554 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



-will produce daily more bees than are 

 killed by all the enemies combined. 

 A mere handful of bees with a good 

 queen will rapidly buildup to a good 

 strong colony in the spring, notwitli- 

 standing tlie most plentiful visits to 

 the apiary of this fierce enemy. 



The only remedy that I have 

 '.learned of so far for these pests, is to 

 thresh them down with switches 

 while flying thickly before the hives 

 at evening. It is claimed that this 

 will frighten away to a great extent 

 those that are not killed at once. 

 Those who wish can try this, but I 

 have seldotp resorted to it as I have 

 so far been able to succeed satisfac- 

 torily at bee-keeping v^'ithout it. 



Next in order, in degree of des- 

 tructiveness. is the large red or war- 

 rior ant. These ants live in decayed 

 wood or under old stumps or piles of 

 trash, and are usually plenty among 

 palmetto trees. They live in large 

 ■colonies, and will sometimes make a 

 raid upon a luckless colony of bees 

 in the evening, and entirely destroy 

 them by morning. 



Remedies : Clean up the ground 

 thoroughly about your apiary, leav- 

 ing neither stump, rotten root, hollow 

 tree or piles of rubbish, for them to 

 nest in. Then, after dark, walk 

 through the apiary, and if the ants 

 are at work on any colony it can be 

 easily known by the sounds given out 

 by the harrassed bees. When dis- 

 covered, get a light and follow their 

 line of march back to their nest and 

 ■destroy it, killing as many of its oc- 

 cupants as possible. After they are 

 once cleared out of a neighborhood, 

 and the ground cleaned up, they are 

 not apt to return in any quantities. 

 I have never lost a colony of bees by 

 these depredators, but some of my 

 neighbors, located on lands more 

 favorable to their multiplication, have 

 only succeeded in overcoming them 

 after suffering considerable loss. 

 While starting an apiary and getting 

 the grounds in shape, probably as 



food a way as any is to make a stand 

 or each hive, or one for every two 

 hives, but there are great advantages 

 in having your hives rest either upon 

 the ground with short pieces of board 

 at the front and back for it to rest 

 upon, or else to have it near enough 

 so that an alighting-board reaching 

 from the ground to the entrance can 

 be used. Stands of all kinds and con- 

 trivances for keeping ants away from 

 the hives while they still swarrn upon 

 the ground about them, are nuisances 

 and should be discarded as soon as 

 possible. 



Other and smaller ants are often 

 seen about the hives, and sometimes 

 along the edges under the cover, but 

 none of them do any harm worth 

 noting, as they are only at work on 

 dead or crippled bees that have been 

 crushed, or those thrown out by the 

 other bees. The white ants, termites, 

 or wood-lice as they are called, are 

 apt to eat the cleats under the hives, 

 so that they need renewing occa- 

 sionally, but they do not trouble the 

 bees in any way. 



One more item in connection with 

 ants that I nearly forgot to mention, 

 is the inclination of some of the 



smaller varieties to attack queens and 

 their attendants while caged for ship- 

 ing tlirough the mails. Southern 

 queen-rearers use a fine brass wire- 

 netting over their cages, with meshes 

 so close that the ants cannot get 

 through; but it is always a safe plan 

 to keep all caged queens, after re- 

 ceived or before shipment, on a stand 

 surrounded with water, or in some 

 other way safely protected from their 

 enemies. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1886. Time and place Of MeeUv^. 



Sept. 4.— Shebovgan Co.. at SheboyKon Falls, Wis. 

 Mattle B. Thomas, Sec, Sheboygan Falls. Wis. 



Sept. C.-N. W. nis. & S. W. Wis., at Dakota, Wis. 

 Jonathan Stewart, Sec, Roctt City, Ills. 



Sept. 7.— Iowa State, at nes Moines, Iowa. 



A. J. Norris, Kec Cedar Falls. Iowa. 



Oct. 7.— Wis. Lalie Shore Center, at Kiel, Wis. 



Ferd Zaatrow, Sec, Millhome, Wis. 



Oct. 112— !4.— North American, at Indianapolis, Ind. 

 F. Lt. Dougherty, Sec, Indianapolis, Ind. 



Oct. 19, 20.— Illinois Central, at Mt. Sterhne, Ills. 

 J. M. Hambaugh, Sec, Spring, Ills. 



Oct. ■27-29.— Western, at Kansas rity. Mo. 



