NOVEMBER 15, 1913 



821 



Heads of Grain from Oifferent Fields 



Solution for Destroying Grass and Weeds 



I ^kiiow that grass and weeds growing near the 

 hives seem to be a matter of considerable seriousness 

 to many of your correspondents, and the remedy 

 seems to me to be so simple that it should require 

 little consideration. It is known to all that merely 

 scattering ordinary table salt in the vicinity of hives 

 will quickly destroy all forms of vegetation, and is 

 harmless to the bees. Any of the ordinary arsenical 

 weed-killers, such as are generally sold by seedsmen, 

 will also prove very effective. The beekeeper can 

 prepare his own weed-destroyer, if he desires, by 

 dissolving an ounce of arsenious acid and two ounces 

 of ordinary baking soda in three gallons of water. 

 This is, of course, a deadly poison, and should be 

 kept beyond the reach of ichildren. Ordinary sul- 

 phuric acid will serve the same purpose. It requires 

 the addition of only about a pint of the concentrated 

 commercial acid to about five gallons of water. Again, 

 one can prepare a very cheap and effective weed- 

 » killer by dissolving 5 lbs. of copperas in 10 gallons 



of water. Blue stone, or copper sulphate, can be 

 substituted for the iron sulphate in making this so 

 lution. To destroy the weeds the above solutions 

 should be sprayed upon the grass or weeds around 

 the hives. 



BLACK MARTIN.S FOR DESTROYING THE MOSQUITO- 

 HAWKS OF FLORIDA. 



I note that some of your Florida correspondents 

 report that the ordinary mosquito-hawks, or dragon- 

 flies, are a serious source of loss, particularly to the 

 queen-breeders. My own observation and experience 

 for twenty years have shown me that there is nothing 

 which destroys such enormous numbers of dragon- 

 flies as the black martins, a large swallow which is 

 found throughout the United States, and which 

 should be plentiful in Florida. These birds subsist 

 almost entirely upon dragon-flies, and it only re- 

 quires concerted action on the part of those inter- 

 ested to provide them with the necessary boxes in 

 which to breed. It follows, as a matter of course, 

 that the number of such birds that could be attracted 

 by a single beekeeper would not serve to exterminate 

 the dragon-fly from his vicinity ; but if the protec- 

 tion and breeding of these birds could be generally 

 encouraged throughout the State, the number of 

 dragon-flies would be enormously reduced in the 

 course of one or two seasons. I might say that these 

 swallows are not bee-eaters. 



Detroit, Mich. J. M. Francis. 



Danger of Supersedure of Queens Introduced by 

 the Smoiie Method 



I should like to say a word to J. A. McKinnon 

 in reply to his article on page 690, Oct. 1 — that is, 

 regarding the danger of supersedure of a queen in 

 the smoke method of introduction. I have found 

 that, if a hive is opened, in three or four days after- 

 ward the bees often ball the queen. When I find 

 them balled, if I release them and smoke them in 

 again in the same hive they will be found ten days 

 later doing well. When I smoke in a queen I clean 

 away the grass in front of the hive. The next morn 

 ing I look for her dead body in front of the hive. 

 If I do not find her I know she is all right. How- 

 ever, I look into the hive about ten days later; and 

 if I find eggs and larvae I go no further. I lost just 

 one queen this season, and none were superseded. 



SHALLOW COMB TO HOLD THE DISEASED HONEY 

 WHEN TREATING FOR FOUL BROOD. 



Late last fall a friend and I bought 22 colonies 

 of bees. It was too late to look through them to see 

 the condition they were in. This summer there were 

 three colonies that developed foul brood, and I want 

 to tell how I cured it, for it was so easily done. 



I prepared a new iclean hive with full sheets of 



foundation in nine frames. The tenth frame was a 

 shallow extracting-frame filled with an empty comb, 

 and was placed in the center of the hive. All the 

 bees were brushed (not shaken) into this hive, and 

 were allowed to remain that way for four days. At 

 the end of the fourth day I took out the shallow 

 extraicting-frame and brushed the bees off and put a 

 full-sized frame with a full sheet of foundation in its 

 place. During the four days the bees had stored all 

 the diseased honey they carried with them in the 

 shallow frame, so I burned it as soon as removed. 

 That settled the foul brood; and what nice new clean 

 comte they have now, well filled with honey and 

 healthy brood! The old hives and combs were plac- 

 ed in an out-of-the-way place with enough old bees 

 to care for the brood, and to act as guards at the 

 very small entrance. In three weeks they were shak- 

 en again with the young queen that they had raised; 

 so, instead of three unhealthy colonies we now have 

 four healthy ones. The old combs were melted up 

 into wax. As a precaution against robbers the work 

 was done late in the evening, and the combs were 

 melted after dark. The old hives were saturated 

 with gasoline and set on fire. The gasoline soon 

 burned off and left the hives clean and ready for 

 use. The frames were burned. 



Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 17. A. T. Rodman. 



An A B C Scholar's Rapid Increase ; Can we Have 

 Too Much Shade for Bees? 



I have been a subscriber to Gleanings since I 

 started keeping bees, which was with one hive. I 

 have since increased to 200 colonies, and this year 

 we had over twelve tons of honey. 



While I am much indebted to Gleanings and 

 the A B C of Bee Culture for inspiration and 

 knowledge, I have not seen enough said about 

 shade for bees. While I am about to start an outyard 

 in a young forest in a dense shade, will you kindly 

 tell me if the shade would be good for the bees ? 



Beeton, Ont., Oct. 4. Charles E. Arnold. 



[The place described would be, in our opinion, too 

 shady. Bees will not build up in spring, nor fly out 

 as early in the morning, nor as late at night, where 

 there is a large amount of shade. Experience 

 demonstrated over and over again that an excessive 

 amount of shade is detrimental. But a very moder- 

 ate amount, or, to speak more exactly, shade that 

 will protect the hives from nine to ten o'clock in the 

 morning to two or three o'clock in the afternoon, is 

 a benefit. If this shade consists of trees or grape- 

 vines the leaves will fall so that the colonies will be 

 out in the open in the early spring and late fall, 

 when they need all the sun they can get. 



The location that you describe, however, would be 

 most excellent from the standpoint of windbreaks. 

 For good results in outdoor wintering, forest-trees 

 afford the best kind of windbreak. — Ed.] 



Reconstruction of the Canterbury Beekeepers' As- 

 sociation 



Readers in America and elsewhere who are inter- 

 ested in the doings of New Zealand beekeepers will 

 remember that a conference of beekeepers- of the 

 Dominion was held last .Tune, when a constitution 

 was adopted under the name of the National Bee 

 keepers' Association. This is framed somewhat on 

 the lines of the Ameri>can Association of the same 

 name, and is designed to include all the beekeepers 

 of New Zealand. After the delegates returned and 

 had presented their report the situation was fully 

 discussed; and the Canterbury Association, which 

 had been carrying on the work under a federation 

 of already established associations decided to remain 

 as an independent body, and to push forward its 



