THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



231 



Uniting Bees and Preventing Robbing by the 

 Use of Carbolic Acid. 



J. F. SHIBK. 



ARBOLIC ACID may be used to good 

 advantage in uniting colonies or in 

 driving robber;; away from a hive that 

 is being robbed. The manner of using is in 

 the form of a solution, one part of acid to 

 seven of water, with one-half drahm of 

 glycerine added to each ounce of the mix- 

 ture. The glycerine holds the acid in sus- 

 pension and makes a clear solution. The 

 mixture is applied with an ordinary atom- 

 izer, such as is used for spraying perfum- 

 ery. When wishing to unite two or more 

 colonies I spray the entrances of the hives, 

 say twenty-four hours before uniting, and 

 the travel of the bees to and from the hives 

 during this time gives all the bees the same 

 odor. I have for three seasons been practic- 

 ing this mode of uniting and have yet to 

 see the first quarrel. 



My former mode of uniting was to place 

 one body containing the bees over another 

 with a sheet of wire screen between, leaving 

 the bees in this shape say twenty-four hours, 

 when they would all be scented alike, then 

 removing screen. This plan worked well, 

 but the trouble was that when the weather 

 was hot a great many bees would worry 

 themselves to death; besides, it is more 

 work than the spraying plan. 



In cases of robbing I have broken them 

 up almost instantaneously by the use of the 

 same application. I generally place some 

 straw or grass over the entrances and thor- 

 oughly spray the same; also the sides of the 

 hive. This completely changes the odor, 

 and has had the effect of baffling the robbers. 



Wheeling, W. Va., Feb. 20, 1892. 



Comments on a Beginner's Day Book. 

 No. 9. 



E. E. HASTY. 



EE that your bees are well fed up 

 for winter, and then let them 

 alone," would be about the regu 

 lation advice for September. With me, how- 

 ever, September is the month for bees to 

 finish raking in their surplus, and October 

 the time for me to harvest it. More and 

 miore, as time passes, and I get myself 

 emancipated from arbitrary rules, I come to 



leave my honey, both section and extracted, 

 on the hives until the season closes. The 

 honey is better for it. That section honey 

 thus left will not look quite as well, and in a 

 city market will not sell quite as well, is 

 unfortunate, but if you sell mostly to cus- 

 tomers, as I do, there need be little difficulty. 

 Even city retailers, at least some of them, 

 are capable of catching on to the fact that a 

 section of honey whose cheek has such a 

 super-angelic whiteness is too supernal to 

 be kept in this world any great length of 

 time. Tears will begin to run down its 

 pearly cheek if you "ask it to stay." Please 

 do not think of me as saying one single 

 word against keeping honey out of the bees' 

 way, when the harvest is so plentiful as to 

 require it; but to those who are in lean loca- 

 tions, I do recommend to have plenty of 

 super room, a strain of bees that shows no 

 squeamishness about going above — and then 

 to let the thing run right straight through to 

 the end of the railroad. 



'• Sept. Ist, 1880. Fine and hot. Thermometer 

 70° 91° 77°. Run 3 lbs., 4 ozs. Loss by night 

 13 ozs. Getting sections, etc., ready." 



This was within an ounce or two of being 

 the heaviest run that came in during the 

 year. It is getting common of late to joke 

 about "location," as if that term were a 

 mere subterfuge to avoid saying "don't 

 know ;" but we must not lose sight of the 

 fact that the location where the harvest 

 closes sharp and finally in June, or the first 

 half of July, calls for very different tactics 

 from the location in which the bulk of your 

 surplus may come in in September. 



"Sept. 4th. Fair day, some cloud. Ther- 

 mometer 72° 85° 70°. Run lib. 4 ozs. Loss 8 

 ozs. Taking off honey." 



I suppose that in my inexperience the 

 freedom with which the honey came in 

 rather rattled me; and not knowing but it 

 would keep on so for weeks, I thought I 

 must get the filled sections out of the way. 

 Had I practiced what I am now preaching 

 and let it alone I presume it would have been 

 just as well. 



"Sept. 7th. Sent for queens from Foster, 

 Hutchinson and Nellis." 



Guess I was right in deciding that a live 

 apiary should have a few new queens every 

 year from abroad to prevent a stagnant and 

 inbred condition of things. I have ne- 

 glected it of late; but " don't do as I do, but 

 do as I tell you." Better get the queens in 

 the spring, however, even if it does cost a 

 little more. These three names represent 



