484 



Franz Richter uses tomato-leaves to 

 drive ants away from hives — Bienen - Vaier, 

 140. 



A Straw, p. 450, says R. La Cense lieeps 

 the queen out of the super with an exchider. 

 It should be "without an exckider." 



The long drouth has left the hives 

 lighter than in the spring; but this morning, 

 Aug. 1, we've had a soaker, and the world 

 is turning green again. 



Dark honey, says .Jul. Frei, is richer in 

 iron, lime, and phosphorus than light, and 

 therefore more valuable from a medical view- 

 point. — Schiueiz. Bztg., 285. 



Theodore Gray, p. 474, if yoxi use no ex- 

 cluder, better not put a section-super on a 

 swarm for two or three days, especially if a 

 previous start has been made in the super. 



William Beucits, you say, page 457, the 

 queen's laying is unrestricted in spring, and 

 restricted in the harvest. Is she not usu- 

 ally restricted in spring to three or four 

 combs for want of bees to cover more? 



M. Wathelbt says, in Le Bucher Beige, 

 that when he has cleaned and dried his ex- 

 tractor he coats with wax any rusty places, 

 first heating them with an alcohol-lamp. 

 Of course, the extractor must not afterward 

 be cleaned with hot water. 



W. H. LiTTLEjOHN, p. 473, I've used lots 

 of brood-frames that were boiled in lye, and 

 no harm resulted. I've also boiled separa- 

 tors, but prefer to scrape them. I have a 

 fine tool for scraping them. I wish the in- 

 ventor would send me his name. 



J. E. Crane, that's a joke on me, sure 

 enough, to make honey taste better with a 

 pound of butter, p. 354. Of course it should 

 be "make butter taste better." It's that 

 villain, W. P. R., who is expected to make 

 sense of any old thing I send in. 



E. F. Atwater is just right. Review, 176, 

 when he thinks factory-made slatted exclu- 

 ders are too fragile. He wants the wood part 

 yi inch thicker. He may be right, too, that 

 fewer zinc strips would be just as well. [How 

 many others will endorse the statement of 

 Mr. Atwater and Dr. Miller? If the wood- 

 zinc honey-boards are not strong enough, 

 the supply-manufacturer ought to know it. 

 —Ed.] 



Dr. Kramer says, Schweiz. Bztg., 275, if 

 you put prepared queen-cells adjoining un- 

 sealed brood they will be fed, and adjoining 

 sealed brood they will be emptied, because 

 in the former place the nurses abound in 

 food, while in the latter they are doing no 

 feeding. If only sealed brood is in the hive, 

 then put the cells where young bees are 

 hatching, as these are fed by the older bees. 

 [Dr. Kramer is right to a great extent. — Ed.] 



Dr. E. F. Phillips sends the cheering in- 

 telligence that American foul brood is in my 

 county (McHenry). Now, what did I ever 

 do to i)r. Phillips that he should want me 



Gleanin i;»in Bee Culture 



)(ln°ai\v/s 



to have all varieties of foul brood at the 

 same time? [Say, doctor, if American foul 

 brood gets into your ai)iary, I think you 

 could practice the Baldridge treatment to 

 advantage. You remember it contemplates 

 the plan of putting bees in a clean hive on 

 clean frames of foundation. All the good 

 brood in the old combs is allowed to hatch, 

 when the combs are melted up or destroyed. 

 -Ed.] 



"If A COLONY can be held back from 

 swarming until they get nicely at work in 

 the supers, the chances are they will not 

 swarm at all," p. 447. How I wish it would 

 work that way here! The rule is that no 

 cells are started till after work begins in su- 

 pers. [Possibly we put it a little strong; but, 

 doctor, haven't you gone clear to the other 

 extreme? Is it not true tlaat, in a backward 

 season, or in the case of a colony not over- 

 powerful, the bees, especially the Italians, 

 will sulk, and build cells before they go in- 

 to the supers? A very light honey-flow will 

 start swarming when it will not force bees 

 into the super. A heavy honey-flow will 

 force bees into the super and check swarm- 

 ing; therefore, when bees are working in the 

 supers they are less inclined to swarm. Per- 

 haps this is more marked in the Southern 

 States than in the North. In our travels 

 over the country, large honey-producers tell 

 us generally that a light honey-flow starts 

 swarming when a heavy one will check it, 

 and generally (in the South, at least) stop 

 it altogether. This is particularly so in Tex- 

 as. Now, then, if bees are working nicely 

 in supers, does it not imply a good honey- 

 tlow and little inclination to swarm? — Ed.] 



When robbers attack a colony, if the 

 hive be removed the robbers pitch upon the 

 nearest colony. So I have practiced leav- 

 ing in its jilace a hive with a comb contain- 

 ing a little honey. The robbers clean out a 

 little honey and then leave. I now find it 

 is still better to have the hive entirely emp- 

 ty, only so it looks outside like the old hive. 

 .Just as effective, with less delay. [A far 

 better plan, in our judgment, is to put a 

 robber-trap hive in place of the hive robbed, 

 and cage all the robbers, holding them in the 

 trap for a couple of days, feeding them in 

 the meantime, and finally dumping them 

 in front of a hive in an outyard that needs 

 a few more bees. The queen in the hive 

 had better be caged for twenty-four hours. 



In our exjjerience, especially in the queen- 

 rearing yards, it isn't wise to let robbers go 

 back home. They should be caught and 

 then transported to another apiary where 

 the conditions are entirely different. Rather 

 than let them loose to torment apiarists and 

 nuclei, we would kill them. But some read- 

 er who is following these lines may ask, 

 " What is a robber-trap?" It is a hive with 

 a bee-escape over the entrance, so placed 

 that the robbers will rush into the hive but 

 can not get out again. — Ed.] 



