1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



581 



by tacjiing such cloths to a frame stretcher 

 and shaking or jarring the branches over 

 them after night or in the early morning 

 when the insei'ts are yet present. If the 

 beetles merely fall into the kerosene-soaked 

 cloth they will eventually be killed through 

 contact with the oil, even though they may 

 bo able to escape temporarily. 



To overcome the effects of such injury it 

 would be well to saturate the ground by the 

 application of a little niti'ate of soda, a mulch- 

 ing of stable cleanings, or some other nitro- 

 gen-bearing material applied around the tree 

 as far as the branches extend. Cultivation 

 of the soil to preserve moisture is advisable, 

 but this can not always be done. Abundant 

 watering will help the trees greatly in over- 

 coming the effects of such injury. 



It is difficult to name insects with certain- 

 ty without very accurate descriptions of both 

 the pest and the injury that is inflicted or 

 without the insects themselves. It would be 

 advisable for inquirers to mail us specimens, 

 and thus be accurately informed instead of 

 being obliged to rely upon assumptions from 

 descriptions that may not be complete. 



SOME ALFALFA HONEY THAT COULD NOT BE 

 LIQUEFIED BY HOT AIR. 



In regard to liquefying honey, p. 145, Feb. 

 1, I will say that last November I had to 

 warm up about 150 ten-frame supers to ex- 

 tract them. For this purpose I built an 

 8x13 room and used a small coal-heating 

 stove, and maintained a temperatui'e from 

 110 to 130° for 24 hours, and had alfalfa hon- 

 ey in the room for three days in 60-1 b. cans, 

 and it did not liquefy in that length of time. 

 I also had some honey in supers that was 

 candied, and it is still in the frames. In ad- 

 dition I had a 6000-lb. storage-tank that I 

 tried to get the sun to warm up last summer 

 when it was ranging 100° in the shade, and 

 it was a failure. I have had to shovel out 

 18,000 lbs. of honey in the last year, and 

 scorched only seven cans, and they were one- 

 gallon in size. I think that, to use hot air, 

 would be expensive — that is, to accomplish 

 the purpose. Of course, some kinds of hot 

 air are very cheap. M. Townsend. 



Ontario, Ore. 



[Our experiments in liquefying candied 

 honey in an incubator lead us to believe 

 it would take nearly a week with a temper- 

 ature of from 110 to 130, to liquefy honey 

 granulated so hard that it is solid. 



The combs containing the honey in such a 

 temperature, in a few days more would have 



sagged or crushed as soon as the honey had 

 begun to melt. 



In the case of a large 6000-lb. tank of hon- 

 ey which was candied, the sun would never 

 affect it. The same thing has been tried in 

 California, with a much warmer climate, with- 

 out results. The only thing to do in a case 

 of this kind is to do as you did — shovel it out 

 and melt it over hot water. — Ed.] 



SHIPPING HIVES IN BOXES. 



The whole bee-keeping fraternity should 

 insist on manufacturers shipping hives that 

 are sent out in the flat in closed boxes in- 

 stead of using the hive-bodies for the crate. 

 I presume this is done to reduce the freight 

 charges to the lowest possible point; but I 

 believe the majority of bee-keepers would be 

 willing to pay a little more freight and have 

 their supplies arrive in as good a condition 

 as when they left the factory. I am of the 

 opinion that, if the shippers of hives packed 

 thus could be at the destination point and 

 see them unloaded they would very often 

 feel like disowning them. 



In unpacking the shipment the contrast is 

 so great that one can scarcely realize the 

 shipment is from the same factory. The in- 

 side hives are as bright and clean as a new 

 pin, while the hives set up as the shipping- 

 crate are black and greasy, contain several 

 nail-holes, and the soft pine wood is marred, 

 and the body dented and often cracked by 

 rough freight-handlers eii route. The hives 

 are always shipped with the hand-holes on 

 the outside of the package, probably to af- 

 ford a place for freight-handlers to handle 

 them, and of course they must be put togeth- 

 er this way. In a shipment of even five 

 hives, two sets of hive- bodies put together 

 are necessary to hold the rest of the hive- 

 fixtures. We see by this what a large amount 

 of extra work is necessary to put such hives 

 in proper shape. Not every bee-keeper has 

 the tools or the time to plane, dress, trim, 

 and putty the nail-holes of these marred 

 hive-bodies, nor should they be expected to 

 do so when they pay for doing this very 

 thing at the factory. Grant Stanley. 



Nisbet, Pa. 



QUEEN with dent IN HER BACK. 



In June, 1907, I purchased a breeding- 

 queen and introduced her into a hive with 

 two frames of brood taken from another col- 

 ony. During the month I added two more 

 frames of brood, and the rest of the hive full 

 foundation — Danzenbaker hive — until now 

 the colony is very strong in bees, thousands 

 hatching every day. When the queen ar- 

 rived, there appeared a small dent on the 

 back between the wing- sockets, perhaps as 

 large as a pinhead, and J^ of an inch deep. 

 The cause of this dent does not seem to be 

 very clear, nor does it affect her laying qual- 

 ities or her offspring in the least. 



To-day I opened the hive to show the 

 queen to a visitor, and the first frame lifted 

 out contained a beautiful large queen, and 

 upon close examination the dent was not vis- 



