>78 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Dec. 



Udhi §(ipM^mnt- 



HOW TO DESTROY ANTS. 



taptf^HEN you go to a hive, raise the cover, and 

 WM find (he quilt iiterally covered wiih those 

 - J -' pesky little black ants, and about twenty 

 eggs to every insect, carefully replace the cover 

 without disturbing them. Then go to the house; 

 borrow your wife's tea-kettle, welt filled with boil- 

 ing water. Now return to the hive; carefully re- 

 move the cover again; turn it bottomside up oti the 

 ground. Now pour a portion of the liquid all over 

 the quilt, also some in the cover, and, my word for 

 it, those ants and eggs that came in full contact with 

 the medicine will never trouble you again. No pat- 

 ent. You can replace the wet quilt with a dry one, 

 and lay the other on top of hive to dry. 

 Independence, Iowa. Jessie Sheldon. 



WHEN TO MAKE A START, FALL OR SPRING. 



1 desire to raise only a few hives of Italian bees, 

 which I presume will furnish enough to pay their 

 cost. lama widow, and have no one to attend to 

 them but myself. I would rather pay higher for 

 them, and avoid the stinging of the black bees. I 

 am told by those who raise them, that I had better 

 not begin until spring. If this is your belief, I will 

 expect no answer. If you think I could keep out of 

 doors this winter a colony successfully, with the at- 

 tention of a novice, I will goon with it; otherwise I 

 will wait until spring. 



I have been studying your Gleanings and Bees 

 and Honey for the past week. My head swims with 

 the facts your books present, and I hope the ABC 

 will throw more light upon my mind regarding 

 frames, sections, foundations, nuclei, and the like. 

 What a world of delight must have opened to you 

 when /i/ si you commenced this study! 



Eliza C. Rives. 



Chatham, Pitts. Co., Va., Oct. 26, 1880. 



It will be easier and safer to wait until 

 spring, my friend ; but the bees will proba- 

 bly cost you quite a little m >re then than 

 now. I hardly know you sufficiently, from 

 your letter, to be able to advise. Some of 

 my friends, whom I can call to mind among 

 your sex, I would advise to wait until spring 

 before starting ; there are others whom I 

 would advise to get the bees now, and go to 

 work. Any one who is really interested, 

 and who would consider it a pleasure to 

 study the matter up, and to do the work, [ 

 would advise to go on, even if they wished 

 to purchase bees in mid-winter ; but those 

 who would be absorbed in other cares, so the 

 bees might be forgotten or neglected, I 

 would advise to wait until settled weather in 

 the spring. — Yon are right, about the world 

 of wonders that unfolded themselves to me 

 in my experiments with that first bee-hive. 

 From your concluding remarks, I am in- 

 clined to think, my friend, you are one of 

 those who will succeed with bees; but I 

 would warn you, that you may find the in- 

 dustry an outlay with no income, for some 

 time to come. 



of Italians for $7.00 each, and that season increased 

 them to five; but, owing to a severe drought, which 

 lasted nearly all summer, she did not have muchsur- 

 plus honey. The five were all wintered safely, and in 

 the spring of 1880 she bought 10 swarms of blacks at $7 

 each, running in debt for the whole amount. This 

 year she has sold honey to the amount of $300, and 

 to-day has 46 swarms in good condition to winter, 

 thus paying for her bees and having a nice surplus 

 left, besides nearly twice as many bees as in the 

 start. If any one can show a batter account than 

 this, I should like to soe it. 



We have one draw-back to bee-keeping here: We 

 are situated just on the edge of one of tho great lum- 

 bering districts of this State, and the swarms of 

 hands employed in the woods seem to think that 

 melons, honey, and fruit are perfectly legitimate ob- 

 jects of plunder; and if you ever had your best 

 swarm of bees ruined by thieves, when you had but 

 a very few, and felt too poor to buy more, then you 

 know just how I felt one Sunday morning a year ago. 

 If you or any of your contributors can suggest an 

 effectual remedy for this nuisance, I for one will be 

 profoundly grateful. E. Hunt. 



Sheridan, Mich , Nov. 1, 1880. 



Well done for the ladies, friend II.! and 

 many thanks to you for giving us this excel- 

 lent report. Will not the fence of barbed 

 wire aoout your bees and crops, mentioned 

 recently, keep away marauders? Would it 

 not be well to start Sunday-schools too, 

 around at the schoolhouses, and raise up 

 and civilize these foolish brothers whom 

 God has perhaps providentially thrown in 

 your way, while you at the same time save 

 your -honey? I am not sure but that the lat- 

 ter plan will be quicker and more effective 

 than the barbed wire fences. " He who con- 

 verteth a sinner from the error of his way, 

 shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a 

 multitude of sins.' 1 



A SUGGESTED IMPROVE flEXT OVER 

 FRIEND HASli'S SCALE. 



A SCALE FOR REGISTERING THE DAILY LOSS OR GAIN 

 OF A BKK-H1VU. 



Perhaps it might interest you or your readers to 

 know how a lady near here succeeded in bee-keeping, 

 and made money by it. In the spring of 1879. Mrs. 

 A. M. Sanders, of this place, purchased two swarms 



vfyJKIE^D NOVICE:— Gleanings for September 

 j*fJ has just been received; and, on looking over 

 — ' the pictures, the diagrams of friend Hasty's 

 hive-scale immediately struck my eye, and I hasten- 

 ed to read the description. Well, the apparatus is 

 ingenious, bur, as you say, not convenient. Now, I 

 have an idea in my head, which has been brewing 

 there for some time; and, as you call for improve- 

 ments, I will give it to you to work out and improve 

 upon if practicable; and if you can make any ihing 

 out of it pecuniarily, I shall only be too glad to have 

 benefited you as well as the bee-keeping fraternity. 

 My ideal hive-scale is a combination of Fairbanks' 

 platform scales and Chatillon's "Family" scale. It 

 should have a platform, a la Fairbanks, large 

 enough to set a hive on. This platform should rest 

 on the same oscillating apparatus as in Fairbanks' 

 scales, so that the hive may always stand firm and 

 level, and have very little vertical motion. The 

 graduated arm, carrying the weights, should be sub- 

 stituted by a smooth one carrying a sliding weight 

 with a set-screw. At the short end of the arm, or on 

 the upright part of the platform scale, should be ar- 

 ranged a dial, a la Chatillon. I am not acquainted 



