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G I. K A N I N O S IN P. E R C IT I. T U R E 





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REPELLENT IN SPRAY 



How to Prevent the Poisoning of Bees by Arse- 

 nate of Lead Spray 



On June 20, 1920, an apple orchard ad- 

 joining my apiary was sprayed in an at- 

 tempt to prevent further damage by the 

 gypsy moth caterpillars, which had come 

 swarming out of the near-by wood and were 

 not only attacking the foliage but also the 

 young apples. The next day I found quanti- 

 ties of dead and dying bees about my hives. 

 The bees were crawling on and thru the 

 grass, making futile attempts to lift them- 

 selves on their wings. Many of the alighting- 

 boards were spotted as with dysentery, and 

 the bees ' bodies when pressed by accident 

 seemed to contain the same unpleasant- 

 smelling matter. At first I thought of paraly- 

 sis or Isle of Wight disease, but soon con- 

 nected the spraying with the death of the 

 bees and feel not the slightest doubt that it 

 is a plain case of poisoning. It is a question 

 where the bees got the poison — whether 

 from the sprayed foliage (of course the 

 blossoms had long since gone by), from a 

 poisoned drinking place, or from a scanty 

 growth of alsike clover under the trees. I 

 was unable to determine the source from 

 personal observation, but it must have been 

 from one of these three. 



Beekeepers in certain sections of New 

 England have sustained severe losses from 

 poisoning. I wrote to the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, Washington, and the experiment 

 station of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College to see if they knew of any repellent 

 which would make arsenical sprays unat- 

 tractive to bees, but they could give me no 

 help on the subject and knew of no such 

 repellent. So, when I heard of a repellent 

 which has been and is at present being used 

 with great satisfaction thruout the city of 

 Newton, Mass., it seemed to me that its use 

 should be more generally known. 



A few years ago the city forester of New- 

 ton, at the request of a prominent beekeeper, 

 F. S. Gourley of Waban (a part of Newton), 

 agreed to use milkol as a repellent. Mr. 

 Gourley had lost all his bees by poisoning at 

 spraying time the year before, and had, 

 after consultation with chemical and other 

 scientific friends, finally hit on milkol as a 

 cheap and good repellent. It has been used 

 ever since with very good results. Practic- 

 ally the entire city is sprayed every year 

 and bees are kept successfully. 



Milkol is an ordinary disinfectant, some- 

 what similar to sulpho naphthol or carbonol. 

 One pint of milkol is used to 100 gallons of 

 the regular arsenate of lead spray. Foresters 

 are, as a rule, afraid to use anything of this 

 kind, fearing it will lessen the adhesiveness 



of tlieir si)ray. Tlie city forester of Newton 

 has stated tliat, in his opinion, milkol not 

 only does not lessen the adhesiveness but 

 has quite the reverse effect — it increases 

 the adhesiveness of the spray and is there- 

 fore quite a desirable addition. 



Josephine Morse. 

 South Lancaster, Mass. 



ESSENTIALS OF PRODUCTION 



The Importance of Having Colonies Strong at 

 Just the Right Time 



When you failed to secure a crop of honey 

 did you stop to consider why, or did you just 

 charge it up to ' ' bad luck, " as so many are 

 prone to do? Do you realize that two chances 

 to one, your failure was due to your own 

 fault, and not to that of the bees, or even 

 the fault of that much abused personage 

 called "bad luck"? It might pay us to 

 analyze the situation, and see what things 

 we did, or did not do, to contribute to that 

 failure. 



There are a few things that are neces- 

 sary to success in honey production, things 

 which may be termed essentials, and, con- 

 trary to the general opinion, these may be 

 reduced to a very small number — in actual 

 practice, to only three factors: First, a loca- 

 tion where there is available an abundant 

 source of nectar; second, a hive whicli has 

 plenty of room, both for storage antl brood- 

 rearing; and third, a good, strong colony of 

 bees. 



The first of tliose essentials, that of loca- 

 tion, or nectar supply, is partly beyond the 

 control of the beekeeper, as it may be af- 

 fected by the weather, or by the destruction 

 of the nectar-bearing flora. However, it is 

 often possible to improve a location very 

 materially by growing such honey plants as 

 the clovers, etc. On the other hand, the bees 

 may be moved, in many instances, to an- 

 other location where there is a dependable 

 source of nectar. 



The size of the hive will depend some- 

 what on locality; but, during the honey How 

 should be of sufficient capacity to contain 

 all of the nectar brought in, as well as room 

 for brood and bees, for if the colony ever 

 becomes crowded for lack of room, the honey 

 crop wil suffer more or less. During a heavy 

 honey flow the green nectar will require 

 much more room than is necessary for the 

 ripened lioney, and so supers should be 

 added to take care of this. 



Now as to the third essential. What we 

 refer to as a strong colony should contain 

 at the beginning of the main honey flow, 

 from 10 to 20 jjounds of bees; or, in other 

 words, from j'O.dOO to 100,000 worker bees, 



