issy 



GLEAKll^GS LN BEE CULTUEE. 



?53 



sent certain of his sons down into Egypt to buy some 

 corn, during: a drought in Canaan. Dhourra is a 

 species of millet, indigenous to Africa, and sorgho is 

 a kindred species indigenous to Asia. The seeds, or 

 grains, of the two species are much alike; but, one 

 variety of the dhourra is white, and may be easily 

 crushed with a lolling-pin, or in a small coffee-mill. 

 In the vernacular of the American citizen of African 

 descent, it makes "very nice hoe-cakes." 



A GOOD FORAGE PLANT. 



I have counted 1200 grains in one head of dhourra; 

 and as the stalk is soft, like that of sweet corn, I 

 think it would be a desirable forage plant for culti- 

 vation in many localities. 



A KOACH-TRAP WANTED. 



Besides the usual vermin, such as birds, rats, mice, 

 etc., I am annoyed by roaches, sometimes finding 

 four or five in a hive. I have placed slides over the 

 entrances to the hives, perforated with fi-inch holes; 

 still they enter when small, and soon become too fat 

 to come out. I do not know that they eat any thing 

 besides honey; yet in the hives mostly infested by 

 them I have recently lost several queens. I have 

 tried various forms of covered traps, but have 

 caught more bees than roaches. 



The ants (black and red-winged and wingless) are 

 also troublesome. In one case they actually carried 

 the comb away from the hive faster than the bees 

 could build it. The bees finally became discouraged, 

 and emigrated, joining another colony. To avoid 

 this pest I place four hives (facing alternately east 

 and west) on a platform about 8 feet long, supported 

 about 18 inches from the ground by two posts. A 

 string, saturated in a solution of corrosive subli- 

 mate, is wound around each post. 



T. Waldron Bartholf. 



Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, Oct. 29, 1883. 



Thank you, friend B., for your positive 

 proof that bees do eat eggs and larvae. I 

 have often noticed their disappearance, and 

 I have sometimes seen them suck up the 

 juices of larvce where the combs had been 

 cut or mutilated.— I believe that dhourra, 

 or Jigyptian corn, has been tested in our own 

 country, although 1 can not say what the re- 

 sult has been. We are glad to hear of bee 

 culture in your far-away island ; and even 

 though you have enemies to contend with 

 that we never hear of, it does us good to 

 know about these things. You do not tell 

 us much about the honey you get. Does 

 your locality equal friend Osburn's descrip- 

 tion of Cuba in this same number? 



Or Department for duties to bo attended to 

 this montli. 



^g' WRITE you in regard to my bees. I have some 

 M nuclei that will have to be fed. Now, I want to 

 know what kind of food is best, and how to pre- 

 pare it for use, and the best way to feed it, as I nev- 

 er tried it. Toucan just publish in Gleanings, if 

 you choose. J. H. Cutshawl. 



Greeneville, Tenn., Nov. 19, 1883. 

 Friend C, it seems to me it is rather late 

 in the day to talk about fixing bees for win- 

 ter— 19th of November ; however, as there 

 are always some who have to feed late, it 



may be well to consider the best way of do- 

 ing it. Your expression, " Just publish it 

 in Gleanings," sounds almost like a joke, 

 since I have been giving directions for feed- 

 ing, in almost every number for three months 

 past. If you have very nice fine weather, so 

 pleasant that the bees will fiy, even when it 

 is cloudy, I presume you can safely give 

 liquid food, even in December ; but such 

 days do not often happen in our locality. If 

 you do feed liquid food, do it carefully, and 

 take away the feeder, and cover the cluster 

 up well just as it was, before the weather 

 turns cold. Now, then, we are to face the 

 matter of bees that are short of stores during 

 freezing weather. What shall we do V We 

 have had very good success with powdered 

 loaf sugar, kneaded up with honey. But 

 others say it does not work so well with them. 

 The fine sugar rattles down to the bottom of 

 the hive. Perhaps the old way of feeding 

 candy will be the safest. Make it according 

 to directions given so many times, and al- 

 ways found in the ABC book, and then lay 

 lumps of it on top of the frames, right over 

 the cluster. These lumps should not be lar- 

 ger than hickory-nuts or walnuts ; and when 

 they get them warmed up and eaten up, give 

 them some more, always covering the candy 

 with a burlap sheet or chaff cushions. You 

 can open the hive to put in more candy al- 

 most any day in the year, if you are careful to 

 close it up quickly. I would use only the best 

 granulated sugar for making the candy. I 

 have wintered bees in this way where the 

 colony had less than one pound of honey, 

 and they came out strong and healthy in the 

 spring. If any of the friends find it too 

 much bother to make the candy, we can fur- 

 nish it at 15 cts. per lb. Of course, it can not 

 profitably be sent by mail ; and for that mat- 

 ter, if the distance is great it is pretty ex- 

 pensive sending it by freight. Then another 

 trouble comes in : These friends who are 

 late about their feeding are almost always 

 behind, and must have it by express, and the 

 express charges sometimes cost them more 

 than the candy does. Candy can be sent by 

 freight; and as all kinds of sugar are usual- 

 ly sent so, it will not be very expensive food. 

 Or you can buy the sugar at the grocer's, and 

 make it yourself; or, better still, get your 

 wife to do it, if she is good-natured, and has 

 not too many household cares. Seems to me 

 it would be a good thing for some supply 

 dealer (at least one of whom should be found 

 in every locality) to keep this bee- candy in 

 stock. This would save enormous freights, 

 and might save the lives of many bees, if 

 their owner knew just where he might get 

 the candy at a small price. The candy of the 

 groceries will do, but it is not as good as that 

 made expressly for the bees ; and another 

 thing, it usually costs too much. The best 

 success I have ever had in feeding candy was 

 with dry hard candy that was not stirred at 

 all, and the fragments of it, when broken, 

 looked like blocks of ice, or greenish-colored 

 glass. Bees would cluster on this, and lick 

 it all up. They wintered outdoors with the 

 ordinary chaff coverings. Our bees this win- 

 ter do not require candy oT syrup either, for 

 they have plenty of natural stores gathered 

 from bass wood and clover. 



