38 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



Heads of Grain 



From Different Fields 



POLLEN DROPPED AT HIVE ENTRANCE; LEAKY 

 DOOLITTLE FEEDERS. 



I should like to have you explain vvhat makes 

 the bees drop little loaves of bee-bread, at the 

 front of the hive, to a seemingly wasteful extent. 

 The bees in one of my hives do that, and they 

 make a queer noise when out on the front of the 

 hive — a icind of click-clack. 



I bought some of the Doolittle division-board 

 feeders, but can not make them hold the syrup. 

 If you can tell me how to fix them I shall be 

 very grateful. Mrs. C. M. Clark. 



Hayward, Cal., Nov. 17. 



[More or less of pollen is dropped at the en- 

 trance when bees are flying, more especially in 

 the spring. The amount lost in this way is com- 

 paratively small. If you look in your hives at 

 such times you will see that there is no lack of 

 pollen in the combs. If any thing, there will be 

 too much of it. 



Doolittle feeders, if kept in a dry place, are 

 likely to leak by reason of shrinkage. The 

 trouble can be corrected by pouring about a gill 

 of hot paraffine or wax iEto the feeder and roll- 

 ing it around in such a way that the hot liquid 

 will spread over the cracks; but in doing this, 

 don't spread it all over, for then the bees can't 

 climb out. — Ed.] 



ANTS AND OTHER " VERMIN " IN OLD MEXICO. 



I find this is one of the greatest bee-fields. 

 I see numbers of the natives have as many as 

 100 boxes, or hives. The hives as they con- 

 struct them are boxes 3 feet long, both ends 

 open, lying on a frame. The ants are so de- 

 structive that they master the bees even when 

 the hives stand in water-basins. My object in 

 writing this is to address Mr. A. I. Root. I 

 have been reading after you for some time; and 

 as this climate is very similar to that of your 

 Florida home, the various pests are probablv the 

 same. The greatest plague here is the ant. They 

 are very numerous. They are laying claims to 

 the banana, the pineapple, potatoes, yuccas, and 

 almost every thing else. Now, Mr. Root, can 

 you advise me what to do to check this work of 

 destruction in my truck-patch? The next pest is 

 the gopher. If I could master these two pests I 

 think I could succeed. My home is on the great 

 Tamiahua Lake — no apiary closer than four 

 miles Please advise me as to a remedy for the 

 above, and also as to using your system of hives 

 in place of the native system here. 



Tamiahua, Mexico. J. A. Campbell. 



[My good friend, we had the same trouble on 

 the island; but when Mr. Shumard had about 

 200 laying hens right in the dooryard and all 

 around the apiary, not an ant troubled his hives. 



Little chickens and big went for the ants just 

 as soon as the nest was stirred up anywhere in the 

 garden or apiar^, until the ants decided that that 

 was not a healthy locality for them. Finally the 

 women-folks complained so much about having 

 so many chickens around that Mr. Shumard 



fenced them off to another part of the island, and 

 then the trouble with the ants began. He placed 

 all his hives on benches with the legs standing in 

 basins of water, as you suggest. But this was a 

 good deal of trouble, for leaves and trash would 

 get into the water, and the ants would get across. 

 By putting some kerosene on the water it pre- 

 vented the evaporation and repelled the ants bet- 

 ter than pure water alone; but so long as he kept 

 the chicicens away, there was a constant warfare. 

 Every little while the ants would find a hive un- 

 protected, and sometimes they would almost ruin 

 a good strong colony just over night. I do not 

 know of any thing that succeeds so well as a lot 

 of chickens. 



I can not answer your question about gophers; 

 but my impression is that a continual warfare 

 with traps and guns, such as we have to wage on 

 skunks, coons, rats, and mice, is the only rem- 

 edy. A good dog trained to the business will 

 take care of the most of such pests. — A. I. R.] 



COMBS CONTAINING OLD POLLEN; HOW TO CLEAN 

 UP OLD COMBS. 



Will you kindly answer the following ques- 

 tions for me, which 1 could not locate in the in- 

 dex of the A B C book.? 



1. Is a comb pretty well filled with pollen a hin- 

 drance or a detriment to the brood chamber.? 

 Sometimes we find such combs, and it appears 

 that they are avoided, and the pollen is never 

 cleaned out of them. What would you advise 

 doing with such combs.? 



2. Combs that have dead larva; in them (larva; 

 sealed and otherwise, that were suffocated through 

 an error), how would you have them cleaned up.? 

 Will combs with decaying brood like these, when 

 introduced into other colonies, be likely to bring 

 about any disease.? 



3. Will bees clean up combs, or, rather, clean 

 bees out of them, in which it appears they starv- 

 ed while wintering.? 



Elizabeth, N. J., July 15. T. E. Diener. 



[1. It depends somewhat upon conditions 

 whether a comb of pollen is detrimental in the 

 brood-chamber. Usually a comb containing a 

 little pollen should be placed there, if it is not 

 there already, in order to get the bees to storing 

 it in the cells in the brood-nest rather than in the 

 supers. Since the pollen is used so rapidly in 

 brood-rearing, it should be as near the brood as 

 possible. In the case of old combs, where the 

 pollen has become too old, probably the best 

 way is to mutilate the combs considerably by 

 scratching the cells with some sharp-pointed tool. 

 The cells should be scratched nearly down to the 

 mid-rib; and when such a comb is given back to 

 the bees they will clean out the pollen and patch 

 it up so that it looks to be as good as any other 

 comb. 



2. If you were sure that the larva? had not died 

 of some disease it would be safe enough to give 

 the combs to some other colony, one at a time, to 

 clean out; but we do not think this advice is safe 

 enough to send out broadcast without a word of 

 caution, for sometimes there might be disease ex- 

 isting, although there were practically no indica- 

 tions of it. We would advise you to be very 

 careful, therefore; and before you distribute all 

 the combs, if you are not absolutely sure, it 



