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OLEANINGS m BEE CULTUT^-ET. 



Av^-. 



a tenacuhim from my surgical instruments, and nick- 

 0(1 out the uncanpeil bees from the three weak hives, 

 in which thev have done the most damag-e— ilestroyinc; 

 rlie moths as I found them. Tliey are mostly small, 

 1-1(! to V of an inch in lenarth. If Voit can trivc m* any 

 mstructions in Gleanings, they will Ix^netit others as 

 well as myself, for I know my only bee-keeping neigh- 

 V)or is afflicted in the sam'e way. 



Yours fraternally. J. H. (>ne\ , M. D. 

 Dixon's Springs, Tenn. July 6th, '75. 



Pick out the worms as you have l>een (Toing, 

 With some shai-p pointed instrument, and tliey 

 will soon be all jjotie. AVe should infer from 

 the manner in which they work, that your 

 combs have been destitute of bees some tim-e 

 within the past season, and thus allowed a 

 moth to deposit the egsrs. Finally, get some 

 of the newly imported Italian stock, and they 

 will do all the picking for you. and only seem 

 to relish the idea of cleaning mit an infested 

 hive. 



I built a small house three years ago for an experi- 

 ment: it is about 15 feet Tong.fi feet wide, with 12 

 double hives. The honse and hives are all biiitt to- 

 gether. The bees worlt outside. I woils inside, t 

 have used it three winters, and liave not lost a good 

 swarm yet. I have the extractor in there, and disturb 

 no bees but tlie ones I am handling, and no bees dis- 

 turb me. I think nearly one-half the labor is saved. 

 If you will trv a small hoiise for an experiment, I will 

 give yon a full descriufion. Xojxtfent. 



B. J. Talkot, Viola, Iowa, June 20th, '75. 



It seems from the above that there really is 

 nothing new under the sun. In a second com- 

 munication Mr. T. states that the house really 

 answers the purpose Tor the extractor without 

 any trouble whatever. 



A. I. ROOT:— In extracting from a two story hive, 

 to-day, I found so much brood in the upper sto-ry that 

 r carefully measured and computed the entire surface 

 occupied "by egsrs and brood, and found 2f!00 square 

 inclies thus occupied; proving conclusively, that the 

 «Jneen was laying more than 3000 eggs each day. I 

 have several other swarms doing eaually well. 



G. E. CORUIN. St. Johns, Mich. July Ist, '75. 



Very glad to receive such reports. 



A. I. ROOT & Co r— Our Linden harvest has just 

 closed, M'hich for a few days was good. T commenced 

 extracting July 5th, and several of my hives yielded 

 over 100 lbs., some averaging as high as 14 lbs." dailv ; 

 have taken about 2000 lbs. 



S. D. McLean, CuUeoka, Tenn. July i:?th, 'T."^. 



A. I. ROOT, Dear Sir :— The Extractor I got of you 

 is a good thing; I transferred two r-ards of honey'2H' 

 inches thick, mostly granulated, and threw it out with 

 the machine. 1 turned very fast, and doubt if ever a 

 niaclnne stood a harder test. It is very diflerent from 

 Miu one you sent me before, by which I see > on have 

 ma<U? gi-eat im)irovements in two years. Just keei) on 

 making this style of machine, and it will not take the 

 !)eople long to find out who makes the best article. 



v. S. — I have just linished throwing out 75 lbs. of the 

 same kind of honev. I am sure I turned three times 

 as fast as the I'eabody, or auy other revolving can 

 machine could Ije turned, and yet it stood the test. 



As for the knife, I place ray index finger under the 

 point of the blade, spring it into the desired curve, 

 an<l scallop out hollow places as well as a curve point- 

 ed blade, then letting it straighten finishes the work 

 ClKAVo! T^et those who choose, use a thick, clumsy 

 knife because iVs cJieaver. I am satisfied with a dollar 

 knife. Trulv yours. Dr. C. M. Joslin. 



St. Charles, Mich. July "lith, '7.5. 



DEAR NOVICE :~During April and May oar bees 

 (ravelled down hill, till we reached .5S. and began tii 

 think of "Blasted Hopes." But at this point tlte'grade 

 (dianged, an<l we are iiow, at 85. jroing u|). Some stocks 

 .ue doing little or nothing in their boxes; others aio 

 tilling up the second set with an A, Xo. 1 article. The 

 sight of from 9 to 18 boxes of such comi) honey on a 

 hive is enough to make almost any one wish t<^ try its 

 <iualities, an<l the uninitiatcft to exciaim "Oh my!" 



