1010 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURR 



Dec. 1 



great care to keep them down; for, as the 

 Missourians say, they just swarmed any old 

 way this j'ear. Two of my strongest and 

 best colonies never offered to swarm, but 

 went right along piling up the most beauti- 

 ful honey. One of the queens is over four 

 years old; and with bees swarming on every 

 side she has never offered to swarm, and 

 her bees have always stored more honey 

 than any that swarmed or were shaken. 



Two years ago, when but few bees in this 

 part of the country made any surplus, the 

 bees of this queen gave me 80 lbs. surplus 

 honey, mostly from red clover. They are 

 large three- banded Italians. I have always 

 kept this queen in a ten-frame Dovetailed 

 hive, and put on supers as I found thej'needed 

 them. I have produced comb honey alto- 

 gether with them. 



I am raising a number of nice queens 

 from my "old prize," as I have called her 

 since the second summer I yfad her, 

 and will test them thoroughlj^ and report. 

 If the young one which did not swarm this 

 year does not offer to swarm next swarm- 

 ing season I shall also breed from her, for 

 her bees are hard to beat. 



J. W. Beauchamp. 



Bethany, Mo., Aug. 24. 



MOSQUITO HAWKS, AND HOW THEY PREY 

 ON BEES IN FLORIDA. 



I note in the Oct. 1st issue of Gleanings 

 an inquiry as to damage to bees by mos- 

 quito hawks, which are in some localities 

 known as " dragon- flies " or " darning- 

 needles." These insects have been very bad 

 in this locality for the past three years. 

 Last year there was a period of fully a 

 month when none of my bees dared fly. 

 The air was filled with a predatory horde 

 of these insatiable winged monsters, and 

 no bee could get awaj' to the field and home 

 again past them. It took the little fellows 

 somedaysto realize their danger, and during 

 that time you could hardly find a mosquito 

 hawk that did not clutch a bee. The colo- 

 onies would, I believe, have been extermi- 

 nated had it not been for their prudence in 

 quitting work and hiding in the hive. Very 

 early in the morning they could fly about a 

 bit, some days, before the hawks awoke to 

 their daily hunt. Immense numbers of 

 bees must have been eaten. By the middle 

 of June the number of the hawks had so di- 

 minished that the bees resumed their la- 

 bors. 



There have been smaller varieties of mos- 

 quito hawk through the summer and fall, 

 but so far as I have observed they do not 

 bother the bees. The large variety come 

 occasionally in clouds. At one time last 

 spring my wife called to me that the bees 

 were swarming and flying, out in the 

 horse-lot. It was a cloud of mosquito hawks 

 so dense that at a little distance it would 

 be readily mistaken for a big swarm. 



Three years ago a man now in my em- 

 ploy, while cutting posts in the woods lo- 

 cated 38 bee-trees at a distance of several 



miles from here. Last spring we set out 

 to locate and cut some of them. Out of the 

 38 but one or two colonies had survived, 

 and hunters and woodsmen give the inva- 

 sion of the mosquito hawk credit for the de- 

 struction of almost all the wild bees in 

 these woods. My own observations lead 

 me to believe that they are right. 



We have alwaj's had a good many of 

 these pests, but of late years they have 

 come in hordes, and have sometimes ap- 

 peared to be migrating. Their number 

 from day to day varies a good deal. 



W. P. Marshall. 



Punta Gorda, Fla., Oct. 8. 



[If any of our other correspondents have 

 before referred to the awful destructiveness 

 of the mosquito hawks in Florida I had for- 

 gotten it. It is quite remarkable, and in- 

 teresting too, that the bees should keep in- 

 doors while their natural enemies were so 

 numerous on the outside. I should have 

 naturally thought they would go to the 

 fields and have been destroyed. Is this in- 

 stinct or prudence that impelled them to 

 protect themselves in the only way possible 

 — that is, staying at home? — Ed.] 



YELLOW- JACKETS. 



The yellow-jackets are robbing my bees. 

 While the stronger colonies are able to de- 

 fend themselves against their attacks, they 

 compel the weaker colonies to desert their 

 hives. I have tried to poison them, but this 

 will not answer. Please advise me what to 

 do. F. W. Knoeger. 



Durango, Colorado. 



[If you will excuse me I would suggest 

 that you are mistaken about the j'ellow- 

 jackets driving your bees out of the hives or 

 doing them any damage, unless it is to 

 worry them a little. We have often seen 

 them buzz around the entrance, perhaps 

 getting in occasionally, but not in sufficient 

 numbers to do any harm. I do not see how 

 you could poison them without poisoning 

 the bees. I would suggest you get some 

 Italian bees if you have not got them al- 

 ready. They are ever so much better to de- 

 fend themselves from all intruders of all 

 kinds. If 3'our colonies are strong, and 

 have good queens, I do not believe yellow- 

 jackets can do enough harm to amount to 

 much. — Ed.] 



CHICKENS EATING QUEENS. 



Have you ever known chickens to catch 

 and eat the queens? I have seen our Plym- 

 outh Rocks catch the drones and eat them; 

 and when a worker-bee would be taking a 

 drone out, the chickens would eat both. 

 The reason for asking the above question 

 is, I had two this year's swarms robbed. 

 The bees did not seem to make any defense 

 at all; and on opening the hives I found no 

 queen nor any worker brood ; but there 

 was some drone brood in each hive. Now, 

 for the last two days they have been rob- 

 bing three old colonies. I have closed the 



