THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



125 



cells not arched over hy the bees, but sealed 

 Hat. These are seldom seen, because in 

 most cases the woikirs become aware of 

 this error and remove the larva. 



Leipzioek Bienkn/kituno. — N. Ludwig, 

 who has lately publislied a pamphlet oppos- 

 ing Gerstuiig's views, thinks the common 

 opinion that a worker larva develops into a 

 queen simply by a chimge of food, is wrong. 

 Otherwise, a larva intended to be a queen 

 should develop into a worker if fed with 

 worker food, but this has never been 

 observed. ( The obvious reply to this 

 seems to be, that under ordinary circumstan- 

 ces the bees never think of trying it; but how 

 do we know that result would not follow if 

 they did ? It is also hard to imagine how he 

 would explain the circumstance that colo- 

 nies made queenless often rear queens from 

 larva- several days old, if not by a change 

 of food.) 



Observations by Lndwig Thobe on an 

 Italianized colony iu May showed that the 

 young bees seldom carried in pollen, and 

 then only in small pellets, while more than 

 half of the old bees were carrying in large 

 pellets, although they were 8 and 9 months 

 old. This continued until the old bees 

 died off, or nearly a month. 



The Ilgen hive has two entrances on each 

 long side, exactly opposite each other. 

 The colony in spring occupies one end of 

 the hive and uses one entrance. When it 

 swarms, the swarm is hived in the other end, 

 and the hive turned end for end, so that all 

 th« lli^htbees join the swarm. Towards the 

 end of the season a tin partition in the mid- 

 dle is removed, the old <iueen being presum- 

 ably destroyed at tlie >ame time. Thus the 

 queens are renewed every year without in- 

 crease. 



In the grand duchies of Mecklenburg and 

 Schwerin, a foul-brood law is in force, by 

 which bee-keepers are recompensed the full 

 value of bees destroyed by a foul brood 

 commi:=sion (throuyli ;i deputy ), and three- 

 fourths of the value of hives and other be- 

 longings, without regard to the diminution 

 in value caused by the disease itself. To 

 meet the expense, an appropriation of 1000 

 marks has been maile from the public 

 treasnry to start with, and whenever neces- 

 sary a tax will be levied on all colonies of 

 the district alive on the ir»th of February. 



The warmth of a b< rs body is tixed some- 

 what definitely by K. I'reos at Sljij' degrees 

 F. He took obsevations on two sets of 



seven bees eacli with a specially prepared 

 galvanometer. The junction of the two 

 metals in the instrument, which under the 

 influence of heat caused the electrical cur- 

 rent, was formed into a sharp needle, just 

 long enough to jab into a bee's thorax with- 

 out going through. The temperature of the 

 room was G8\ The individual bees varied 

 very little in temperature from one another. 

 A glass containing a few bees was heated to 

 1)932°, when the temperature of the only 

 surviving bee was found to be 1).")°. Another 

 glass with a few bees was cooled to 47%°. 

 Three of these, after being warmed up 

 enough to crawl, averaged 77°. More ex- 

 tensive observations will be taken next sum- 

 mer. The cold-blooded way in which all 

 this is told is paralleled by the methods of 

 some of our apiarists in finding out whether 

 honey is being gathered, by killing and 

 opening bees. We have all killed more 

 bees accidently than we ever will in the 

 cause of science, but it is worth thinking 

 about whether this recklessness of life in 

 the latter case does not strictly belong to a 

 former stage of development. There are 

 delicate instruments for measuring heat by 

 radiation, so that it seems as if it ought to 

 be possible to get a bee's temperature by 

 comparison with inanimate objects of known 

 temperature, without killing it. 



In the June Review, page 188, I spoke of 

 honey being sold in France and Switzerland 

 in the granulated state. I lately received 

 word that a bee-keeper in south-western 

 Colorado sold four tons of granulated hon- 

 ey in the adjoining districts. Oaly three 

 years ago not a pound could be sold there in 

 that form; now, that bee-keeper can not 

 produce enough to satisfy the home de- 

 mand. The honey was put up in three and 

 five lb. lard pails, holding five and seven 

 and a half lbs. of honey. They were filled 

 from the extractor and allowed to granulate. 

 Then a neat label was put on, stating that 

 all Colorado honey will granulate if pure, 

 and giving instructions for liquefying. 

 After this I am not going to believe that it 

 does not pay to <ell granulated honey. The 

 case is different from what it is when the 

 honey granulate-- iu the consumer's hands. 

 When he buys it nlrendi^ granulated, he 

 necessarily has -ome idea of the case; and 

 the above instance indicates that such buy- 

 ers may be numerous enough to take all the 

 honey. 



Denveb, Col. April 1. 1897. 



