1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



32:" 



nailed on top of the board. On other hives, 

 where the entrance is too small to admit of any 

 thing being added, llu! boards are lield in place 

 by the strips being slid under light nails driven 

 into the sides of the hive. This wide porch is a 

 source of constant pleasure to the bees, which 

 can be seen promenading back and forth in evi- 

 <lent enjoyment, while the loaded workers work 

 all the faster by being able to drop at once on 

 arriving at the hive, and seldom miss this wide 

 promenade. 



TOADS. 



The toad is too good a friend to quarrel with, 

 as he destroys moths by the thousands on his 

 nocturnal rounds, and he is easily kept from 

 mischief by simply keeping the hive a foot 

 above the ground and leaving nothing that he 

 can crawl up on to the hive-entrance. 



KILLING ANTS WITH INSECT POWDEK. 



I bought a lot of bees that the owner swore 

 he would brimstone before morning if I did not 

 remove them. On examination I found half of 

 the hive tilled with the large black wood ants; 

 and, my I how cross the poor bees were I I turn- 

 ed the hive over and dusted insect powder free- 

 ly between the combs tilled with the ants, and 

 exterminated them. I have frequently used it 

 on the trails of the ants, and have never seen 

 that it had any injurious effects on the bees. 

 Wliere the ants are not making their home in 

 the hive, but simply carrying oft' food, a mixture 

 of honey and Paris green will be carried away 

 by them to their nest, and exterminates the col- 

 ony. When this poison is used, care should be 

 taken to place the mixture under a tight box 

 and leave a space just large enough for the ants 

 to enter, but effectually keep out the bees. 



YELLOW-.IACKETS. 



These yellow-coats are sometimes trouble- 

 some; and, from gathering up the larvie 

 brought out over night, and left on the alight- 

 ing-board, they grow bold and enter the hive; 

 and, when their entrnnce is disputed, I have 

 seen them conquer an Italian bee and carry it 

 away. Their well-known fondness for fruit, 

 and thcir.ability to tear and cut into fruit and 

 grapes, often brings the honey-bee into disgrace 

 and its Keeper into trouble. I find two ways of 

 extermination equally good. One is to bait the 

 common gauze fly-trap with raw meat; the 

 other, to bait a piece of raw meat with strych- 

 nine, and hang it where the yellow-jackets and 

 nothing else can have access to it. 



BKK BIRDS. 



These troublesome birds may be of some val- 

 ue to the fruit-grower, but they are a costly 

 benefit to the bee-man; and my remedy is the 

 shotgun. Cruel, do you say? Well, perhaps it 

 is: but 1 have seen as many as 2.5 bee-birds at 

 one time, at work catching my bees, and human 

 nature couldn't stand that any more than a 

 shf-pherd would tolerate a wolf among his 

 flocks for his services in the destruction of rab- 

 bits. 



KOHHKK HKKS. 



I have found only one efTectual way to stop 

 robbing. I take a piece of 4x4 scantling and 

 saw out a groove % inch square on one side. I 

 then place this across the entrance so that the 

 bees must pass in and out through this groove. 

 At the same time I open the ventilators, shade 

 the hive, and look after the block of wood to 

 see that the passageway is not blocked by dead 

 bees. I have a box with a few bees in it that 

 have lost their queen. The robbers do not en- 

 ter this hive, but bounce! down on the alighting- 

 board and garrote the guards. The robbers 

 rush up to the guards, who put out their 

 tongues and evidently disgorge their honey, as 

 robbers do when confined to a hive, and feed its 

 stores through wire mesh to other robbers on 

 the outside. This latter is quite common, but I 

 have never seen the "stand and deliver" game 

 worked by thi; robber bees before. 



TRANSFKRRING BRKS. 



Has any one tried drawing the bees up into a 

 hive witli full sheets of foundation and at least 

 one frame of brood and supplies, then placing a 

 queen-excluding zinc over the new hive, setting 

 the old hive on top, and at 3:3 days slipping a 

 bee-escape under the old hive, and having the 

 bees all go down into the new hive? I believe 

 it would work with that frame of brood in the 

 lower hive. By this method the bees would be 

 all together. You are sure of a queen in one of 

 the hives; and if bad weather follows, the bees 

 have their stores right at hand. I prefer trans- 

 ferring at once and done with it. With a long 

 sharp knife fee;>t hot lean readily cut out the 

 combs and slice ofT any bulges, while a mix- 

 ture of three parts rosin and one of wax will 

 hold any comb if enough is used. Beeswax 

 alone won't do, as it is too greasy and doesn't 

 stick to the wood. When thus transferred the 

 job is done, while you would be drumming by 

 the other way. The bees have all their comb 

 ready built, and proceed to business. 



ENTRANCE DIAGNOSIS. 



Mr. Dayton is good on that; but why did he 

 omit to state how a queenless colony could be 

 picked out by entrance diagnosis? Go out to 

 the bees any morning, when they are packing 

 in pollen; and when you have found a hive 

 where the bees bring in no pollen, that hive is 

 queenless; for, as the bees have no brood, they 

 need no pollen and don't bring it in. 



ENTRANCK FACE. 



Where bees sit "shoulder to shoulder,'' and 

 all "face front" alike, it is undoubtedly very 

 convenient for the apiarist, both in watching 

 and working the bees; but by that arrange- 

 ment queens on their virgin flight get into the 

 wrong hive on returning, and you soon have a 

 large per cent of queenless hives. To obviate 

 this I set my hives, one facing the east, the next 

 the southwest; one to the west, and then allow 

 about a four-foot space to the next hive. This 



