1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1013 



This disease has been amonpf my bees for 

 fifteen or tweut}' years. I have cured it 

 from time to time by simply g-ivinpf the af- 

 fected colon\' a healthy vij^orous queen. In 

 my opinion it is caused by excessive heat. 

 When the thermometer ref,'-isters about 110°, 

 bees, brood, and queen alike become seri- 

 ously affected— the latter often diminishing 

 in size to such an extent that her abdomen 

 is hardl}' larjjer than one- fourth the size of 

 a norm il queen. These affected queecs 

 seldom live through winter. The proof of 

 my theory is, that introtiucin";^ a he tlthy 

 queen generally stops the progress of the 

 disease. Moses Bkay. 



Morgan Hill. Cal. 



A hf;mp bre-bkush. 

 The article on whisk-broom bee-brushes 

 in Gleanings and the Anier. Bee Journal 

 was read with considerable interest. W^hile 

 spending- the past season in California with 

 several largfe and experienced bee-keepers 

 I was tauj^ht several valuable lessons. One 

 was the making^ of a bee-brush that is, in 

 my opinion, the acme of perfection. Take 

 twenty inches of one inch hemp rope; dou- 

 ble together, and bind with stray threads 



of hemp or foundation-wire to the length of 

 four inches, for a handle; then fray out the 

 ends of your rope and soak it half an hour 

 in water, and you have a brush that will 

 neither disable a bee nor mar in the least 

 the cappings. When dirt3', or daubed with 

 honey, you can wash and wring dry, like 

 any cloth. I have used both whisk and 

 hemp brushes in the management of 500 

 colonies of bees, and I would not use any 

 but the home-made article. By the press- 

 ure of your thumb you can regulate the 

 width of your brush so as to cover a Lang- 

 stroth frame at one strc ke. You can credit 

 Mr. C. I. Graham, of California, with the 

 above method, for he is the gentleman who 

 taught me. Geo. Hekkick. 



West Pullman, 111. 



Fasten the trap chain to the end of a ten- 

 foot pole or board, heavy enough so they 

 can not drag it away. Then, instead of 

 putting them in a nail ketj (in which case 

 you would have about 99 failures out of 

 every 100 skunks, or shooting them, in which 

 case, if you try it, you would think there 

 were at least 200 failures out of every 100 

 trapped ), approach the rear end of the pole 

 or board cautiously, and fasten a rope to 

 it, five of six feet in length. Then stai t off 

 slowly, dragging skunk and all after you. 

 You can drag them any distance 3'ou see 

 fit, and there will be no odor. Then j'ou 

 can dispatch them in any manner you wish. 

 But, kill tht m as you will (unless you take 

 hold of the pole and dip them in water deep 

 enough to submerge them), there will be 

 odor. The object of this method is to get 

 the odor, if any, a safe distance from the 

 house or bee yard. Try this, and see how 

 easy and sure it is. 



HOW TO PKEVENT SWARMING. 



I also wis^h to say a few words in reply 

 to the question as to how I prevent my bees 

 from swarming, and where one can get a 

 non swarming race. I have thought of this 

 a great deal; and the more I think of it the 

 more firmly I am convinced that we all 

 have non-swarmers if properl3' manipulat- 

 ed. In other words, I believe that, instead 

 of its being natural for bees to swarm, it is 

 the reverse. Of course, there are excep- 

 tions to all rules; but swarming according 

 to nature is the exception (barring Carnio- 

 lans). Give your queens plenty of room as 

 needed at the proper time, and the workers 

 the same, and I will guarantee the rule 

 will be no swarming — at least in lliis lati- 

 tude. I presume these few remarks will 

 cause the bee-keepei s to swarm; but try this 

 simple method and you will hive yourselves 

 automatically. 



Say, friend A. I , don't you think it 

 would have been better to give that poor 

 Cuban boy a litile honey, and let him ke^ p 

 his dime also, even though it was Sunday — 

 page 853? Elias Fox. 



Hillsboro, Wis., Oct. 28. 



SKUNKS — HOW TO DESTROY THEM. 



I want to say a few words relative to trap- 

 ping skunks in bee yards or elsewhere, and 

 the disposition of them after being caught. 



KILLING skunks; SHOOTING WHILE CAPTIVE 

 NOT TO BE KECOMMENDKD. 



I was reading on page 847 regarding Mr. 

 Green's method of trapping skunks out of 

 the apiary; also what you had to say about 

 it. Now, let me telbiyou right here that you 

 don't want to use a g<m of any kind if you 

 don't want to come to grief, for you can not 

 kill a skunk so dead that he will not throw 

 his scent. The inexperienced would natu- 

 rally think you could; but I know this as a 

 personal fact, as I have killed hundreds of 

 them. Mr. Green's plan is all right if you 

 just keep your head. Another good plan 

 would be ( if there is no danger of any thing 

 else getting in) to set a snare attached to a 

 springpole, and then in the morning you 

 have Mr. Skunk hung up high and dry by 

 the neck. Chas. E. Gates. 



Springfield, Pa. 



