June 15, 1911 



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Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas 



MOVING BEES SHORT DISTANCES. 



It is sometimes necessary to move bees a 

 short distance at a time when it would prove 

 more or less disastrous on account of the 

 tendency of the bees to return to the old lo- 

 cation. We have adopted a method that 

 has given better results than the usual way 

 of moving them. Instead of taking the 

 bees from the old place to a new location 

 near by, we move them a distance of sev- 

 eral miles. Then we take bees from an en- 

 tirely different location, also far away, and 

 place them on the site which was selected 

 at first for the others. 



While this requires more hauling, we 

 have found it so satisfactory that we have 

 continued to practice it on many occasions. 

 Es})ecially do we like this method since we 

 earnestly believe that the shaking-up that 

 the bees receive during such a move, in ad- 

 dition to the change of location, some time 

 before the honey-tlow, gives them greater 

 energy, and consequently results are ob- 

 tained in the honey crop which more than 

 pay for the extra trouble. 



WHITE CLOVER AND ORANGE-BLOSSOMS IN 

 TEXAS. 



It may be surprising to note that we have 

 in Texas as pretty wliite clover as anywhere 

 else. A photograph sent us by our friend 

 Miss Helen Duller, of Alvin, Texas, reveals 

 this to us most forcibly. She writes, April 

 15, "The bees are busy on white clover — had 

 some orange-blossom just before." Alvin is 

 in what is known as the Gulf Coast country 

 of Texas, the entire slope along the (kilf of 

 Mexico about a hundred miles wide. Or- 

 ange-groves have been planted there so ex- 

 tensively that there are now thousands of 

 acres in orange-'.rees. In time, orange lion- 

 ey may be important in this part of Texas. 

 In some parts of this coast country, all kinds 

 of tropical fruits imaginable are grown to 

 various extents, and many new fruits and 

 vegetables are being introduced from time 

 to time, so that it is not long before Texas 

 will be growing almost every thing, so large 

 is her territory and so varied her soils, her 

 localities, her altitudes, and her climatic 

 and atmospheric conditions. [In the next 

 issue we expect to have an engraving show- 

 ing this clover-field. — Ed.] 



BEES AND HONEY AS MOUSE-BAIT. 



We discovered several years ago that mice 

 are esj^ecially fond of the dried bodies of 

 dead bees. They devour these greedily, 

 leaving uneaten, however, the abdomen, 

 the wings, and the legs — the part that seems 

 to be most relished being the thorax. It 

 afterward occurred to us that, if this were 

 true, we might use dead bees for bait in 



traps. After a trial our theory was proven, 

 and since then we have caught many doz- 

 ens of mice with such bait. 



Mice are also very fond of comb, and we 

 have baited them with this many times. 

 Once they spoiled for our use a dish of comb 

 honey. Accordingly we turned it into a 

 mouse-trap, the best that we have ever had. 

 The trap is laid so that the mouse, spring- 

 ing from a cake of wax placed on the partic- 

 ular side where the trap is, will land square- 

 ly on it, and thus meet its fate. In this 

 way we have caught one mouse every night 

 for several weeks. We have often caught 

 two in a single night by looking after the 

 trap before retiring, in nearly every case re- 

 moving a mouse at that time, and another 

 the folfowing morning. 



ANTS AND BEES. 



From the number of questions asked 

 about keeping ants out of hives, we judge 

 that there must be more trouble from this 

 source in many localities than we have in 

 any of our apiaries. Possibly most of these 

 inquiries come from the small or farmer 

 bee-keeper. We ourselves have never had 

 much trouble with ants molesting bees. 

 The large wood ants and agricultural ants 

 of Texas do not attack them; but we have 

 several species of small red, yellow, and 

 black ants that are very troublesome in 

 some apiaries. Where these are very nu- 

 merous we can well understand that the 

 trouble will be serious enough to warrant 

 taking such steps as will relieve the trouble. 



The easiest method of keeping the ants 

 away is to raise the hives up from the 

 ground, preferably on stout wooden pegs 

 driven into the ground, around which a 

 trench can be dug, and filled with crude pe- 

 troleum. As this is very cheap and effec- 

 tive it is the best remedy that we can rec- 

 ommend. If petroleum can not be obtained 

 the trenches may be filled with water, using 

 kerosene on the top. But the water, unlike 

 the thick crude ail, is soon absorbed, hence 

 is not as effective. If only a few hives need 

 to be treated, the legs of the stands can be 

 inserted in cans into which the crude oil or 

 even water may then be poured. If water is 

 used, a little kerosene should be poured 

 over it to prevent the breeding of mosqui- 

 toes in it. 



To prevent any bees falling into the oil. 

 which will kill them as well as the ants if 

 they come in contact witli it, a wide alight- 

 ing-board should be hung in a slanting 

 manner in front of the hive so that the 

 heavily loaded bees can reach the hive in 

 safety." Tall weeds and grass should be 

 kept down, or the ants may be able to reach 

 the hive by using these as bridges over the 

 trenches or cans of oil. 



