142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



one of them stirred up, how long it kept stirred 

 up, then how long before it roused up again. 

 Possibly I might find that, with some or all, 

 there was no such rousing-up period. But I'd 

 wonderfully like to have some one find out 

 about it. There's a field here, brethren, that 

 needs exploring. 

 Marengo, 111., Dec. 20. 



[I believe Dr. Miller's points are all well 

 taken. I know the committee did faithful work, 

 and I thought they had cover' d every thing; 

 but it appears therf> are some flaws that need 

 fixing up a little. Now, to give this matter a 

 practical turn, permit me to suggest that the 

 executive committee of the North American 

 request the committee on amalgamation to sub- 

 mit a new report, after considering carefully 

 all the criticisms offered by Dr. Miller and 

 others upon the proposed constitution. I have 

 already laid the matter before the. president of 

 the society, and he acquiesces. The officers of 

 the North American are, A. I. Root, President; 

 Wm. McEvoy, Vice-president; Dr. A. B. Mason. 

 Secretary: W. Z. Hutchinson. Treasurer: and 

 the committee on amalgamation. Dr. Mason. 

 T. G. Newman, and J. T. Calvert. I will send 

 marked copies of this to all the persons named, 

 and suggest that they write to the president, 

 signifying their wishes. 



I do not want to "run the thing" myself: 

 but I only desire to bring it to a focus so that 

 the North American can at an parly date sub- 

 mit a new report to the Union, to be acted upon 

 by that body. I do not believe a better com- 

 mittee can be appointed than the one which 

 acted before: and all that is required now is 

 authority from the executive committee from 

 the N. A. B. K. A. for them to act. — Ed.] 



MALTED MILK. 



EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING MILK AND EGGS TO 

 STIMULATE BROOD-REARING. 



By F. Oreiner. 



Langstroth is probably not far out of the way 

 in suspecting 'malted milk, in connection with 

 honey, to have valuable qualities as a food for 

 bees, especially in the early spring, to induce 

 brood-rearing. In my location, willow, elm, 

 and the maples, etc., furnish an abundance of 

 early pollen, and our bees breed up fully as fast 

 as necessary without stimulating. But since 

 our German friends across the water had so 

 much to say in favor of feeding milk and egg — 

 this was twenty years ago — I tried their method 

 in a somewhat limited way. My bees took the 

 feed all right; and had I continued I might 

 have seen wonderful results, no doubt. This 

 sort of feeding proved with the Germans a most 

 powerful agent to bring colonies to the maxi- 

 mum strength. At the time, I was greatly in- 

 terested in the articles on this subject, and I 

 keep them on file. 



During the years that followed, nothing more 

 in regard to the matter was said in the German 

 bee-journals". This somewhat surprised me, 

 and so I wrote to Gravenhorst about it (in 1886). 

 In his reply he says about as follows: 



We in Germany have almost entirely discr)ntinued 



feeding- milk and egg- to bees; it requires the great- 

 est of care and precaution to not cause foul brood 

 to develop by so doing-. It also proves to be profit- 

 able only with already strong colonies. Less strong 

 colonies are more injured than benefited. I have 

 tried, but discontinued the practice. 



It seems to me that our friends over there fed 

 probably too much at a time, and the feed, in- 

 stead of being consumed at once, as it should 

 have been, was partly stored; decomposition 

 set in, and so the mischief commenced. At all 

 events, it may prove a wise course to profit by 

 the experience of those who have already tried 

 feeding milk, and commence where they left off. 



I mention the above to place on guard those 

 who may wish to experiment with the malted 

 milk,* as suggested by Langstroth. To those 

 who need very strong colonies very early in the 

 spring \\j may prove a good thing. 



The question as to " how long may eggs (that 

 would produce a queen or worker-bee) be kept 

 out of the hive, and hatched when subjected to 

 incubation?" is an unsettled one. There is 

 little doubt that much depends upon the tem- 

 perature they are kept in; and perhaps the 

 amount of humidity in the surrounding air has 

 something to do with it. I believe that, under 

 favorable conditions, eggs might keep for sev- 

 eral weeks; still, I do not know these conditions. 

 It would not be unreasonable to suppose that 

 eggs, to be kept, should be freshly laid. After 

 incubation has once begun there will be little 

 chance for any egg to retain its vitality, judg- 

 ing from analogy of the eggs of our domestic 

 fowls. In a whole frameful of eggs, although it 

 may not have been in the hive for more than two 

 or three days, will probably be but few eggs in 

 condition to keep. Drone eggs do not keep 

 long under ordinary circumstances. After keep- 

 ing them out of the hive four or five days I 

 always had them promptly removed. It may 

 need some careful experimenting to get at 

 the truth of the matter. So far no extensive 

 conclusive experiments have been made that I 

 am aware of. 



It is not impossible that the solution of the 

 advanced egg-moving theory may center in a 

 possibility of eggs keeping good for a long time 

 when the conditions are right. I do not think 

 enough evidence has so far been produced to 

 make the theory any more than a theory. 

 However, I do not wish to intimate that an 

 untruth has been reported with any intent. 

 The observer may have been ever so honest 

 and sincere; but may he not have been misled? 

 Many careful and keen observing men and 

 women have kept and are keeping bees, and 

 still such a thing as tran-*ferring eggs has not 

 before been observed. To me it does not look 

 possible that so delicate a structure could en- 

 dure such usage. Examining an egg we find 

 it tightly cemented to the bottom of the cell; 

 and this cement is so tenacious as to prevent 



* Please tell us what is malted milk. 



