128 



THF BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Bienen-Vateb.— W. Vogel, at the Vienna 

 convention, asserted that honey-dew is not 

 an excretion, but a secretion, of plant lice. 

 The salivary and digestive system are devel- 

 oped to an extraordinary degree. The ex- 

 crement is voided in the usual way ; the hon- 

 ey-dew is excreted through the so-called sap 

 tubes, soon after the chyle leaves the stom- 

 ach. These assertions were not disputed by 

 the convention, but his other statement, that 

 no honey-dew was gathered by bees which 

 was not a product of plant-lice, was denied 

 by Julius Steigel, who had cleansed trees of 

 lice and brushed them with lime in winter 

 without stopping the flow of sap. This flow, 

 though caused by plant-lice, can not be call- 

 ed their product ; but he claimed that it is 

 gathered by bees, and may rightly be called 

 honey-dew. Dr. Dzierzon took the ground 

 that raw sap cannot be transformed into 

 honey-dew without plant-lice. 



At this convention, W. Gunther stated that 

 he had crossed the Egyptian and German 

 races and found that the resulting hybrids, 

 unlike the German-Italians, did not revert 

 to one of the parent types after three or four 

 generations. He had also crossed the Cy- 

 prians with the Germans. Their progeny 

 strongly resembled Italians, particularly in 

 their tendency to cling to the combs. 



Several members cited examples of isola- 

 ted apiaries which had degenerated. In two 

 cases fresh blood was introduced, with strik- 

 ing results for the better, 



W. Gunther stated that after years of ex- 

 perience he had found that Italian queens 

 were not as long-lived as black ones, and 

 that Italian colonies more frequently died in 

 winter ; hence he prefered a cross between 

 them. 



L' Apicultbuk.— M. de Lay ens in 1894 chose 

 12 strong colonies, which he divided into two 

 lots of six each ; from one lot was made 

 three artificial swarms by the following 

 method : Denoting two colonies by A and 

 B, the bees of B were given empty frames 

 (sometimes frames partly filled with worker 

 comb, from which drone comb had been cut 

 out)together with one frame of brood and 

 one of honey ; the remaining combs of B 

 where then placed in a new hive C, which 

 was placed on the stand of A, the latter being 

 removed elsewhere. C thus received the 

 field bees of A. . This was done when the 

 bees were flying freely. The second lot of 

 six colonies was allowed to remain as they 

 were. They did not swarm. The following 



table gives the resulting surplus of each 

 lot: — 



Lot 2. 



Lot, 1. 

 B. 



Swarms. 

 31 



18 

 22 



71 lbs. 



v.. 



Old Col. 

 43 



24 



S:7 



94 lbs. 



A. 

 Col. removed. 



42 

 36 

 37 



105 lbs. 



47 



29 

 41 

 SO 

 32 

 34 



213 lb 8 

 Total of lot 1, 270 lbs. Difference in its 

 favor, 57 lbs., or 9^ lbs. to the colony, be- 

 sides three new colonies. 



In another apiary he selected 20 strong 

 colonies, which he divided into two equal 

 lots and treated as above. None of the sec- 

 ond lot swarmed. 



Lot 1. Lot 2. 



c ^- < • A. 



b warms. Old Col. Col. removed. 40 



32 14 31 27 



23 32 as 28 



11 26 22 40 



26 29 22 30 



16 22 45 37 



— — — 41 



107 lbs. 123 lbs. 138 lbs. 22 



26 

 28 



319 lbs 



Total of lot 1, 308 lbs. Difference in f avo r 

 of lot 1, 49 lbs. or 4,9 lbs, to the colony, be- 

 sides five new colonies. 



The swarms were made about twelve days 

 before the main flow. It is to be presumed 

 that extracted honey was produced. M. de 

 Layens also tried the same plan in 1893 with 

 similar results. It would be interesting to 

 know what kind of queens were raised by 0. 



A correspondent winters his bees success- 

 fully by kneading four parts of powdered 

 sugar with one of warm honey, spreading 

 with a rolling-pin, and placing the cake on 

 the frames over the cluster. 



L'Apiooltoee.— Dr. Metelli, speaking of 

 the idea that some bee-keepers have that one 

 story of deep frames for the brood chamber 

 of the Berlepsch hive is preferable to two 

 stories of small ones, says it is wholly theo- 

 retical to suppose that two bars and a bee- 

 space are an obstacle either to the queen or 

 bees, and not borne out by practice ; and 

 calls attention to the way in which the bees 

 work in separatord section supers, which 

 are perfect labyrinths. 



Dr. Dubini not only makes a practice of 

 hiving the swarm on the old stand, and re- 

 moving the old colony to a new one, but also 

 sets the old colony on the stand of another 

 strong colony which has not swarmed, re- 

 moving the latter. 



