874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



pected. Some lots of bees swarmed very 

 little, not having been in good enough con- 

 dition. The first crop of alfalfa has been 

 cut, and but little surplus honey was se- 

 cured from it. Three of my apiaries have 

 done fairly well, the other three not nearly 

 so well, showing excellently the differences 

 there are in locations not far apart. A 

 great deal of this difference, though, can be 

 traced back to last season, and might have 

 been remedied by proper care at the right 

 time. The bees are generally in good con- 

 dition for a honey-flow if we should have 

 one. There is an abundance of sweet clo- 

 ver, but there are likewise great numbers of 

 gfrasshoppers that may eat it all up. There 

 are probably less than half the number of 

 bees in the country that there were last 

 year, so overstocking will not cut so large a 

 figure as it has seemed to heretofore. If 

 there is any honey to be secured during the 

 rest of the season we ought to be able to 

 get.it. 



GRASSHOPPERS. 



I wish somebody who knows something 

 about grasshoppers and their life-history 

 would give us some reliable information as 

 to what may be expected of them here. 

 Last season they were a great pest here, 

 and were largely responsible for the failure 

 of the honey crop. They are here again in 

 large numbers; and if something does not 

 happen, no doubt they will do us a great 

 deal of harm again. Some of the old bee- 

 keepers are confident that they will die of 

 some disease or from the attacks of some 

 insect enemy before they do much harm. 

 This belief, though, is founded on nothing 

 more substantial than the fact that this 

 happened once before after the first season 

 that they were numerous. We hope it may 

 be true, but may be lightning will not strike 

 twice in the same way. Nothing much can 

 be done in the way of prevention. Poison- 

 ing is expensive, and not very practicable. 

 Some of the ranchmen destroy great num- 

 bers of them by the use of what they call 

 " hopper dosers. " This is a large frame- 

 work, three or four feet high, on runners, 

 that is drawn across the field. The frame- 

 work is covered with cloth, and at the base 

 is a pan that is kept partially full of crude 

 petroleum. The hoppers fly up; strike the 

 cloth, and many of them fall into the oil, 

 which kills them. One man told me he 

 killed fifty bushels last year. 



SOLAR EXTRACTORS. 



The solar wax-extractor ought to be kept 

 running full blast these hot days. Properly 

 used, this is one of the most valuable instru- 

 ments to the honey- producer. Two adjuncts 

 to the average solar are needed to make it 

 thoroughly practical. The first is the honey 

 and wax separator described by R. C. Aikin 

 in Gleanings for Jan. 15. 1902. This is a 

 very valuable invention; but from the silence 

 that has been observed in regard to it since 



it was described I am afraid it has gone in- 

 to the list of good things that have been neg- 

 lected and forgotten. Some day I am going 

 to write something on the subject of neg- 

 lected inventions. The other adjunct I spoke 

 of is likewise along the line of Mr. Aikin's 

 practice in wax-making. Some of you may 

 remember that he uses artificial heat to help 

 out the sun. Perhaps you have thought that 

 this would be practical only with a mammoth 

 extractor such as he uses. It is practicable, 

 however, to use artificial heat with even a 

 small solar extractor and thus greatly in- 

 crease its capacity. I have only a small so- 

 lar, never having got around to build the 

 large one I want; but I get a great deal of 

 satisfaction out of the use of a lamp to sup- 



flement the heat of the sun at various times, 

 arranged this by simply cutting a large 

 hole in the bottom of the outer case of the 

 solar extractor and setting it over a tight 

 box that formed a sort of basement to the 

 solar. In this a lamp was set so that the 

 top of the chimney came just within the hole 

 in the floor of the solar. This basement has 

 a hinged door at the back, to give ready ac- 

 cess to the interior, and is lined with build- 

 ing-paper to keep out drafts and robber bees. 

 This basement likewise furnishes room for 

 a can to catch the honey that runs from the 

 separator above. When things are kept 

 running properly, the honey remains only a 

 shprt time in the intense heat of the upper 

 chamber, and is but little damaged in color 

 or flavor, while it is so much thickened that 

 some people actually prefer it. 



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Our April mesquite flow did not come in 

 most parts of the State. In only a very few 

 localities mesquite bloomed, and yielded 

 some surplus. The failure of the flow was 

 rather a surprise to most bee-men, because 

 winter rains and other weather conditions 

 favorable for a heavy bloom of the mesquite- 

 tree prevailed throughout the entire season. 

 Our hopes are now for the usual second flow 

 in June, which is generally the better of the 

 two. In the immediate vicinity of most of 

 my apiaries there are as yet no signs of buds 

 on these trees, and if a flow comes it may be 

 later than usual. 



Prospects are not flattering in Texas. 

 Very few localities have been favored by a 

 flow sufficient for surplus honey, and this 

 was only "tolerable." In North and Cen- 

 tral Texas bees have been having the worst 

 year so far that many bee-men have experi- 

 enced. The better class of bee keepers have 



