476 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 1 



CHLOROFORM AND ITS EFFECTS ON BEES. 



Some years ago you spoke about chloroforming 

 bees. Will you plea^e tell us how this is done? How 

 long wou d it take to put a lart;e swarm to sleep? Will 

 they all fall frcm ihe eonb to the bottom? Bee-stings 

 are used as medicine. Do you know of uny firm that 

 buys bees for their stings? I have a few swarms of 

 very vicious bees. I think they wou d put a whole 

 army to tlighi. N. E. Doane. 



Breckenridge, Mich., July 12. 



[Some years ago there was something said about 

 chloroforming dees. Its action is very quick, for a 

 colony can be stupefied in a very short time, so that 

 the bees will drop off the combs down to the bottom 

 of the hive. We presume your idea of chloroforming 

 was so that you could exiract the stings, or possibly 

 kill the bees outright if they are too cross to have 

 around. Messrs. Boric & Taffell, of New York, used 

 to do a large business in buying stings by the thou- 

 sand. You might correspond with these people. — ED.] 



American, and it seems to me that it would be a con- 

 siderable advantage to bee-keepers to plant both spe- 

 cies in O' der to extend the season." W. J. Green. 

 Wooster, O., July 14. 



CHEMICAL FUMES IN PLACE OF SMOKE FOR CONTROL- 

 LING BEES. 



I use something like a smoker, only it should be air- 

 tight. I use a sponge saturated with carbolic acid, 

 creosote, and liquid smoke, also crystal ammonia. 

 You can tell from what I hive given whether it would 

 hurt the bees or not. Thit is all I use, and for my 

 part it has served me well. I have only six colonies, 

 and it does not give me the best chance to test it. 



Converse, Ind., July 13. J. F. MILLER. 



[Nearly 25 years ago fumigators were made and used 

 in England. These employed a preparation of creo- 

 sote and carbolic acid. The great advantage claimed 

 for them at the time was that they were always ready, 

 and the fumigators always cod; but while they would 

 drive back bees to a slight extent, just trie moment the 

 fumigator was set down the effects of the drug passed 

 off. A colony that has been subdued by smoke ttays 

 subdued for several minutes; but the general verdict 

 years ago was that the fumigators were by no means 

 as effective as the ordinary smokers using an ordi- 

 nary slow-burning fuel of some sort. 



The combination recommended by Mr. Miller above 

 may, however, be much superior to those fumigators 

 that were tried in England. Perhaps some of our bee- 

 keepers who are also druggists can tesi ihe general 

 plan and give us a report as to how it works. — Ed.] 



POISONOUS HONEV. 



I am in receipt of the following letter from Colombia. 

 The matter contained therein is altogether strange to 

 me, for, although I have lived in tropical countries, 

 and been in intimate touch with bee-keepers in the 

 same, I have never before heard of a case of the kind. 

 If you will be good enough I should appreciate your 

 dropping me a line on the subject, telling me what 

 your opinion is. 



The letter reads as follows: "The bees have been 

 carrying to the hives some nectar of poisonous sub- 

 stance from some plant, and this has resulted in many 

 serious cases of poisoning, often causing death. The 

 country people say that this is extracted from a plant 

 named the ' borrachera,' which has a white flower. 

 Can you tell me if there is any method of testing the 

 honey, and of neutralizing the poison, or an antidote 

 for that particular poison? " — Isias Castro, Colombia. 



Buffalo, N. Y., July 2. LA HACIENDA Co. 



[If any one of our readers can give the La Hacienda 

 Company any information, we should be pleased to 

 have them do so. — Ed. J 



EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN BASSWOODS. 



(After the article on page 442 of our last issue was 

 in print, the following from Prof. W. J-. Green came to 

 hand:] 



Mr. A. I. Root:— I should not like to have you pub- 

 lish my letter of the 5th without some modifications. 

 Later observations lead me to believe that there is a 

 wider variation in time of blooming of individual 

 trees of both the American and European species of 

 linden than I supposed. If you choose to publish my 

 letter I should like to have you leave out the first four 

 sentences and substitute the following: 



"According to my observations the European linden 

 blooms somewhat later than the American. There 

 are, however, individual trees of the European which 

 bloom quite early, and individual trees of the Ameri- 

 can which bloom late. The majority of the European 

 I think bloom some days later than the majority of the 



MAKING THE CANDY-HOLES TO QUEEN-CAGES SMALLER. 



