488 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULtUItE. 



JtJNE 



Us more about it. If they don't have one 

 flake of snow, they do sometimes have seri- 

 ous frosts, even in sunny Louisiana. 



CUCUMBER PEELINGS Ff)H DRIVINi! OFF (;OCK- 

 ROAl'HES. 



D. C. MeLeod, of Pleua, II)., asks lor a remedy for 

 cockroaches. Years ago it was asserted by some 

 bee-keepers that the roaches do no harm. As they 

 were then numerous in some of our hives, I watch- 

 ed them and found their habits really predatory; 

 but it seemed impossible to exterminate them. 

 When pursued they will dart from comb to comb 

 and from cell to cell with astonishing rapidity, and 

 never seem to cease incubating, winter or summer. 

 At that time 1 could find no remedy, but have since 

 been assured, by several, that the thin peelings of 

 green cucumbers placed on the frames will utterly 

 destroy them. You might try it, friend McL., on a 

 small scale at first, to find if it injures the bees, and 

 be sure to report pi'ogress to Gleanings. 



W. A. J. Beauchamp. 

 Orange, Tex., Apr. 31}, 1.S87. 



Friend B., I can not have very much faith 

 in any remedy that does not seem to have 

 either reason or sense about it, and I can't 

 see why cockroaches would not eat cucum- 

 bers as well as their natural food. If the 

 cucumbers were to have some Paris green 

 sprinkled over them, or something of that 

 sort, there would then be sometliing ration- 

 al in the proceeding ; but as this Paris green 

 might kill the bees too, I presume that will 

 not do. 



A NOVEL WAY OF GETTING A fJOOD PRICE FOR 

 HONEY. 



1 went into winter quarters with 72 colonies, lost 

 5. Last 3^ear I raised 1300 lbs. of extracted honey, 

 and sold it for 8 cts. per lb., or 1.5 lbs. for one dollar. 

 I raised 1500 lbs. comb honey, and sold it for 10 cts. 

 per lb. You may think that too cheap, but I think 

 it better than raising wheat at 75 cts. a bushel. I 

 know it is. Now a little about the way I sell my 

 honey. One year ago last winter I built me an Ice- 

 house and cooler, that I can keep eggs in. It cost 

 complete about $75.00. About the first of last Aug. 1 

 set my extractor on the spring wagon, filled it with 

 honey, put on about 3 egg-crates and some comb 

 honey, and away I went. Last year eggs were from 8 

 to 13 cts., while I peddled, and traded honey for 

 eggs. I kept my eggs until Nov. 1, and sold them 

 for 18''2 cts. So you see I got a good price for my 

 honey after all. 1 have room in my cooler forSOOO or 

 4(100 dozen, and e.vpect to till it next fall in that way. 

 I can sell about 2000 lbs. of honey in two weeks. 



Sebewa, Mich. H. M. Brown. 



Friend E., your suggestion is an excellent 

 one. Your "cold-storage room keeps the 

 eggs in good order from August 1st to No- 

 vember 1st, after which little or no ice will 

 be needed. If you succeeded in making 

 such a cold-storage room for $75.00, you did 

 extremely well. 



A PLEA FOR HIVES ON LEGS. 



I have come to the conclusion that the best way 

 to winter bees is outdoors on their summer stands. 

 The past winter has been a pretty severe test for 

 the "little fellows," at least in this neighborhood; 

 and yet I never have wintered bees so successfully; 

 in fact, I think they came through stronger, if any 

 thing, than they were last fall! During summer 



and winter my hives are set on a bench about 1V4 

 feet from the ground, thus avoiding one great ob- 

 jection to bee-keeping— stooping. 1 can imagine 

 some skeptical bee-keeper mentally asking me this 

 question: "Would not the frogs and toads of the 

 neighborhood become fat over the weary, heavily 

 laden bees who missed the entrances to their 

 hives?" My answer is, most emphatically. No; not 

 if you do the way 1 do— scatter a little coal-ashes 

 round about and under the hives ;Jeave no hiding- 

 places for the pesky "frogs and toads;" that's the 

 Idea. Try this, and I'll warrant that you will soon 

 declare my "old, but good " plan the best. Where 

 the hives are up so high it is a good plan to have a 

 " windbreak " of some kind on the windward side 

 of the apiary. Since I began wintering bees by this 

 plan I have never lost a colony. W. M. Barnum. 

 Angelica, N. Y., May 7, 1887. 



WILL THE SCENT OF MICE ON SECTIONS OTHER- 

 WISE UNIN.JURED PREVENT BEES FROM 

 OCCUPYING THEM? 



I have quite a lot of old sections with founda- 

 tion pulled out, ready for work, which were left 

 over from last season; but as I had no honey- 

 house, they were left where the mice could have 

 access to them. They are not eaten by mice, nor In 

 any way spoiled, only the scent, perhaps, where 

 they have run over them. Now, I have been told 

 by an old bee-keeper (how much he knows I can't 

 tell), that bees will never work in sections or comb 

 that mice have run over, and I do not want to lose 

 the time In experimenting, to see if it is the case. 

 Supposing you know, I thought I would find out 

 at once. It will be a great loss to throw away all of 

 my old sections with comb in them, but I suppose 

 I had better do that than lose all. Gleanings has 

 just come; and to say that I value its aid, and that 

 it is one of my most welcome visitors, would be but 

 expressing things mildly. I never e.xpect to try to 

 do without it while I keep bees. L. S. Haines. 



Greenville, III., May 3, 1887. 



Your informant is entirely wrong, friend 

 H. We have had hundreds of brood-combs 

 eaten into more or less by the mice, and 

 have put them into hives, and the bees took 

 hold of them and filled up the holes as 

 promptly as one could wish. They also 

 liave the knack of entirely removing the 

 odor of mice ; for when the combs were put 

 into the hives, with the peculiar mouse 

 smell (which is decidedly offensive to me), 

 at the expiration of 24 hours, or about that 

 time, the bees had cleaned out the combs 

 and put in new pollen and honey. The of- 

 fensive odor had disappeared entirely, and 

 the combs smelled as sweet and clean as if 

 they had always been in the bee-hive. I 

 have never tried it for sections, because we 

 never let the mice get into our comb honey ; 

 but I think the bees would fix the sections 

 up all right, sweet and clean, if you thought 

 best to set them at it. 



SEALED COMBS OF NATUR.\L STORES VS. FEEDING 

 GRANULATED SUGAR, ETC. 



As we have wintered our bees successfully the 

 past winter, we will present you with a few 

 thoughts on that subject. During the first five 

 years of bee-keeping we always set aside sealed 

 combs of best clover honey, and scarcely knew a 

 loss from wintering during that time. But so many 

 of the leading bee-keepers declared in favor of 



