October, 1916. 



American ^^e Journal 



ter, 1 cup sweet milk, a teaspoimful 

 each ginger and nl spice. Heat until 

 butter melts, add a teaspoon of soda 

 and flour to m ke batter. Cook in 

 (|uiek oven." Buck Grove, la. 



Skunks 



BY J. L. BYER. 



IN a former issue of Gleanings, Mr. 

 Frank C. Pellett discusses our 

 friend of malodorous reputation the 

 common skunk. Friend Pellett is in- 

 clined to think that the skunk is a 

 benefit rather than an enemy to 

 mankind, and naturalists in general 

 may agree with him, as the animal is 

 strictly carniverous, and I believe to a 

 great extent insectivorous, destroying 

 great quantities of grasshoppers, etc. 

 The skunk occasionally visits chicken 

 yards, and is also very fond of eggs as 

 well as of the chickens. 



For the number of skunks that are 

 in the country surprisingly few visits 

 are made to poultry yards, so Mr. Pel- 

 lett is right when he says that only a 

 very few of the animals learn to kill 

 poultry. But it is as beekeepers that 

 we are naturally most interested, and I 

 dare say that Mr. Skunk has few friends 

 among the fraternity especially if some 

 colonies have been ruined, as has 

 often happened. One peculiar thing, 

 and it is good that it is so, is that 

 when a skunk starts to visit an apiary, 

 it usually goes to the same hive every 

 night and signs soon show his visits. 

 The grass is soiled and the ground in 

 front of the hive is clawed more or 

 less. Often the entrance to the hive is 

 scratched. 



The past fall, the skunks were more 

 plentiful than usual, and I heard numer- 

 ous complaints of their depredations. 

 At the Cashell yard I caught two, but 

 not before the colonies were pretty 

 well depleted of bees. 



They are easy to catch. Fasten a 

 a steel trap to the end of a 12-foot pole 

 and place the trap in front of the hive. 

 They may be dragged away and shot or 

 otherwise disposed of. As long as they 

 are not struckwhile in the trap they will 

 not smell. Keep dogs away or you 



will have trouble. If a stream is near 

 a convenient way to dispose of them is 

 to toss them into the water and by the 

 aid of a long pole hold them under 

 until drowned. 



A friend of mine told me of catching 

 one in front of a hive, and on going 

 to the yard in the morning he was sur- 

 prised and amused to see how little 

 the skunk seemed to mind having one 

 of his legs fast in a steel trap. Instead 

 of being alarmed or showing signs of 

 pain, he was busily feeding on bees 

 and made no attempt to let up when my 

 friend appeared. He would shove one 

 foot into the entrance, and when the 

 bees swarmed out he would strike and 

 scrape them until they were down on 

 the ground. He seemingly aimed to 

 kill them before eating them, and this 

 scratching explained the appearance of 

 the ground and grass in front of hives 

 visited by skunks. 



If one does not wish to trap them, 

 put a little strychnine in an egg in 

 front of the hive visited. That will do 

 the trick, but exposed poison is always 

 a source of danger. I have had reports 

 of skunks doing damage as far west as 

 California. 



When in New York State I was told 

 they had done a lot of damage during 

 the past season. I':vidently they had a 

 large range of territory, and collec- 

 tively they must do some injury to the 

 beekeeping industry each season. Un- 

 fortunately for the skunk, in the north- 

 ern latitudes at least, they have a val- 

 uable pelt, and they are persistently 

 hunted, so are not apt to increase in 

 numbers; in fact, it is doubtful if they 

 will hold their own. One of the com- 

 mon ways of getting their pelts is to 

 find their dens in the winter (skunks 

 are gregarious in their habits), place 

 some carbon-bisulfide in the mouth of 



A FIELD DAY GROUP IN TENNESSEE 



the den and then tightly close all holes 

 with earth. The next morning the 

 skunks are dug out and they may be 

 handled without any offensive odor 

 whatever. 

 Markham, Ont. 



A GROUP OF TENNESSEE BEEKEEPERS AT THE MEMPHIS FIELD MEET 



South African Beekeeping 



A recent issue of the Farmer's 

 Weekly, a South African paper, had a 

 two page article on bees and apicul- 

 ture. A large portion of this space 

 was devoted to extolling the virtues 

 of honey and its value as food. In 

 another issue of the same paper, one 

 of its subscribers discusses the bee- 

 keeping situation. Foul brood is un- 

 known in South Africa, and the \Yriter 

 advocates the importation of Italian 

 queens into that country only on a 

 limited scale and suggests that the 

 Government quarantine such queens 

 and have same examined before they 

 are turned over to the beekeeping 

 public. 



