658 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



below zero does not necessarily affect bees 

 wintered outdoors. It is the continued ex- 

 tremely cold weather, without any flights 

 at all for four or five months, that is hard 

 on bees wintered outdoors. You had better 

 winter outdoors in double-walled hives. 

 Your bees will then ccme out fresher and 

 stronger. If water has a tendency to rise 

 in the cellar, the only way is to put in a 

 good-sized drain around the wall, and lead 

 ing from the cellar to a drainage point be- 

 low the bottom cf the cellar. — Ed.] 



DO LIZARDS KILL BEES? 



Is it customary for lizards to eat bees? I 

 was viewing with great pleasure the first 

 flight of my bees on a fine day, the 3d of 

 last April, when out from under a hive 

 slipped a Izard at least a foot long, and at 

 once pitched into the thickest stream of the 

 happy little fellows, devouring them in 

 great haste. The bees seemed not to pay 

 the least* attention to the wide- mouthed mon- 

 ster. I called my boy, who went after the 

 despoiler, literally with a "sharp stick." 

 Please give me some light on this enemy of 

 my pets. J. N. J. 



Areata, Cal., May 4. 



[I have seen lizirds in some of the Cali- 

 fornia apiaries. They appeared to be very 

 tame, and inoffensive. Possibly the reason 

 of their being so tame was because of their 

 being well fed. As a general thing, Cali- 

 fornia beekeepers regard them as harmless 

 or as a curiosity rather than an actual 

 damage to their interests. — Ed.] 



POPPIES — A. WARNING. 



I see en p. 499 a letter from J. A. Leon- 

 ard, asking about sowing an acre of pop- 

 pies. Now, Mr. Editor, if he has popp3' 

 seed to sow an acre, I hope he will not lose 

 one seed, but burn it. I was raised on a 

 farm in the eastern part of England, the 

 finest farming country in the world, but it 

 is cursed with the poppy. The grain-fields 

 would be entirely destroj-ed by it. Day 

 after day when I was a boy I pulled pop- 

 P3% and it almost gives me the headache 

 now to think of it. If an}' one else asks you 

 about poppy, say 7io! H. Manning. 



Raysville, Ind. 



[We have had other reports going to shcv 

 that the poppy — that is, the kind that pro- 

 duces opium — is injurious to bees, to saj' 

 nothing about the misery and degradation 

 it brings on the human race. — Ed.] 



THE HOFFMAN FRAME. 



I have just read what W. Z. Hutchinson 

 and others have to say in the last issue of 

 the Review regarding the Hoffman frame. 

 I can't agree with them that it is not a good 

 frame. In warm weather I can pick my 

 fram s out of the hive with my fingers with- 

 out the use of any tool. Fr imes should not 

 be handled in C3ld weather as a rule, any 

 waj-. I agree with Mr. Green in not being 



friencly toward the division-board as you 

 made it a few years ago. It is soon pulled 

 to pieces. In theory it is all right, and 

 would b3 all right in practice if no bees 

 were ever allowed in the hive. Hives I 

 would rather have with corners halved to- 

 gether than the lock corner, on account of 

 being more readily kept together at the top 

 corners. Harry Lathkop. 



Bridgeport, Wis , June 8. 



A simple, CHEAP, AND EFFECTIVE HIVE- 

 C.4.RRIER. 



I send 3'ou a sketch of a hive- carrier that 

 I made. I took a fork-handle and bent 

 some irons in the shape here shown, and 

 sharpened the ends to hook in the hand hole 

 of the hive. I make the handle long or 

 short for one or two men. The staples in 

 the handle should be 17 inches apart for a 

 Root hive, and 6 inches from staple to the 

 end of the hook. You can lift up, carrj', 

 and set a hive down and not disturb the 



bees. I carry mine with one hind: have 

 the handle long, and a man can walk with 

 ease at each end. F. W. Howe. 



Baldwinville, N. Y., March 28 



TWO QUEENS IN ONE CELL. 



T'oder Heads of Grain I find that a writ- 

 er claims to have found two queens in one 

 cell. You requejt 3 our readers to report if 

 any thing like this has happened to any 

 one else, so I will let you know what I am 

 able to say from my experience. Some 

 weeks ago I took queen cells from a hive 

 which had swarmed a few days before. 

 Among these queen- cells I found one which 

 seemed to be but one onl}', but it contained 

 two queens, and these queens were separat- 

 ed by a very thin wall Practically there 

 were two cells; but, connected together, 

 they looked like one. Probably the queen- 

 cell in question was constructed in the same 

 manner. 



Bro Alphonse Veith, O. S. B. 



St. Meinrad, Ind., June 8. 



sapolio for removing propolis. 



I notice on page 554 Mr. S. G. Kilgore 

 says he has used sapolio for rem)ving pro- 

 polis from the hands, with success. I wish 

 to say the san-e Yes, I think there is 

 nothing better than sapolio for removing' 

 this objectionable material from the hands, 

 and it does it quickly too. 



Washington, D. C. H. F. Carl. 



