1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



569 



horse-power. He says he likes to work with bees, 

 and when he looks at them I like to be with him, so 

 that I can see the bees and the honey. 

 New Town Mills, Pa. Harry B. Batterer. 



HONEY FROM THE WAX-PLANT, AGAIN. 



Pa has 40 colonies, and has taken, this season, 1800 

 lbs. of comb honey in one-pound boxes, and 800 lbs. 

 extracted. He makes his own hives, and my broth- 

 ers, Milton and Willet, and I help put the frames and 

 sections together. One of our neighbors has a large 

 WHx-plant, and nice white honey comes from the 

 blossoms, and drops on the floor. I have heard that 

 the Italians were not as cross as the blacks; but 

 ours are very much worse. Vernon W. Travis. 



Lyons, Wal. Co., Wis. 



Please don't tell any more such stories as the one 



about the bees taking aM the cider away, because . 



I think you had better call that rosy-posy, dimple- 

 darling baby-boy " Peleg." It is almost like "Peter." 

 I think you had better put his picture in the Juve- 

 nile. Bertha Hallett. 



Galena, 111., Aug. 22, 1883. 



Why, Bertha, I should be glad to put the 

 baby's picture in the Juvenile, but I can 

 not find any engravers who can make good 

 pictures of babies and little folks. If any 

 engraver should see this paragraph, I wish 

 he would send me a specimen of his work. 



MAKING A CAPON DO DUTY FOR RAISING CHICKENS, 

 SEE PAGE 419. 



You are right about the purpnse. It is so that the 

 hen can go right to laying. The object of pulling off 

 the feathers, and washing him with salt and water, 

 l8 to make him smart, so that, when the little chick- 

 ens are put under him, they soothe and stop the 

 smarting, and make him cluck and like the chicks. 

 If he doesn't cluck, he won't take the chickens. As 

 soon as you hear him cluck you may be sure he has 

 taken the chicks. In the morning, give them a lit- 

 tle feed; and if he is a good capon he will call them 

 just like a hen. J. P. Israel, Jr. 



Point Loma Light-House, Cal., Aug. 18, 1883. 



WHITE POLLEN FROM PLANTAIN; PROPOLIS FOR 

 SEALING FRUIT-CANS. 



This is to let you know that I like the book you 

 sent me. It is the Giaiit-Killer. I didn't expect 

 such a nice book. Mother says it is the best one of 

 the kind she ever read. I thank you for it. Our 

 bees gathered white pollen from plantain. Mother 

 sealed up the cans of currants with propolis that 

 we scraped off the sections. When our bees swarm- 

 ed, mother was sick, and I helped father hive them. 

 I like 10 work with the bees. Our two old colonies 

 threw out seven swarms. We put the two last ones 

 together, and one went in with another. That made 

 five out of seven, so we have seven in all. 



Ina Hunter, age 10 

 Kendallville, la., Aug , 1883. 



HOW GAIL BUILT UP A LITTLE COLONY FROM A 

 swarm as big as YOUR FIST. 



Since I wrote to you, God has given me another 

 darling little bi'other to love. He is eight mouths 

 old, and his name is Clyde Ellwood. He is pretty, 

 and cunning as he can be. I think that Glee, Artie. 

 Otto, are nice names for little boys. Perhaps you 

 would like Jesse Dell, or Ray. Pa has 1,54 colonies 

 of bees, and the.v are doing well for the season. 1 

 like to watch the busy bees as they gather their 



stores of honey. 1 found a cluster of bees about as 

 big as my flst, on an apple-tree, on the first of July, 

 and they are now on six frames. 



Gail B. Crowfoot. 

 Bloomington, Mich., Aug. 23, 1883% 



SOME POETRY ABOUT THE HONEY-BEE, BY A JUVE- 

 NILE 13 YEARS OLD. 



I am at present with D. E. Best, and read the 

 Juvenile. I saw nice letters and poetry, so I 

 thought I would compose a few verses. We used to 

 have bees, but sold them to Mr. Best, who has 105 

 boxes, all in nice trim. 



THE LITTLE FAIRIES. 



I was in the apiary 



Picking up a new section. 

 When something' like a fairv 



Stung, stung just to perfection. 

 Down I grabbed, l)iit just too late; 



Down I threw the little box; 

 I no longer now could wait; 



Home I ran, just like a fox. 

 I scratched and scratched all the niglit, 



But it swelled; it swelled the more, 

 And my leg it was a sight, 



Greater, greater than before. 

 Children, can vnu tell the name 



Of all these I'ittlc fairies 

 (And they are not always tame) 



Who live in the apiaries? 



Fr.\nk Kinsey, age 13. 

 Bests, Pa., Aug. 20, 188.3. 



BEES ON LIL.A.CS, ETC. 



A swarm of bees came off the 30th of June. They 

 circled around a few minutes, and went in with an- 

 other swarm that father had hived the day before. 

 They diiin't cluster at all, and we thought perhaps 

 they had that hive already picked out to go into, as 

 it had been standing about 20 feet from the hive 

 they issued from, for some time. 



I saw our bees working on the lilacs. They are 

 black bees. 



We wintered 4 colonies in the cellar. Three of 

 them came out heavy with bees and honey. The 

 other was a small late swarm. We fed it part of the 

 winter. The bees looked bright and nice when they 

 came out of the cellar; but we had a good deal of 

 cold wet weather in the spring, and they kept dwind- 

 ling away till they were all gone. One of the others 

 became queenless. When we noticed it, mother put 

 a frame of brood in with them, but they didn't raise 

 a queen. Father put the first new swarm in with 

 what was left of them. 



Horsemint is in bloom; the bees are not working 

 on it yet. There is no bass wood nearer than three 

 miles. A "cosset" lamb means a pet lamb. 



Kendallville, la. Lovina Hunter, age 12. 



BEES THAT CARRY FLOWERS. 



On page 457, August Gleanings, friend Corbett 

 speaks of wood-bees carrying leaves, which, of 

 course, is nothing new. But, to the subject. As I 

 was taking mj' usual round in the apiary to-day, I 

 noticed one of my Syrian colonies carrying some- 

 thing in their mouths that looked rather strange. 

 On going closer I caug-ht some of them and took an 

 observation of their loads and found them to be 

 blossoms from the teasel, and they were not in- 

 clined to drop ther freight either, as I had to wrest 

 it from them by force. This can be proven, as one 

 of m.y neighbors was with me at the time, and no- 

 ticed the same. Now, Mr. Root,- the query is. What 

 was their object in carrying those flowers into their 

 hives? A. S. LiNDLEY. 



Jordan, Ind., Aug. 7, 1883. 



Why, friend Lindley, it must be that your 



