1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



219 



PE^Dg @F 6^IN 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS, 



THE TARANTULA ; SOMETHING MORE CONCERN- 

 ING ITS HABITS. 



Tjp LLOW me to correct your mistake in regard 

 qfl^ to tarantula nests. It is only a hole in the 



jR» ground, without a cap, and the web very 

 ■^*- light. The nest you speak of is that of the 

 trap-door spider, which is a much smaller 

 spider, and without the hair. Tarantulas are both 

 black and brown in color. The males have small 

 bodies and very long- legs; the females have longer 

 bodies. I have captured a great many while in 

 California, and killed and mounted some for sale, 

 while working at my trade of taxidermist in Pasa- 

 dena. To capture them, all that is necessary is 

 plenty of water, a pair of large tweezers, and 

 plenty of small pasteboard boxes; for if they are 

 put together they will kill one another. I have 

 frequently brought in 100 or more in half a day's 

 hunt with a horse and buggy. When you And the 

 location, a doby clay soil, you pour water in their 

 holes and the spider comes up to see what is the 

 matter. You then catch him with the long twee- 

 zers, and box him. I killed them with chloroform, 

 and then prepared with arsenic. I mounted some 

 500 while in California last winter. I sent you a 

 fine specimen, if you remember. 

 Williamson, N. Y., Feb., 1889. T. G. Ashmead. 



Very likely you are right, friend A.; but 

 the boy who brought me the nest, with its 

 velvet lining and neat little trap-door, told 

 me, if I remember correctly, that it was the 

 nest of the tarantula. 



STARTING BEES INTO THE SOPERS WITH SECTIONS 

 OF HONEY ; WILL ITALIANS FILL THE SU- 

 PERS AS READILY AS THE BLACKS ? 



In Gleanings of Feb. 1, page 91, 1 notice an ex- 

 periment of Elias Cole, in regard to the best thing 

 to get bees to work in the supers as soon as put on. 

 Last season I put nothing in the sections but nar- 

 row starters, until about the 1st of August, and the 

 bees seemed loth to work in them. One day in tak- 

 ing off honey I put one section full of honey in 

 each row in the super, and the next morning the 

 bees had nice combs built on each side of the hon- 

 ey, so 1 did that way until the close of the season; 

 and the result was the same in every case. I think 

 empty combs would have done as well, but I did 

 not have them. 



Is there any strain of Italian bees that will work 

 in sections, equal to the blacks? From my experi- 

 ence, I say no. 



243 BUSHELS OF JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT FROM 5 

 BUSHELS OF SEED. 



From 5 bushels of Japanese buckwheat that my 

 brother bought of you last summer he had 243 

 bushels. It was sown on sod land at that. 



C. B. Jackson. 



Eau Claire, Wis., Feb. 12, 1889. 



Friend J., if you fixed a lot of hives with 

 sections containing just starters, and none 

 with unfinished combs for decoy, you certain- 

 ly neglected to follow the instructions of the 

 journals and the text-books. No wonder 

 your bees didn't commence work. You 

 probably lost a good many pounds of honey 

 by the operation. I think the ABC book, 

 as long ago as when it was first written, 



recommended taking a few sections from a 

 hive that had already commenced work; 

 and as it is some bother to get the bees off, 

 I advised taking the section, not only with 

 the comb and honey, but bees too. With 

 such a hint as that, almost any colony with 

 sufficient strength will commence to work 

 as you have described — that is, when the 

 other colonies are working in sections. — I 

 suppose it is true, that black bees, as a rule, 

 go up into supers more readily than Ital- 

 ians. They also very often put all their 

 honey in the sections, and then starve to 

 death if the owner does not look after them, 

 while the more prudent Italians would have 

 a supply in the brood-nest before they com- 

 menced in the supers. — So your brother 

 made a pretty good thing of the Japanese 

 buckwheat, did he not, friend J.? 



CHAFF PROTECTION FOR SURPLUS BOXES. 



My principal honey harvest is from the heather, 

 which comes in about the middle of August. From 

 the variableness of our climate at that season of 

 the year we have difficulty in keeping the bees in 

 the super at night. I make an outer case, for 

 wintering, about three inches all over larger than 

 my hives (the Simplicity), and fill up with chaff. 

 Now, would you advise this outer case to be kept 

 on during our honey season? How would this com- 

 pare with your chaff hive, mentioned in your ABC? 



Now that you have done California, why not link 

 your arm in that of Dr. C. C. Miller and come over 

 and see your cousins " across the pond " ? We 

 have a cold climate in the north here, but you 

 would find warm hearts before you. W. Stokes. 



Can- Bridge, Scotland, Feb. 2, 1889. 



Friend S., we certainly would advise you 

 to keep the outer case on during the honey 

 season. Most of our colonies are in chaff 

 hives, and our experience has been most 

 emphatically that chaff protection around 

 the surplus boxes is certainly a good thing. 

 According to our experience bees are more 

 apt to build comb in chaff-protected supers 

 than in those not so protected, and they are 

 more inclined, also, to enter the boxes. 

 The reluctance of bees to enter the surplus 

 apartment might, we think, sometimes be 

 overcome with chaff packing around the 

 super. Thanks for the kind invitation. 



BASSWOOD LUMBER ; HOW TO GET IT CLEAR AND 

 WHITE. 



We have commenced making sections. We find 

 considerable of our basswood is colored, and do not 

 know how to account for it. The most of the stuff 

 was cut this winter, and we know most of it was 

 white and nice when sawed. We shall be glad to 

 have any information you can give us. 



Riverton, Va., Feb. 18, 1889. J. Slack. 



Friend S., it takes years of experience, or, 

 at least, it has taken us many years, to learn 

 the knack of getting perfectly white bass- 

 wood when dry. In the first place, the 

 trees should be cut in cold weather, before 

 the sap starts in the spring. The logs 

 should be taken to the mill and sawed just 

 as soon after cutting as possible ; then the 

 lumber must be sticked up right away, well 

 spaced out, with good slant, well covered, 

 in the open air. If these directions are 

 strictly followed, you will have nice lumber, 

 if you use nice timber to start with. It 



