646 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



Dk. C. C. Miller, Marengo. 111. 



SPEAKINC4 of the shape of queens, p. 634, 

 in this locality queens with slender abdo- 

 mens are decidedly preferred. 



C. Isaac, p. (>o6, perhaps you will do bet- 

 ter in poisoning wasps if you give the poison 

 very weak — so weak that they will carry it 

 home and gradually poison the whole 

 household. 



Switzerland, not half as big as Ohio, 

 and with about two-thirds its population, 

 has a bee-keejiers' association of 8463 mem- 

 bers. We might learn something from those 

 Swiss. [You are right, doctor. — Ed.] 



The question is asked, p. 582, whether 

 any one prefers the wider (three-inch) glass 

 in single-tier cases. Yes, I do. Don't lots 

 of people? Don't you sell lots of single-tier 

 cases with three-inch glass? [Nowhere near 

 as many as we do of the two-inch. — Ed.] 



When rain came after the great drouth, 

 the dandelions seemed to think it was 

 spring, and came out just as in spring about 

 September 15; and October 17 they are still 

 in full bloom. But I don't think the bees 

 have got much good from them — out of sea- 

 son, likely. 



To DRIVE ANTS away, sprinkle the earth 

 about the hives, and the places infested by 

 the ants, with a mixture of muriatic acid 

 and water, having the mixture so strong 

 that, when it dries on the ground, it will 

 have a sparkling appearance. Repeat if 

 necessary. — Schweiz. Bztg., 397. 



Brown sugar may winter W. C Mol- 

 lett's bees safely where they tiy every ten 

 days, buc better not try it further north 

 where bees don't fly once a month. [From 

 some experiments we made, we concluded 

 that brown sugar would not go as far, dollar 

 for dollar, as the best quality of granulated. 

 While brown sugar may be a little better 

 for stimulating brood-rearing, it does not 

 compare with white sugar for wintering 

 purposes. — Ed.] 



F. L. Pollock, p. 604, your case of swarm- 

 ing diiTers a little from the one in question. 

 You know that cells in the brood-chamber 

 may induce swarming. I don't think they 

 would, or did, in that super so far above. 

 But when a virgin hatched above, and 

 another quahked in the cell, swarming was 

 started above, and the swarming bees made 

 trouble below. Of course, cells above will 

 in time be followed by virgins; but once 

 killing the cells will prevent that, while one 

 can not prevent the starting of cells. 



Dr. Brubnnich says, Bienenvater, 218, 

 it is much easier to introduce an old queen 

 than one that has just begun laying; also 

 the important item that it is easier to intro- 

 duce a strange queen to a colony that has a 

 queen which has not been laying long. He 

 says an Australian had to come to America 

 to tell us that, but T think the doctor has 

 things a little mixed. Mr. Beuhne told us 



that a young queen could be reared and fer- 

 tilized in a hive with a very old queen, 

 which is different. 



O. B. Metcalfe, your article, page 557 — 

 and a good article too — started me down to 

 the apiary. Without a veil I hunkered 

 down in front of a hive, and with a stick 

 mashed a bee on the alighting-board . Every 

 ten seconds I mashed another till eleven 

 lay dead. The other bees paid little atten- 

 tion to the dead bees, and I could not see 

 that they gave the slightest intimation of 

 irritation. Certainly the bees didn't resent 

 the mashing that time. Whether poison on 

 a stick or other object would irritate them is 

 a separate question. 



To unite without having bees return to 

 old stand, put a newspaper over one hive 

 and set the other over it. The imprison- 

 ment before the paper is gnawed away, and 

 their getting down one at a time, not only 

 makes them unite peaceably, but makes 

 them stay where put. Pure Italians don't 

 need the paper to keep them from fighting, 

 but they do need it to make them stay where 

 put. Besides, nine-tenths of the bees to be 

 united are not pure Italians. Is there any 

 easier way to unite? [We have never tried 

 the plan, but we have had favorable reports 

 of it.— Ed.] 



When you say, Mr. Editor, p. 581, that 

 young queens usually hatch about the day 

 the swarm is cast, are you not talking about 

 after-swarms? But were we not talking 

 about prime swarms? For the question, p. 

 537, was about how soon the young queens 

 hatch after the swarm issues. Surely you 

 do not mean to insist that the young queens 

 hatch before or at the same time the prime 

 swarm issues. Even if you mean after- 

 swarms, doesn't the free virgin always pipe 

 an evening or two before swarming? [No, 

 Me were talking about prime swarms. Is it 

 possible we are all wrong? If so, we are will- 

 ing to be shown. — Ed.] 



"It IS GENERALLY supposed that freezing 

 or fumigating with sulphur will kill " moth- 

 eggs, p. 582. Freezing will, but no amount 

 of sulphur I ever used would kill eggs or the 

 very big worms. You are right, Mr. Editor, 

 in saying that combs once frozen would be 

 sa^e from moth if left in such a room as S. 

 D. House or I would store sections in, but 

 not to " leave them anywhere." I never 

 had a moth-tight honey-room, but I don't 

 think a moth ever entered it from the out- 

 side. Elven a comb lying in the apiary is 

 rarely touched by moths here. South it's 

 different, likely. [One of the things that 

 A. I. R. used to tell us boys years ago was 

 that, after we had fumigated the combs, 

 they must thereafter be kept in bee-tight or 

 moth-tight boxes or hives. We know he al- 

 ways made it a rule to keep the combs, after 

 freezing, in hives insect-proof. — Ed.] 



