1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



843 



pill-box protector. How do you like the 

 idea? H. FiTZ H\kt. 



Honej'suckle, Ala., July 16. 



[Your pill-box queen-cell- protector scheme 

 is all right; but it will be a little more ex- 

 pensive, and. to my notion, not quite so 

 handy as a Stanley cag-e that is designed 

 to accomplish the sime object. We use al- 

 most the same thing except that we use 

 perforated metal formed into a cylinder, a 

 wooden plug to which the queen-cell is at- 

 tached being inserted in the top, and a 

 plug containing food inserted in the bot- 

 tom. See description in last issue, p. 797. 

 —Ed.] 



putting hives on stakes to keep ants 



AWAY. 



Having tried every medicine I knew of to 

 drive ants away from the sate and around 

 the house, and meeting with dismal failure, 

 I did not undertake to try to drive them 

 awa}' from the bee-hives, for any thing ob- 

 noxious eiioucfh to drive away the ants 

 would be as liable to have a similar effect 

 on the bees. I have been using for three 

 months, with success, stakes fastened on 

 the bottom-board similar to the stakes men- 

 tioned b}' R. C. Hollins, on page .)92, with 

 this difference: Stakes are made 7/2 inches 

 long, and made of 2X4 scantling; and in- 

 stead of being sharpened and driven into 

 the ground the}' are sawn flat, fastened On 

 the ends of the 2X4, on the bottom-board, and 



the ends inserted into old (or new) quart 

 fruit or tomato cans; and each morning the 

 cans are filled with fresh water. The 

 ground around the hives is sometimes alive 

 with ants, but they never gel into the hive. 

 I have seen only one ant on the hive since I 

 have used the cans, and that was caused 

 by neglecting to fill the cans for two or 

 three days. The only trouble to speak of 

 is filling the cans, and that is not much 

 when 3'ou take into consideration the g^ood 

 derived from it, as the bees will water at 

 the cans, and will not have to go far for 

 water. I have never seen a bee at my 

 watering-trough, which stands about 20 

 steps from the hives. They all w iter from 

 the stakes. This is probably an old reme- 

 dy for ants; but I have never seen it nor 

 heard of it before, and I think if tried it 

 will not be cast aside. The ants were very 

 annoying before I used it. 



In regard to the hive being too high from 

 the ground in the case of a queen with 

 clipped wing. I overcome that by making 

 an alighting-board to slope from the ground 

 to the hive, giving the b.jard the proper 

 bevel next to the hive, and driving two small 

 staples in the bottom-board, and two small 

 nails into the beveled edge of the alighting- 

 board; bend them like a hook, and hook 

 them into the staples; then drive another 

 small staple into the end next to the ground. 

 Fasten one end of a string into the staple 

 driven into the hive, suspending the alight- 

 ing-board just high enough from the ground 



CALIFOKNIA APIARY BELONGING TO W. J. M'CARROLL. — SEE OPPOSITE PAGE. 



