1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



^13 



THE COMING BEE. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH PICTURES. 



SUPPOSE, children, you have all heard 

 ^_j_ the talk about a honey-bee that will gath- 

 — ■' er ever so much honey, will never sting, 

 or hardly ever, and ^lat would increase so 

 wonderfully that a single colony might in- 

 crease to one hundred {ovless) in a single sea- 

 son. Well, the idea is, that we get this im- 

 proved bee by careful selection, in the same 

 way that fruit-men give us the improved 

 fruits, and flower-men our wonderful varie- 

 ties of flowers. You see, the way it is to be 

 done is by careful selection and careful breed- 

 ing—of course, goiug all over the world, as 

 our friend D. A. Jones did, to get the best 

 bees that could be found to start with. 

 Well, our good friend W. P. Henderson, Mur- 

 freesboro, Tenn., has sent us the following 

 pictures to illustrate it: — 



THE COMING BEE. 



Figure 1 shows you the coming bee witli 

 his wings spread, all ready to fly away to the 

 flowers. See what a great long tongue he 

 has, to reach down info the red clover, or 

 away down into the deep honeysuckle, the 

 way the hummingbirds do. 



AFTER THE COMING BEE. 



Here is a man chasing the coming bee. 

 You see he is so eager in the chase, that the 

 wind is blowing his hat off. 



NEAUEK THE COJIING BEE. 



In No. 3 we see he has almost caught up 

 with the coming bee; but, alas! his gig has 

 broken down, and there he goes, tumbling in 

 the dust. 



WE HAVE THE COMING BEE. 



In No. 4, the coming bee seems to have 

 been caught, or at least they think they have 

 caught him. But just as they feel so sure, 

 away he goes again. 



I ARISE TO INQUIRE, WHO HAS THE COM- 

 ING BEE? 



But now friend Doolittle's " old man " 

 rises up and says, " I arise to inquire, Who 

 has caught the coming bee V " 



BEE-KEEPING, BY ONE OF THE JUVE- 

 NIIiES. 



TO KEEP SWARMS FROM GOING OFF; HONEY THAT 

 WON'T CANDY. 



fN the fall, pa put 30 swarms of bees and 7 three 

 and four frame nuclei In the cellar; but It was 

 — ' so damp, from fixing it so late in the fall, that 

 some of them died. He has 25 left, and some of 

 them are pretty weak yet; but he has lots of honey 

 left from those that died, so that he can feed them. 

 He has three swarms in chaff hives, and those he 

 wintered out of doors, and they wintered nicely. Pa 

 never lost a swarm of bees in swarming-time. When 

 a swarm of bees comes out he gets a frame of un- 

 capped brood and puts it into the hive, and then 

 puts the swarm in it; they will not leave the brood 

 and go off. Pa made his own smoker, and makes 

 them to sell too. He makes the springs of coiled 

 wire, and he thinks they are the best. He has his 

 bees all Italianized now. He sold a few queens last 

 summer. When he sold a queen the bees would 

 make lots of cells, and pa would leave them in until 

 it is almost time for one of them to hatch, and then 

 he would cut them all out but one. Those he cut 

 out he introduced into a hive that had no queen. 

 Pa is making a new buzz-saw, and he has sent to 

 you for the saws. Can you tell me why our honey 

 does not candy? You can leave it open, or you may 

 can it up, and it will not candy. Pa had a box full 

 sitting open all wintei-, and it did not candy. I think 

 Mrs. Harrison's bees must be awful cross, or she 

 must be afraid of them. My pa and ma go right out 

 among them with their sleeves rolled up, and they 

 do not sting them. Jane E. Stoner. 



Merrimac, Wis., March 17, 1883. 

 A very good letter, friend Jane. Y^ou 

 have given us some quite important facts, 

 and we are very glad to know that you are 



