i6 



January, 15 



American l^ee Journal 



which is tlius a ferment to digest the 

 nitrogenous food, and not the food it- 

 self. This digestion is accomphshed in 

 the true stomach, and then the peptone, 

 or digested proteid, is passed back into 

 the mouth and given to the bees, the 

 drones, or to the brood, and thus we 

 have the whole process. 



One reason that was urged to show 

 that the bee-pabulum was not digested 

 proteid, but the secretion from the lower 

 head-glands, was the fact that from the 

 lower end of the honey-stomach hangs 

 a continuation of the tube which, like 

 the valve at the end of our own small 

 intestine, would act to restrain the food, 

 after it is digested, from passing back 

 to the mouth, and thus regurgitation 

 would be quite impossible. This would 

 be so were all the truth told. The fact 

 is that there are muscles in the honey- 

 stomach that enable the worker-bee to 

 raise the stomach-mouth at the low- 

 er part of the honey-stomach, so the 

 valve is obliterated, and it is not only 

 possible, but easy, for the bee to re- 

 gurgitate the digested proteid. 



The experiment that I tried to prove 

 this point, was as follows : I mi.xed with 

 some honey some finely-ground charcoal. 

 I had before removed the queen, and 

 the bees had queen-cells with newly- 

 hatched larvae in them. In a day or two 

 I found charcoal in the royal jelly. We 

 know positively that charcoal is wholly 

 non-osmotic, that is, it can not pass 

 through an animal membrane, nor is it 

 capable of digestion, that is, it can not 

 be made osmotic. We see, then, that if 

 the secretion in the lower head-glands 

 was the food of the larvae, it could not 

 contain the charcoal, which it did con- 

 tain. This could not get from the stom- 

 ach except it pass up into the mouth, 

 or down and out through the intestines 

 with the fecal matter. Here, then, we 

 have positive demonstration that the se- 

 cretion from the lower head-glands is 

 not the food, but rather the ferment, 

 that digests the food and fits it for 

 queen, brood, etc. 



This digested proteid food is a won- 

 derful food, as it is what is given lib- 

 erally to the queen, and what enables 

 her to do such wonderful execution. We 

 know that the queen is able to lay 3,000 

 eggs in a day, and these weigh nearly 

 twice as much as does the queen her- 

 self. Does not this speak volumes for 

 the excellence of this food? I doubt if 

 any food comparable is to be found else- 

 where in nature or art. We think of 

 milk as a perfect food, a balanced ra- 

 tion, as the dietist terms it, and it is 

 wonderful, but it gives no such results 

 as we note from this pabulum of the 

 bees. Docs it not give us a hint of 

 what man may do? May we not hope 

 to fabricate a food that will enable us 

 to secure much greater results from our 

 domesticated animals? If we could 

 manufacture a food that would secure 

 from our fowls twice their weight of 

 eggs in a day, or from our cows twice 

 their weight of cream in the same time, 

 would it not be a wonderful triumpn 

 of human invention? We may hope to 

 do this, but if Nature has wrought so 

 much with the bees, and this all unaid- 

 ed, what may not man hope when he 

 gives to this subject his best thought 

 and study? Already he has achieved 

 much in his prepared food for fowls. 



Over- Stock INC. 



Dr. Miller has his ear perpetually to 

 the ground that he may hear aught that 

 may help or hinder his brothers of the 

 craft. He has had much to say of the 

 danger of over-stocking, and the neces- 

 sity of some law, written or understood, 

 that would protect the bee-keeper from 

 infringement or trespass in this matter. 



I wonder if we know that we over- 

 stock our locality? In good seasons in 

 California, the product is sometimes 

 enormous, and may we not conclude that 

 in case we do not get much honey, it 

 is because the conditions are unfavor- 

 able, and the nectar is not there to be 

 gathered? It is not rare, in good sea- 

 sons in California, in very large apiaries 

 where hundreds of colonies of bees are 

 massed in one place, for the bee-keeper 

 to secure as much as 500 pounds of 

 honey from each colony. Would not 

 this argue that with the proper con- 

 ditions the amount of nectar to be col- 

 lected was enough for far more bees 

 that are usually kept in one place? 



It seems to me that this is a ques- 

 tion that should receive from our De- 

 partment of Agriculture, very thorough 

 investigation, that the real, actual facts 

 might be determined. If we knew that 

 a certain area — say a radius of a mile 

 or ili miles — would in an average sea- 

 son maintain an apiary of say 100 colo- 

 nies, generously, and no more, then we 

 would be warranted in demanding some 

 legislation that would not only protect 

 the bee-keeper that was already on the 

 ground, but that would also give the 

 greatest results to the country. There is 

 no sense at all in crowding so that all 

 are handicapped and unable to do well. 



