that June is not warm and dry, our honey harvest will end the last of June, until September and October. I lost one queen in the winter, but the colony survived until spring; I then gave them some bees and a queen, and they are doing very well, considering the weather. I had another colony that the queen came out; she could not fly, and acted as if she was crippled. I put her back

on the comb, and in a few months she was out again. I examined the comb, and found young larvæ, but no eggs. The queen was two years old this summer, so I killed her, and gave the colony two frames of brood and eggs. Now they have as fine a young queen as ever I saw. What was the cause of the queen leaving the hive? Was it for the want of something? Will Mr. Doolittle please answer? A. C. BABB. Greenville, Tenn., May 30, 1892.

Bees Wintered Well.

The bees in this locality have winwell, with only a very small per cent. of loss. The weather has been unfavorable on account of the rains during the month of May. The locust trees are now in full bloom, and are humming with the busy bee from early morn until late at night. The white clover is just beginning to bloom, which is the main supply of the honey crop in this section. There is no pleasant weather to spare now. Every one should be ready for the honey crop, having the hives full of bees, and the sections ready for the surplus, all in apple-pie order," so as not to lose one moment of time, as "time and tide wait for no man." W. S. STEVENS. Mechanicstown, O., June 6, 1892.

Ants in the Hives.

I have several colonies of bees that have a good many little red ants in them. How can I get them out, and keep them out? Please answer in the BEE JOURNAL. B. CHENEY.

Brandon, Wis.

[In Prof. Cook's "Manual of the Apiary," we find the following directions for getting rid of ants:-EDS.]

"You can very readily brush them away, or destroy them by use of any of the fly poisons which are kept in the markets. As these poisons are made attractive by adding sweets, we must be

careful to preclude the bees from gaining access to them. As we should use them in the spring, and as we then need to keep the quilt or honey-board close above the bees, and as the ants cluster above the brood-chamber, it is not difficult to practice poisoning.

One year I tried Paris green with success. There are several reports of ants entering the hives and killing the bees; even the queen is said to have been thus destroyed. In such cases, if they occur, it is best to put a sweet poisonous mixture in a box and permit the ants to enter through an opening too small to admit bees, and thus poison the ants. Or we may find the ant's nest, and with a crowbar, make a hole in it, turn in this an ounce of bisulphide of carbon, and quickly plug it up by packing clay in the hole and on the nest. The liquid will kill the ants. This better be done when the ants are mostly in their nest."

Hard Time for the Bees.

The past two months have been a hard time for bees in this locality, it being cold and wet nearly all the time. I have 110 of the 114 colonies which I packed last fall, but they are not in very good condition to gather a large crop of clover honey. A. W. SMITH. Parksville, N. Y., June 3, 1892.

Chaff Hives for Wintering Bees.

Of

I am an old bee-keeper. I have now only 13 colonies of bees, having lost quite a number in winter, but mostly this spring, though I have been tolerably successful in the wintering of bees. late years I have wintered them in a stone milk-house, partly under ground, and having double doors. I placed the hives in this repository, raised a little above the bottom-board, and took off the top of the hives clear to the frames, then I put on about two feet of straw. Last winter I wintered two colonies in chaff hives out-doors, and I am so well pleased with that plan that I shall continue to winter all my bees out-doors in chaff hives. I have investigated this subject somewhat, and know of others who are having the best results by wintering bees in chaff hives. The 2 colo

nies thus wintered are far ahead of those wintered in the cellar. The combs came out in the spring dry and free from mildew, and the bees were active and healthy, with no great lot of dead bees, as is usually the case when wintered in the cellar. Last winter was a mild one, and it may be thought that that had something to do with the wintering of my bees; but I know a man in Chickasaw county, Iowa, who has wintered bees in chaff hives for years, and has always been very successful in thus wintering them. My chaff hives are made of common ship-lap lumber, covered with flooring; they take the Langstroth frame, and are high enough to enclose a super.

LAFAYETTE NORRIS. Aurora, Iowa, June 2, 1892.

The Use of Bee-Escapes.

In this day and age when there are so many persons that are trying to get up something new in the line of bee-supplies, we very often are beaten by paying money for some useless thing, that someone patented; but we must be very careful and not buy before we investigate. I believe that a person who uses his brains, and gets up a really good article, ought to have the benefit of it. There has been considerable in the beepapers of late about bee-escapes, and our attention has often been called to them. I used three different kinds of bee-escapes last season, and found that two of them did the work satisfactorily, viz the Hastings and the Porter. The Hastings bee-escape will clean a case of sections in from 2 to 4 hours, leaving the case so quietly and quickly that it is nothing but fun to clean an apiary of its surplus comb honey. No beekeeper ought to be without a good beeescape, and I think after using it once, he will continue to do so. W. E. CLARK. Oriskany, N. Y.

Making Swarm-Catchers.

