1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



341 



any honey. Every one knows this was a 

 poor year for honey, there being only two 

 weeks all told when the bees got any surplus; 

 and when the asters came in bloom suffi- 

 ciently to give any surplus the rains set in 

 and cut us out entirely of any tiow from 

 them. I have also scattered white sweet-clo- 

 ver seed over about 80 acres of waste land. 

 I see it blooms during our honey dearth; and 

 if I can cut out feeding, and also get a sur- 

 plus from it, it will be just like killing two 

 birds with one stone, and the stone can be 

 used year after year, without getting smaller 

 or broken, but will be getting harder and 

 harder every year. Yes, if it yields only 

 enough to keep up brood-rearing it will pay 

 all the trouble for sowing. 

 Evansville, Ind. Julius Haffel. 



A BOTTOM-BOARD AND FEEDER COMBINED. 



The illustration shows one of my bottom- 

 boards with self-feeding attachment. It has 

 the advantage of permanency, which enables 

 one to feed at any time without distux'bing 

 the bees, making it so easy that one would 

 feed when, if he had to go to work and ' get 



tf"--^ 



i^-^-fe^^^^^^^:^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ 



a feeder placed, he would be likely not to do 

 so. To use it, the hive-body is slipped for- 

 ward sufficiently to admit of pouring the feed 

 in from the back, after which a strip is laid 

 over to close the opening. 

 Staunton, Va. W. O. Sydnor. 



[This arrangement here shown will proba- 

 bly give good results. One objection is that 

 it will be difficult to make a bottom-board 

 along these lines that will be syrup-tight year 

 in and year out, and another is that it would 

 be limited in capacity. The Alexander feed- 

 ers are made of one piece of wood; and any 

 shrinking that may take place does not affect 

 their holding quality. 



The cut shows what appears to be an im- 

 provement on it since the letter here written 

 by our correspondent was preparetl. We 

 refer to the side lip with a cover. This ar- 

 rangement would make it unnecessary to 

 shove the hive forward on the bottom-board 

 as explained in the text. — Ed.] 



A HIVE-TOOL FORGED FROM A FILE. 



The illustration shows my hive- tool which 

 I have made. For the past two seasons a 

 number of bee-keepers in this vicinity have 

 tried it and think the tool is all right. The 

 little hook on the other side of the hammer 



Chisel ^'Screper 



is intended to hook under the end of the 

 brood-frame between the tin rabl)et and the 

 outside of the hive end, using a hammer on 

 the remaining frames as a pry to raise and 

 loosen the brood-frames. The bit is Iff in. 

 wide, which will scrape a 1^ section at one 

 stroke, and is very useful for prying off and 

 scraping covers. It is forged from one piece 

 of steel, and highly tempered. 

 Stanwood, la. L. G. Woolison. 



[We tested this hive-tool in our apiary dur- 

 ing the past summer. As a general pry for 

 loosening the cover from the hive-body, it is 

 excellent; but we found it rather heavy and 

 lai'ge for the purpose of prying the frames 

 apart. A much smallor tool we consider 

 preferable. — Ed.] 



THE WAY ANTS ATTACK BEES. 



In a sample copy of Gleanings received 

 some time ago I saw an article I'egarding the 

 death of bees caused by ants, etc. We have 

 some tiies and ants here that destroy bees at 

 timgs. You will notice the bee I send you 

 was caught by an ant. The head still hang- 

 ing to the bee shows the bull-dog tenacity of 

 the ant, and also shows that the bee can de- 

 fend itself to some extent. The head of the 

 ant did not interfere with the bee's natui'al 

 labor, as it had been doing its duty in food- 

 gathering some time before I chloroformed it 

 to forward you. E. N. Francis. 



Uvalde, Texas. 



[We examined the bee sent by ovir corres- 

 pondent, and were interested in noticing the 

 head of the ant still clinging to one of the 

 bee's legs. It evidently would not let go, 

 even when pulled to pieces by that bee or 

 some other one. — Ed.] 



SOFT CANDY SAVES ELEVEN STARVING COLO- 

 NIES. 



January 1, being so warm that the bees 

 were Hying freely, I looked into the hives 

 and found them almost without feed. I or- 

 dered honey from a dealer, and it was lost 

 by the railroad company. I ordered again, 

 and- it came by the same route. I became 

 frantic, and, being a railroad agent myself, 

 I kept the wires hot tracing that honey. I 

 couldn't sleep nights, for I knew my pets 

 were starving. I tried soft syrup feed, and 

 it was not good, for the bees would fill their 

 combs and then cluster some place else. The 

 dampness from such feed made the bees wet, 

 and it was only luck they did not freeze. 



