1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



141 



A BATTLE ROYAL BETWEEN A NEST OF BIG 

 RED ANTS AND A COLONY OF BEES. 



A MOST interesting and valuable article 

 on some large red ants in Florida appears 

 in another column, from the pen of Mr. 0. 

 0. Poppleton. We have published many an 

 interesting article, but never one more en- 

 tertaining than that contributed by our cor- 

 respondent. All of our readers, especially 

 those interested in nature study, should pe- 

 ruse it. A battle royal between a big nest 

 of red ants and a powerful colony of bees 

 must be one of the most interesting sights 

 in the world. Then that big rooster — well, 

 read the story yourself. 



I saw some of these large species of ants 

 while in Arizona, but was kindly warned by 

 the bee-keepers to "keep a respectable dis- 

 tance away." But I could not resist the 

 temptation to "poke" them with a long 

 stick. The way they would stand up on all 

 fours (or sixes, I might say) , and show fight 

 with their powerful jaws was enough to 

 command my admiration as well as my fear. 

 When they saw me on the end of the "big 

 stick ' ' they made a bee-line for me and I — 

 well, I moved on. 



REMARKABLE WEATHER IN JANUARY IN SOME 

 PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



In this locality, at least, it has been a 

 most remarkable January. An unprece- 

 dentedly hot wave struck us on the 20th, 

 2lst, and 22d, the temperature running up 

 to 74 or 75, and hovering ne^r that point 

 night and day. The remarkable thing about 

 it was that, during the very same period, 

 the temperature at Duluth, Minn. , was down 

 to zero, and in parts of South Dakota ?nd 

 Canada it was 20 to 30 below zero. At St. 

 Paul it was 2 degrees above. In New Or- 

 leans it was not quite as warm as in Cleve- 

 land. In Kansas City the mercury stood at 

 20. The weather- forecasters predicted a 

 cold wave from the west; but although three 

 days have elapsed it has not yet come (Jan. 

 23, 9 A.M.). But we see by the papers that 

 Chicago is suffering in the embrace of a very 

 severe blizzard, and that communication by 

 telegraph and telephone was temporarily 

 cut off. 



We have had January thaws in northern 

 Ohio, but nothing like this for 35 years, ac- 

 cording to the Weather Bureau, although in 

 our issue for Feb., 1880, some reported their 

 bees as carrying pollen in January, during 

 which month a rem.arkably warm spell struck 

 us here in Ohio. On Sunday, the 21st of the 

 present month, doors and windows were 



open in most of our homes, and the bees 

 were ha v ing as big a gala time as we ever saw 

 during the balmiest days in May. It was 

 so very warm that, before we knew it, there 

 was some robbing. Robbing in January — 

 we never had such a thing before. 



Later.— The much and long expected has. 

 come. The temperature, in five hours, drop 

 ped from 69 to freezing, with a high wind.. 

 The bees have quit their play and robbing, 

 and the wind pierces to the marrow of the 

 bone. 



EXPERIMENTS AT MEDINA IN WEIGHING UE' 

 STORES CONSUMED BY BEES OUT- 

 DOORS AND INDOORS. 



Following our usual practice, which 

 practice is in line with that of Doolittle and 

 others, we put up half the bees outdoors in 

 double-walled hives and winter cases, and 

 the other half in the cellar. When they 

 were fixed up finally for the winter the hives 

 both indoors and outdoors were weighed. 

 During the very warm spell of weather re- 

 ferred to in another editorial, we brought a 

 part of the bees in the cellar outdoors, and 

 let them have a flight. After the flight 

 they were all weighed up to see how much 

 of the stores they had used up during con- 

 finement. The test comprised 15 hives in 

 order to get an average. These were com- 

 pared with 15 other hives of equal strength 

 outdoors in double-walled hives and winter 

 cases. 



Now, you might guess that the amount of 

 stores consumed outdoors would be twice 

 that consumed indoors; but the figures show 

 that 4 J lbs. was the average consumption 

 up to date for the indoor bees, and 5 lbs. for 

 the outdoor. Practically there was no f'if- 

 ference; but taking into consideration the 

 extremely mild winter we have been having, 

 the winter has been very favorable to out- 

 door bees and decidedly unfavorable to those 

 inside. But even taking the conditions as 

 they were, the indoor bees showed a slight 

 gain of half a pound in the amount of stores 

 saved. 



The winter thus far has been for the bees 

 one of the mildest we have known for many 

 years; and it is not surprising, therefore, 

 that the actual amoimt of food consum.rd 

 by the outdoor bees should be little if any 

 more than the food consumed by the indoor 

 bees. When we come to weigh up next 

 spring we may see more difference; for when 

 winter "comes in like a lamb" it is liable 

 to "go out like a lion." Another winter, if 

 a severe one, would show, I think, a decid- 

 ed gain in favor of the inside bees. 



EXPERIMENTS IN VENTILATING OUR SHOP 

 BEE-CELLAR. 



During the very warm spell referred to 

 in another editorial, the bees in the shop 

 cellar began to get uneasy because of the 

 high temperature of the cellar, part of the 

 time running as high as 70 degrees. We 

 opened the doors of the other apartments, 

 but this did not have a tendency to reduce 



