way. The colony should be 

 then watched ; and if she doesn't lay, give 

 them another. We hope to hear that they 

 wintered nicely. 



BIRTHS. 



pjwo 



of our office girls, " Bess " and 



" Stella," left us a while ago, as you 



— ' may remember. Well, another of the 

 office girls has given us the following bit of 

 news : — 



March 10, 1SS3. a son to Mr. Will and Mrs. Stella Ly- 

 ons, St. Johns, Mich. 



March 24, 1883, a daughter to Mr. Robert and Mrs. 

 Bess Zimmerman, Washington, D. C. 

 Babies, " .star " and " bee." 

 Of whom we hear with glee, 



We greet thee! 

 For thy mammas' sake, 

 " Office pets " we'll make 

 And keep thee. 



Well, well ! I suppose next there will be 

 a couple of juvenile letters from these two 

 chicks, to let us know that they too are 

 growing up and " taking notes " of what is 

 passing in this world of ours. 



