1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



41 



dry concentrated lye. As I had found the rats 

 preferred nice firm ripe tomatoes to any thing 

 else 1 had on hand, 1 sliced up several about 

 ^ inch thick, and placed in different parts of 

 the house. In the morning they had eaten 

 all I put out. The second night they ate 

 half as much. The third night only a few 

 pieces were gone. The fourth night they did 

 not touch the tomatoes nor any thing else, 

 and we have not seen or heard of a rat or 

 mouse in the house since, about six weeks 

 ago. A couple of weeks afterward Mr. 

 Shank said there were as many as ever in 

 his barn and granary, and he thought I had 

 only driven them out to the corn; so I fixed 

 the tomatoes the same as before, with the 

 same effect. The third night was the last. 

 We think it is truly wonderful to be without 

 the horrible things, so we just concluded to 

 let you tell others. 



Just sprinkle the dry concentrated lye (I 

 use the Banner, as it is so handy) on the top 

 of the tomatoes. Other articles may do as 

 well. Mrs. L. B. Shank. 



Jenny Lind, Cal. 



BENT NAILS FOR FRAME-SPACERS. 



What do you think of this idea for spac- 

 ing-nails? L. E. SCHEKER. 

 Jersey Shore, Pa., May 29. 



[The arrangement here shown, if properly 

 applied, is excellent; but in the first place it 

 is difficult to bend the nails, and, in the sec- 

 ond place, it would be more difficult still to 

 bend them all with exactly the same curve, 

 for it would be important to have the bee- 

 spaces alike. In the third place, one would 

 have to bore a hole in order to drive them 

 into the frame, for the reason that the ham- 

 mer-head would strike one side of the line of 

 penetration of the wood, bending the nail 

 over. Taking it all in all, the ordinarv sta- 

 ple is much easier to insert, and far cheap- 

 er.— Ed.] ^ 



MEETING OF THE MA.SSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 

 OF BEE-KEEPERS. 



The Massachusetts Society of Bee-keepers 

 held its second meeting in the Ford Building, 

 Ashburton Place, Saturday evening, Decem- 



ber 7. President Farmer president There 

 were thirty present on this occasion, and all 

 seemed to enjoy hearing the different speak- 

 ers. After the routine business, the meeting 

 was given into the hands of the members. 



Mr. Barret, of Hyde Park, spoke first on 

 the duty of the bee to the flower in the trans- 

 ferring of the pollen, referring especially to 

 such plants as have male and female flowers 

 on different individuals. Mr. J. S. Chase, of 

 Maiden, the veteran fruit-grower, followed 

 in the same line, speaking particularly of the 

 work of the bees with reference to grapes, of 

 which fruit he has been a grower for thirty- 

 five years He laid stress upon the fact that 

 species do not come true from seed, and il- 

 lustrated his point by his own experience 

 with seeds of Delaware grapes from which 

 he had obtained many varieties of grapes of 

 all colors, but never a Delaware. His fruit 

 has several times taken the first prize at the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



Mr. Chase showed a model of a storm-door 

 for his hives for winter, in which all felt 

 great interest. Mr. Chase spoke of his new 

 bee-feeder that consisted "of a box 25 inches 

 by 15, and 5 inches high, made to cover the 

 frames A piece of glass was fitted over this 

 diagonally from the bottom of one edge to 

 the top of the opposite side. Over this was 

 the cushion. Thus he was enabled to lift the 

 cushion and observe the condition of his 

 feeder without cooling off the bees. 



Mr. Adams, of Byfield, Mass., and Mr. 

 Richardson, of W. Medford, two vice-presi- 

 dents, were chosen at this meeting; then aft- 

 er an informal recess, during which we all 

 enjoyed ice cream and cake furnished by our 

 president, F. H. Farmer, Mr. Hawkins, of 

 Everett, described the Atwater method of 

 transferring by use of a tube from one hive 

 to another as given in the Bee-keepers' Re- 

 view. 



Mr. Richardson also told of his experience 

 of four years. 



Our next regular meeting will be the first 

 Saturday in January, 1908, in the afternoon. 

 As there are only four more meetings we 

 hope for a good attendance. 



Belmont, Mass. X. A. Reed. 



CAGE THE QUEENS WHEN SHAKING BEES ON 

 TO NEW COMBS. 



It has not been clearly stated in the jour- 

 nals that it is necessary to cage the queen 

 when the bees are shaken on to new combs. 

 One of our bee-men of Tulare, a Mr. Gam- 

 bel, had 78 colonies shaken on to frames of 

 foundation for foul brood, and none of the 

 queens were caged; 75 out of the 78 swarmed, 

 and went to the woods. 



Tulare, Cal. T. J. Bareinger 



COVERING CRACKS IN HIVE-COVERS. 



I use muslin bats for putting over joints 

 on covers for hives. Get heavy bleached 

 muslin and cut the length needed, and 3 

 inches wide. Cut in lengths long enough to 

 lap over the edges ; lay this in paint, and, 

 when put on, give a good coat of paint. I 



