TUJL BJi;lL-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



13 



thus super- abuudautly provided with stores 

 was found dead iu the spring. Another 

 correspondent, A. Zapfe, reports a precise- 

 ly similar cape of absconding. 



MUENCHENEK BlENENZEITUNG . — FrOm 



Switzerland comes the advice to prevent ex- 

 cessive swarming by using queens reared 

 under the superseding impulse. 



It is sometimes vaguely asserted that the 

 benefit to agriculture arising from the fer- 

 tilization of blossoms by bees, is greater 

 than the direct profits of bee-keeping. Pas- 

 tor Rosenhuber attempts to express the 

 minimum benefit in figures. Suppose, he 

 says, that 10,CXX) bees from each colony fly 

 100 days in the year, making four flights on 

 each day, and visiting r>0 fiowers each flight. 

 Suppose also that one of every ten blossoms 

 visited is fertilized, and every 5000 blossoms 

 fertilized are worth a pfennig ( nearly ^4 

 of a cent ). Then the annual profit of each 

 colony to the agricultural interest is 40 marks 

 ($9.52). The direct profit of each colony 

 in Germany heestimates at 10 marks (."^'i-SS), 

 or nearly twelve cents to every individual of 

 population, since by the census of 188i5 there 

 were 1,911,727 colonies in the empire. 



Bees will not accept saccharine, says the 

 reviewer of this journal ( Marinus Bachma- 

 ier), audit has been declared injourous to 

 health. Dulcine, which is only half as swset, 

 is declared by high authorities to be per- 

 fectly safe: but whether bees will accept it 

 is not yet known. 



In patching combs (Travenhorst advises 

 the use of tin cylinders to cut out the de- 

 fective portions. With the same cylinder 

 pieces are cut from other combs or sheets 

 of foundation, which are thus an exact fft. 



Late reared queens, says Herr Riccken, 

 are larger, from 2-25 to 1-9 of an inch longer, 

 stronger built, more prolific, and begin to 

 lay sooner in the sprint;, than early ones : 

 and produce colonies that are stronger, 

 more diligent, and less apt to swarm. 



German vendors of honey in retail pack- 

 ages now have eight viirieties of printed 

 wrapping-paper to choose from, varying in 

 price from .*1.19 to .*2.;> perthonsand. The 

 printed matter on these wrappers, setting 

 forth the utility of honey, generally has the 

 fault of being too lengthy, says editor Fink. 

 Unless it is read, there is no use in having 

 it. He recommends a kind published in 

 Baden as the best. 



From the Schweizerische Bienenzeitung 

 is taken an account 0/ experiments by Herr 



Theiler. Two German colonies were de- 

 prived of their queens and all brood, and 

 Italian queens given. After 30 days, accord- 

 ingly, all the young bees were readily dis- 

 tinguishable, and were from one day to a 

 week old. The youngest bees were not 

 found on the unsealed brood, as they should 

 be according to Gerstung's theory, but on 

 the sealed brood, while bees of more advan- 

 ced age attended to the duties of nursing ; 

 apparently because the younger bees 

 still needed the heat afforded by the closely- 

 packed sealed brood. This assumption was 

 confirmed by a second experiment. Hot 

 bottles, tiles and cloths were placed ext the 

 " windows " of both hives, thus artificially 

 creating a centre of warmth on the farthest 

 and broodless comb. In a few hours this 

 comb was covered by young bees in great 

 numbers. 



The Preussische Bienenzeitung says that 

 honey is increasing so that instruction iu 

 bee-culture should be abandoned, and a hon- 

 ey-ring formed to keep up prices. Review- 

 er Bachmaier replies that even whisky, su- 

 gar, and petroleum trusts find it hard to 

 hold together, though few in number, with 

 great interests at stake ; and that such a 

 proceeding would be dangerous to the in- 

 terests of bee-keeping, since honey is at best 

 regarded as useful and wholesome, not nec- 

 essary. 



A "fruit-sugar" product is claimed by 

 its advertisers to be fully the equal of hon- 

 ey. They add an attj Javii of two chemists, 

 saying " The honey was of d.uk y How color, 

 had an agreeable scent of flowers, and a 

 good taste, " and avowedly rely on the high 

 tariff on foreign honey to push their 

 own product, which is very cneap. 



L'Apicoltoke. — Von Ranschenfels places 

 himself on the side of those who are not 

 willing to let the bees do their own super- 

 seding. In natural superseding, the col- 

 ony is generally weakened, as the old queen 

 is I ear her end. It is generally done with- 

 out the knowledge of the bee-keeper, so that 

 when unsuccessful, the colony is lost. In a 

 state of nature most colonies which perish 

 are destroyed by (jneenlessness. Queens in 

 their third year, in his experience, diminish 

 considerably in egg-laying, even when good. 

 Their colonies gather less, are not strong 

 for wintering, come out weak in the spring, 

 and remain behind in developemeut. Se- 

 lection in developing a good strain is im- 

 possible when breeding is left to the bees. 