In years past the sentiment generally expressed was unduly opposed to patent rights among apiarists, but within the past year I have noticed patents have been granted on hives and other fixtures which have been in general use for years. I notice in a recent number of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL a patent has been granted on a swarm-catcher which I have had in use in my apiary for the

past two years, and which was fully described by Robert Carver, on page 403 of the BEE JOURNAL for 1890. He there says that he had 20 in use in his apiary at that time. If I were going to make them, I would be glad to do it for $2.00 apiece. About the way they are made, and the cost, are as follows: Get some wire-cloth 36 inches wide, cut it diagonally, and you have the two side pieces. Then get another piece 28 inches wide, cut it in two in the middle, and you have two tops. We get the cloth here in the country town at 15 cents a yard. The cost of netting for each catcher would be about 25 cents; lumber not over 20 or 25 cents, leaving $1.50 for a few nails, paint, and about 21⁄2 hours' work by hand.

HENRY DURHAM. Sylvania, Ind., June 6, 1892.

Prospect of an Immense Crop.

It has been very backward and wet here this spring, having rained almost every day for a good while. We have had now two days without rain, and the bees are making good use of the good weather. I have not been around over the country very much, but where I have been there is a prospect of an immense crop of white clover. It is now beginning to bloom, also raspberries and blackberries, and I think that the bees will get along all right now. I started in the winter with 10 colonies of bees, and got through with 7. One colony came out on May 29, and went into another hive. They had no honey, and but very little brood.

H. T. LATHROP. Willard, Iowa, June 6, 1892.

Stealing Eggs to Rear Queens.

Mr. Geo. E. Fellows mentions this subject on page 741. I have also seen the subject discussed before. The probability is that Mr. F. had some queens in his yard that were prolific layers, to that extent that several eggs were laid in some cells. Of course, all but one would be removed by the bees, and it might be possible that some over-nice house-keeper (or rather hive-keeper) when carrying them from the hive, dropped some at the entrance of the hive containing the queenless colony. This being the case, it would be nothing strange that they should be taken to rear a queen, no more than they should be taken from a cell in the ordinary way.

Space Under Brood-Frames.

It is a cold, backward spring, and colonies are weak in bees. I have 13 colonies, and have lost none yet. What is the best size of space under broodframes for both summer and winter, with fixed bottom-boards, and wintered on the summer stands in chaff hives? I notice that some bee-keepers recommend a space up to % of an inch. Mine are 1⁄2 inch, with an entrance % to 5% inch, and 12 inches long.

GEO. A. COBB.
Windham, N. Y., June 4, 1892,

[It is not of much importance unless a space of more than % of an inch is given, and we prefer that size rather than anything smaller.-EDS.

Wavelets of News.

Sunflowers-History and Value.

It has been suggested that while we are sending Indian corn to Russia, and trying to teach the poor peasants of that country how to eat it, we should learn something from them in regard to the great value and usefulness of the sunflower. It is said that in the Czar's dominions 750,000 acres are devoted to the cultivation of the sunflower, and that every part of the plant is utilized. From the seed an oil is expressed that is used in cooking, for salads and various domestic purposes, as olive oil is in other countries. The oil-cake is valuable for feeding cattle, and the dry stalks make an excellent fuel. The seeds of the larger varieties are used to an enormous extent by the people, very much as peanuts are eaten with us, but without being roasted. They are certainly excellent in flavor, as well as rich and nutritious.

But the strangest part of this story of the sunflower is that probably many centuries, if not thousands of years before Columbus sailed in his voyage of discovery, the inhabitants of this coun

try were cultivating, or, at least utilizing the seed of this plant for food, and its flowers as sacred emblems in their religious rites.

The early inhabitants of America who worshiped the sun, used the sunflower in their religious ceremonies on account of its resemblance to the great source of light and heat. Historians who have investigated the subject inform us that the virgins who officiated in the Temples of the Sun in Peru, were crowned with sunflowers made of pure gold, and also carried them in their hands, besides wearing them on their breasts.

Historically it is the oldest plant of which we have any record, and this record extends back in America to a very early period, of which we know nothing except what we can learn from the imperishable relics of their handiwork scattered broadcast over the entire Western Hemisphere.-ANDREW S. FULLER, in N. Y. Tribune.

Dwindling of Colonies.

Spring dwindling is one of the dangers that beset bee-keeping, and imperil colonies. Dwindling occurs to some extent during spring, summer, fall, and winter. Dwindling occurs by reason of certain different causes, the most common one the failure of colonies to rear brood to the extent required to maintain an equal populous condition of the colony by reasons (often) of queens failing to supply sufficient eggs in due season, and perhaps workers sometimes mismanage breeding affairs; besides, the contingencies of unfavorable weather, chilly temperature, and undue careless exposure while the weather is fickle in changes of temperature. Colonies in a normal condition will reproduce more than equal to ordinary losses of old or imago bees, providing, however, brood-rearing goes along, as it naturally should.

Unless colonies are blessed with firstclass queens, spring dwindling will be mooted and whooped up in all the beeperiodicals. Success in bee-keeping very largely depends on the prolificness of queens used. No such bee-hive as a non-swarmer ever was or can be contrived, but non-swarming queens are very common; yes, they have been advertised by certain breeders. It is a

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law of nature that all colonies of bees that remain in a primevous or prime condition will multiply individually, and multiply in colonies by swarming. The mandate is, "multiply and replenish." -C. J. ROBINSON, in American Farmer.

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