April, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



231 



HEADS OF GRAIN I T FROM Q fl DIFFERENT FIELDS 



going to the expense of making a winter trip 

 to look after them, and have lost all dread of 

 anything happening by bees being covered 

 up even for two or three months. Of course, 

 I do not want any sealed covers over hives 

 when wintering like this, for once in a while 

 great loss might occur under certain condi- 

 tions. The picture is also interesting to me 

 because this was about the first time I had 

 ever used a camera. Strange to say, the 

 pictures taken at this time when I was abso- 

 lutely green in all things pertaining to a 

 camera, were among the best I have ever ob- 

 tained — so much for luck and a fairly fool- 

 proof camera. A companion picture to the 

 one in question, was pronounced by Dr. B. N. 

 Gates to be one of the finest winter scenes 

 of an apiary he had ever seen, and, as I have 

 already intimated, it ' ' just happened. ' ' 

 [This, too, was a remarkable picture. — 

 Editor.] J. L. Byer. 



Markham, Ont. 



Bees Make Use of While on duty east of 

 a Bullet Hole. Douglas, Ariz., one of 



my patrols reported it 

 had found a swarm of bees in one of the 

 international monuments which mark the 

 IT. S. -Mexican border line. Being interested 

 in bees, I took the time to go down and see 

 it and found that there was a nice swarm 

 in the hollow part of the steel monument 

 and that a bullet hole on the Mexican side 

 was being used as an exit. Since the monu- 

 ment was near the Agua Prieta battle field, 

 I concluded a bullet that had been intended 

 for some poor Mexican 's heart had missed 

 its aim and had really done a good " turn " 

 in making a home for a swarm of bees. 

 L. S. Halzwarth, 

 Captain 1st Ariz. Inf. 

 Naco, Ariz. 



Queen-Breeders Nice To the credit of queen- 

 People; Fumigation breeders I should like 

 to state that I bought 

 half a dozen queens that arrived in poor 

 condition, two being dead. I mailed to the 

 breeder our postmaster's written statement 

 of the condition of the queens, expecting, of 

 course, to receive two more queens; but, to 

 my surprise, I was sent six more. I think 

 queen-breeders are a nice lot of people. 



On page 793 it is stated that 4 ounces of 

 bisulphide is sufficient for ten supers. From 

 my experience, that is twice as much as 

 is needed. It is also claimed that, in order 

 to make sure of killing the eggs, the ex- 

 posure should not be less than twelve hours. 

 Texas Bulletin No. 158, pages 29 and 30, 

 gives very complete data on the subject. 

 For those who have not the bulletin I would 

 explain, that, for ten supers, ^2 pound would 

 not kill the eggs in 24 hours; but 2 ounces 



for ten supers is sufficient to kill everything 

 but the egg. All the millers would be killed 

 in 20 minutes, and the rest in from one to 

 twelve hours. The eggs hatch in ten to 

 twelve days, according to temperature, and 

 a second fumigation is necessary when the 

 eggs hatch. One ounce is sufficient for 4.35 

 cubic feet of supers. Everything must be 

 tight to hold the gas for twelve hours. This 

 Texas bulletin is finely illustrated, and gives 

 the best description I have seen of the 

 remedies and life history of the bee-moth. 

 Hammonton, N. J. C. E. Fowler. 



A Long-Reach This illustration shows 



Swarm Grabber. my ' ' swarm grabber, ' ' 



a device for grabbing 

 a limb or twig with a swarm of bees. You 

 will notice the jaws are open ready for grab- 

 bing the limbs. The cord attached to the. 

 leverage part is then pulled taut and wrapped 



two or three times around the handle at the 

 handhole, when the limb may be cut with a 

 fruit pruner. By using a long pole on the 

 swarm grabber the operator may avoid stings 

 and also be able to get clusters from rather 

 l\igh and inaccessible places. 



Pataskala, O. Henry Zinn. 



a lO ^g B =ag 



Uniting with In your editorial on 



Honey; uniting bees I see you 



don 't always seem suc- 

 cessful. Here is a good method by Alexander. 

 Take half a pint of honey and pour part 

 of it over the bees and tops of the frames 

 of one hive and set the other hive on top of 

 it and pour the rest of the honey over the 



