1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



4:n 



long. We liavo formed a perfect emulsion in 

 one minnte. even with cold water. This emnl- 

 sion shonld l)e diluted by adding an equal quan- 

 tity of water. Shake well, and apply to the 

 plant by the use of a syringe or force-pump, 

 like the Lewis or Whitman. It kills all the 

 lice, but does not injure the plants. 



Many readers of Gleanings will be glad to 

 know that this kerosene emulsion is a sure cure 

 of cattle, lioise, and hog lice, and also sheep- 

 licks. Foi' the lice, scrub the animals with the 

 emulsion diluted with one-half its bulk of wa- 

 er. We us(> ii brush, and do it thoroughly. The 

 cost for a full-grow n cow is not more than live 

 cents and live minutes of time. It kills nits as 

 well as lice, and seems to brighten the hair. I 

 think the sci-ubbing with this soap solution is 

 excellent for the skin, and thus we do more 

 than kill the lice. For sheep we dip the ahi- 

 mals in the (nnulsion, diluted with one-half its 

 bulk of water. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



FRAGMENTS. 



■l)OOIJTTI,E ON APRIL l.")TH GLEANINGS. 



I see by Dr. Miller's Stray Straws in the April 

 1.5th Gleanings, that he is a sharp-eyed fellow 

 or he would not have noticed tbat you were a 

 little mixed in your i('iil>' to Mr. James on 

 hatching chickens ovei' hives of Iwes, he (.James) 

 desiring to know whethei' he could do this, 

 while in reply you tell him that a bee-hive 

 mukes a good " hen's nest." But really. Dr. M., 

 are you stu'e that an old hen is better for hatch- 

 ing chickens than a hive of bees".^ Just jnit 

 your hand under the chaff or sawdust cushion 

 over a good colony, some cold morning, and see 

 if it would not be a good place for chickens to 

 form inside of an egg-shell. But h(>re comes a 

 friend who throws a little light on the matter 

 in a negative way. A letter, just at hand, 

 speaks in surpris(» that Dr. ]\I. should have any 

 trouble in getting queen-cells "on it stick " just 

 as he wants them, for he has no trouble; and 

 then he goes on to say. that, after they are cap- 

 ped, he puts the cells in "' the incubator where 

 they hatch very croi and perfectly," thus sav- 

 ing the bees any trouble in brooding them after 

 they are capped. Now. if an incubator will 

 hatch queens perfectly, why will not a hive of 

 bees hatch hen's eggs more perfectly than " an 

 old hen"? 



NOT THE BEES NOK THE Mlf'E. 



In a late number of Gleanings a friend told 

 of bees eating wheat during the winter, as there 

 was bran on top of the wheat, under the hive of 

 bees, which were set in the barrel of wheat. 

 But on ])age 304 fiiend France spoils all of this 

 pretty i-omance liy telling us that it was not the 

 bees at all, but " mice " that ate the wheat and 

 left the bran there. Then the editor, after con- 

 gratulating Bro. F. on his sharp observation 

 and common si^nsc, wondei's if, "after the mice 

 had worked in the, wheat." the bees did not nse 

 the bran. Well, yes, about the same as the 

 mice ate the wheat. I take it that neither the 

 bees nor the mice had any thing to do with the 

 wheat, only that, as the bees uncapped their 

 honey in the hive above, the cappings of the 

 honey, in old tough combs, fell down on the 

 wheat, as we often see them in early spring on 

 the bottom-boards, until these cappings covered 

 the wheat, and were mistaken by our friends 

 for bran, as the cappings of old combs, when 

 gnawed off and licked dry by the bees, resem- 

 ble bran very much. Sorry to spoil this nice lit- 

 tle romantic story, but I believe the above the 

 real facts in the case. 



BEE-ESCAPES. 



On page .'iOi; I find friend Dibbern thinking 

 that "Doolittle will not find much use for bee- 

 escapes," on account of his wide-frame system. 

 In this he is mistaken: for in the way I nse the 

 wide frames they can be handled the same, col- 

 lectively, as any sni)er. as wilt be seen by a late 

 article of mine, while they have the advantage 

 of being handled by the wide frame or the single 

 .section at the will of the operator. This is why 

 I " froze " to them after testing neai'ly all the 

 supers so far given to the public. I have had 

 many letters of ai)i)i'eciation of said plan of 

 using wide frames since I gave it in GLEANiN(is. 

 Last fall I used some of the new escapes, to my 

 entire satisfaction, under these; wide frames, 

 and hives of honey that were tiered up during 

 the summei-; and I wish to go on n^cord as say- 

 ing that tlie hee-esmpes are among the greatest 

 inventions of the past. By them the raising of 

 eithei' comb or extracted honey is much slmpli- 

 lied. and the hard labor materially lessened. 



WAX SECRETION. 



On page :U',i Bro. France thinks the cause of 

 bees secreting wax comes about by the bees 

 having to hold honey in their honey -sacs. Ex- 

 actly. That is as I have always argued. Now, 

 if Bro. F. will closely watch a single-comb ob- 

 servatory hive, he will see that the old bees, on 

 returning from the field, give their loads of 

 honey to the young liees. and that these young 

 bees hold these loads of honey till they are suf- 

 ficiently evaporated to be deposited in the cells; 

 hence it conies about that it is the young bees. 

 very largely, which secrete wax. and that wax 

 must he seci'eted to a greater or lesser extent, 

 from the standpoint of Bro. F. and myself, 

 whenever there is a flow of honey of any great 

 amount. Prof. Cook might as well haul down 

 his fiag when such "weighty " men (avoirdu- 

 pois) get after him. 



OLD BEES SECRETING WAX. 



I have read over and over again what friend 

 France has to say on the same page about old 

 bees secreting wax, and his proof of his asser- 

 tion: and I am compelled to think there must 

 be a mistake somewhere; al)0ut that six-weeks- 

 old swarm building comb. Time and time 

 again have I proven that bees having a queen 

 do not live over 45 days during the swarming 

 season, and I am also fully as positive that no 

 bees less than two days old ever go out with a 

 sw^arm. Now. if there is no tuistake about that 

 six-weeks swarm, all the bees must have be(>n 

 dead that went out with the swarm one day 

 after the young bees in the last hive began to 

 hatch, which would have been the ruination of 

 that colony, for the bees would have become so 

 old and woi'u out. also so few in numl)ers. that 

 no young Ikm's would have hatched, unless the 

 weather had kept warm enough night and day 

 for a few days, so that the brood would have 

 hatched of itself. If the advice of Gleanings 

 was followed, and a frame or two of brood given 

 to these swarms when they were hived (as I 

 firmly believe an investigation of the case will 

 reveal), then the whole thing would be reason- 

 able; but then it would not prove the point 

 friend V. wishes to make. 



NAMELESS BEE-DISEASE. 



On page 3'.'.") I see that Prof. Cook is surijrised 

 that Dr. Millei' should question the curing of 

 the nameless bee-disease by the removal of the 

 queen. I know that it is generally supposed to 

 cure the disease; but I also know that it does 

 not always. Last year I purchased a queen 

 fi-om the South that gave bees with this disease 

 in its worst form, the bees dying by hundreds 

 every day, all bloated up so full that they could 



