1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1073 



What is the matter, Dr. Miller, with sheep 

 in an apiary when the hives are low down'/ 

 We have one yard in a sheep-pasture, and it 

 suits us so well we would have them all so 

 if we could, and the hives are low down too. 



I wonder if the readers of Gleanings ful- 

 ly appreciate the beautiful tirst page of the 

 cover of Gleanings during the present year. 

 I believe too much can not be said in praise 

 of them. I find myself enjoying these cov- 

 ers quite as much as the contents so full of 

 interest beneath them. 



The slogan of the saloon has long been, 

 "You can't make men moral bylaw." It 

 may have a grain of truth in it; but I notice 

 that our new national pure-food law has a 

 strong tendency to make men moral. Table 

 syrups that were labeled "Pure Maple Syr- 

 up" a year ago are now labeled "Table 

 Syrup; 50 per cent maple and 50 per cent 

 cane-sugar syrup." 



^^ 



Some one inquires in a back number of 

 Gleanings how to poison mice, and suggests 

 sprinkling strychnine over Hour. Strych- 

 nine is extremely bitter, and mice or rats 

 are not fond of it. The following has proved 

 very useful with me: Take one part iiour, 

 one part sugar, and one part arsenic; mix 

 thoroughly, and place in hives or where the 

 mice pass, and they will disappear very fast. 

 .^ 



"Over-ventilation kills more bees in out- 

 door wintering than any one thing except 

 starvation," writes J. E. Hand in March 15th 

 Gleanings, and he is not far out of the way. 

 I should say the smaller the entrance for 

 winter the better provided, it is not entirely 

 closed. 



I have most of my hives fitted with a tin 

 tube, say | inch in diameter, 4 inches long, 

 running through the outside case, packing, 

 and bi'ood-chamber, live or six inches above 

 the bottom. Then I am not worried about 

 their getting clogged. In very cold weather 

 it fills nearly or quite full of frost, and thus 

 automatically reduces the size of the en- 

 trance to fit the weather. If the lower en- 

 trance is entirely closed it does no harm, 

 but may be a decided advantage. Thus tit- 

 ted I sometimes do not visit a yard of bees 

 for several months during winter. 



Wm. Muth-Rasmussen inquires in the July 

 15th number in regard to the proper amount 

 of brimstone to be used for killing moth- 

 worms in brood-combs, and also for fumi- 



gating comb honey. In his footnotes the 

 editor says, " To use too little sulphur does 

 not accomplish the object, and too much will 

 turn the white com-1) surface yellow." The 

 first statement is quite coiTect, but it seems 

 to me the second is a little off coloi*. Don't 

 you mean it will turn the combs green? 

 That's the way it works with me. I have 

 not had much experience in sulphuring old 

 wormy brood-combs, but enough to know 

 that it takes a large amount of smoke to kill 

 large worms in their webs. Better use the 

 point of a shai'p knife, or hang them over 

 such hives as are not at work in sections. 



In regard to white coml) honey, I have 

 sulphured during the last three years some- 

 where from 15,000 to 20,000 lbs., or .-Jections, 

 not for the purpose of killing the larv;c of 

 the wax-moth, but for the purpose of bleach- 

 ing, and have had a pretty fair chani^e to 

 learn something of the effect of sulphur 

 smoke on white combs. I u-ie my bleaching- 

 room for this purpose, containing about 900 

 cubic feet. I commenced slowly and care- 

 fully, increasing the amount of sulphur 

 burned, and the time before turning it off' or 

 changing the air of the room. I have a side 

 door and a trap-door overhead, and can in 

 thirty seconds drive most of the sulphur 

 smoke out, so I can control the use of smoke 

 perfectly. After considerable experiment- 

 ing I made it a rule to burn six ounces of 

 sulphur, and leave the room closed for 

 eighteen minutes. Later I found some combs 

 with little spots of green, and I reduced the 

 amount to five ounces of sulphur and fifteen 

 minutes' time. Still, there would be some 

 combs a little greened, and again I reduced 

 the amount to four ounces and twelve min- 

 utes' time. I believe that, while the above 

 rules worked very well for bleaching, none 

 of them was enough to kill even small larvic 

 of the wax-moth on the combs. I know it 

 did not kill them all. 



Now the above facts are not very accu- 

 rate or definite, but my work along this line 

 has taught me some things I did not know 

 before. One is that combs of section honey 

 vary greatly in their susceptibility to receiv- 

 ing color from sulphur smoke. 



The combs from some hives will take two 

 or three times as much smoke without harm 

 as the combs from other hives. I believe 

 there is even more difference than this, as I 

 do not remember ever giving such enough 

 to affect them in the least. 



Those sections where the comb is thinnest 

 and cappings most delicate appear to be 

 the ones most easily or quickly att'ected by 

 the fumes of sulphur smoke, while the sec- 

 tions where the most wax is used in the con- 

 struction of the comb are the last to show 

 color when receiving an overdose of smoke. 

 I say the laat, but really I don't know how 

 much you would have to give them to green 

 them, for I have treated such to smoke over 

 and over again without in the least aft'ecting 

 them. 



Another thing that I believe plays a part 

 in smoking combs (perhaps a very important 

 part) is the amount of moisture in the air. 



