AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



805 



that Juno is not warm and dry, our 

 honey harvest will end the last of June, 

 until September and October. I lost 

 one queen in the winter, but the colony 

 survived until spring ; I then gave them 

 some bees and a queen, and they are 

 doing very well, considering the weather. 

 I had another colony that the queen 

 came out ; she could not fly, and acted 

 as if she was crippled. I put her back 

 on the comb, and in a few months she 

 was out again. I examined the comb, 

 and found young larvce, but no eggs. 

 The queen was two years old this sum- 

 mer, so I killed her, and gave the colony 

 two frames of brood and eggs. Now 

 they have as fine a young queen as ever 

 I saw. What was the cause of the 

 queen leaving the hive ? Was it for the 

 want of something ? Will Mr. Doolittle 

 please answer ? A. C. Babb. 



Greenville, Tenn., May 30, 1892. 



Bees Wintered Well. 



The bees in this locality have win- 

 well, with only a very small per cent, of 

 loss. The weather has been unfavor- 

 able on account of the rains during the 

 month of May. The locust trees are 

 now in full bloom, and are humming 

 with the busy bee from early morn until 

 late at night. The white clover is just 

 beginning to bloom, which Is the main 

 supply of the honey crop in this section. 

 There is no pleasant weather to spare 

 now. Every one should be ready for 

 the honey crop, having the hives full of 

 bees, and the sections ready fdY the sur- 

 plus, all in " apple-pie order," so as not 

 to lose one moment of time, as " time 

 and tide wait for no man." 



W. S. Stevens. 



Mechanicstown, O., June 6, 1892. 



Ants in the Hives. 



I have several colonies of bees that 

 have a gopd many little red ants in 

 them. How can I get them out, and 

 keep them out? Please answer in the 

 Bee J<»uknal. B. Cheney. 



Brandon, Wis. 



[In Prof. Cook's "Manual of the 

 Apiary," we find the following direc- 

 tions for getting rid of ants : — Eds.] 



"You can very readily brush them 

 away, or destroy them by use of any of 

 the fly poisons which are kept in the 

 raariets. As these poisons are made 

 attractive by adding sweets, we must be 



careful to preclude the bees from gain- 

 ing access to them. As we should use 

 them in the spring, and as we then need 

 to keep the quilt or honey-board close 

 above the bees, and as the ants cluster 

 above the brood-chamber, it is not diffi- 

 cult to practice poisoning. 



One year I tried Paris green with 

 success. There are several reports of 

 ants entering the hives and killing the 

 bees ; even the queen is said to have 

 been thus destroyed. In such cases, if 

 they occur, it is best to put a sweet 

 poisonous mixture in a box and permit 

 the ants to enter through an opening 

 too small to admit bees, and thus poison 

 the ants. Or we may find the ant's nest, 

 and with a crowbar, make a hole in it, 

 turn in this an ounce of bisulphide of 

 carbon, and quickly plug it up by pack- 

 ing clay in the hole and on the nest. The 

 liquid will kill the ants. This better be 

 done when the ants are mostly in their 

 nest." 



Hard Time for the Bees. 



The past two months have been a 

 hard time for bees in this locality, it 

 being cold and wet nearly all the time. 

 I kftTft llOof the 114 colonies which I 

 packed last fall, but they are not in very 

 good condition to gather a large crop of 

 clover honey. A. W. Smith. 



Parksville, N. Y., June 3, 1892. 



ChaflF Hives for Wintering Bees. 



I am an old bee-keeper. I have now 

 only 13 colonies of bees, having lost 

 quite a number in winter, but mostly 

 this spring, though I have been tolerably 

 successful in the wintering of bees. Of 

 late years I have wintered them in a 

 stone milk-house, partly under ground, 

 and having double doors. I placed the 

 hives in this repository, raised a little 

 above the bottom-board, and took off the 

 top of the hives clear to the frames, 

 then I put on about two feet of straw. 

 Last winter I wintei'ed two colonies in 

 chaff hives out-doors, and I am so well 

 pleased with that plan that I shall con- 

 tinue to winter all my bees out-doors in 

 chaff hives. I have investigated this 

 subject somewhat, and know of others 

 who are having the best results by win- 

 tering bees in chaff hives. The 2 colo- 