P. Baldwin, See,, Independence, Mo. 



Dec. 1, 2.— Michigan State, at Ypsitanti, Mich. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



|y In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— KD. 



partly filled, I raised it and placed a 

 new case of sections under it. I tiered 

 them up three cases high before re- 

 moving any honey. My bees did not 

 swarm until this month, and then 

 there were only a very few swarms. 

 I have one colony that swarms every 

 eight or ten days. Of course I cut 

 out all queen-ceils and put them back. 

 By going through the hive every five 

 or six days, and cutting out the queen- 

 cells, T can keep them from swarming; 

 this I have done a few times, but as I 

 rather enjoy hiving them I usually let 

 them swarm. .Just what the matter 

 is with them I cannot tell, but I pre- 

 sume they have the " fever." To-day 

 my bees are booming again, they 

 come in heavily laden, working on 

 goldenrod and buckwheat. Should 

 this weather last a week or so I shall 

 be able to render a good report this 

 year. 



Western Fair in Canada.— Wm. 



II. Weston, London, Ont., on Aug. 

 23, 1886, writes : 



The Western Fair, which is usually 

 held at London, Ont., will open on 

 Sept. 27 and close on Oct. 2, 1886. The 

 prize list of the bee and honey depart- 

 ment is quite liberal. In 1.883 the 

 amount given in prizes was $11 ; 

 this year it has reached $11.5. We 

 are anxious to have as many as pos- 

 sible of our friends from " over the 

 lines " exhibit with us, which will be 

 of mutual benefit, no doubt. Arrange- 

 ments have been made with the Cus- 

 tom Department to admit from the 

 United States, free of duty, all live 

 stock or articles intended for exhibi- 

 tion purposes only, by giving the 

 customary bond. All bee-keepers 

 who may wish to exhibit can obtain a 

 prize list with blank forms, etc., by 

 sending a postal card to me, or to the 

 Secretary of the Fair, Mr. Geo. Mc- 

 Broom, at London, Ontario, Canada. 

 Rates will be reduced on the different 

 lines of railroad during the Fair. 



Value of Swarm-Catchers.— J. W. 



Bailey, Ripon,o Wis., on Aug. 23, 

 1886, writes : 



On page 499 I notice that Mr. C. C. 

 Richardson, of Tipton, Ind., has 

 been sued for keeping an apiary, and 

 his bees are considered a nuisance. 

 The complainant says that the bees 

 cluster upon his trees, etc. I do not 

 wish to criticize a bee-keeper too 

 closely, but had Mr. Richardson used 

 a good swarm catcher he would have 

 avoided all this trouble; and the 

 money he will pay out for defense 

 would have bought " catchers " 

 enough to have lasted him a thousand 

 years. But hold ! neither I nor any 

 one else who have used such things, 

 need speak in their praise, or we 

 might be considered by those who 

 keep bees, as having " an ax to grind." 



Taking off Comb Honey.— A. H. 



Baer, Sterling,*o Ills., on Aug. 24, 

 1886, says : 



I have harvested a crop of over 

 4,000 pounds of comb honey in sec- 

 tions. Yesterday I alone took from 

 the hives 1,500 pounds. 



Bees did Nobly.— H. M. Parker, 

 Plymouth, 6 Ohio, on Aug. 23, 1886, 

 writes ; 



My bees up to .July 1 did nobly, 

 every colony giving me from 50 to 75 

 well filled 1 -pound sections. I prac- 

 ticed tiering up. When I saw the 

 bees had the first case of sections 



Carniolan Bees, Separators, etc.— 



(;_r. J. Crowley, (40), Batavia,+c N. 



Y., writes : 



This superior race has already been 

 fully described by Mr. Frank Benton, 

 on page 4-54 ; but as some who claim 

 to be experts in bee-matters are form- 

 ing the delusive idea that the Carnio- 

 lan bees are idlers, and undiscernible 

 from native bees, I wish to give my 

 testimony to the contrary. I find that 

 they excel Italians, Syrians, Cyprians, 

 or any other foreign race known at 

 the present time. My bees are reared 

 from imported mothers, shipped 

 direct from their native land. I have 

 Italians, Carniolans, and a cross be- 

 tween these races, but I find the Car- 

 niolan the best, with the cross closely 

 following. I also obtained one tested 

 and one untested Italian queen from 

 a breeder last year, which I find are 

 as good as any Italians I have, even 

 the imported ones ; but let me ask, 

 why does any breeder defend the 



