c 



170 



THE drop in 

 the price of 

 honey caught 

 the Honey Pro- 

 duce r s ' Ex- 

 change with a 

 few carloads of 

 honey still on 

 hand, according 

 to t h e January . 



Western Honeybee. The editor evidently 

 fears this might reflect on the Exchange, 

 and therefore he states that most of the 

 producers restricted the Exchange to a mini- 

 mum price higher " "' ' ^'"*' 

 warrant. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



THE BEST FROM OTHERS 



3 



lona Fowls 



ur 



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than the market would 



"European foul brood, together with un- 

 wise inspection," has decreased the number 

 of colonies in one county in California near- 

 ly 50 per cent, according to the January 

 Western Honeybee. [The emphasized word- 

 ing is our own.] 



SUGGESTIONS. 



In the February American Bee Journal 

 are the following suggestions: (1) Royal 

 jelly may be preserved for weeks at a time 

 if placed in a small bottle and corked tight. 

 (2) By judicious advertising "we may well 

 expect to maintain the price of honey at a 

 profitable point. It stands the beekeeper m 

 hand to begin his advertising campaign be- 

 fore a smash comes." (3) When mating a 

 queen from an upper story, Frank C. Pel- 

 lett says he alwavs gives a ripe cell the next 

 dav after raising brood so the queen will 

 begin laying before all the brood is hatched. 

 * * * 



DETEEMIXATION OF SEX OF BEE. 



In speaking of attempts to disprove par- 

 thenogenesis in case of bees, Geo. W. Bulla- 

 more, in the Irish Bee Journal for Novem- 

 ber considers it possible that the Italian 

 bee' is the result of the crossing of other 

 races; and he says the difficulty of finding a 

 race of bees than can be guaranteed free 

 frbni an admixture of some other race, to- 

 gether with the tendency of colonies to ac- 

 cept drones from other hives, makes it 

 necessarv for us to accept with caution any 

 arguments against parthenogenesis which 

 are based on the presence of multiple types 

 of drones. Altho he believes written evidence 

 upholds the view that sex is determined by 

 fertilization, he says it is nevertheless pos- 

 sible that sex is determined by some other 

 factor outside of the egg. 

 * * * 



GOVERXMENT ASSISTANCE TO BEEKEEPERS. 



The British and Irish beekeepers are far 

 from appreciating some of the assistance 

 the Government has been offering them of 

 late. The editor of the November Irish Bee 

 Journal intimates that the Government has 

 been starving bees by refusing to supply 

 the beekeepers with good sugar, and, in- 

 stead, selling them at a high price sugar so 

 heavily drugged that the bees refuse to 

 touch it. He also objects to the leaflets of 



March, 1919 



advice that 

 have been issu- 

 ed to beekeepers 

 by the British 

 G o V e rn m ent. 

 Some of these 

 leaflets have 

 been returned 

 with strong pro- 

 tests. The last, 

 No. 48, is now on the desk before us, and we 

 hardly wonder at the forcefulness of the 

 protest when we find among other objection- 

 able practices the advice to make increase 

 early in the spring by removing a frame of 

 brood and two of honey, with adhering bees, 

 jilace on a new stand, and allow them to 

 raise their own queen. 



* * * 



HOW NECTAR IS THICKENED. 



That the six glands of the rectum of the 

 bee are for withdrawing from the blood 

 some of the excess of water gathered in the 

 nectar is the belief of Dr. Brunnich, as 

 stated in the February American Bee Jour- 

 nal. He says at least half of the water 

 which makes up 80 per cent of the nectar 

 passes thru the fine membrane of the honey- 

 sac into the surrounding blood while the 

 bee is flying home. In the rectum the six 

 glands remove the superfluous water, which 

 is discharged before the bee enters the hive. 

 By evaporation inside the hive he believes 

 there is done only a small part of the thick- 

 ening of the honey — ' ' from 30 to 40 per 

 cent to about 18 per cent." This statement 

 is a little confusing but we believe he means 

 that the nectar when carried into the hive 

 contains 30 per cent or 40 per cent of water 

 and after evaporation only 18 per cent. 

 * * * 



INSPECTION WORK. 



Less law and more education is needed 

 concerning foul brood and spraying of fruit 

 trees, according to Frank C. Pellett, in the 

 February American Bee Journal. Mr. Pel- 

 lett, who has been five years an inspector, 

 believes the owner should have more au- 

 thority in the management of his oavii prop- 

 erty. In regard to inspection work, he 

 says that the time an inspector spends in 

 examining one apiary might be spent to 

 much better advantage in teaching two 

 dozen people how to inspect and treat their 

 own colonies. 



[More educational work is certainly need- 

 ed; but rather than discard present laws we 

 should be inclined to make them still more 

 stringent and pay a little more attention to 

 their enforcement. We heartily agree with 

 the advice to "get after the extension de- 

 partment of your agricultural colleges to 

 put expert beemen into the field." This is 

 at least a step in the right direction.] 

 * * * 



FIBER CONTAINERS FOR HONEY. 



In the January Domestic Beekeeper J. E. 

 Crane says he is well pleased with the fiber 

 containers, since they are neat and sanitary, 

 seal perfectly, require no labels, and cost 



