420 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



July 



We have kept bees since 1875, and have at present 

 43 swarms. We got 1800 lbs. of white-clover and 

 basswood extracted honey. Pa never raised any 

 comb honey, but will try this summer. Our bees 

 . are in Langstroth hives. We bought our first bees 

 of Adam Grimm, of Jefferson, Wis., where we used 

 to live. Eddie Bauernfeind, a.?e 13. 



Menasha, Wis. 



I have so much to write to you, I don't know 

 which to write first. We have had 9 swarms, and 

 have II yet to swarm, besides the second swarms. 

 The first swarm wo had, the queen got killed in the 

 hive, and we took a frame out of another hive that 

 had a queen-cell, and put it in with the new swarm, 

 and the bees went to work all fight. 



New Milford, Pa., June, 1833. Rose Smit h. 



I am not quite a blasted (grass) hoper, as my 

 brother calls me, but very near one. I had one col- 

 ony of bees to put up last fall, and they all died in 

 the winter. My brother lets me have one colony on 

 shares this season. He gave me a tested queen to 

 send to you. She is one year old, and a good one. 



Alice I. Deyo. 



Homowack, Ulster Co., N. Y., June 13, 1883. 



1000 LBS. OF NEW HONEV. 



My pa keeps bees. He had 8 before they swarmed, 

 and now he has got 14 stands. They swarmed so 

 much that ho almost ran out of hives. He thinks he 

 will get 1000 lbs. of honey this seaion. I like honey 

 very well, but 1 don't like stings. We have all Ital- 

 ian bees. They will sting when he tries to take their 

 honey. Harry Huston, age 12. 



Dayton, Ohio, June 12, 1883. 



how to resuscitate a frozen swarm of bees; 



FROM one of our SOUTHERN JUVENILES. 



I sec in the Juvenile that you sent us, the little 

 girls up North are telling what they can do. lean 

 help my papa to puff the smoker when he looks in. 

 He had a stand of bees last winter that was so nearly 

 frozen to death they couldn't move, and he warmed 

 ma's old shawl and put it on the bees, and then he 

 put on the honey-board, and heated the oven-lid, and 

 put it on top of the honey-board, and they came to 

 life, and now they are as good a hive as he has. 



JosiE Davidson, age 13. 



Pisgah, Jackson Co., Ala., June 13, 1883. 



DO.N T kill the TOADS; A POEM BY ONE OF THE 

 JUVENILES. 



I write to thank you for the book you sent me. 

 There has been so much rain here this spring that 

 bees have done but little. Do the toads trouble the 

 bees in your apiary? Sometimes they are very 

 troublesome here; but wo do not kill them. Wo 

 think that too cruel. Boys, remember this: 



Ddii'l kill the toads, (ln' URly toads, 



Tlinl lioi) .Troiind yi)Ui' door; 

 I?acli meal the little toad dotli eat 



A hundred buf^s or iiioie. 

 lie sits around with aspect meek, 



Until the huRis lieared. 

 Then shoots he forth his little tonyue, 



Like lit;litni)i!i' doiihle-«-eared. 

 And then he sooerly doth wink. 



And shuts liis u^ly mu;^. 

 And patiently ih>lh\vait. 



t'litil there comes another buK. 



Pinson Station, Tenn. Sheppy Simmons. 



That's right, Sheppy ; spare the toads, for 

 the good they do is far more thati the evil. 

 Your poem is going the rounds of the press, 

 and strikes us as very funny.' "Didn't you 

 copy it from your paper ? 



HIVES FOR A DOLLAR. 



Pa's bees have not Ijeen doing very well. We have 

 no swarms yet, and no honey. We have got buck- 

 wheat blooming; the bees have been working on it 

 well. Bees work on persimmon - trees hero. Pa 

 makes hives, and sells them at $1.00 apiece. He 

 makes the hives, and I paint them. Pa did not lose 

 any bees this winter, but he had to double some to 

 make them stronger. Bees do not need any protec- 

 tion here in winter. Pa feeds his bees on sweetened 

 water and syrup. Nettie Bryan. 



Rome, Ga., June 14, 18S3. 



STILL MORfi ABOUT SWARMING. 



Papa had 20 stands of bees this spring, and has 37 

 stands now. One day the bees swarmed all the fore- 

 noon. Papa had just started out to plow the corn 

 when one swarmed, and he had to come back, and 

 then he went a little further and had to come back 

 again. He said he would let me have the first swarm 

 I hived. The bees go up in the trees every time I 

 want to hive them. There is .iust lots of white 

 clover, and the bees work on it very much. Papa 

 puts salt around the entrances of the hives to kill 

 the grass. John Wilson, age 10. 



Penrose, 111., June 25, 1883. 



SWARMING, AND SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 



We have Sunday-school in our house. It is not a 

 very large one. Only a tew of the neighbors come 

 to it. Yesterday the bees began to swarm, just as 

 Sunday-school commenced, and swarmed till a while 

 after dinner. Papa makes his own bee-hives with a 

 circular saw and horse-power. Sometimes Johnnie 

 and I help him. We like to read the little children's 

 letters. Irene Wilson, age 8.. 



Penrose, 111., June 25, 1833. 



I have sometimes thought it a little funny, 

 Irene, that bees so often seem to have a lan- 

 cy for swarming wliile the folks were gone 

 to meeting or Sunday-school. I suppose 

 one reason is, that we usually have our Sun- 

 day-school and meetings in the middle of 

 the day, and the bees also choose the mid- 

 dle of the day for their " celebrations " and 

 emigrations. 



A REPORT FROM THE FEIiHAM FDN. MACHINE. 



My sister Em is 14. We make comb fdn. by our- 

 selves, on the Pclham machine. We have the lower 

 roll in starch, and one or two turns backward lubri- 

 cates both rolls. Em extracts honey, and puts fdn. 

 in frames. I make section boxes, and put fdn. in 

 frames too. I watch the bees to see when they 

 swarm. Esta Williams, age 11. 



Vanceburg, Ky., June 13, 1883. 



I am very glad, my little friend, to hear a 

 report from the Pelham fdn. mills, especially 

 as they are so much cheaper than ours. You 

 did not say how the fdn. works in the hives; 

 but I suppose it w^orks all right, or you 

 would have said something about it. I was 

 a little afraid that it might be expensive, on 

 account of receiving more Avax in the bases 

 of the cells than would be the case where the 

 base was made the natural shape. 



HARRY'S UNCLE WALTER. 



My uncle, Walter Poudcr, keeps bees. He has 19 

 swarms', and some cueens. Walter used to be one 

 Of your "neighbors," so you know him, don't you? 

 I go to Sundaj-school, and Walter is our secretary. 

 He writes for a newspaper about bees, and then it 



