I'HE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



167 



had it since, as he says '' my experience en- 

 ables me to state witli ct«rtainty that feeding 

 with lysol will prevent and cure foul brood." 

 He found, however, that lysol alone was not 

 a practical remedy in all cases, as he was 

 obliged to keep feeding one colony in an ad- 

 vanced stage of the disease eight weeks be- 

 fore the brood became sound. Of three oth- 

 er colonies which showed signs of the disease 

 No. 1 was fed with lysol, the queen of No. 2 

 was caged, and No. M was let alone. No. 1 

 was soon cured. No. 2 went on developing 

 the disease after the queen was released, and 

 No. :3 soon reached an advanced stage. The 

 latter was cured afterwards by cutting out 

 part of the brood and removing the rest, 

 then feeding. In fourteen days it was per- 

 fectly healthy. He suggests that the brood 

 removed from such colonies may all be put 

 together, with a handful of bees, and set 

 aside to hatch out, when a new colony may 

 be formed by giving them a queen. 



Gravenhorst is quoted as saying that the 

 bees which perish in the snow on taking a 

 flight are only the weak and sick ones, which 

 would soon die anyhow. 



There is a right and a wrong way of using 

 feathers for brushing bees, according to 

 Herr Schweickert. He uses a single feather, 

 the fourth or fifth one in the wing of a goose, 

 heron or stork. For right-handed people it 

 should be from the left wing. It should be 

 used with the convex side in advance and 

 the narrower half next the comb, and furn- 

 ished with an elder or sunflower stalk for a 

 handle. 



A. von Rauschenfels, editor of VAjncol- 

 tore, occasionally contributes to German 

 periodicals. He is called by Gravenhorst 

 " a bee-keeper of the first rank." In an ar- 

 ticle on uniting, he says it is no use to unite 

 in the fall ; if a queenless colony is used, the 

 added bees live just long enough to do their 

 share of eating until brood-rearing time and 

 then die : if a weak colony is used, the fact 

 that it is weak makes its proportion of young 

 bees not worth while reckoning, and one of 

 the queens must be killed. He keeps the 

 colonies separate, but winters them in the 

 same hive, one over the other, with an air- 

 tight partition between, and an additional 

 entrance, not too small, above. They are 

 united three weeks before the main flow, 

 when the extra queen can be disposed of at 

 pleasure. 



H. Freudenstein cares diarrhuja by feed- 

 ing warm sugar syrup, without giving op- 



portunity for a cleansing flight. If the 

 weather is cold, tlie food has to be brought 

 close to the cluster. His theory is that when 

 the food is good, diarrhua is not caused by 

 confinement or disturbance, but is the phys- 

 ical effect of a fear of perishing, which lat- 

 ter may be brought about by a giving out of 

 the stores on particular combs, by candying 

 of the honey, hopeless queenlessness, lack of 

 air, etc. It may be produced in summer, 

 for example, by boxing up bees without 

 brood or queen. 



Herr Mulot contends that old bees are not 

 only as good, but better, for wintering than 

 young ones. If brood-rearing is stimulated 

 in the fall, the old bees, of course, wear 

 themselves out ; but by comparing the dead 

 bees of a colony which did not rear brood 

 late with those of one which did, they will be 

 found less numerous in the former, other 

 things being ecjual ; or if a queen of a differ- 

 ent race is introduced to a colony in Sep- 

 temfier, and brood-rearing incited, a greater 

 percentage of young bees will be found dead 

 later, on the bottom-board. The old bees 

 are the ones which work out of doors in the 

 spring, and start the develoi)ment of the 

 colony. The cause for the perishing of col- 

 onies consisting of old bees only is to be 

 found in the weakness of the colony as a 

 whole. He once united four queenless col- 

 onies late giving them a (lueen, in the fall, 

 none of which had had any young bees born 

 since the end of July. The resulting colony 

 wintered successfully, developed well in the 

 spring, and gathered considerable willow 

 honey in April. 



The tariff on honey in Germany is at pres- 

 ent a little over two cents a pound. Ger- 

 many consumes annually over 77 million 

 pounds, of which 4() to 48 millions are pro- 

 duced at home. In 18!).'? over eight million 

 pounds were imported, of which over two 

 millions were from Chili, over one million 

 from Mexico, over two millions from the 

 Spanish Antilles, and nearly one million 

 from the United States : nearly 05,000 pounds 

 being exported. Last year the imports were 

 increased. There are some discrepancies in 

 these figures, which are given by a Herr 

 Seust. They may possibly be accounted for 

 by the " artificial honey " listed in the tariff. 



Vogel, in the Noerdliche Bienenzeitung, 

 says the larv.e of bees are continually mov- 

 ing after their food, com))leting the circuit 

 of the cell every two hours, at which times 

 they receive a fresh supply ; so that they are 

 fed twelve times a day. 



