986 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



like to describe it. before our summer meet- 

 ings at Mount Holly and Elizabeth, and I 

 have within the week received the word 

 from the largest beekeeper in the state 

 (about 400 colonies), "I have tried the 

 ' souse ' method — success every time. ' ' 



My way of doing it is to use dilute honey, 

 a good teaspoonful to a teacupful of water, 

 which I souse over and between the frames 

 from a flour or powdered-sugar dredger, and 

 distribute it well. Use more or less accord- 

 ing to the strength of the colony; anyhow, 

 don't be stingy with the souse; give the 

 queen a souse (so she looks like a wet hen), 

 and run her down between the wettest 

 frames. 



This dilute honey is less likely to result in 

 injury to the queen; is more quickly cleaned 

 up, and less likely to start robbing; takes 

 far less honey, and can be handled more 

 rapidly; if any of it gets on the hands or 

 clothes there is less of a mess, and it an- 

 swers every purpose. 



I will not take space now to discuss the 

 ethics of this method; but I must say it 

 looks like the simplest, least injurious, most 

 nearly natural, quickest, and most logical 

 method which can be devised. I will ven- 

 ture the prediction that, by the end of five 

 years, everybody will be using the ' ' sousing 

 method, ' ' thereby saving hundreds of dollars 

 and oceans of time. 



Hoboken, N. J. C. D. Cheney. 



Fooled 'Em, Sure. 



One day in August I was surprised to find 

 a case of genuine robbing in full swing. The 

 weather being very warm, and white clover 

 still plentiful, and the bees gathering nec- 

 tar from, it, I little dreamed of any robbing 

 likely to occur, so had left all entrances wide 

 open — a circumstance that gave the robbers 

 their opportunity. 



I at once smoked away the bees and closed 

 the entrance, then narrowed down the en- 

 trances to the near-by hives to about an inch 

 opening. Having a supply of half-cured hay 

 near by, T brought a few forkfuls near the 

 hive. After about half an hour I again 

 smoked away the cloud of robbers seeking to 

 enter, and opened up the hive to a very 

 torrent of well-filled robbers. The most of 

 the thieves having made their exit I hastily 

 closed the entrance again, leaving an opening 

 sufficient for only one bee to pass at a time, 

 and quickly covered the hive and accumulat- 

 ing bees deeply with the hay at hand. Near 

 nightfall I cleared away the hay and opened 

 the hive, allowing the marauders to go home. 

 After dark I removed the hives to a dark 

 corner in a cool cellar and covered it up, but 

 with the entrance open. 



I immediately put a dummy hive in its 

 place on the stand, but with empty combs 

 and a feeder in the bottom in which I put 

 about a quart of very thin sugar syrup. The 

 next morning I was pleased to see the rob- 

 bers returning to the feast and crowding 

 the nanow entrance of the dummy. They 



were kept busy several hours before the 

 syrup sujjply was exhausted, when, finding 

 no more sweets around, they very quietly 

 took their departure, thinking, no doubt, 

 that they had effected a complete job. 



Two days later I took the bees from the 

 cellar and replaced them on the stand, where 

 they were not again molested, and are doing 

 as well as ever, apparently not any the worse 

 for their experience. 



Manawa, Wis. E. E. Colien. 



A Connecticut Report. 



This is not a good location for the bee- 

 keeper, not being a natural clover location, 

 and little interest is taken in trying to raise 

 it. However, there has never been a time in 

 the last twenty years when bees have had 

 to be fed to keep them alive from May to 

 October. On the other hand, there has not 

 been a heavy honey-flow in the same period. 

 From May till early July honey comes in a 

 slow flow which booms brood-rearing and 

 swarming; but with no heavy flow to check 

 brood-rearing the problem becomes a big one 

 if a surplus is to be secured. I had several 

 queens laying in the outside combs of ten- 

 frame hives May 5, 1914. 



In trying to avoid increase and get the 

 much -desired surplus I built a few ten-frame 

 Jumbo hives, chaff packed them as the reg- 

 ular chaff hive, but the big hive sent out a 

 swarm as early as any. A modification of 

 the Aspinwall hive was tried, with slatted 

 dummies and ten frames in two stories. This 

 gave the same result as the Jumbo. Cutting 

 queen-cells has been practiced, but I am not 

 delighted to see a big swarm pile out of a 

 colony which had the cells cut only a day or 

 two previous. 



I find that good queens can be reared here 

 up to July 15 without feeding or trouble 

 from robbers, but after that it is not very 

 pleasant. I have forty colonies, which is 

 enough for this location. My highest aver- 

 age yield of comb honey per colony has not 

 exceeded fifteen pounds. The fall flow is 

 very light, usually not being sufficient for 

 wintering. Delos O. Hart. 



Barkhamsted, Ct., Feb. 29. 



Smoker Chips. 



Pry locust bark makes the best of smoker 

 fuel.' 



If you do not want your smoker to go out 

 while you are at lunch, fill it, get it going, 

 then place it in a box twice the height of 

 the smoker and leaA^e the top of the box 

 open. 



A 60d spike nail and a tin tobacco-box for 

 matches will be found convenient where you 

 fill and light your smoker. 



A piece of old enamel cloth stuffed in the 

 top of your smoker will prevent its burning 

 the fuel too fast, and will increase the 

 voluTue of your smoke. 



High noon on a hot day is the best time to 

 examine a cross colony of bees. 



Morgan, Ky. J. E. Jordan. 



