486 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1918 



HEADS OF GRAIN 



FROM 



DIFFERENT FIELDSl 



Ding Dong Bell! 

 Foul brood in this cell! 

 Who put it in ? 

 i^\ .Some careless keepers sin . 

 ^"^^^ O^ho'llgetitout? 



i*<7he Inspector will, no doubt, 

 .*\vhat a poor beekeeper he, 

 •sivho has foul brood 

 in such a degree ! 





How 1 Beat the To those that are 



Mice and Ants. bothered with ants 



and mice I will give 

 my remedy. I build benches and set my 

 hives on them and keep the ground beneath 

 them scraped clean. On the legs of the 

 bench, about three-fourth of the way up, I 

 put a band of tree tangle-foot, three or four 

 inches in width, which will keep ants and 

 mice off for a long time without renewing. 

 Virgil, Kan. John Thornton. 



Another Way of I have found it an 



Uniting Colonies. easy and simple way 



to unite colonies as 

 follows: Toward evening, I take the cover 

 off the colony which is going to remain on 

 its stand, and put a queen-excluder on top, 

 leaving the colony open for one-half hour. 

 Then I take the excluder away and put one 

 cheet of newspaper in its place, making a 

 ho^e of one-half inch in the middle. I then 

 1)lace the other colony on top. In the morn- 

 ing the sheet of newspaper can be found in 

 front of the hive in a thousand scraps, and 

 not a single bee hurt. E. Uyldert. 



New Brunswick, N. J. 



Ventilation-at-the- I have tried a way of 

 Top Plan. giving my bees some 



ventilation at the top 

 of the hive, which has worked vcrv success- 

 fully. I make a frame the size of the hive, 



tack wire screen over it, and place it on the 

 top super with the cover-board removed. 

 The ends of the screen frame are about % 

 inch thicker than the side pieces on one 

 side, and I put the screen on with that side 

 up, so that when the cover-board is on the 

 screen there is a %-inch air space on two 

 sides lengthwise of the super. 



I first tried this plan on a hive on the 

 front of which the bees were clustered out. 

 They soon were nearly all inside, and I no- 

 ticed they did not cluster out any more. So 

 I put some on other hives, with the same 

 results. I believe it will also keep down, to 

 some extent, the desire to swarm. I am 

 going to leave those screens on during the 

 hot-weather season. J. A. Bryant. 



Waverly, Va. 



Disinfecting Hives A great many bee- 

 and Supers. keepers are fearful 



about using hives and 

 equipment that have been occupied by bees 

 that have had foul brood. Of course, they 

 are used more or less — more now than for- 

 merly. Some beekeepers may be very thoro 

 in the way they disinfect, (by burning or 

 scorching until charred, which leaves the 

 hives in a very dirty condition) and even 

 then leave some undestroyed culture or germ 

 in the rabbets or crevices. I think a sure 

 and complete job can be made by baking 

 the hives and equipments in a solar oven. 

 A hotbed sash or two placed over a light 

 box slightly tilted will complete at small 

 cost an oven large enough to hold several 

 hives. The scorching, hot air will very soon 

 permeate every crevice and destroy every 

 culture or germ without injuring the hives 

 or supers in the least. A. C. Gilbert. 



East Avon, N. Y. 



The Screen in the For years I have been 



Uncapping-Barrel. using an uhcapping- 

 barrel similar to, yet 

 better than the one described in the April 

 issue of Gleanings. After trying different 

 depths I have found that the wire screen 

 tacked six inches from the bottom gives the 

 best results, since it allows the honey to 

 float the cappings above the screen. After 

 mashing the cappings the honey drains as 

 thru a filter without clogging; but when it 

 is put midway up, it clogs and refuses to 

 drain. When the barrel is one-fourth full, 

 and again when it is half full of cappings, 

 I stir and mash up thoroly with a flat wood- 

 en paddle. When the barrel is full I draw 

 off a portion and continue to uncap until 

 the work is finished. If you are going to 

 uncap from day to day, do not uncap on the 

 previous day's work, but take it out. After 

 the day 's work is over, put back the cap- 

 pings from the preceding day and allow 

 them to diain until thev become drv. A 



