26 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



get her to ask permission of the trustees to 

 hold it in the school house everj^ Sunday af- 

 ternoon. If you can get the minister to 

 come and help start it, it will be a very good 

 plan, but if not, get the best man you know 

 of, to come and ask God to help you all to 

 go to work right. ^Ve must work in the 

 Sunday school exactly as the bees do in the 

 hive. We must work all together. Do you 

 suppose the bees in the hives ever scold or 

 get mad at each other? Sometimes their 

 honey is all gone and they have to starve to 

 death, but from what I have seen of their 

 actions, I do not believe they ever blame 

 each other, and say ' It was all your fault you 

 might have worked better when honey was 

 plenty, like v:e did.' On the contrary, they 

 seem to work together just as your right 

 hand works with your left. Did you ever 

 have your right hand get mad at your other 

 and strike it V 



" Why no ; one of my hands could not get 

 mad at the other." 



" Did you ever get mad and strike your 

 brother V" 



" Yes, but that is different." 



" It is different, that is true ; but why can- 

 not you feel towards yoiu- own brother, just 

 as you do toward your left hand V Do you 

 not think we would all be so much happier ? 

 Don't you think our mothers would be pleas- 

 ed if we did that way V We would all stop 

 finding fault, and what a happy world it 

 would be V" 



*' But folks don't do that way. We can't 



always be good." 



" Trute,rue ; we cannot a Iways be good, 

 but cannot we always keep trying V 



"• I guess we could, if God would wait a 

 little sometimes when we are real ugly." 



" Well I think he will, if we do the very 

 best we can. Now it is almost time for me 

 to go home, but I hope you will get your 

 teacher, your parents, and everybody else, 

 from the baby clear up to grandpa, and 

 grandma, to help start that Sabbath school. 

 God will take care of you all, and tell you 

 what to do, if you only ask him, and the bad 

 bo>s will all come too, after a while, if you 

 are all kind and pleasant, just as I told you 

 the bees were. You will need some of the 

 Gospel Hymns to sing frf)m, and you will 

 need less-in papers, and some little cards, for 

 tlie children who learn the Golden Texts, 

 and some of the pretty Sunday school papers 

 that are printed nowadays. Do you wonder 

 where all these are to come from V Well if 

 you ask God to send them, and keep work- 

 ing as the bees do, they Avill all come pret- 



ty soon. Do you ask how you shall work ? 

 Well I guess the first thing will be to be kind 

 and pleasant to every one, and to ask them 

 all to come and help the school along. God 

 will tell you when you are working in the 

 right way, by making you feel more happy 

 and joyous, than you ever did before in life. 

 You will like your bees better than you ever 

 did before, the flowers will seem prettier, 

 the grass greener, and all the world more 

 beautiful, just because you have been trying 

 to help the world to be good, instead of be- 

 ing altogether selfish. Whenever you help 

 anybody to do right, you have helped God, 

 and he always pays folks for doing such 

 work, by making them very happy. 



"There now I must go; remember the 

 bees, do not let them starve, and oh, my 

 friends do remember the Sabbath school, do 

 not let it drop or dwindle down, but show 

 God that, yoii, can be depended upon, even 

 if it does storm and blow. He that is faith- 

 ful in a few things, shall be made ruler over 

 many." 



I have several times found colonies of bees so 

 nearly dead from starvation that a great part of 

 them were down on the bottom of the hive, and so 

 weak as to be but jtist able to move. When honey 

 was given them, the first ones would take a good 

 load, and just as soon as strengrth returned, they 

 would hasten to feed the rest ; they too would revive, 

 and very soon all hands were as bvisy as they possi- 

 bly could be, passing- it round and helping- the others, 

 until all were ready to .ioin in one grand jubilee of 

 thankfulness for the timely succor. Can not we 

 learn of them, two lessons ;" first, to spread evei-y- 

 thing- that is good, freely nnd unselfishly, and then 

 to unite in a joyous thanksgiving- for the peace and 

 plenty that wecnjoy as a people. 



GEAFE SlUGAR, ETC. 



M S T ha-\'e been an experimental bee-keeper for 

 /£\ the last 1-.' years, I take a good deal of interest 

 ^^~!j in your paper and experiments. I am now 

 trying some of the g-rape sugai", of which I have as 

 high expectfitions as yourself. I have heard that the 

 sugar is made of potatoes and is used in beer and 

 wine. I have tasted coffee sugar which savored very 

 much of it. The fact that grape sugar candies in the 

 uncapped cells, is enconrtiging- ; the bees will eat it 

 out as nicely as they will eat candy in the stick. I 

 have seen no ill eflfect from it as yet. 



My bees are on their summer stands, covered with 

 a chaff box giving 4 inch space for chaff around the 

 whole hive, both stories on. The bfix opens just 

 where the two stories join, thus forming a cap of the 

 upper half, which can he removed to get at the bees 

 in winter, to pack and feed. If wc leave them on all 

 summer, the bees can be worked, as fnr as I can see, 

 Avith ease, after lifting off the cover. We lemo a 4 in. 

 portico in front by shortening the chaff on that side. 

 We crowd the bees on to 6 or 7 combs, with division 

 boards, and if they need feeding-, feed till they have 

 enough. Now in the spring carefully build up the 

 swarms by spreading the brood, and there will be no 

 danger from chilling in the chaff if not over done. 

 Shall probablv run to comb honey next season, 

 mostlv. Shall use fdn. and, by the way, why not use 

 the elm or other bark right in the water the plates 

 are ccoled in. ? .J. Butler's report is my report ex- 

 actly, in regard to number of colonies, yield of hon- 

 ey, season, &c. except inregaidto using- fdn. in brood 

 chamber, which I consider an acquisition. 



Friend Koot, guess your idea of conventions is 

 about right. Geo. H. Mackey. 



Milan, Ohio, Dec. i5th, 1877. 