Claremont, Calif. 



Report for the Season of 

 1907 



BY WILLIAM STOLLEY. 



Reports of good and satisfactory crops 

 of honey this year, appear to be rather 

 exceptional and I am glad to say, that 

 I can give a good report of my apiary, 

 as the result of the season's work just 

 passed. 



I put into winter in the fall of 1906, 

 42 colonies, — rather more colonies than 

 I desired to have. All wintered well, 

 but last spring was anything else but 

 favorable for bees. It was exceptionally 

 cold and backward, and all fruit-bloom 

 was destroyed by frost as fast as it 

 opened. 



I fed 200 pounds of diluted honey 

 and sugar mixed— 60 pounds of honey, 

 50 pounds of sugar, and go pounds of 

 water — although clear up to June, my 

 bees were well provided with natural 

 stores. At that time I sold 2 choice, 

 well-tested queens for $4.00, killed 4 

 old queens, and united the colonies 

 rendered queenless, with the weaker 

 colonies left, thus reducing the number 

 of colonies from 42 to 36 colonies, of 

 which 4 colonies were in the "New Hed- 

 don" hives while 32 colonies were in 

 rny own — mostly 14-framc American 

 hives. This manipulation made all col- 

 onies extra strong in bees, with lots 

 of brood, but very little honey, at about 



the time when (June 15th) alfalfa open- 

 ed bloom. 



About that time (June 13th and 14th) 

 we enjoyed the exceedingly pleasant 

 and long-to-be-remembered visit of Mr. 

 and Mrs. Dadant. Swarming had be- 

 gun 2 days previous to their arrival, by 

 those colonies in the Heddon hives; 

 from 3 Heddon colonies I had 5 swarms, 

 and but one of the Heddon did not 

 swarm, and from this I obtained 78 

 nice and well-capped, and 27 nearly 

 finished, sections of honey. In all I got 

 but 151 sections well capped, from the 

 4 colonics in the Heddon hives. 



Sweet clover commenced to bloom 

 about July 1st, and for some time we 

 had a "gusher." Several fields of alfal- 

 fa in my neighborhood were allowed to 

 go to seed, which improved conditions 

 greatly. 



While the production of comb honey 

 is a rather poor showing in a very good 

 season, a different and much better re- 

 port I have made on those 32 colo- 

 nies in the large hives with American 

 frames and run for extracted honey. 

 The bees in these latter hives did not 

 swarm at all. I have extracted 4 times 

 —July 30, Aug. 9, Aug. 29, and Sept 23. 

 The crop secured was 3433 pounds of 

 surplus honey, % of it being light in 

 color and about ]4 amber, or about an 

 average of 107 pounds per colony. 



I also got 60 pounds of nice bees- 

 wax from cappings. 



Four stray swarms hived themselves 

 in my decoy hives on the roof of the 

 bee-shed — they were all hybrids except 

 one, and the queens I destroyed late in 

 the season ; the bees were united with 

 other colonies. Thus I have now 33 

 colonies in large hives with American 

 frames, I2%xi2% inches, and 4 col- 

 onies in New Heddon hives. 



All colonies have at least 30 pounds 

 of honey each, and up to 40 pounds of 

 winter stores; also, 350 pounds of hon- 

 ey in brood-frames are set aside for 

 feeding next spring. 



I finished winter packing on Nov. 8, 

 and on Nov. 10 and 11 we had the first 

 real cold spell— 20 degrees F. — but the 

 temperature is moderating now again. 



Thus my 28th year as a keeper of 

 bees (although it had probably the 

 least favorable spring of all years) 

 turned out to be one of the very best 

 of all. 

 Grand Island, Nebr. Nov. 14. 



The Honey-Eaters' League 



BY LECH R. FREEMAN. 



As an evidence of the necessity for 

 a Honey-Eaters' League, as well as 

 for an Apple-Eaters' League, I will 

 rriention a circumstance that occurred 

 right over here in the Gem State of 

 Idaho. 



I went to Grangeville, (a lovely 

 county seat town of 2,000 population), 

 and when I sat down to breakfast, up 

 comes an elegant looking gentleman 6 

 feet high, dressed in white, born in 

 Wyoming, (a State t'iat I had the hon- 

 or to name) graduated at the University 

 of Idaho, and advanced waiter in the 

 swell commercial travelers' hotel bear- 



