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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



2 will return, thus making the nucleus 

 a strong one, which will fill the empty 

 frame with nice, straight worker-comb 

 in a few days, and still others, if the 

 queen is left long enough. By the way, 

 let me say that such colonies will build 

 at a less expense than is required to pur- 

 chase and fill frames with comb founda- 

 tion, thus a saving is made along this 

 line. 



If I wish no increase of colonies dur- 

 ing the season, I serve the whole apiary 

 as I did Nos. 1 aud 2, beginning early 

 enough to be sure that none have brood 

 in more than five frames. By putting 

 sections on the strongest just before the 

 apple-blossoms appear, quite a few sec- 

 tions are often filled from this source, as 

 the bees must store honey in the sections 

 if anywhere when shut on five frames. 



It will be seen that I use nine frames 

 in a hive, but the plan is the same with 

 any number of frames. This having 

 every frame in a hive crowded to the 

 fullest capacity with brood two weeks 

 before the honey harvest has much to 

 do with a good yield of honey. This is 

 the condition all should aim to have 

 their colonies in, and in the above I 

 have tried to tell how it can be done 

 even with the weaker colonies. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



^ * m 



Terrible Experience witli Ant§ 

 in Hives. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY E. S. LOVESY. 



Ho, for something to exterminate 

 those everlasting ants ! I write this 

 hoping that some of our bee-keeping 

 friends may know of something that 

 will exterminate those pests. If any 

 one has a remedy that will successfully 

 accomplish this, he will receive the 

 thanks of many bee-keepers in this sec- 

 tion. I would be willing to pay liberally 

 for a recipe that will insure their de- 

 struction. With me it has been a long 

 and sore struggle, and many times it 

 has looked doubtful which would win, 

 myself or the ants. 



Winter losses and the destruction by 

 those little tormentors have been the 

 only serious drawbacks we have had in 

 this locality. They destroyed 8 colonies 

 for me last season, besides weakening 

 others. They go all over and all through 

 the hives. Wo have had them by the 

 hundred million. I could not take hold 

 of a hive, box or can, that had honey in, 

 but I would have them running over me 



by the hundred, and sometimes 10 to 15 

 nipping me at once. The only thing a 

 person can do is to drop everything and 

 fight. People may not swear under 

 such conditions, but they would be more 

 than human if they did not think it. 



In June, 1892, it looked as though 

 they might destroy every colony in the 

 apiary. The last two colonies that I 

 lost ^n" Tuesday, I saw the ants were 

 working in them, and I washed them off 

 with coal-oil, and thought possibly the 

 bees might get along all right ; but on 

 the Friday morning after, although they 

 were both strong colonies, there was not 

 one bee left ! 



As far as I can discover, the ant bites 

 the bee, and sometime it dies around the 

 hive, but the most of them fly off with 

 the ant, and never return. Sometimes, 

 when I lift the hive-cap off, there will 

 be more ants than bees in the hive. The 

 bees seem to be afraid of them, and 

 when the ant takes hold of the bee it 

 usually rises and flies ofif, and thus they 

 soon clean out the hive. 



I have tried everything I could think 

 of, or hear of — borax, salt, blue vitriol, 

 green coperas, salt petre, Paris green, 

 and coal-oil ; of those I found coal-oil to 

 be the best, but if they once get started 

 in the hive, it will not keep them off 

 unless you pour it on two or three times 

 a day. 



But finally I built stands from 12 to 

 18 inches high, then I got a lot of tar 

 and painted them with the tar, which 

 keeps them off. I then went to fighting 

 them on the outside, but at times I al- 

 most felt like giving up. 



One day I felt very discouraged, when 

 a friend came along — a friend, oh, dear, 

 no! "Well," says he, "you need not 

 worry about those ants. I can teil you 

 what will kill off every last one of them." 

 I felt for a moment like shouting, 

 " Halleluia ! is deliverance so nigh ?" 



Says he, " Take a bit of that vitriol, 

 or some carbolic acid, and pry their 

 mouths open, and see that they swallow 

 it, and it will kill them every time !" 



Please do not think me ungrateful 

 when I say that I did not even thank 

 him ! 



All are probably aware that here in 

 Utah we raise our crops by irrigation. I 

 had a potato patch in my garden last 

 year, which was one solid ant-bed ; they 

 seemingly liking the loose soil and the 

 shade of the potato tops. I took a large 

 hoe and the irrigation water once a 

 week, for 3 weeks, and mixed the ants' 

 eggs and soil like mortar. This process 

 seems to bo too much for them, for they 

 cannot get out of it. I believe that I 



