806 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Arc. 15 



can be counted on for any large honey- 

 flow, 



ANTS. 



The little black ants that are such a 

 nuisance to the housewife are becoming- 

 excessively coir men in California. Many 

 kinds of ants are to be found in the State; 

 but these little pesky fellows are an abom- 

 ination. They are a pest in certain portions 

 of San Francisco. When bees are kept long^ 

 in one location, ants are a sore annoyance 

 to the apiarist. It is not the amount of hon- 

 ey the> carry off, but mostly because they 

 are always in the way. The best way I 

 have found to get rid ot them, or, rather, to 

 reduce them to a minimum, is to go over the 

 hives once in a while and kill them. They 

 are best got at by placing a piece of burlap 

 over the brood-nest of the hive, and some- 

 thing between the burlap and cover. The 

 ants will establish a flourishing colony in 

 the warm region thus made. By taking off 

 the cover the pests may be rubbed or other- 

 wise crushed to death. What an amount of 

 eggs these ants produce in a brief period of 

 time! If the hives are on planks or other 

 large pieces of lumber, the ants are sure to 

 nest between the hive and rest, or, perhaps, 

 between the latter and the earth. To get 

 rid of ants you have to hunt for them as you 

 would for a flea, bedbug, or any other 

 troublesome pest. Go for them; turn every 

 thing over, and roust them about. If they 

 aie where you can not get at them, 

 treat them to a hot- water bath, or pour some 

 coal oil or crude petroleum into their haunts 

 or runways. 



I would not recommend hunting ants on a 

 hot day. If you do, you may stir up some- 

 thing worse than a hornet's nest — yea, a 

 sort of mixture of skunk-juice, bees, and 

 hornets combined. The odor of crushed 

 ants seem to provoke the fighting proclivi- 

 ties of ants as a red rag will stir a bull to 

 devilish rage. Therefore go ant-killing on 

 a cool day, or early in the morning when 

 the bees are content within their little homes. 



THE SPORTIVE I-IZ.VRD. 



Do lizards kill bees (p. 658)? Yes, they 

 often have them for dessert, stings and all. 

 Many a time I have watched the pretty 

 little creatures dart from their hiding-place 

 and grab up a bee and come back to the 

 starting-place on the run, all witnout stop- 

 ping. At other times I have seen them ap- 

 parently quiet, and when a bee came with- 

 in their reach it would be a case of 

 seeinir a bee and then you don't. They are 

 the greatest sleight-of tongue fellows T ever 

 saw. Toads, too, are slick with their mouth 

 apparatus when the opportunity presents 

 itself for taking in a poor innocent bee. 

 How many bees it takes to form a lizard's 

 diet I know not. In sunny places the small 

 quick-running lizards are very numerous. 

 Scare them away if you can; if not, shoot 

 them with one of the small air-guns using 

 BB shot. With a little practice you may 

 be able to make them turn toes and tail over 

 head while they are sprinting after a bee. 



POPPY HONEY. 



There would be millions in it if we could 

 get enough of it. That some nectar from 

 poppy flowers finds its way into the hives 

 near where these flowers bloom is a fact. 

 Ginseng wouldn't be in it alongside of pop- 

 py honey if we could only send a lot of it 

 over to the Celestial Empire. But it would 

 not be right to dope the Chinese in that 

 way, some will say. No, I think it would 

 not, if the honey were narcotic or injurious. 

 My belief is that the honey does not par- 

 take of the bad portions of the plant. That 

 it is a nectar- producing plant I know; it is 

 great in pollen too. At our place in Alame- 

 da County, some years we have large patch- 

 es of poppies, mostly of that brilliant and 

 delicate variety known as the Shirley. 



San Francisco, Cal. 



[We have had reports going to show that 

 poppy honey partakes of the narcotic qual- 

 ities of the plant. — Ed.] 



DIBBER.N'S NEW QUEEN=TRAP. 



How it Differs from tlie Alley Queen and Drone 

 Irap. 



BY C. H. DIBBERN. 



In the first place I want to say that this 

 is no new untried experiment, as I have 

 had them in constant use for the past ten 

 years. True, I have made some changes 

 in recent years; but the general features 

 have remained the same. Now, I do not 

 claim to have "invented" the queen-trap, 

 for that honor belongs to Mr. Alley; but I 

 do claim to have perfected a trap by a 

 gradual system of evolution that is a great 

 improvement in^ every way. The illustra- 

 tion will give a^'general idea of the trap; 

 but a few points^require an explanation. 



DTBBERN'S IMPROVED ALLEY TRAP, FRONT 

 VIEW. 



The wood frame is made, preferably, the 

 size of the hive, if a plain front, of strips 

 l^iXji in., and I give them two coats of 

 white paint before nailing on the zinc. I 

 want the trap to be as nearly nothing as 

 possible, and to give as much ventilation 