I beg to suggest a little thing which to me seems an 

 improvement in the small Benton queen-cages. Set 

 the drill so that, in boring the holes for the candy and 

 the center-hole the opening will be just Vi inch. This 

 will enable a little softer candy to be used, and it will 

 be kept in place better. As they come now the open- 

 ing is to large. E. E. Lawrence. 



Doniphan, Mo., July 8. 



I We have tried out the plan of making only ;i-inch 

 hole into the candy, but find that, when it is as small 

 as this, either a bee or a queen will get stuck in the 

 hole and die there, renaering it impossible for any 

 other bees or the queen to get to the candy. If a queen 

 lodges in the hole, of course she dies. If a single bee 

 gets stuck there, that prevf nts the other bees and the 

 queen from getting at the food, and of course they all 

 starve. U e found as a matter of necessity we had to 

 enlarge the hole so that two or more bees could get at 

 the candy at a time.— ED. J 



HOW TO GET A SWARM CLUSTERED IN AN INACCESSI- 

 BLE PLACE. 



When a swarm issues and settles on the trunk of 

 some tree, or on a limb out of reach, tie an old tough 

 brood-frame on the end of a long pole and shove the 

 frame close to the cluster. When a part of the bees 

 have gone on the frame, move it a few inches away 

 and smoke the rest of the bees that have not yet gone 

 on the frame. If it is impossible to reach the bees with 

 the smoker, brush them away with another pole, when 

 they will fall to the ground, but immediately return 

 and go with the bees on the frame. The rest of the 

 work is easy, for the frame can be simply carried to 

 the hive selected and the frame put in, in the usual 

 way. G. G. Fall. 



Milton, N. H. 



[The plan here described is entirely feasible. We 

 have used it many times with entire success. — Ed.J 



CAN WE REQUEEN BY GIVING A RIPE CELL AND NOT KILL 

 THE OLD QUEEN? 



Having a hive of black bees that were not satisfacto- 

 ry we gave them a queen-cell in a cell-protector. They 

 swarmed in a week, and we have the yellow queen in 

 the old hive. We gave a swarm a queen cell at the 

 same time we put a cell in No. 1. This swarm was also 

 black bees. We find our yellow queen on her job in 

 this case also. Now, if this way of requeening will 

 work it will suit me. In what per cent of cases will it 

 work? 



Thompson, Tenn., June 19. W. H. ARNOLD. 



Later, June 2 1 .—We find that colony No. 2 has swarm- 

 ed just as No. 1 did; but we have an Italian installed 

 in both cases by the simple introduction of a protected 

 cell, in the presence, in both cases, of queens. This 

 was 100 per cent of success, for we saved the first 

 swarm, and neither was worth saving without better 

 queens. W. H. A. 



[As we understand our correspondent, his plan of 

 requeening is to give a ripe cell to a colony without 

 killing the old queen already in the hive, assuming 

 that the young virgin, when she hatches, will super- 

 sede the old one. If this is his plan it wou'd be our 

 opinion that it would fail nine times out of ten. The 

 probabilities are that the old queen would discover the 

 cell before it had hatched, and she would soon make 

 short work of it unless she herself were about to fail 

 and the bees protected the cell, as they will do some- 

 times. 



If, on the other hand, the old queen failed to discov- 

 er the cell, she would, very likely, find the young vir- 

 gin, and before she would be active enough to put up 

 a good fight the old queen would put the young lady 

 out of commission in short order; but a vigorous vir- 

 gin just returning from flight, that will sometimes go 

 into a hive by mistake where there is a laying queen, 

 is more than a match for the reigning mother, and 

 may displace her. This occurs very often; but a virgin 

 just hatched would be no match for a normal laying 

 queen. 



To answer the question directly, then, we would say 

 that, generally, the giving of a ripe cell only for the 

 purpose of displacing the old queen would not suc- 

 ceed. If we had a colony of black bees, and it was 

 very difficult to find the old queen, we would run the 

 bees through perforated zinc and catch the queen on 

 the metal. We would then give a ripe cell.— Ed.J 



