132G 



GLEANINGS IN BEP: CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



E. giinnii ascends to 5600 ft. in Australia. 



E. coccifera ascends to 4000 feet in Tas- 

 mania. 



E. Urnigera suffers little damage in Scot- 

 land, York, and Devon from frost. 



E. Muellerii withstood 26° of frost in Ota- 

 go, New Zealand. 



E. Stuartiana, fastest growing of all hardy 

 eucalypts. 



E. Sieberiana, small plants have with- 

 stood 20° of frost. 



E. amygdalina, small plant, and grows in 

 Tasmania at 4000 feet elevation. 



E. regnans has withstood 22° of frost in 

 New Zealand. 



I have no knowledge of the value of these 

 trees for honey-bearing, but perhaps Mr. I. 

 Hopkins, New Zealand Government Apia- 

 rist, Wellington, N. Z., could tell us. 



My bees work on the blue gums around 

 my house in latitude 40°, and I believe the 

 honey they gather is very nice. 



Tawanui, N. Z., April 12. 



REMOVING BEES FROM BUILDINGS. 



A Few Cases Treated by an Illinois Bee- 

 Doctor. 



BY M. L. BKEV^^ER. 



A YELLOW SPIDER 



CAUGHT IN THE ACT 

 A BEE. 



THE YELLOW SPIDER. 



A Formidable Enemy of the Bee. 



BY CHARLES HECHT. 



The engraving shows what sometimes hap- 

 pens to bees on dandelions. The spiders are 

 of the same color as the dandelion, and they 

 catch the bees by the neck and suck all the 

 honey from them. I don't think they eat 

 the bees. Afterward the bees are found to 

 have lost their stings. 



Rockford, Wash. 



Ours is a prairie country, hence hollow 

 trees are not convenient at all times for ab- 

 sconding swarms; so any opening around 

 the dwellinghouses prove attractive to them; 

 and when they become troublesome, Brewer 

 the bee-doctor is sent for. Armed with his 

 outfit, consisting of smoker, veil, gloves, 

 saws, chisel, and hammer, he seldom fails to 

 give relief as well as a stock of genuine 

 sweet. A few cases treated might interest 

 some workers in that line. 



Three years ago this summer I was called 

 to a home where the bees had taken posses- 

 sion of an unused chimney. The house be- 

 ing two stories high, with a steep roof, it was 

 with some ditliculty that I built staging up 

 so I could reach the peak of the roof; and 

 when at the point I found that 

 the mason, in building, had 

 failed to fill the joints proper- 

 ly with mortar, which furnish- 

 ed an entrance to their brick 

 abode. After removing the 

 board covering I found about 

 ten pounds of pure white hon- 

 ey. During the past fall, car- 

 penters were sent to the same 

 house to repair the portico, but 

 returned, saying that when 

 Brewer had done his work 

 first they would return. 



We found the swarm be- 

 tween the plaster and upper 

 fioor, and well stocked. So 

 after removing the weather- 

 boarding I began removing 

 the combs, the space they oc- 

 cupied being 8X16 inches, 

 with 16 feet to work in. As 

 the combs got further away I 

 got a trimming-knife, the han- 

 dle and blade being about three 

 feet long, slid a piece of the 

 weather - boarding alongside 

 the combs to let them drop 

 on as they were cut loose, till 

 I could draw them out. About 

 25 lbs. of honey was taken. 

 The last combs took the full 

 reach of the knife and arm to 

 cut them loose. 

 Here is another case. A wagon at the 

 side of the house, with a ladder 16 feet long 

 set in the box, furnished a way to reach the 

 eaves of the roof, where I removed three 

 rows of shingles, then with hammer and 

 chisel I cut away enough of the sheeting- 

 boai'd to get to the opening in the old-fash- 

 ioned box cornice, where I found about 50 

 lbs. of as fine honey as it was ever my priv- 

 ilege to take in chunk form. That was two 

 years ago this summer, and last year anoth- 

 er swarm took up quarters in the same 

 place. In a humble little home with outside 

 boards perpendicular, in a four-inch space 



OF KILLING "-I ■ 



