1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



599 



crease the harvest of each colony a sufficient 

 number of pounds to amount to one dollar a 

 year. That would be $5.00 a year ; and if he 

 should continue only two years in the busi- 

 ness it would be $10 00. That would pay for 

 a best imported Italian queen, and leave a re- 

 mainder of $3 00 to $5 50. Look at it another 

 way Suppose a beginner with five colonies 

 pays $7.00 for a best imported queen. He 

 might be allowed at least three years in which 

 his increased harvest should pay for the queen. 

 That would be $2.33 a year, or 47 cents a year 

 for each colony. Do you think it would be 

 difficult to reach that increase? Please stop 

 throwing pigs and wheelbarrows as stumbling- 

 blocks in the way of beginners. 



Marengo, 111. C. C. MiLivER. 



[I still think my advice is good ; but you 

 make one good point when you say it is cheap- 

 er to start out with good stock than to get it 

 after the apiary assumes some size. Agreed ; 

 but I would still advise the beginner not to 

 get an imported or a high-priced breeder until 

 he has acquired some experience. Let him 

 get good stock by all means ; but get untest- 

 ed from some fine breeding-queen. These 

 untested are cheap, and may develop to be as 

 good as the breeder. 



Say — you are no spring chicken in the 

 business. — Ed.] 



BEARS IN THE APIARY. 



For the past three weeks I have been both- 

 ered a great deal by bears in one of my out- 

 apiaries. They have caused me considerable 

 loss in honey, bees, and hives. I lost five col- 

 onies entirely, and a good deal of honey from 

 other colonies ; but the trouble and expense 

 of watching and protecting the apiary, and at 

 the same time getting rid of the bear, has been 

 the greatest loss. On the night of the 11th I 

 succeeded in wounding one measuring 6 feet 

 7 inches from tip to tip ; so that, on the 12th, 

 I was able to capture him ; and on the night 

 of the 19th I was fortunate in killing one mea- 

 suring 7 feet 11 inches from tip to tip, which 

 I trust will close the chapter for the present. 



W. O. Victor. 



Wharton, Texas, June 21, 1901. 



THE BONNEY METHOD OF INTRODUCING 

 QUEENS. 



J. H. Martin says, on page 80, that he 

 would like to ask Mr. Bonney or any one 

 using his method of introducing queens if he 

 ever had any trouble from the queen killing 

 the bees. In answer I would say that I never 

 have had any such trouble, nor have I ever seen 

 a queen kill workers but in a single instance. 

 Then a virgin queen stung four workers to 

 death in quick succession when the comb 

 which she was on was lifted from the hive. I 

 consider this a freak, as I have never seen any 

 thing like it in all my experience. 



I judge from Mr. Martin's statement, that 

 he placed the queen in the cage and then put 

 in the bees one at a time. A queen might 

 possibly attack a single strange bee, but I am 

 inclined to think it would be more of a freak 

 than a regular occurrence. Mr. Pridgen tells 



us he sometimes puts in the bees one at a 

 time, and I have done so myself, and there 

 was no quarreling ; but I prefer to cage quite 

 a number of bees until they have a sense of 

 loneliness and queenlessness, then place the 

 queen among them, and in no case has the 

 queen or worker shown any disposition to 

 harm the other. I have never lost a queen 

 by this method, and I regard it as the safest 

 of any plan I know unless it is Mr. Alley's 

 method of tobacco smoke, which is, perhaps, 

 equally sure ; but I like my plan best, as the 

 bees do not have to remain queenless so long, 

 and there is less danger from robbing ; be- 

 sides, some do not like the smell of tobacco 

 smoke, and I do not like to handle it myself. 

 I hope Martin the Rambler will give this 

 method a thorough test, and let us hear his 

 echo on the subject, through Gi-Eanings. 



C. T. Bonney. 



BIRDS KIIvWNG BEES IN FLORIDA. 

 In this part of Florida bee-keepers are just 

 recovering from a severe loss of bees. The 

 late storm in April brought thousands of birds 

 which were never known in this portion of 

 Florida before. They were the most destruc- 

 tive bee-enemy ever known here. They would 

 alight on the hives and catch every bee that 

 came out. If a bee chanced to escape to the 

 fields they would capture it. We killed the 

 birds by hundreds. They now have emigrated 

 to parts unknown. The birds were something 

 like our Northern cherry-birds — male, red 

 collar, but no tuft on top of head ; female, 

 yellow breast, brown wings. 



W. T. MUNDY. 

 Pt, Washington, Fla., May 10. 



BETA NAPHTHOI, VS. SALICYLIC ACID. 



Last spring I fed salicylic acid, but foul 

 brood appeared again in the fall. This spring 

 I sprayed the empty brood-combs with a solu- 

 tion of beta naphthol, using a Faultless spray- 

 er, and also used the same drug to medicate 

 syrup fed. I also kept a piece of naphthaline 

 in each hive, on the back of the bottom-board. 

 My hives under this treatment are practically 

 free from foul brood. See Cowan's "British 

 Bee-keeper's Guide." 



HIVES FOR NEW ZEALAND. 



Although an eight-frame Langstroth hive in 

 the hands of a practical bee-keeper is good, 

 yet in a climate like that of New Zealand, 

 where bees fly all the year round, and we fre- 

 quently have rough weather in the spring, I 

 am inclined to think that the ten-frame Jumbo 

 would be more suitable here, as it holds more 

 stores, and consequently requires less atten- 

 tion. My experience with bees hived in kero- 

 sene-boxes, which are about 14 inches deep 

 and 9X18, is that they make 9 or 10 inches of 

 brood and 3 or 4 of sealed honey above ; hence 

 I believe the Jumbo frame more nearly meets 

 the natural requirements of the bees than the 

 Langstroth depth, and the queens would rare- 

 ly lay in the Dadant shallow extracting-supers 

 above the Jumbo brood-nest. 



Charles F. England. 



Foxton, N. Z., Feb. 4. 



