70 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE 



much more wholesome. They are very slow 

 to cap such honey — so much so that it 

 looks as if they do not intend to. This is 

 another good feature in them worthy of 

 much praise. 



THEIR ONLY BAD FEATURE. 



The only thing that has ever been brought 

 up against these bees that I consider worthy 

 of argument is that they are bad to propo- 

 lize or glue up the interior parts of their 

 hives, and often deposit this glue in balls of 

 considerable size in the most remote parts 

 of the hive, and especially about the bottom, 

 causing annoyance in frame manipulation. 

 Since I have had these bees I notice that 

 this bad feature is gradually leaving them. 

 I have partly brought this about by breed- 

 ing from stock less inclined to do this. But 

 with good wide-open entrances, front and 

 back, they make their deposits of glue there, 

 endeavoring, seemingly, to close up these 

 openings where it is easily removed, and 

 we no longer consider this an objection. It 

 has been the experience of all that this 

 gathering of propolis does not occur except 

 during a honey-dearth. Is not this evidence 



that they are great gatherers or very ener- 

 getic foragers'? 



THEIR CROSSES. 



I have crossed them considerably with my 

 Italians, and I like the cross as well as I do 

 the pure stock. In fact, the " dash " of 

 Italian blood seems to combine the good 

 qualities of both races, and make a great 

 strain of bees, in some particulars pref- 

 erable to the liure stock. It seems to a 

 great extent to eliminate the desire to gather 

 propolis and build burr and brace combs, 

 and does not change their good qualities. 

 The only bad thing about crossing these two 

 great races of bees in this way is that the 

 cross will gradually go out in favor of the 

 Caucasians. This is accounted for by the 

 fact that they raise more drones. In jaoint 

 of purity they are racially strong where 

 Italians are weak. The reader should not 

 think that I am condemning in the least the 

 Italian bees. I Jiave over one thousand 

 colonies headed with pui'e Italian queens as 

 near the $20 mark as tbej' can be bred, and 

 I expect to keep them and add more. 



Cordele, Ga. 



FIGHTING THE ANT INVADER 



BY E. S. MILES 



On page 944, Dec. 1, 1914, F. H. Cooper 

 writes an interesting account of the insect 

 and bird enemies of the bees in South 

 Africa. I had kept bees a good many years, 

 and in four or five different places, before I 

 found there was an insect enemy formida- 

 ble enough to make real trouble here in 

 Iowa ; and this experience which I shall re- 

 late may be so exceptional as to have no 

 practical bearing. In fact, I think one 

 would meet with it very rarely, and yet, as 

 Mr. Cooper says, it might be interesting to 

 read nevertheless. The enemy referred to 

 must be about the same ant Mr. Cooper 

 describes on page 945 as being bee-eater 

 rather than a honey-eater. 



It is a large black ant, although, if I 

 i^emember rightly, the fore part of its body 

 is dark red in color. It lives in great colo- 

 nies that gather small sticks and rubbish, 

 and make a mound from 1^/2 to 3 feet in 

 diameter, and perhaps a foot or more high. 

 They also work down into the ground a foot 

 or more, and in cold weather they go down 

 and do not appear until the warm days of 

 spring. On the fiist real warm days of 

 spring, however, the top of their mound is 

 black with them, and they can be seen run- 

 ning in all directions, going mostly in 

 certain paths or lines. These lines will go 



for several rods in all directions from the 

 mound, the ants evidently traveling a regu- 

 lar route or trail. They are usually to be 

 found in old brushy or woody pastures, 

 hence are not often if ever found on farms 

 that are rotated in crops. 



In locating an outyard in the spring of 

 1912,in an old brushy pasture, never having 

 lieard of ants bothering bees in Iowa, hence 

 thinking of nothing of the kind, I set a yard 

 down right in the center of a circle of five 

 or six monstrous colonies of these ants. I 

 did not notice the ants until we had the yard 

 all rigged up, and then we did not know 

 tliat the bees could not win out in a "scrap" 

 with the little black demons. On the con- 

 ti'ary, we expected to see some ants very 

 glad to go on about their own business 

 shortly after we set the bees loose in this 

 yard. 



Xeai- where one of these ant-trails ran 

 tlu'ough the yard we set what we considered 

 a veiy vigorous colony of Italians — one 

 that seemed very quick to notice and resent 

 any intrusion into their domain, so we 

 watched with somewhat pleasurable antici- 

 ])ation to see Mr. Ant get shown the way 

 out when he (or she) began investigating 

 the entrance to the hive. Imagine our sur- 

 jirise to see that, instead of Miss Bee grab- 