1). P. Lane, Kcshkonong, Wis. July !2th. "75. 



Last sirring I bought 5 swarms in old Langstroth 

 hives for $20.00. Lost one swarm about the 20th ot 

 March, by being robbed. Transferred the i-enminin?, 

 4 into Irives of my own- get up, using the S'tamfard 

 fi-am'e, arwT ten fi-anws m a hive, birt think tlint 15 or2{>' 

 frames would l>e l>etter. as these wordd' give- nwre 

 room for brood. I now have f^ swanris (all blaxjk bees- 

 three natm-a;! and one artiticial. ETave an- exrtiTtctor. 

 it works well. 1 like to handle bees, but anv young 

 and inexperienced; the more thev sting me the better 

 I like them'. D'o not i?se smoke niucii. think ft make? 

 them cross. Ants are a nl.ague here, as the soil is 

 gravelly .and goo.d to Imild hills inr they ai-e very 

 itWcrk, amd run into the hives, and help tlienrselves to 

 all the honev they like without mircVi to fear from the 

 bees. Will N'ovice or some other bee-keener who has 

 been bothered with black .and red .ants i'-P''''?f' tell us 

 if Italfans will keep themout? Bees are doing well 

 here this sumiiTer as theiT is plenty of white clov°r. 

 Please tell ii-s w1iat extracted honey is worih in Ma- 

 son's cans, and oblige a young bee-keepei-. A. L. W. 



Avery strong colony of Italians will keeiv- 

 even the inmates of a "strong" ant Irill at a dis- 

 tance, but it se^ms to take up a good deal of 

 time ori both sides, as quarrels generally do. 

 The bees seldom if evei' succeed in stinging an 

 ant, and apparently being aware of the difficul- 

 ties they have in contending Avith such foes, 

 prefer to give them a wide berth, and to beat- 

 and forlrear. with a patience quite commenrl- 

 able. After a time however, they often seem Uy 

 thinlv forbearance ceases to be a virtue, and 

 then their plan of attack is a novel one indeed ; 

 when the ants will -)t':4 keep on their own- 

 .gi'ound, and get provoking beyond endurance, 

 they go at them in a perfect fury, and finding 

 they can do nothing- with their stings, in des- 

 pair pick up the little pests, and carrj- them n]y 

 in the air, and so far ofl that they are unable to- 

 ever get back again. We have not been able 

 to find that the ants do very- much dauTage so- 

 far as getting the Itoney is concerned, but they 

 often start nests in the hive, in the sm'iug 

 when the colony is weak. Tlie ants will in- 

 dusti-iously carry in bits of wood, gi-ass, etc.. 

 for their nests, which the Italians as industri- 

 ously caiTy out again. This contest goes oi? 

 for some tinie, but the bees when they get 

 strong, always carry the day. We pinched 

 the head of a beautiful yellow Queen a few 

 days ago, because she did not raise bees enough 

 to crowd the ants out of the hive. Our import- 

 ed stocks are especially active, in sending the 

 ants "sky high" — that is, the last we saw of 

 the ants, the bees were lugging them "skyward." 



We have made a test of the following, on 

 a large ant hill, and thev seem for some reason 

 to have "got scarce." Will our friends report 

 further V 



FRIEND NOVICE :— If auv of your readers are still 

 troubled with ants. Just tell them that pulverized bo- 

 rax sprinkled about where they inhabit will drive 

 them away successfully. This has proven of great, 

 value to me. Me<llev receive I. and it more than li!l.- 

 the liill, in fact it's iust siileiulid. I would not take 

 iflO.W for mine if it was the la-t one. 



E. A. Sueldon, Indepenilence, Iowa, June 19, '7"> 



Our friend Moore of Binghampton, N. Y.,. 

 says Persian Insect Powder, to be had at the 

 drug stores, is adnnrablo for keeping ants out 

 of honey rooms, etc ; we do not find it in our 

 town. We opine that the borax acts by dissol- 

 ving in the moist earth, and thus making the 

 spot disagreea])le, which would not be the case 

 if used in roon>s. Commoii salt has been advised 

 in a similar way. Boiling water is a hard and 

 cruel remedy, yet might be excusable did it not 

 also kill vegetation manj- times, in a way un 

 desirable. 



