1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



>19 



ish some of the last boxes. They did not finish the 

 cells, or cap it over. Uncle thinks it is because it 

 was too cold for thtm to work the wax, as the comb 

 in the middle of the box was finished, and not out- 

 side. 



BLACK HONEY. 



Can you tell us where the bees get the black honey 

 they sometimes fill a cell with? Sometimes in the 

 white comb we find a few cells filled with a black 

 honey that looks as though it had coal dust in it. 

 The honey tastes sweet, like the rest. I know my 

 letter is too long:. Lizzie Glisan. 



Cedar Rapids. Iowa, Mar. 20, 1»S3. 



The black honey may be honey-dew, friend 

 Lizzie ; but are you sure it is not an occa- 

 sional cell of ])ollen that makes the white 

 comb honey look dark V 



ABOUT THE BEES TUAT GOT DROWNED, AND THE 

 , I.ITTIiE HIVE. 



I thought I would write you one and let you know 

 about my swarm. It has been such a long cold win- 

 ter that I think they arc all going to die. There arc 

 lots of them crawl out in the snow, and die. There 

 was one warm day this winter, and it thawed very 

 fast, and the ground was covered with water, and 

 lots of them flew out and got drowned. Papa 

 picked them all up and put them in pans in the 

 house, and they all came to life again, and he put 

 them in a littl" glass hive, just big enough to hold 

 two frames, and he had a good time getting them in. 

 He put them out in the snow till they got stiff, and 

 then he brought them in the house and put them in 

 the hive and put them down cellar, and they are all 

 right. Bennie Moon, age 9. 



Youngstown, N. Y., March 23, 1883. 



You have given us a timely warning, Ben- 

 nie. When we first located our apiary there 

 was so much water standing around in pud- 

 dles for the bees to get drowned in, that we 

 went to the expense of having the whole 

 apiary thoroughly underdrained. Since then 

 we have liad no trouble, not even during the 

 wettest spring weather. I should fear the 

 bees your father put in the little hive are 

 needed in the hive where they came from. 



FRIEND ATCHLEV'S CHILDUEN. 



As I never wrote a letter to you, ma says that, as 

 pa has gone away to transfer some bees for a man, 

 my brother Willie and I may write you a little letter 

 and not let him know if, and then he will be surpris- 

 ed when he sees our letters in the Juvenile. Pa 

 has 125 colonies of bees, all Italians, except one good 

 Cyprian that grandpa Marshall, of Marshall, Texas, 

 sent me. My ma's name was Marshall before she 

 was married. I cook dinner while pa and ma and 

 Willie are at work with the bees. I have a nice little 

 garden all to myself. Pa likes the extractor very 

 much. If you can read my letter, and think I am 

 entitled to a book, send me Ten Nights in a Bar- 

 room. Amanda J. Atchley, age 9. 



Thank you, Amanda. I shall be very glad 

 to surprise your pa in that way. 



how avillie got his swarm of bees. 



As sister Amanda has written you a letter, I will 

 write one. Inclosed find 20 cents. Please send me a 

 15-cent dictionary, as I have to borrow sister's to get 

 my lesson. I have a pig, and a garden too. I help 

 pa with the bees. As grandpa Marshall and pa were 

 looking through the bees last summer they found a 

 young queen that was just hatched, behind the di- 



vision-board, from some broken pieces of brood and 

 eggs that were placed there to hatch out; and as 

 they raised the cover she ran under the division- 

 board, and the bees balled her. Pa gave me three 

 frames of brood and bees, and I introduced her, and 

 now I have a fine colony. I tell pa, when he scolds 

 me for having his hatchet, that he ought to get me 

 one, and then I should not want his. Ma says she is 

 going to get a subs3riber for that photograph, sure. 

 I made part of these letters by myself, and ma held 

 my hand some. Willie Atchley, age 7. 



Arlington, Texas, March 24, 1883. 



FROM 11 TO 26, and 200 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I think the Juvenile is the bee-paper published 

 for young folks. In the spring of 1882 my father had 

 11 colonies of bees, and increased to 26 in the sum- 

 mer. They wintered very well, only two stands dy- 

 ing, and those were weak. Father got, on an aver- 

 age, about 200 lbs. of surplus honcj-, as last season 

 was not a very good one for honey. Father has just 

 bought a lot of Walter Saymasters, of this town, for 

 S180, and he hopes to put his bees over there this 

 summer. F. L. Minor. 



New Lexington, 0., March 19, 1883. 



Thank you, my little friend, for the com- 

 pliment to the Juvenile. Your saying, how- 

 ever, that it is the best bee-paper published 

 for the little folks, is something like the boy 

 who got rewarded for being next to the head 

 in school. After the man had given him 

 5 cents he said, " Hold on, ' bub,' how many 

 are there in your class?" The reply was, 

 " Me and a little girl.-'— Now about that 20u 

 lbs. of honey. Was it 200 lbs. from the 

 whole 11 colonies, or 200 lbs. from each of 

 the 11 V You see it makes quite a difference. 

 Your words, "on an average," look as if it 

 might be 2oO lbs. each. But as we don't 

 want to overstate any thing in print, we 

 put it 200 lbs. for all, as you see at the top. 



LOOKOUT mountain, ETC. 



When I last wrote to the Juvenile we lived in In- 

 diana. We now live near the top of Lookout Moun- 

 tain. Pa brought 25 stands of bees with us. It is 

 very steep where the hives are placed. Some are on 

 large rocks. It took pa a good while to dig a place 

 for each hive. We can see all over Chattanooga. 

 We can see many nice things on the mountain. Pa 

 is getting up a collection of ores, rocks, and bullets 

 and cannon-balls. I found a bullet one day while we 

 were out looking around on the mountain-side. Pa 

 wrote you a long letter about our trip, but you nev- 

 er printed it, and ma laughed at him, for he had all 

 his trouble for nothing. 



Magnola Thornburg, age 8. 



Chattanooga, Tenn., March IG, 1883. 



Thank you, my little friend ; but I am very 

 sorry indeed to be obliged to say that your 

 father's letter is among a great heap of oth- 

 ers, waiting for a place. Tell your ma not 

 to laugh, for we will see that he has not had 

 all his trouble for nothing. Ask your pa if 

 he is sure the top of a mountain will be a 

 good place for bees. Will they not have to 

 go down in the valley for honey, and then fly 

 up hill with it V It seems to me I would 

 have the hives on the lowest ground, so that 

 the bees might load up with honey from the 

 flowers, and then sort of "slide down hill" 

 when they are sailing home. 



