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aeORQE W. YORK, Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, SEPT, 8, 1904. 



Vol, XLIV— No. 36. 





Editorial Comments 





Adulterated Beeswax. 



In Europe thousands of foundation presses are in use 

 by individual bee-keepers, a chief reason beings the ditjficulty 

 of buying pure foundation. In this country nearly all bee- 

 keepers prefer to buy their foundation, because they can 

 buy it of such excellent quality, and without any thought 

 of adulteration. Now comes, in the Canadian Bee Journal, 

 from Prof. Shutt, Chemist of the Dominion Experimental 

 Farms, a report in which he says : 



" In March of this year, however, a request was made 

 by Messrs. Goold, Shapley & Muir Co., for an analysis of 

 certain beeswax they had purchased from the United States, 

 on the ground of suspected adulteration. In the interests 

 of the bee-industry, it was deemed desirable to accede to 

 this request, and the examination was made. The results 

 pointed to the presence of parafBn in all the samples, vary- 

 ing approximately from 25 percent to 29 percent. 



" Unlike the adulterated ' foundation ' of 1890, these 

 samples possessed a melting point practically identical with 

 that of genuine beeswax, showing that the adulterant must 

 be of the nature or ozokerite of ceresin — the former a nat- 

 urally-occurring paraffin, and the latter its refined product." 



The name of Goold, Shapley & Muir Co. is given as at 

 one end of the transaction, but it would be a pretty sure 

 guaranty against repetition, and it is only fair to honest 

 manufacturers that the dishonest ones should be exposed. 

 Turn on the light. 



Drones Getting Their Own Lunch. 



The following letter has been sent us with the remark, 

 " Seeing is believing ": 



Dupage Co., Ir.i,., Aug. 19, 1904. 



Dear Sir : — You ask for information on the feeding of 

 drones by workers. Now, it is pretty hard to give positive 

 testimony, because bees are not transparent, but I can cer- 

 tify as to what they appear to do and you may draw con- 

 clusions. 



For three years I have had an observatory hive in my 

 library window, and being a partial invalid frequently 

 watch the bees for an hour at a time. And this is what I 

 have noticed : 



When drones are " laying around " on the comb they 

 are frequently surrounded by a bevy of workers feeling 

 them with their antenna;, or perhaps licking them with 

 their tongues ; but whether feeding them or making their 

 toilet, I don't know. But when a drone comes home from a 

 flight he makes a " bee line " for the nearest uncapped cell 

 of honey, and stays there until he is apparently drunk. 



I have never examined a drone's stomach before and 

 after, or smelt his breath to see if he had been drinking, but 

 circumstantial evidence indicates that while at times he 



may have his meals served to him by the workers, when he 

 comes in with a real brown thirst on he goes to the cup- 

 board and helps himself. 



Doubters, get an observatory hive. 



Yours very truly, 



Ralph D. Cleveland. 



This is very direct testimony, and agrees with that of 

 "Arizona," page 369, who says he has seen hundreds of 

 drones helping themselves. There still remains the ques- 

 tion, " Do drones need to be fed at all by the bees?" It 

 will hardly do to answer this by saying, " Yes, for it is well 

 known that workers do feed drones, and would they do so 

 unless it were necessary?" For a worker is often seen 

 feeding another worker, and no one would claim that as 

 proof that such feeding is absolutely necessary. 



Strength of Honey-Vinegar. 



At the Ottawa Experiment Station some experiments 

 have been made regarding the amount of honey to the gal- 

 lon for best results in making vinegar. From one to six 

 pounds of honey to the gallon of water were tried, the tem- 

 perature being usually from 65 to 70 degrees. Prof. Shutt 

 reports in the Canadian Bee Journal : 



" Though undoubtedly the temperature was too low for 

 the most rapid conversion, the results plainly indicate that, 

 as regards the strength of the honey solution, the fermen- 

 tation is retarded, when the strength of the solution exceeds 

 three pounds per gallon. As far as the work has gone the 

 strongest vinegar was produced from the two-pounds-per- 

 gallon solution, and the probability is that when the experi- 

 ment is completed it will be shown that the most economi- 

 cal strength of the honey solution will lie between one 

 pound and three pounds per gallon." 



The Antennee of the Bee. 



E. F. Phillips, Ph. D., has been making some experi- 

 ments and observations with regard to the antennaj or 

 " feelers " of the bee, as reported in Gleanings in Bee-Cul- 

 ture, and confirms the conclusions of Huber and others. 

 Probably most bee-keepers have observed the lively way in 

 which worker-bees sometimes strike their antenna against 

 the antenna of other workers. That seems to be their way 

 of talking to one another. But not every bee-keeper knows 

 that these same antennae contain, besides the organs of 

 touch, those of smell, and perhaps of hearing. Indeed, if 

 the antenncB be removed, the most of the bee seems to be 

 gone. 



Huber tells us that when both antenna; of a queen are 

 cut off close, she is no longer regarded with the same re- 

 spect by the workers, and instead of laying eggs as usual 

 drops them anywhere. Dr. Phillips says : 



"In experimenting along this line I cut the antenna; 

 from a virgin queen about three hours old, and put her on 

 the comb of an observatory hive, and she was at once 



