brood nest is kept small, the hcmeymust 

 go into theboxes; and as the bees have no 

 comb to build, how can they waste it V 

 We have noticed that when' the honey 

 was too thick more wax was secreted 

 and the bees also seem helpless. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Ants Troublesome in the Apiary. 



w. w. BURNET. 



Prof. Cook in his excellent Manual 

 says : " Ants cluster about the hives in 

 spring for warmth, and seldom, if ever, 

 I think, do any harm. Should the 

 apiarist feel nervous he can very read- 

 ily brush them away, or destroy them 

 by using any of the fly poisons which 

 are kept in the market. * * One year 



1 tried Paris green with perfect suc- 

 cess. " 



!N"ow it so happens that my hives 

 are on a sandy hill-side, which this year 

 is teeming with black ants about % of 

 an inch long. This spring a neighbor 

 kindly gave me a weak swarm, and I 

 placed it in a hive, gave it brood, and 

 it seemed to be doing well, until about 



2 weeks ago, when I noticed that the 

 air was full of bees. I returned them 

 as soon as they clustered, but out they 

 came again. I clipped the queen's wing, 

 caged her, and thought I had them 

 sure ; but to my dismay out they came 

 again, and endeavored to force their 

 way into other hives, until I was minus 

 a swarm. I noticed the ants very thick 

 around and in the hive ; but as I saw 

 no bees injured, and Prof. Cook said 

 they "seldom, if ever," etc., the " api- 

 arist" didn't " feel nervous." A week 

 later I removed a queen to make room 

 for one I was expecting to receive, and 

 at noon I put her in a new hive with a 

 couple of frames of brood and plenty of 

 bees, and that evening when 1 went to 

 see how they got along, I found them 

 in bad shape; the ants had killed the 

 bees with the exception of about a 

 dozen workers and the queen, and had 

 pulled t he larva' out till the bottom of the 

 hive was white : then the " apiarist felt 

 nervous," I tell you. I put the queen 

 back into the hive I took her from. 



I had noticed that the ants would not 

 bother my full hives, which were boil- 

 ing over Avith bees, so I determined to 

 remove another queen to make room 

 for my new one. and put the hive on 

 stilts in pans of water (I have my hives 

 on the ground. " hi Cook). I made a 

 nucleus one evening, tilled the pans, 

 and next morning went to work with 

 the air of an apiarist who had tri- 

 umphed over difficulties ; but " the best 

 laid plans of mice and men gang aft 



agley." When I returned the water 

 had evaporated ; the hive was black 

 with ants, and the queen, bees and 

 larvse were numbered with the things 

 that were. To say the " apiarist was 

 nervous" but feebly expresses his feel- 

 ings ; he was desperate ! I procured 

 strychnine, dissolved enough to kill 40 

 men, mixed it with syrup, fed it to them 

 in divers places where the bees could 

 not reach it, and the ants got fat on it ; 

 the only ones hurt were abont a dozen 

 in each pan, which, heedless, fell in and 

 were drowned. I fed them Paris green, 

 and they ate it until I had to stop buy- 

 ing, for I am a poor man and have a 

 family to provide for. I dug over their 

 nests, time and again, put slacked lime 

 on them, scattered "wood ashes on them, 

 poured coal oil in the holes, set the 

 hives off the ground with wool tied 

 around the legs of the stands, but all to 

 no purpose. 



I found that the queenless colony was 

 not disposed to take kindly to my new 

 queen, so I procured a large deep pan 

 and put the hive on blocks, tilled the 

 pan with water, put a lot of frames of 

 hatching brood in, introduced the 

 queen, and it worked all right for a day 

 or so. Yesterday I went away, and on 

 my return went to the hive to see my 

 new queen, and found her dying, her 

 legs bitten off, and her bees dead. The 

 ants had drowned in the pan, till it 

 seemed there were thousands floating 

 on the water, and the balance of them 

 marched over the dead bodies " onward 

 and upward." The '' apiarist now feels 

 despondent," and wishes some of his 

 brother bee-keepers would help him out 

 of his troubles by telling him how to 

 destroy the nests of these ants. 



I have tried hot water by the boiler 

 full. It may be that my disaster will 

 prove a " light along the shore " to some 

 other apiarist who wishes to raise a few 

 queens. 



Lagonda, Clarke Co., O. 



[Many of the usual plans for ridding 

 the apiary from the presence of ants 

 appear to have been pretty thoroughly 

 tested by Mr. Burnet. He has used 

 strychnine, kerosene, wood ashes, Paris 

 green, lime, hot water, etc. 



Salt scattered on their nests, or pow- 

 dered borax, which, after a rain, makes 

 a soapy mixture, will usually cause them 

 to emigrate " bag and baggage." Tansy 

 leaves, catnip, copperas, black walnut, 

 and tobacco smoke are all distasteful to 

 them, and they will usually decamp at 

 once where such are used. 



