240 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[April, 



ventilation. Thinks I, it is the bee nature to 

 gum and close up tight every hole, nook and 

 corner in the hive above them, and if I let it 

 open they will surely freeze ; consequently I lost 

 some three or four stocks in Gallu]) hives. I do 

 not blame the hive. I blame myself. My neigh- 

 bor, T. P. Duncan, has an old box hive with a 

 ~-inch hole in the top open all winter, and they 

 are all right this spring. Some of my neighboi's 

 have infoi-med me that they had some to starve 

 this winter in old box hives with plenty of honey 

 in the hive but no upper ventilation. I have a 

 few fixed Robert Bickiord fashion and they did 

 well. 



One of my neighbors, Finley Kruson, informed 

 me the other week that a few years ago his boys 

 went out with a gun, and hai>pening lo see some 

 combs on the underside of the limb of a large tree, 

 close to the stem, they shot in and knocked down 

 some nice combs with honey and live bees. This 

 was in the s])ring of the year, before swarming 

 time, and they had evidently wintered out in the 

 open air, with no other protection but the combs, 

 limb and trunk of the tree. Don't you think they 

 had upward ventilation enough? AVlio knows a 

 similar case in this latitude 'i 



I have got myself a honey slinger, but have 

 not tried it yet. It is geared and runs nicely. I 

 am also getting my new hives ready for operation 

 when the emigrating season comes. 



Fearing I am wearing your patience I will 

 close by subscribing, as ever, 



A Miller, 

 By occupation, but not a moth miller. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The "Hazen" Beehive. 



On page 143 of January number of the Jour- 

 nal, I see " Novice " refers to Jasper Hazen and 

 his opinion of the Italian bees ; and in the same 

 number, Mr. Grimm refers to his beehive. 



In September 18G7, I made a trip among bee- 

 keei:)ers, and as I had previously, through the 

 columns of the Country Gentlenuin, had some 

 discussicms with Mr. Hazen, about the respec- 

 tive merits of his non-swarming hive and the 

 Langstroth hive, I called upon him. 



I found him living in the outskirts of the city 

 of Albany, N. Y,, and a much older man than I 

 expected to see ; then 76 years of age, but full 

 as vigorous as men will average at that age. I 

 told him 1 wished to see his much lauded non- 

 swarming hive, about which I had seen so much 

 figuring to prove it the best of all hives made. 

 He took me out to see them. lie had five old 

 stocks in the spring ; but, as the season ad- 

 vanced, lo, they all cast swarms ! I thought he 

 seemed a little annoyed, that after all liis puff- 

 ing, his so called non-swarmer was a failure. I 

 noticed, however, to my surprise, that he was 

 appropriating Mr. Langstroth's invention, with- 

 out due credit, and evidently with a disposition 

 to detract from his claims as inventor and 

 patentee. 



He showed me, I should think, some four or 

 five hundred pcunds of box honey, some of it 

 very nice. 



In conversation with Mr. William Stratton, 

 of West Troy, whom I visited the same day, he 

 gave Mr. Hazen the credit of having a good hive 

 for box honey. But although he had one hundred 

 and forty stocks in his apiary, I did not see one 

 of Mr. Ilazen's hives among them. Mr. Strat- 

 ton said it had been the best season for box 

 honey in that locality he had ever experienced. 



Mr. Hazen's hive (he then called it the JEu- 

 reka, ) is nothing more in effect, than a common 

 box hive, about the size and shape of the one 

 used and recommended by Mr. Quinby, with 

 boxes applied to the top and sides. 



D. C. Hunt. 



NortJi Tunhridge, Vt., Jan. 5, 1870. 



K"ew Mode of Destroying Wasps. 



Wasps have been rather plentiful. I have for 

 several years adopted a very simple, yet very 

 effectual plan of getting rid of their nests. 

 When I find a nest, I select the noon of a hot 

 sunny day for my operations. I procure a very 

 strong solution of cyanite of potassium, and I 

 saturate a p ece of lint, about three or four 

 inches square with the solution. This lint I 

 quietly place at the hole loading to the nest in 

 the ground, in a bank or elsewhere. Nothing 

 more is requisite. Every wasp that arrives at 

 the bote, on its descent alights on the lint, and 

 after one or two gyrations, drops over the edge 

 of the lint into the hole, dead, or else dies upon 

 the lint — not one escapes. After sitting down 

 by the side, watching the operation for about 

 ten or fifteen minutes at most, the number of 

 wasps arriving home becomes very much 

 lessened, and then only a few odd ones arrive. 

 I then dig out the nest. All are destroyed. 

 There is no fuss, no risk of being stung, as every 

 wasp coming home falls on the fatal lint, and 

 has no escape. The evaporation of the cyanide 

 is very rapid, and the air all arotmd the hole is 

 tainted, and the wasps seem fascinated by it, as 

 I never saw any turn away. They look as if 

 they must settle, and when they once alight they 

 have no power to raise themselves; the use of 

 the wings is gone, and they are soon dead from 

 the inhalation of the cyanide. 



This is a very simple way of destroying the 

 nest, because if you do not wish to take the nest 

 you may leave the lint there. It will destroy all 

 the nest, and will do no harm to anything else. 



W hen the nest is in a tree, I generally go in 

 the evening, and hold the lint soaked in the 

 cyanide under the bottom hole. The wasps 

 soon begin to drop out, first oue by one, then in 

 a regular shower. Of course caution must be 

 used to avoid the inhalation of the cyanide ; but 

 as so little is required, it is not very probable any 

 accident will result from the proceeding. — Cor, 

 Jouriud llortkulture. 



Omne Epigramma .set in.stur apis, aculeus illi, 

 sint sua mella, sit et corporis exigui. — Martial. 



'• Three things must Epii^raras, like bees, have all, 

 A stiug, and honey, aud a body small." 



