.Inly, 11)16. 



\ -»^^-<c^^^MAm0rican ;Bgc Journal 



recording. When colonies are treated 

 for American foulbrood by the starva- 

 tion plan and transferred twice, there 

 is a tendency for some swarms to de- 

 sert the hive, at the second transfer. 

 In prevention of this desertion, Mr. 

 Booer clips the queen's wings just be- 

 fore treating the colony, and insures 

 the withholding of the swarm. A comb 

 of brood, given after treatment, helps 

 satisfy the swarm. 



Mr. Davidson, the Atascosa County 

 Inspector, a man of great experience, 

 mentioned paralysis as a disease quite 

 common after long spells of confine- 

 ment. He calls it "constipation," which 

 changes to an epidemic, under certain 

 conditions. We believe " constipation " 

 is the better name. 



Our next trip was to Hondo, on the 

 Monday following. 



[To be continued ] 



w 



About the Combs 



BY DR. BRUNNICH. 



|HEN I hive the beautiful cluster 

 of an artificial swarm, I often find 

 in the swarm-box a new white 

 comb ; then I cannot but admire the 

 charming little work of the beautiful 

 hexagons of wax, which no human 

 master with all the craft of his race 

 and with all the perfect instruments at 

 his disposition can copy. Considering 

 that this little mrsterwork is not only 

 a wonder of exactest and minutest 

 architecture, but that it represents the 

 simplest, the most suitable and the 

 most parsimonious cradle, the enjoy- 

 ment in beholding it is the greater, and 

 one is touched for an instant by a 

 solemn feeling before the wonderful 

 works of the Almighty. These little 

 cells, formed of the very blood of the 



bees, represent the cradles of the com- 

 ing generation, they serve as s/orc- 

 rooms for the noblest product of the 

 plants, the pollen, and for the divine 

 nectar, the honey. 



But like all things of the world, the 

 golden combs urmu old, the more gen- 

 erations of bee-children are reared in 

 them from the egg to the full-grown 

 insect, the darker becomes the waxen 

 palace. The fresh new comb is white; 

 it colors in the course of time in the 

 hive to yellow, without brood being 

 reared therein. Already the great 

 Huber endeavored to find the reason 

 of this coloration, without giving a 

 satisfying explanation. Huber found 

 that the bees fasten a thread of propolis 

 on the horizontal edges of the hexa- 

 gons, partly perhaps to bring the hexa- 

 gon to the circle, partly for solidity. 



Only breeding in the new combs 

 changes them in color and solidity 

 essentially. It is well known that the 

 bee-egg evolves in the open cell to the 

 grown-up worm (larva) in %}i days. 

 The cast off skins, as well as the excre- 

 ments, are left in the bottom of the cell. 

 Now the larva is enclosed under a 

 porous cover and it spins its cocoon, 

 an extremely fine weft, by drawing a 

 thin thread in all directions. 



After being spun in, which takes 

 about a day, the larva remains motion- 

 less, but in the body of the worm an 

 exceedingly active work begins, the 

 Iransformatioyi ; under the subtile skin 

 there are growing feelers, eyes, tongue, 

 legs, sting, etc , there are forming 

 trachea with their delicate clasps or 

 spirals of chiiin and the glands. All 

 these are built of a fatty and albumin- 

 ous substance, which fills the greatest 

 part of the interior of the larva; 21 

 days after the queen has laid the egg 

 into the cell the young bee is ready to 



SECTION ACROSS A VERY OLD WOKKEK-CO.MB 



emerge. As soon as it has left its 

 narrow room other young bees come 

 to prepare the cell for a new egg. 

 They varnish the inner wall of the cell, 

 especially the bottom containing the 

 skins and excrements of the larva, with 

 an extremely thin layer of wax. Before 

 the queen lays an egg, she "looks" 

 with her antenn:e into the cell to satisfy 

 herself that it is well prepared. 



Every beekeeper knows the brilliancy 

 of the cell-bottoms, when the bees have 

 prepared the brood-nesi for the queen. 

 So the young "house bees" have not 

 only to clean their hive, take care of 

 the brood, look after the honey, etc. ; 

 every day in the busy season they have 

 to wax and dry— rub over— 3000 cells. 

 The accompanying cut shows the 

 schematic section of an old comb. The 

 bottom of the cells has become thick 

 on account of the skins and excre- 

 ments, the thickening of the walls is 

 insignificant, because the cocoons are 

 extremely slight. If one puts a piece 

 of old comb for some hours into ben- 

 zine, which dissolves the wax, it is not 

 difiicult to draw out one cocoon after 

 the other, like little bags, and by count- 

 ing all the bags it is possible to estab- 

 lish how often bees have been bred in 

 the comb. If a comb is used for brood 

 only once, its solidity is remarkably 

 augmented, and every one knows the 

 extreme toughness of old black combs. 



As a rule, I discard all brood-combs, 

 which are so thickened, that by looking 

 through against the light, they are not 

 transparent at all. These combs are 

 unfit for breeding, and it is chiefly the 

 last years that the bee-men have learned 

 that the bees do not like to breed in 

 those old black combs. My explanation 

 for the antipathy of the bees against 

 old combs is the following : If we ex- 

 amine early in spring a colony with 

 rather new combs, we can observe that 

 the brood-circles on both sides of a 

 comb are very exactly corresponding 

 to each other. It is as if the queen or 

 the bees could recognize across the 

 middle rib of the comb the eggs of the 

 other side. It is clear that this corres- 

 ponding of the two brood-circles is 

 useful ; the larva: on both sides of the 

 bottom of the cells are warming each 

 other. If the cell-bottoms are very 

 thick, it is diflScult, if not impossible, 

 to match the brood-circles on both 

 sides of the comb ; besides the thick 

 wall between the two larvs is a con- 

 siderable hinderance for mutual warm- 

 ing. In summer this circumstance is 

 no longer important, but in spring the 

 effect is indeed this, that colonies with 

 old combs cannot develop themselves 

 to the desirable strength. 



It is possible that in the United 

 States (where the honey crop is not 

 only five to ten times as large as with 

 us, but also much later and longer), 

 this fact is of little significance, but in 

 most parts of Switzerland and middle 

 Germany it is of the highest impor- 

 tance. Here the bees begin to breed, 

 as a rule, in March, and it requires a 

 good queen and resistant bees for 

 bringing the colony to its full develop- 

 ment in the middle of May. Very often 

 the weather in April, and even in May, 

 is wet and cold and frosts are frequent, 

 but as the honey yielding lasts only 

 from the middle of May (sometimes 

 earlier) until the hay harvest, which 



