GLEANIIS'GS IN BEE CULTURE- 



903 



initted as a State, with the fraud of a constitution 

 lately Jjrovided by the Mormons. 

 Sandy, Utah, Oct. 11, 1887. Uavid Peebles. 



HOW TO MAKE BIRD-I.IME, TO CATCH MEMBERS OF 

 THE FEATHERED TRIBE, ENEMIES OV BEES. 



Friend Root:— 1 spoko sometime since of telling- 

 how to make bird-lime. There may be difficulty for 

 some to make it, as it is made from the bark of the 

 holly-tree, and that grows only in the South. First, 

 peel the bark from the tree, and boil it soft; then 

 strip the outside skin otf, and thi-ow it away. Bury 

 it four days, after which beat it into a pulp. Wash 

 clean, when it is fit for use. As to its use, smear a 

 twig with the lime, and fasten it so the twig will 

 drop. When the bird alights, the feet stick to the 

 twig, and the wings get stuck so the bird can not 

 get away, and is caught fast. The lime Will keep for 

 a year. You might have holly bark sent from the 

 South, and try it. It is well worth the trouble. If 

 you can not succeed, send the bark to me and I will 

 make it for you, or else I have forgotten the cun- 

 ning of my boyhood. To remove the lime from the 

 feathers, put Une dry dust on, when it will come off 

 without any trouble. David Ross. 



Bsbon, Jewell Co.. Kan., Nov. 9, 1887. 



THROW IN THE KEGS AND CAN. 



Friend Boot;— Since returning from the National 

 Convention at Chicago, where we had a pleasant 

 and profitable meeting, I have been reading Glean- 

 ings for November l.'ith. I am glad you adopted 

 the question-department system, for it is an ex- 

 ceedingly valuable one. I believe I am safe in say- 

 ing that it is worth from five to ten times as much 

 to the reader as the same space filled with other 

 matter as it runs. In your foot-notes to my article 

 on page 844 you bring out a point that I overlooked; 

 that is, that we never charge any thing for pack- 

 ages in which we ship honey, no matter whether it 

 is comb or extracted; and we ship the extracted 

 honey, mentioned in that article, in good wooden- 

 jacketed tin cans holding 48 pounds each. I don't 

 believe it is good poliey to charge extra for pack- 

 age. This we think we do at ten cents a pound, so 

 it seems that there is not much difference in our 

 prices after all. 



When I saw the illustration of the bee's legs on 

 page 847, by Prof. A. J. Cook, it brought to mind the 

 splendid lecture he delivered to us in Chicago at 

 the convention, and so amply Illustrated. As he 

 was talking to us about the laws of evolution, it 

 sent a thrill of pleasure through the heart of every 

 lover of science. May we all live to enjoy more 

 such meetings, spiced with such lectures as the one 

 given by Prof. Cook at Chicago. James Heddon. 



Dowugiac, Mich., Nov. 23, 1887. 



INTRODUCING BY TAKING AWAY THE COMBS. 



On page 765, Mr. Doolittle has an article on fall 

 introduction of queens. That cage is to "Do-a- 

 good-deal;" but, Mr. D., try this: Just pick out 

 your queen, sweep your bees off the comb, kill 

 your other queen, and hang the cage in the corner 

 of the empty hive. I will tell you how, in 1881, I 

 came to try it. A bystander asked, "Without bed 

 and board, wouldn't they be accommodating?" 

 From that suggestion I tried it in this way: Sweep 

 the bees all off the combs, without any regard to 

 their being full of honey; shove a cup with half a 

 pint of syrup or honey into one corner of the hive; 

 hang the queen over it in a cage, throw a piece of 



cloth over the hive, shut on the cap; in a day or 

 two set in the combs, and let me know when you 

 lose one, if you please. H. L. Jeffrey. 



New Milford, Ct., Oct. 23, 1887. 



Friend J., I have no doubt your plan will 

 work almost if not quite every time. The 

 matter was mentioned years ago in our jour- 

 nals ; but the objection was made, that it 

 was too much trouble. I remember having 

 a nucleus that would not take a queen at all. 

 They seemed to cling to their brood, and de- 

 termined to raise a queen themselves, so I 

 took all the brood away. That seemed to make 

 some difference, but they balled her even 

 then, when I decided to move all their 

 combs and all their stores. While they 

 were clustering on one side of the nucleus 

 hive, I gave them a queen they had been 

 determined to sting before, and then they 

 accepted her and behaved themselves. But 

 when 1 gave them their combs back again 

 they balled her again, so I left them, I be- 

 lieve, two or three hours, may be piore, 

 hanging on the side of the hive and cover 

 without any thing to eat at all ; and after 

 that they accepted the queen without any 

 further trouble. 



A PLEA FOR KING-BIRDS AND OTHERS OF THE 

 FEATHERED TRIBE. 



In an article in Gleanings, Aug. 1, page 531, by 

 S. E. Miller, of Bluffton, Mo., In which the king-bird 

 is rather abused, he is not positively certain that he 

 discovered honey-bees in the crop of the birds he 

 killed. Now, I have handled bees more or less for 

 nearly .50 years, and I never believed that king- 

 birds ate bees, and I do believe that, if a king-bird 

 should swallow a whole honey-bee the sting would 

 be very likely to kill the bird; and in order to prove 

 what I say, I will tell what 1 know about the matter. 

 Years ago, when I lived in the town of Allegany, 

 N. Y., I had a few swarms of bees; and one day I 

 noticed a pair of king-birds very busily catching 

 something right in front of the hives. My brother, 

 who was on a visit with me at the time, noticed 

 them also, and said he believed they were catching 

 the bees; and the evidence was so strong against 

 them I told him he could shoot one and see whether 

 they were guilty or not, and he did so. I immedi- 

 ately opened the bird's crop, and no vestige of a bee 

 was to be found, but, on the contrary, the crop was 

 half full of flies that were In a perfect state. I 

 went to the hives and discovered just such kind of 

 flies sitting in front of the hives among the bees, 

 and from that time on I have not allowed king-birds 

 or any other birds killed on my premises, if T could 

 possibly avoid it. When I was a boy 1 thought I 

 was doing a good thing to kill birds; but as I be- 

 come more civilized I found that birds were made 

 for the purpose of helping mankind, and there are 

 no animals on earth that serve him as faithfuUj', 

 and I for one will not be so wanton and cruel as to 

 harm a single one of the faithful servants. 



It is too bad, after the great Giver of all good has 

 furnished mankind with feathered servants, that 

 he should be the first peison on earth that is willing 

 to see them destroyed. When I landed in this west- 

 ern wilderness of prairie, twenty years ago, the very 

 atmosphere was thick with mosquitoes and green- 

 heads, with scarcely a bird to be seen. A swallow 

 was a very rare thing; but now flies and mosqui- 

 toes appear as usual, but they disappear again as 



