598 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Removing Bees from Wagons 



In all thf articles I have read about removing 

 bees from trees and house walls the plan was to 

 save the colony. This is all right from the bee- 

 kecpfir's view, but in case of a house, the dwellers 

 therein w^ant to get rid of the bees at once. They 

 do not care to wait a month, that the beekeeper 

 may have a new colony. This was my experience. 



I'o expedite matters I devised the following plan 

 to relieve a friend of annoyance. I took a box 

 of about a cubic foot capacity, and cut holes in 

 two sides, each about three inches in diameter. 

 Over both these I put cone bee-escapes with the 

 apex inside. I then made a cone to go on the build- 

 ing and over the principal entrance. This cone 

 was made to fit snugly into one of the cones in the 

 box. 



Trapping them going and coming. A, box; 



B, B, cone bee-escapes. D, hanger. E, nail to 



hang box on. F, space between outer and inner 



wall. 



I hunted out all the holes by which the bees 

 came and went, and left the main one, plugging 

 the others with cotton scraps wet with a mixture 

 of creolinum and petroleum. When the bees were 

 going and coining from the one entrance I put 

 on the cone, then hung the box so that the two 

 cones would engage, and fastened it there. 



All the bees that were afield would come and go 

 in at one cone entrance, and the bees coming 

 from the house would enter the box by the other ; 

 and if the box were left there any length of time 

 the bees, of course, would perish. But one could 

 have two boxes and change, thus saving the bees 

 while keeping them from annoying the people in 

 the house. 



Buck Grove, la. Dr. A. F. Bonney. 



Every Hive Its Own Record-ljook 



Why so much fuss and worry about keeping 

 hive-records with brickbats, dials, books, etc ? 



^ly hives face east and are painted white. In 

 the spring of 1913, on going over them, cleaning 

 up, I made notations with a common No. 2 pencil 

 on the north side, writing from top to bottom such 

 notes as " 416-4 et. s. s.," meaning that on the 

 fourth month, 16th day, this colony had four 

 frarues of brood and was strong, but had scant 

 stores. If I found an undipped queen I knew 

 she was of 1912, so drove a tack about half way 

 in on the east side of the hive, and, of course, 

 clipped her. 



On my next round I may have made, next to 

 my first record, such note as " 53-8 c," — meaning 



that on the fifth month, third day, I found eight 

 frames of brood and queen-cells started; and so 

 on through the season, making such notes as I 

 considered necessary. 



In the spring of 3 914 I used the west side, and 

 this year the south side, changing my tacks as 

 new queens were reared. While my notes of 1913 

 are dim, they are still legible. 



I make my notes of a size that can be read a 

 distance of five or six feet, so that in looking 

 over the yard I am able to see at a glance those 

 !iives which need attention. Also the notes are 

 arranged in neat order so as not to look bad. 

 Try it, brother beekeeper, and I am sure you will 

 take to it. 



Springfield, Mo. E. T. Bond. 



Some Physical Effects of Beestings. 



While you are discussing beestings and their 

 cures, let me give you a little of my experience. 

 While living in Illinois, my wife's mother was 

 stung near the temple. She broke out all over in 

 large blotches, and was quite sick. My wife 

 wrapped her in a wet sheet, and in about half an 

 hour she was all right again. There were no bad 

 effects. 



I went out to Denver one morning to look after 

 some" bees. As I rode up to the house I found 

 quite a number of people, and heard the cry of a 

 little child. They told me she took a stick, sat 

 down in front of a hive, and was whipping the 

 bees. She was badly stung on the face and hands, 

 and the people were using whisky externally and 

 internally, I think, with the child screaming all 

 the time. It was a very bad case, and the child 

 might have died. There was no medical help near, 

 noi- an automobile in those days to take her to a 

 doctor. I told them to v^ap her up in a wet 

 sheet wrung out in tepid water as quickly as 

 they could, and bundle her up in blankets. 



In twenty minutes she was laughing and en- 

 tirely free of pain. 



A lady friend of ours who lived in North Denver 

 had a swarm of bees that alighted in a tree. She 

 climbed the tree, and, without veil or gloves, cut 

 off the limb, but spilled so many of the bees that 

 she was badly stung on the face and hands. 



She hung to her job, however, and got the bees 

 down and hived. She then went to bed and was 

 quite sick. She had been taking treatment for 

 rheumatism but the ailment disappeared after she 

 recovered from the stings. 



Denver, Col. J. L. PeabODY. 



How Not to Introduce Brood Foundation. 



As a novice I made one blunder against whicli 

 I think I was not warned by anything I have read. 

 My last frame of brood foundation was put in next 

 to the division board, and now I find the bees 

 have clustered on only one side of it to draw it 

 out, and their weight has drawn the foundation 

 sidewise, bagging out from the wires. Aside from 

 tlic evil of the bulging shape, many of the cells 

 must be as much stretched as if it had not been 

 wired. 



I turned it around to start the bees on the other 

 side; but I see where I shall have a comb that 

 will not be too good to be mutilated by pushing 

 in a cage to introduce a queen. It may have been 

 siven too soon, for the bees had hardly finished 

 drawing out its predecessor. Perhaps if I had 

 vvailed till the bees were really hungry for another 

 frame they would have taken hold all over ii ; 

 nevertheless, my next frame will go in between 

 conilis that have bees on both sides of it, whether 

 those combs have brood or not. 



Ballard Vale, Mass. Stephen T. Byinoton. 



