THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



127 



\ 



swarmers, have cauped me to regard that 

 iiunil)er with increased favor. 



My experiments with non swarmers the 

 coming season will also be to test the rela- 

 tive merits of deep and L. frames in such 

 hives. 



In further treating this subject, I shall 

 leave the matter of double walls, packed or 

 otherwise, for consideration in the article on 

 my improved method of wintering. 



Jackson, Mich. April 2, ISDf). 



Notes From Foreign Journals. 



r. L. THOMPSON. 



I, 



LEIPZIGEB BIENENZEITUNG. 



LUDWIG argues for bottom ventila- 

 . , tion on the ground that the air arising 

 from the cluster, containing water vapor and 

 other injurious elements, is changed fast 

 enough by gradual cooling and consequent 

 sinking, and displacement from above by a 

 constant fresh supply of heated air, while at 

 the same time it does not change fast enough 

 to lose an undue proportion of heat, as is apt 

 to be the case with top ventilation when it 

 gets very cold. A winter space below the 

 frames he considers highly desirable for a 

 cooling reservoir to bring about the proper 

 rate of change of air. 



Curl Kruger asserts that carbonic acid gas 

 need never be taken into account in provid- 

 ing for ventilation. In this respect a hive is 

 comparable to our own sleeping apartments, 

 in which, even when closed and the air ap- 

 parently charged with it, the proportion of 

 carbonic acid never attains to one per cent., 

 and this does not occupy only the lower por- 

 tion of the atmosphere, but is diffused 

 throughout, owing to the principle of the 

 diffusion of gases. The symptoms of dis- 

 comfort, headache, and fainting are due to 

 the diffusion of volatile fatty acids given off 

 by the body, known as " autotoxins " or self- 

 poisons. These exhalations are rapidly ab- 

 sorbed by any porous material, and espec- 

 ially by water. Hence the superiority of 

 straw to wooden hives ; and hence care 

 should be taken that candied sugar for win- 

 ter feeding is melted by warmth and not by 

 the moisture from inner precipitations, and, 

 in general, that no such precipitations be al- 

 lowed. As far as keeping the air pure is 

 concerned, the position of the entrance 

 makes no difference. Namerous experi- 



ments on dogs, rabbits, etc., with the water 

 precipitated on the " windows " of German 

 hives have shown that it is a violent poison. 



A. von Rauschenfels contributes a brief 

 synopsis of extensive experiments made by 

 Dr. Tesselsky. A Polish physician. Baron 

 von Berlepsch long ago affirmed that a col- 

 ony, the walls of whose hive were damp, was 

 suffering from thirst, while a colony in a dry 

 hive had water enough. Dr. Tesselsky's ex- 

 periments confirm this view. 



Three grammes of honey taken from 

 sealed cells absorbed only ..580 grammes of 

 water in 24 hours from air warmed to a tem- 

 perature of 8G° F. while three grammes of 

 the same honey exposed to air containing 

 the same absolute amount of moisture, but 

 cooled to W°, absorbed 1.527 grammes in 24 

 hours. Other experiments with air which 

 had been cooled as much as possible (how 

 much is not said) gave 1.0.32 gr. as the 

 amount absorbed by 3 gr. of honey when the 

 air was warmed to 86°, and 2.7 gr. when 

 cooled to 50°. In the dry air of an ordinary 

 living room, however, at a temperature of 

 61°, 3 gr. of honey lost .04 gr. of water. Five 

 gr. of honey, suspended in a cluster of bees 

 at a constant temperature of 50°, absorbed 

 3.068 gr. of water in 24 hours, as the average 

 of three experiments. In another case the 

 same quantity absorbed 4.205 gr. in 48 hours. 

 The conclusions drawn are that as the bees 

 always keep some honey uncapped in winter, 

 a little in advance of their needs, consider- 

 ably more than half its weight of water is 

 absorbed by it (as a larger surface is exposed 

 than was possible in the experiments) so 

 that not enough is left, ordinarily, to become 

 visible as precipitation ; that as an average 

 colony consumes 1/i grammes of honey in 24 

 hours, they thus procure for themselvfes a 

 daily allowance of 10 grammes of water ; 

 and in exceptional cases, that when the tem- 

 perature rises too high, none is absorbed, 

 and the bees suffer from thirst, which they 

 have to satisfy either by taking up the pre- 

 cipitations or venturing an out-door flight. 

 Hence the temperature should not be allowed 

 to rise above 4G", or else the bees should be 

 watered. 



Hives covered with pasteboard, painted 

 when set outside, are in successful use by 

 many Swiss bee-keepers. 



A correspondent computes that a linden 

 tree during its lifetime yields over $70 worth 

 of honey, while its timber is worth about 

 .flO. Forestry associations please notice. 



