188 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



numbers have been killed by the bees, as 

 their bodies in front of the hives testify. I 

 saw them in several places working- at the 

 bodies or fragments of bees, seemingly in 

 an efifort to extract what juices lemained, 

 or possibl}' they make use of the more solid 

 matter. ' C. S. Harris. 



Holly Hill, P^la. 



YELLOW-JACKETS IN COLORADO ; HOW TO 

 KILL. 



I see on pag-e 1010 the yellow-jackets are 

 causiig- Mr. Knoeger's bees to desert their 

 hives. I think he is mistaken. If he will 

 notice closelv he will f^ee that they eat the 

 bees alive, then rob the hive. They killed 

 eight colonies for me last summer. They 

 came by the thousands. I tried to poison 

 them, but could do no good. I stopped the 

 entrance of the hive, Ihen took a pan and 

 set it in fron with a chunk of honey in it. 

 They would gather on the honey. I would 

 then throw hot water on them. There is 

 not much danger of hurting your bees. I 

 took a colony that they had killed, and 

 opened the hive-entrance, and waited until 

 it was full; then I stopped it up; but I first 

 put some burlap over the brood-frames; then 

 I poured hot water over them. I am afraid 

 to say how many I did kill. If any one 

 knows any better way I should like to hear 

 from him. 



M3' bees are Italians; some of the colonies 

 that wf re robbed made two supers of honey 

 before they were molested. 



Hotchkiss, Colo. G. M. Ellington. 



BEST WAY TO START ANEW AFTER WINTER 

 LOSSES. 



I wish to increase my apiary, having lost 

 most of my bees last winter. Will it be 

 che iper to buy queens from the South for 

 the first divisions, and raise queens for la- 

 ter dividing, and increase from those I have 

 (9 stands), or buv bees in box hives (if I 

 can) at $2.50 or $3 00 a stand, transfer, and 

 divide them, r^iising queens myself? 



Hyrum, Utah, Dec. 8. Edwin Ralph. 



[I would recrmmend the latter plan. It 

 would give you strf'ngfr colonies f r the 

 harvest, or you cou'.d divide as suggested 

 for increase. — En.] 



ANOTHER WAY OF USING FORMALDEHYDE; 

 A SANITARY BO ITOM BOARD. 



During my work with formaldehyde as a 

 cure for foul brood I have constructed a 

 sanitary boltom-bo.ird which is so made a§ 

 to receive the drug without disturbing the 

 bees. With a diseased colonj- I proceed as 

 follows: Place the sanitary board on the 

 old stand, upon which I put a clem hive 

 with frames and starters. Above this I 

 place the old hive body, and then after 

 smoking the bees and queen down I replace 

 the old body on the old board. I then put 

 on a honey board and put the old hive on 

 its old stand over the new body. In this 



way I can medicate the colony from the 

 bottom board without any more bother. 

 The larvae that live will be taken care of, 

 and come out in time. The gas will read- 

 ily penetrate to all parts of the hive, steril- 

 izing the pollen and honey so that the food 

 made from it for the larvas will be health- 

 ful. E. A. Nkwell. 

 Massillon, Ohio. 



THE ABC CHILD THAT GREW SO FAST. 



Enclosed please tind $1.00 for renewal of 

 Gleanings. I feel I could not keep up 

 with the times without it. I have been a 

 subscriber since 1879 — known then as the 

 "child that grew so fast." 



Colburn, Wis. E. A. Morgan. 



[About 25 years ago one of our subscrib- 

 ers wrote about a neighbor of his who was 

 taken very su tdeuly with an acute attack 

 of bee fever. He got hold of every thing he 

 could on the subject, questioned his neigh- 

 bors, got some bees, and just went into the 

 business "for all there was in it," as the 

 expression goes. If I remember correctly, 

 at his very first efifort, before people would 

 ordinarily be able to distinguish a queen 

 from a drone, he made a big success, out- 

 strioping the veterans. This caused him 

 to be styled through the journals as in the 

 heading above. For some time we had re- 

 ports from him every season, or oftener, and 

 he was still running the business at high 

 pressure. Not long ago I was wondering 

 what had become of him, and behold here 

 comes a letter. 



But look here, old friend. How about the 

 bee and honey business? Did you stop 

 growing all at once, or are you "still at 

 it" ? That reminds me of something else 

 that I am afraid our people are forgetting, 

 e-;pecially when I am off in the woods in 

 Michigan. Every subscriber to Glean- 

 ings, who has had it continuously for twen- 

 ty years or more, is entitled to one year 

 free. W^hen j'ou are subscribing, just 

 mention this. — A. I. R.] 



MY WAY TO DISPOSE OF SKUNKS. 



Tie a light pole, 10 or 12 ft. long, to the 

 trap chain, and you can carry it safely 

 away from the buildings to dispose of. If 

 you haven't a gun haidy, dig a narrow 

 hole 1 >2 or 2 ft. deep, like a fence-post hole. 

 Let the skunk down into it and kill with a 

 blow of the spade. James Birchard. 



Tabor, Iowa, Oct. 8. 



I am pleased to be able to report that we 

 have formed a Jefl'erson Count3' Bee keep- 

 ers' Societj', with the following officers: 

 Pres., M. C. Harrington, Watertown; First 

 Vice pres., A. A. French, Black River; 

 Second Vice-president, Pearl Symonds, 

 Rodman; Sec, Geo. B. Howe, Black Riv- 

 er; Treas., D. R. Hardy, Watertown. All 

 bee-keepers are invited to join. Dues, $.00 

 per annum. Geo. B. Howe, Sec. 



Black River, N. Y. 



