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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



Another grape-puncturing bird is the Balti- 

 more oriole, a bird of brilliant plumage. 

 Sparrows are accused of entering into this 

 disreputable business ; but from what obser- 

 vation I have made, I am satisfied they are 

 after the little spiders that are found in many 

 bunches of grapes. I have watched the spar- 

 rows very carefully, and have seen them get 

 the spiders, but I have never found them 

 puncturing the skin of a grape. Indeed, their 

 beak is not shaped right for the work. 



A CHEAP BEE-FEEDER. 



A NOVEL suggestion is given out by a corre- 

 spondent (Mr. Kernan) of the A7>ierican Bee 

 Journal. It is to the effect that ordinary pa- 

 per bags can be used as feeders for giving syr- 

 up to bees. He takes ordinary sacks, such as 

 can be obtained at groceries, pours syrup into 

 them, sets them on top of the frames, in a cap 

 or upper story, pricks a few holes in the side 

 of the bag, and then invites the bees to help 

 themselves. There is no doubt at all that the 

 paper will hold the syrup, and that as fast as 

 the syrup exudes through the pinholes the 

 bees will take it up. In the absence of feed- 

 ers one can use the paper sacks very well, I 

 should judge, and then he would have the sat- 

 isfaction of knowing that, when through feed- 

 ing, he could burn his sacks up. 



Mr. Kernan thinks that some of his bees 

 were poisoned* by the printing-ink on the 

 side of the sack. I can not think that that 

 had any thing to do with it — that the dead 

 bees, if any, were robbers that had stolen their 

 way through the entrance, and, on being dis- 

 covered, were killed by the inmates of the 

 hive. During robbing time, robbers are quite 

 apt to work themselves through the entrances 

 of fed colonies, and be found in and about any 

 kind of feeder, dead, whether there is print- 

 ing ink about it or not ; but the idea of using 

 paper sacks is quite ingenious, and I see no 

 reason why it would not work very nicely. 



THE TEXAS DISASTER AND THE BEE-KEEP- 

 ERS WHO SUFFERED FROM IT. 



We wrote to a few of our bee-keeping 

 friends whom we thought might be in the 

 track of that terrible Texas tornado and flood ; 

 and so far the only real sufferer is our old 

 friend W. O. Victor, of Wharton. O. P. Hyde 

 & Son, at Hutto, write that the storm did but 

 little damage to them. The Jennie Atchley 

 Co. state that, while they were on the edge of 

 the terrible storm track, they are safe ; that 

 they have been trying to relieve friends and 

 bee-keepers who lost all they had, including 

 bees, hives, and all other property. Mr. W. 

 H. Laws, of Round Rock, has also suffered 

 to some extent. Mr. Victor, unfortunately, 

 only eighty miles from Galveston in a north- 

 westerly line, has suffered almost as much as 

 some of the people in the ill-fated city. The 

 year 1900 has been a peculiarly hard one on 

 him. In April he was visited by a flood occa- 

 sioned by the overflow of the Colorado River, 



* Printing-ink is not poisonous to human beings, and 

 can not be to bees. 



and he was compelled to scaffold, or, rather, 

 to put his hives on stilts, in order that they 

 might be kept out of the water ; and all dur- 

 ing the summer he was compelled to wade in 

 mud and water in order to get any thing done; 

 so that, taking it all in all, he was ill prepared 

 for the next disaster. In the Galveston torna- 

 do he had about 200 colonies blown over and 

 scattered broadcast over the yard, and about 

 half of his nuclei in his queen-rearing yards 

 were wrecked. He says if he had dumped 

 them out of a running wagon with a scoop 

 they could not have been more disarranged. 

 On Sunday, the 9th, as soon as he could get 

 out, and found he could stand the storm, he 

 set to work to put things to rights. He had 

 enough bees in most hives to make pretty 

 good nuclei ; and as he had plenty of cells 

 with which he intended torequeen his out- 

 apiaries he did not lose as much as he thought 

 at first. His out-yards were not damaged to 

 so great an extent, as they were in the timber. 

 But the trees were blown all over the yard, 

 and the hives could hardly be seen for the un- 

 derbrush and uprooted trees. Fortunately, 

 only one hive was entirely crushed. His resi- 

 dence is not demolished, but severely racked. 

 His bee-supply house is totally demolished, 

 and his supplies more or less damaged. 



Mr. Victor does not ask for charity ; but as 

 he has a splendid lot of nuclei and a select 

 stock of bees, he does ask the generous-heart- 

 ed bee-keepers of the land to give him a lift 

 by sending him orders for bees and queens. 

 His honey season was short, and therefore he 

 is obliged to depend almost entirely on his 

 queen-rearing to make another start. He has 

 a large number of colonies and nuclei, and he 

 says we need not be afraid but he can take 

 care of any number of orders. He has the 

 reputation of being prompt, and his stock 

 good ; and if our friends can not send him or- 

 ders for queens now, if they will remember to 

 send to him early next spring they will be do- 

 ing him a great favor, for he can fill orders for 

 queens every month in the year, being located 

 in the almost extreme southern portion of 

 Texas. 



FEEDING BEES MEDICATED SYRUP FOR THE 

 PREVENTION OF DISEASE ; HOW TO DO IT. 



In many localities, especially in New York, 

 Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Ontario, and 

 other localities more or less subject to black 

 brood, foul brood, and pickled brood, it cer- 

 tainly would be advisable, if the bees require 

 feeding at all, to medicate all syrup fed, wdth 

 some antiseptic of recognized value. 



Let it be understood that germicides, when 

 introduced into the food, in a quantity suffi- 

 ciently diluted to be harmless to the bees and 

 to the brood, will not kill the spores of either 

 black or foul brood ; but they will kill the ba- 

 cilli^ or living germs, that have developed 

 from the spores, or, as we might say, from the 

 eggs of the microbes. The only thing we can 

 hope to accomplish by introducing the medi- 

 cated feed to the bees direct is to kill the ba- 

 cilli as fast as they develop from the spore 

 state. The active principle of the disease in 

 the spore is protected by a cyst, or thick coat- 



