80 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



"This also shows that the bees are winter- 

 ing well. At times, some years, there would 

 a hundred come in that time, and I find that 

 a lantern or a lamp will disturb the bees 

 more than a candle. I do not know why, 

 unless the heated glass of the chimneys 

 throws more heat on the bees when looking 

 at them. A sperm candle is the best thing 

 I know of to take into a bee-cellar for light, 

 and you can hold it right up near a cluster of 

 bees in a way that enables you to see better 

 with it than with a lantern or lamp." 



"Thank you. I will try it next time. 

 But there is one thing more I wish to know 

 about, when I must be going. There are 

 some mice in the cellar. Would it be safe 

 to poison them with strychnine on cheese? 

 Would there be any danger of the mice car- 

 rying it among the bees? " 



" I do not think there would be any danger 

 from the poison used, to the bees: but 1 

 should not like the stench that would come 

 to the cellar after a little if there were many 

 mice to eat the poisoned cheese. Why don't 

 you try traps? " 



' ' I have had two traps set for some time, 

 and have caught but one mouse. Is cheese 

 a good bait? " 



' ' That depends on the kind of mice that 

 may be in the cellar. We have three kinds 

 here — the field mouse, which lives on grass 

 and herbs — the kind that 'bark ' our fruit- 

 trees during the winter; the house-mouse — 

 the one which every good housewife dreads, 

 because it gets into the pantry and feasts 

 on every thing it can find there; and the 

 woods, or what is known as the ' deer ' 

 mouse in these parts, the same being of a 

 fawn or deer like color throughout, except 

 the under side, which is pure white. It is 

 this latter mouse which is the most to be 

 dreaded with the bees, as it gnaws the combs 

 in some part of the hive remote from the 

 bees, and makes its nest there durinj^ the 

 dormant period with the bees, while it eats 

 the thorax of the dead bees for a living. 

 And the scramble over and among the combs 

 of the hives disturbs the bees to such an ex- 

 tent that it can not be tolerated. But this 

 mouse cares very little for cheese, and eats 

 it only when nothing else is to be had. 

 And the field mice do not eat cheese at all. 

 For the house-mouse, cheese would be a 

 good bait." 



" What kind of bait shall I try, as I think 

 it is the deer- mouse that I have." 



"Get some good choker traps. Bait part of 

 the holes with kernels of corn, and a part 

 with squash or pumpkin seeds, and you have 

 something ready for any mouse that comes 

 along, as all mice like either corn or these 

 seeds. Even the little shrew, which some- 

 times bother bees, are easily caught with 

 the peeds. " 



"Thank you. I will try the traps again. 

 But the mice do not always get caught in 

 these traps when they spring them, do 

 they?" 



"Not after the spring gets weak with 

 age, unless you fix the trap so it is ' dead 

 sure' always." 



"How is this done? They get out of 

 mine." 



"Take the trap when you purchase it, 

 and drive a wire nail down through from the 

 top so that it projects into the hole into 

 which the mouse stick its head, from one- 

 eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch, this 

 projection or point coming just in front of 

 the wire that chokes them, and you have 

 the trap fixed so that no mouse will ever get 

 out that once sticks its head in, no matter 

 how weak the spring gets. When the sprins? 

 is set, this nail-point is not in the way of 

 the mouse putting its head in the trap; but 

 when the trap springs, the spring draws the 

 back of the neck, by means of the choker- 

 wire, up against this nail-point, so it pierces 

 the skin and holds him fast right there." 



LONG-TONGUED BEES. 



Has the Interest in them Died Out? 



BY E. F. ATWATER. 



I should be sorry to think that all interest 

 in the subject of long-tongued bees is a 

 thing of the past. Only a few years ago the 

 editor told us of the immense yields that 

 might be secured from such bees in a locali- 

 ty supporting 25 to 50 acres of red clover. 

 During the season of 1902 I had an apiary of 

 100 colonies in a locality where there weie 

 actually thousands of acres of red clover with- 

 in range. The bees worked on the second crop 

 quite Ireely, but could make only a scant 

 living from that source. All the surplus 

 honey from this yard was stored in Jui.e, 

 from alfalfa and white clover, 15 lbs. per 

 colony. 



Every year there are times when our bees 

 work quite freely on red clover. Lust year, 

 two yards produced honey in August a shade 

 darker than our alfalfa, and without the dis- 

 tinctive alfalfa fiavor. Whether this Wc;s 

 due to a slight admixture of honey- dew or 

 red- clover honey I can not say; but I incline 

 to the latter view. I have gradually with- 

 drawn our yards from the best red clover 

 locations, though there are still immense 

 quantities of red clover within range of some 

 of our yards. 



Our bees are largely from stock sent here 

 years ago, first from Kretchmer, later from 

 Root We have crossed them with other 

 Italian stock from Case, Hyde, Moore, and 

 others, and Carniolans. The latter blood 

 seems most valuable. 



I wrote in one of the journals that Prof. 



