Nov. 10. 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



759 



one's hands. Mr. Cheshire urges the opinion that this pecu- 

 liar structure is to permit the hee to clean pollen from the 

 folds of the membrane. We know that nectar is very likely 

 to have pollen in it. He thinks that as the bees sip tliis, the 

 pollen may lodge and the evisceration of the inner tube jier- 

 mits the bee to clean the pollen from this part of the ornan. 

 It is possible that he is correct, yet I have not found the 

 pollen in the folds, nor should I expect to. 



The inner tube is quite rigid, and so is substantially a 

 tube without break except as the bee may push it out and 

 separate the lips. We should expect, then, that the pollen 

 would flow freely with the nectar through this central tube, 

 and see no reason why it should push out into the folds of 

 the membrane, indeed, we can hardly see how it could do so. 

 Is it not enough to assign it the function of lapping, which 

 it syrely possesses? When the bee wishes to gather nectar 

 from long flower, tubes, then, it leaves the tongue all intact, 

 the inner tube as a tube embraced within the outer tube and 

 the connecting membrane neatly folded between the lips of 

 the outer tube. 



Here, then, we have substantially a tubular tongue, and 

 the bee, by use of it, is enabled to push this delicate organ 

 deep into the corolla-tube of the flower and sip the tiny drop- 

 let, it may be, of nectar from its extreme depths. The tubes 

 all meet in a single tube at the lower part of the mouth and 

 pass the honey to the gullet whence it flows on to the honey- 

 stomach. It only remains .o be said that just where this 

 tube enters the mouth there empties a single tube which comes 

 from the great glands of the thorax and upper head. This 

 undoubtedly contains the ferment that digests the nectar, for, 

 as we all know, honey is digested nectar. 



The nectar of flowers is maitily cane-sugar, and this re- 

 quires digestion before it can be assimilated or used in the 

 body. By action of this ferment from the glands just men- 

 tioned, this cane-sugar is converted into honey or reducing 

 sugar. As I have often stated, this is an interesting and 

 important fact and one which we as bee-keepers may well 

 push to the front, for it shows, beyond question, that there 

 is no sweet so wholesome and desirable as honey. Like the 

 liver-sugar, formed in the body, it is all ready for use, and 

 thus honey as digested sugar needs no effort or energy on 

 our part to make it available for use. 



If we feed bees cane-sugar they digest this in the same 

 manner. Careful experiments, which I made some years ago, i 

 when I fed a large amount of cane-sugar at nightfall to a 

 colony, showed that some of this ferment is put into the cell 

 with the nectar. Thus digestion goes on after the honey is 

 stored. I found much greater proportion of reducing sugar 

 some days after than I found the next morning after feeding. 

 Digestion is always somewhat imperfect, so that all honey 

 shows a trace of cane-sugar. Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Comb-Frames and their Spacing. 



BY T. F. BINGHAM. 



I noticed "Mr. Hasty's Afterthoughts" query, relating to 

 the storing of honey inside of frames and sections. I will 

 give the facts, as I am able to demonstrate — note the word 

 demonstrate — not to argue, to theorize, etc. 



I will describe my frame, and as there is but one be.;- 

 keeper besides myself using it, or anything exactly like it, 

 it may be of interest, even if of no value. 



It has been argued that deep top-bars produce less burr 

 or brace combs than the usual sizes. I shall not attempt to 

 discuss that feature — nay, not even intimate a theory — still 

 it would be safe to infer that the hive I made, like the smoker 

 and knife, were made strictly for my own uses, and to meet 

 my own special needs. The frames above referred to are 

 called "closed-end," patented Oct., i866. In form and size 

 I have made several changes, but it is practically the same, 

 and accomplishing the same ends as when first invented, that 

 is to say, they secure all the honey and comb built in the in- 

 side, not outside, of the frames. 



Right here it may be in order to answer a question not 

 directed to me, regarding whether closed-end frames are bet- 

 ter for securing more honey in sections than hanging frames 

 (noted in a recent copy of the American Bee Journal.) The 

 proper understanding of the above would lead to the con- 

 clusion that they are. One would infer that bees sometimes 

 build comb and store honey outside of the frames in bee- 

 hives. This is especially true in the production of section- 

 honey. 



It seems hardly necessary to say that the honey stored 

 in various places around hanging frames would have been 

 stored in the sections if there had been no other places. 

 Theoretically, there is no question, no doubt, that more sec- 

 tion-honey will be stored in sections when there are no other 

 places to put it. 



To return to the comb frame, an empty frame is on my 

 desk and a common rule. I find its length outside just I2fg 

 inches, inside Il5^, ends 6J^xi;/2. The top-bar and bottom 

 are alike, and just i54 inches wide by 5-16 of an inch thick. 

 The top-bar is nailed inside the ends just 54 inch from the 

 ends, which secures the shallow chamber, as per Langstroth 

 patent. 



Of course every bee-keeper would like to know why 

 brace-combs are not built in such frames. Well, like Dr. 

 Miller, "I don't know." One reason which caused me to use 

 114 inch spacing for combs, was that I did not regard the 

 ij^ used by Mr. Langstroth as space enough for combs, and 

 the thirty-four years that I have used this hive have con- 

 firmed my opinion that if^ inch space, net, for an average 

 of combs-space, is not enough. 



It would be easy to say that such short, thin top-bars 

 never sag in the center, and that the spaces between them are 

 always the same; that the bees have no use for wider or 

 thicker top combs than the frames allow. The instincts of 

 bees, like the instincts of people, cannot readily be changed. 

 Instincts can only be directed. Clare Co., Mich. 



Some Facts About Honey and Bees.— This is the 



subject of an article written by Mr. J. E. Johnson, and pub- 

 lished on pages 581-82 of the American Bee Journal for 

 Aug. 25, 1904. We have republished it in 4-page leaflet 

 form for general distribution, and furnish it, postpaid, at 

 35 cents per 100 copies. Send all orders to the office of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Cabinet-Maker's Scraper for Scraping Sections. 



Last year Dr. Miller presented me with a steel scraijer 

 such as cabinet-makers use, with which to scrape sections. 

 It came too late for me to try it last year, but it has been 

 thorgughly tried this year and 1 hasten to let the sisters know 

 how beautifully it does the work— away ahead of anything I 

 ever tried before. It made ine feel almost vexed to thnik 

 I had scraped sections with iir.thing but a knife all these years 

 when I might have had som-iliing so much better. 



The one I have is 6 by inches. The bottoms and tops 



I of the sections are scraped and sandpapered a whole super 

 at a time, and it seems to me, that for that part of the work 

 nothing could be better. What I want now is a knife made 

 of the same material and in the same way to scrape the edges 

 of the sections, although this scraper might serve that pur- 

 pose. The truth is, I never tried it because I thought it would 

 be clumsy. 



You can buy the scraper (ask for a cabinet or veneer 

 scraper) for 10 or JO cents, or you can make one from a 

 piece of the blade of an old saw. Any cabinet-maker can 

 instruct you as to the peculiar method of sharpening. 



