September, 1916. 



305 



American Hee Journal 



;>^ ■ <n^^ J 



use lO-frame hives, but only 8 frames 

 in the supers. They use foundation 

 starters, and when the combs are filled 

 the honey is extracted and the wax 

 rendered. Then new starters are put 

 in By this method a great amount of 

 wax is produced and of the very finest 

 quality. It also avoids the danger of 

 wax-moths who are very numerous and 

 very destructive. 



It is my aim to get fully acquainted 

 with the value of this cheap honey- 

 dew for feeding bees. I expect to ship- 

 a ton of it to my locality in Idaho 

 for an experiment in feeding, and 

 will be glad to report upon it in 

 the American Bee Journal, as it might 

 prove of value for that purpose to the 

 beekeepers of the sweet clnver and 

 alfalfa districts. They could thus save 

 their better grades for sale. 



There may be beekeepers in the 

 United States who are looking for bet- 

 ter locations and thinking of coming 

 here. In my opinion it is not the place 

 to locate, the best spots are in the 

 hands of four large companies and be- 

 long to men who live in the city. The 

 small beekeeper who would live near 

 his bees would have only natives and 

 Japs as neighbors and society. There 

 are no bee diseases here, but the moth, 

 as I said before, is very bad. The cli- 

 mate is pleasant, but the warm air and 

 dampness cause one to perspire so 

 freely that those unaccustomed to it 

 cannot stand hard labor. Very few of 

 the whites here do any manual labor. 

 But it is a beautiful place for a vacation. 



Honolulu. Hawaii. 

 ||[Mr. Porter, whose portrait was 

 given in our June number, page 189, 

 1915, is one of our old experienced bee- 

 keepers. His interesting letter con- 

 firms some of the things mentioned by 

 Dr. Phillips, in 1909, in Bulletin No. 75 

 Part 5, on "Hawaiian Beekeeping." Dr 

 Phillips already mentioned the desir- 

 ability of increasing the production of 

 beeswax instead of honey. This branch 

 of the industry does not seem to have 

 made much if any progress in the seven 

 years that have elapsed. An apiarist 

 of South America at one time claimed 

 to produce beeswax on a large scale 



from low priced honey. Hawaii would 

 certainly be the proper country to do 

 this if the thing is feasible. It is quite 

 probable that the Hawaiians have as 

 good method as may be devised. Even 

 if beeswax costs the bees 10 pounds of 

 honey for each pound produced, there 

 would be a fortune in a practical 

 method of wax production that would 

 not weaken the colony. 



We will be glad to hear further from 

 friend Porter.— Euitor.] 



Habits and Life Functions of 

 Bees 



BY J. E. HANP. 



IN solving problems involving the 

 activities of bees, it is important to 

 have an experimental knowledge 

 of bee nature and a correct interpreta- 

 tion of the laws that govern their acts, 

 lest we draw wrong conclusions con- 

 cerning their activities. As well try to 

 define the motion of planets in the 

 heavenly constellations with a tele- 

 scope, without experimental knowledge 

 of astronomy, as to presume to draw 

 right conclusions from observations 

 with glass hives, without the ability to 

 distinguish between abnormal and nor- 

 mal activities of bees. An interesting 

 feature of the domestic economy of the 

 hive is that many important problems 

 are solved by bees incidentally and in- 

 sensibly through the performance of 

 the ordinary functions of life. 



For example, nectar is digested to 

 make honey, and incidentally and in- 

 sensibly wax is secreted by the internal 

 organs. Likewise, honey is consumed 

 to sustain life, and incidentally and in- 

 sensibly larval food is secreted by in- 

 voluntary action, and heat is generated, 

 presumably by the process of metabol- 

 ism and the oxidation of food con- 

 sumed and transmitted to the cluster. 

 It is, therefore apparent that every bee 

 that consumes food and inhales oxygen 

 is a unit of incessant involuntary heat 

 generation, not excepting queens and 

 drones. . 



Likewise supersedure cells are built 



because of temporary exhaustion o 

 queen fertility, and incidentally swarms 

 are precipitated by the presence of 

 capped queen-cells. I believe that 

 swarming is a momentary impulse de- 

 veloped and quickened by the antago- 

 nism of a vigorous queen towards a 

 capped queen-cell, aided and abetted by 

 the innate habit or impulse of bees to 

 seek a new home when domestic dis- 

 cord demands it. Again, bees form a 

 compact cluster for mutual warmth 

 and comfort, and incidentally heat is 

 conserved and regulated by external 

 meteorological fluctuations operating 

 through the expansion and contraction 

 of said cluster. For example, cold 

 weather contracts the cluster, conserv- 

 ing the heat, and causing a rising tem- 

 perature within said cluster, and 7'ke 

 versa. Even a slight contraction will 

 immediately be followed by a corres- 

 ponding rise of temperature, and vice 

 versa It, therefore, follows that ex- 

 pansion and contraction of the cluster 

 is the sum and substance of heat gen- 

 eration and regulation so far as relates 

 to the activity of bees. While I believe 

 these deductions are reasonably cor- 

 rect, mortal is not immune from error, 

 therefore, I have great respect for any 

 whose opinions may differ from mine. 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



[The term "digested" applied to nec- 

 tar which is transformed into honey is 

 not accepted by all. There is an un- 

 doubted chemical change in nectar, 

 between its secretion in the blossoms 

 and its deposition in the cells and this 

 change is wrought in the honey-sac. 

 But it is not a true " digestion."— Ed.] 



PACKING CASE READY FOR INSERTION OF A COLONY OF BEES 



Packing a Small Apiary 



BY JOHN A. STEVENS. 



ATTACHED is a photograph of a 

 part of my apiary and also a pho- 

 tograph of the winter case which 

 I have used for the past four years. As 

 my winter losses are so small I shall 

 continue to use the same method. The 

 cases are 24x28 inches, inside measure- 

 ment, 30 inches high. Roof hung on 

 hinges so as to turn back out of the 

 way when packing or other m mipula- 

 tions. A shows a bottom-board on its 

 edge or side. The tray is 24 inches 

 long over all. It should have been 

 turned the other way so as to show the 

 4-inch cap that goes across the front 

 end on tOp of the tray. This leaves 20 

 inches to set the hive on, and it butts 

 up against the cap, which makes 5 

 inches (when the hive is placed in 

 case) for the bees to travel. The trays 

 are about 3 inches deep, which leaves a 

 space between the bottom-board and 

 ihe lower part of the hive for dead 

 bees to drop, and as the entrance in the 

 tray is at the top, there is no danger of 

 the entrance filling up with ice or dead 

 bees. 



B shows the hive with an inverted 

 butter chip placed on top of the brood- 

 frames, which I claim permits the bees 

 to pass up over the top of brood frames 

 when thev have consumed ill the honey 

 above the cluster and pass over where 

 there are more stores, instead of bump- 

 ing their heads up against the cover 



