96 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



out the spaces thus left vacant below by 

 drawn combs. In 18%, when his neighbors 

 obtained little or no honey, he thus treated 



II out of an apiary of 34. The average of 

 the whole apiary was over 24 pounds. 

 The seven colonies from which brood 

 was taken averaged as they would 

 have done without treatment; the four col- 

 onies to which brood was added averaged 

 623^ pounds. None of the colonies treated 

 swarmed. In two of the very strong col- 

 onies the frames of the added story of brood 

 were in a direction at right angles to those 

 below, and were not invaded by the queen. 



III the other two they were parallel, and the 

 queens went above, causing the average to 

 be 12 pounds less than those of the oiher 

 two. 



A local bee-keepers' association has un- 

 dertaken the business of manufacturing 

 chocolate with honey instead of sugar. It 

 is said to be a superior article. 



Abbe Martin, commenting on Mr. 

 Greiner's experiments, tells how he had a 

 case in which young bees carried in pollen 

 at seven days of age. The young bees were 

 Italians, and the others in the hives Car- 

 niolans. 



A cement for soldering stone is made of 

 equal parts of sulphur, rosin and wax. The 

 two surfaces are to be warmed, and the 

 cement applied hot. 



L'Apiool,toee. — Editor VonRauschenfels 

 mentions one sign of queenlessness which 

 I do not remember to have seen before. In 

 speaking of the fact that queei less colonies 

 carry in much less pollen than normal ones, 

 he says the pellets of the queenless colony 

 are always thin. Other signs are the mo- 

 mentary hesitation of the workers before tak- 

 ing flight, and the " queenless hum " — but 

 the eye is needed, as well as the ear, to infer 

 queenlessness. But the most reliable sign 

 is the running about of single bees, espec- 

 ially after a cleansing flight, and also 

 the first thing in the morning, in 

 different directions on the alighting 

 board, just as they do in summer after sun- 

 set to ascertain if there are enemies in the 

 vicinity of the entrance. He advises dis- 

 posing of colonies which come out weak 

 and queenless in the spring by shaking 

 them off the combs at some distance from 

 the apiary, first allowing them to 

 fill themselves with honey. 



Last season bees were observed in 

 abundance on red clover in two 



localities in Italy. The editor thinks the 

 exceptional and abundant rains of mid- 

 summer caused an unusual supply of nectar, 

 which was thus enabled to rise higher in the 

 corolla. 



Speaking of putting up extracted honey, 

 he thinks that when it is allowed to stand 

 four or five days, and then drawn off below, 

 it is just as clear as if it had passed through 

 the finest strainers, which he now considers 

 perfectly useless. 



Von Hruschka the inventor of the extrac- 

 tor, asserted that if a comb of brood was 

 given to a first swarm, the queen would 

 almost always be killed. 



Formic acid, according to the Bieneupflege 

 is what preserves the spider's threads from 

 becoming rotten. Herr Reidenbach has 

 also found it in brood combs, and especially 

 in the cocoon which the larva of the bee 

 spins. The higher the temperature of the 

 combs rises in summer, the more ready the 

 acid is to escape. It also disappears from 

 too excessive treatment of the combs with 

 sulphur fumes. 



Herr Parraug, an experienced queen- 

 breeder, thinks laying workers become so by 

 being fed by the other bees with elaborated 

 food: implying, apparently, that such food 

 is usually given to the queen when she 

 is fed by the bees. 



Denvek, Col. Mar. 9, 1897. 



Contraction of Supers: Width of Sections; 

 Different Styles of Separators. 



E. A. DAGGITT. 



VTJHE extensive 

 X opening up of 

 our country to 

 agriculture has 

 greatly lessened 

 its power of hon- 

 ey production. 

 It has done this 

 in two ways. 

 First by means of 

 such instruments 

 as the plow and. 

 the axe avast 

 amount of nectar secreting plants and trees 

 has been destroyed; and, second, by chang- 

 ing the climate the amount of honey flora 

 has been still further lessened and the secre- 

 tion of nectar of the remaining flora has 



