7li4 



CleaninKit in Bee Culture 



Herlong told me that it was on a moonlight 

 night in May Avhen he went for them, and 

 during the drive home he caught the inspi- 

 ration of bee-keeping and partly planned 

 his career, which Mr. E. G. Baldwin has so 

 well outlined, p. 461, Aug. 1. Mr. Herlong's 

 prioto will be seen on the same page, and 

 also a picture of one of his apiaries. 



His face is a clear index of his energetic 

 and generous life, and his apiary shows 

 that he was a thoughtful keeper. 



When he had all the bees that he and his 

 son could care for he did not stop. He had 

 taught his neighbors by example that bee- 

 keeping is not a mere pastime, but a good 

 business, and he induced them to take some 

 of his bees on shares, which they did, some 

 taking one apiary each, some two, and one 

 as high as four. All worked under his in- 

 struction. As time would permit he visited 

 them during the season. He had been let- 

 ting out bees in this way for five or six 

 years, and he and his "renters" worked in 

 perfect harmony, and all were well satisfied. 



He had some apiaries thirty or forty miles 

 away which he was operating successfully, 

 and was always planning to enlarge his bee 

 business. 



Death came in the jMime of life in his ca- 

 reer as a bee-keeper; and the loss we have 

 sustained can not be estimated. His place 

 in our ranks can never be filled. 



Cordele, Ga. 



CREOSOTE OIL AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR, PAINT. 



BY F. li. HIGGINS. 



Mr. R. F. Holtermann says, p. 289, March 

 1, 1906, ' ' The foolish thought that one should 

 keep an idea (in one's own estimation good) 

 to himself is often suicidal, and many a one 

 would have saved himself from expensive 

 mistakes had he ventilated his pet notion." 



Following the above advice I beg to pre- 

 sent to my fellow bee-keepers a plan I have 

 successfully used to preserve my hives; and 

 any criticisms will be thankfully received. 



CREOSOTE OILS FROM GAS-TAR UNSUITABLE. 



There are two distinctly different oils call- 

 ed creosote, both being used in the preserva- 

 tion of wood. I call particular attention to 

 this because the one that is better known 

 would be entirely useless for this work. 

 This is the oil that is made from gas-house 

 tar (known as dead oil) , and is much used 

 by railroads for creosoting cross-ties and 

 bridge-timbers. As it contains carbolic acid 

 it is unfitted for work around bees, for it is 

 well known that the odor of this acid has 

 about the same effect on bees as smoke. 



The oil I used is a product of the long-leaf 

 pine, which is exclusively a Southern tree. 

 When I first conceived the idea of treating 

 hives with this oil I was afraid of two things; 

 first, that the bees would object to the odor; 

 second, that the honey would taste of the 



oil. Experience has shown that my fears 

 in both instances were groundless. At first 

 I tried the experiment on a top and bottom 

 board; and finding that the bees took kind- 

 ly to them I tried it on a super filled with 

 Danzenbaker shallow extracting-frames. It 

 was with real concern that I took my first 

 taste of honey from this super. As there 

 was no trace of the oil I concluded that I 

 had succeeded in finding a substitute for 

 paint on hives, and one, too, that would 

 prevent warp, split, or rot, and would make 

 a hive last a lifetime. 



METHOD OF CREOSOTING HIVES. 



To make the experiment a success, this 

 work must be thoroughly done; and simply 

 putting it on with a brush as one does paint 

 is simply time thrown away. The common 

 method of creosoting timber is to put it in- 

 to a cylinder, fill the cylinder completely 

 with oil, and continue forcing the oil in un- 

 til a pressure of from 50 to 75 lbs. per square 

 inch is secured. But for small pieces^ and 

 especially such soft wood as is generally used 

 in hive construction, the open-tank method 

 will be found sufficient. To creosote by this 

 method, two tanks are necessary, one of 

 which must be of iron. The other may be of 

 wood. If new hives are to be treated it can 

 be better done before nailing, and in this 

 case a good-sized iron pot would suffice. 

 Place the article to be treated in the iron 

 tank (or pot), and pour in enough oil to 

 cover. As the oil is much heavier than wa- 

 ter the wood must be weighted down or it 

 will not be covered by the oil. Raise the 

 temperature to 275° F., and keep it so for 

 about an hour. Remove the wood and place 

 it in the second tank, which should contain 

 oil at the temperature of the air. In the 

 first treatment the moisture and air contain- 

 ed in the wood are expelled, and in the sec- 

 ond the oil is sucked in as the wood cools 

 down. An Excelsior cover or Danzenbaker 

 bottom-board will take up about one quart 

 of oil. This method of treating hives is 

 rather expensive, and has considerable work 

 attached to it; but no paint will have to be 

 used, nor will the hive ever have to be re- 

 placed, unless it burns up. 



Another advantage is that the larvae of 

 the bee-moth will not burrow into wood 

 treated with this oil; neither will rats or 

 mice gnaw it. 



The main objection to the idea is that it 

 leaves the hives a dark walnut color. 



I hope this plan will prove of some benefit 

 to bee-keepers, especially those in damp hot 

 climates where hives do not last very long. 



Wilmington, N. C. 



[It is probable that Northern bee-keepers 

 would have some difficulty in obtaining the 

 real oil made from the pine unless it were 

 ordered in quantity direct from some dealer 

 in the South. We should be glad to have 

 rejiorts from any who may be able to give 

 this oil a good test in other parts of the 

 country, so that it may be compared with 

 paint. — Ed.] 



