1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



735 



must be kept clean and dry or they die. They 

 require a variety of food and much care in 

 feeding. A hare won't " live a month on '20 

 cents' vForth of hay," and do well. There is 

 no regular market for the meat, even in Chi- 

 cago. Selling breeding stock at profitable 

 prices is a business by itself that comparative- 

 ly few can succeed at. Better keep more bees 

 or chickens. They are much less trouble. 



Can any one tell positively, if hares were 

 confined in a bee-yard, would they disturb the 

 bees and get stung? They would be handy to 

 keep down grass and weeds among the hives. 

 But a good fence would be required to confine 

 them, extt-nding eight inches or more into the 

 ground to prevent escape by burrowing, and 

 all trees and shrubbery would have to be pro- 

 tected from being browsed. 



South Haven, Mich. H. D. Burrei,i<. 



HONEY FROM OAK-TREES. 



I send you some oak balls. We have a 

 good prospect of a flow of so-called honey- 

 dew from this source, which, however, is of 

 fair quality. Some oak trees certainly have as 

 much as five barrels of those balls E 'ch one 

 is coated with a white sweetish stuff. In some 

 cases I have seen as much as 40 large drops on 

 one ball. J. E. Chambers. 



Eden, Tex., Aug. 23. 



[Similar reports have come now and then 

 for years past. The honey from the oak-balls 

 is seen in only certain localities, and it seems 

 it is not a regular thing any where. We have 

 had reports where great quantities of this hon- 

 ey or honey dew were collected by the bees in 

 a very few days in the fall of the year. — Ed.] 



WAX-EXTRACTOR REFUSE FOR SMOKER FUEL. 



I saw an article in Gleanings about smok- 

 er fuel. Did you ever try the refuse from a 

 wax-extractor ? Get a good fire of rotten elm 

 wood started, then put in some wax refuse 

 and wood— that is, mix them after jou get 

 them started ; and if good you may tell the 

 readers of Gleanings about it. 



Clayton, Mich. C. A. Huff. 



[Slum gum (the refuse from wax extractors) 

 has before been recommended for smoker fuel 

 in connection with something else It burns 

 readily because it is largely propolis and co- 

 coons. It should of course be saved as it is 

 just the thing to start smoker fires. — Ed ] 



MERRELL'S super-springs — A CORRECTION. 



I see in Gleanings of Aug. 15 that you 

 have received the super-spring I sent you some 

 time ago. I am glad to Sf e that you are favor- 

 ably impresstd with the simplicity and cheap- 

 ness of the hair-pin super-spring, and I hope 

 you will adopt the spring until some one gets 

 something better. Why did you not untie 

 the legs before you took the picture ? The 

 cut in Gle.'^nings does not show up very well. 

 John A Merrell. 



Edneyville, N. C, Aug. 25. 



bisulphide OF carbon FOR KILLING ANTS. 



We use bisulphide of carbon here to kill 

 ants, prairie dogs, gophers, and any thing that 

 breathes. The gas, after it evaporates, is 

 heavier than common air. I place a wash tub 

 over the ant-bed, then place a saucer half full 

 of bisulphide under the tub. If good, every 

 breathing thing under that tub, by morning, 

 will be dead. It is adulterated with benzine, 

 and is very explosive. K. 



/. R. T., Iowa.~l\. is a little too late now 

 (August) to expect bees to do much in the su- 

 pers ; but if you have some colonies that are 

 still working ( n the sections, and one that is 

 not, obviously there is something wrong with 

 that colony. The fact that there was more 

 than one egg in some cells would indicate 

 that the queen is not what she ought to be. It 

 is possible that the strain is poor, and should 

 be improved by the introduction of a good 

 new queen. Some strains show very little in- 

 clination to go up into the supers. We would 

 either remove the queens and replace with 

 better stock, or else run all such colonies for 

 extracted honey, putting a frame of brood in 

 the upper story to bait the bees above. 



jR. C. C, Col. — I do not know to whose al- 

 binos you refer ; but I would say, on general 

 terms, the color or the markings of the bees 

 would not in way enhance their real value as 

 workers. I have been disinclintd to recom- 

 mend bees with yellow bands, white bands, or 

 blight bands, or bright colors. But I do fa- 

 vor bees that will work to produce results in 

 honey with very little reference to the color 

 or the markings. With regard to the virgin 

 queen that had been clipped, I would say it 

 would not have been possible for her to have 

 been fertile. When you find two or three 

 eggs in a cell, the prospect is you have a fer- 

 tile worker there. See " Fertile Worker," in 

 the A B C of Bee Culture, for further particu- 

 lars 



IV. I. F . //., Pa. —The wages paid to bee- 

 men varies all the way from $ 1 . 25 a day to $2 50. 

 A good man at qneen-rearing might be worth 

 from %1 00 to $2 60 per day, but such a man 

 would have to be of the very best. 



I never advii-e any one to remove from his 

 present locality to seek a better one. No 

 place is far ab ive another unlt-ss it is in Col- 

 orado and Arizona, and in such localities honey 

 brmgs a lower price. Florida and Califor- 

 nia will sometimes show enormous yields, but 

 such yields are apt to be followed by very 

 poor seasons, making the business of bee- 

 keeping even less profitable than that conduct- 

 ed in the East. The best yield of honey re- 

 ported from any one colony was 750. pounds ; 

 but this is exceptional, as 200 and 300 pounds 

 is a large yield. 



