960 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



t>EC. 



the introduction of Apis dorsata, the giant bee of 

 India; and had it not been for his untimely decease 

 the domestication of that bee in Great Britain 

 would probably have been an accomplished fact. 

 Mr. Langstrotb's book, as revised by the Dadants, 

 will be read with interest all over the world. There 

 are, I understand, also to be German and French 

 editions. 



This has been only a fair honey season in Virgin- 

 ia, owing to excessive rains; but there has been 

 quite a quantity of good fall honey made from the 

 white aster, which yields a honey, the scent of 

 which, when first gathered, can be noticed even 

 when at a distance from the apiary. 



H. Stillington Stephenson. 



M edina, Nov.8. 



CARP AND BEES. 



Some of my bees nearly starved until some time 

 in June. The honey-flow started, and kept up a 

 gradual flow until frost. The flow was not as rapid 

 as 1 have seen from white clover, but it lasted 

 longer than I ever saw before, and the bees worked 

 on red clover all the fall, so the bees had plenty to 

 do from the time white clover started until frost 

 stopped them. The quality is extra good, but the 

 price is low and the demand light, on account of 

 too big a crop. This has been a No. 1 honey year in 

 this section of the country. 



How are your carp doing? I placed 28 l A-lb. 

 spawners in my pond last spring. This fall they 

 weighed %}i lbs. We got about 2000 young ones, 

 from 3 to 6 inches long, besides what a big turtle 

 killed that was in the pond. The water got very 

 low, so the fish were crowded, which gave the tur- 

 tle a good chance to get fat on the young carp. We 

 caught him when we drained the pond. We are 

 wintering our carp, some in a large supply-tank 

 10 feet high, 10 in diameter, and some in a milk- 

 tank supplied by a drilled well, 05 ft., and a wind- 

 mill to do the pumping. G. J. Klein. 



Conrad Grove, la., Nov. 2, 1889. 



Friend K., our pond is pretty well stock- 

 ed ; but we have not used very much of 

 them for food as yet. Turtles and musk- 

 rats are much more troublesome when the 

 pond gets low. Better turn the supply from 

 your windmill into the pond so as to keep it 

 always full. That is the way we do now, 

 and our pond has never been low since the 

 windmill was put up. 



DOORSTEPS FOR BEE-HIVES ; FLAGGING AND 

 BRICKS. 



1 am to-night in receipt of the Nov. 1st issue of 

 Gleanings, and I have just been reading friend 

 Boardman's " Dooryards for the Bees." About 20 

 years since, I wanted to put my bees in a new yard, 

 and have it look in decent order; so I procured 

 flagstones larger than the bottom of the hives. At 

 each corner, under the hive, I put half of a brick to 

 keep the hive off the stones; and on the center of 

 the flagging, in front of the hive, I put a whole 

 brick for an alighting-place, so that, if a bee should 

 fall on the ground short of the entrance to the hive, 

 it could at once walk directly to the hive without 

 having to rise on the wing. The stones should ex- 

 tend some inches beyond the bricks all around, and 

 be raised slightly above the level of the yard; then 

 it is an easy matter to trim oil' any grass or weeds 

 that may grow up in the way of their homeward 

 flight. I prefer stones of a light color, instead of 



slates or daik-colored ones. I suppose they would 

 not be so hot under the hivts. The arrangement 

 has given me entire satisfaction as a bee-stand, 

 with no trouble from warping or rotting to be look- 

 ed after. Care should be taken in placing the 

 stones to have them level on top. C. Kisler. 



Locktown N. J., Nov. 4, 1889. 



Very good, friend R. I suppose your 

 hives have a permanent bottom, and, ir set 

 over the stones, water would collect and 

 stand between the bottom-board and the 

 stones. I think I should prefer to have the 

 hives raised up from the stones a little, by a 

 cleat clear around ; then mice, spiders, etc., 

 could not crawl between the hives and the 

 stone. 



GETTING RID OF SKUNKS BY MEANS OF POISON. 



Tjust happened to be looking over a back num- 

 ber of Gleanings, and noticed two articles telling 

 how to get rid of skunks. Now, I should like to add 

 my mite. I was very much bothered with them, as 

 they are very numerous here. I get a can of sal- 

 mon, and treat it to a little good strychnine, and 

 spread it around near the bee-yard. Fish of any 

 kind is a choice morsel for them. I do not know 

 how many I have killed; but I know I thinned them 

 out in my vicinity. I once found one lying right 

 where he found his supper. I am indebted to an 

 old miner for this recipe. H. P. Luther. 



Redlands, Cal., Oct. 31, 1889. 



We are much obliged, friend L., for the 

 fact you give us in regard to poisoning the 

 "• varmints." 



We solicit tor this department short items and questions of 

 a practical nature; but all questions, if accompanied by oth- 

 er matter, must be put upon a separate slip of paper with 

 name and address. 



SMOKING TO MAKE THE BEES FILL THEIR HONEY- 

 SACS. 



When bees are disturbed by smoking them, and 

 they fill themselves with honey, is the honey en- 

 tirely lost, or do they return it to the combs? 



Pipestem, W. Va., Nov. 3, 1889. G. C. Hughes. 



[Friend H., the honey is not exactly lost, of 

 course, for the greater part of it will be put back in 

 the combs, after the bees quiet down. But I feel 

 quite certain that a great part of the honey is very 

 often about as good as lost, where bees are made to 

 fill themselves by smoke. This is especially the 

 case with hybrids, or bees having enough black 

 blood to tear open the cappings, and gorge them- 

 selves with honey every time the hive is opened or 

 disturbed. 1 



FLAGGING FOR ENTRANCES. 



You ask in Gleanings for the price of stone to 

 use in front of hives. I have thin flagstone for 

 that purpose, which cost me six cents a foot, su- 

 perficial measure. A cheaper material, and one I 

 think you will find as good, is slack coal. 



Belle Vernon, Pa., Nov. 8, 1888. A. B. Buird. 



THE BLACK GRAMPUS ; THE FLUID FROM ITS 

 TAIL. 



Friend Root:— The black grampus sent to Prof. 

 Cook did discharge a greenish fluid from its whip, 

 or tail. See page 843, Nov. 1. I placed it on a white 

 cloth, and poked it with a stick, when it at once 

 clinched the cloth with its claws and discharged 

 from its whip this fluid, which was very offensive. 



