454 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 1 



Stray Straws 



By Dr. C. C. Miller 



A HERD-BOOK is proposed in Switzerland 

 in which to register pedigreed queens. Those 

 Swiss are bound to keep in the lead. 



John Silver, Irish Bee Journal, 117, says 

 that eggs of the same age were "transferred 

 to queen-cell cups at the same time, sealed 

 on the same day, remained side by side in 

 the same hive, and yet there was a differ- 

 ence of two days in hatching." 



Delightful it is to see our departed coun- 

 tryman, E. L. Pratt, spoken of so highly by 

 Austrian bee-keepers. The official report of 

 the Austrian association says that his dis- 

 ciiurses when in that country have given a 

 new turn to bee-keeping in Austria. 



Dr. Bruennich (Bienen- Voter, 57), says a 

 sting is not always fatal to a queen unless 

 she IS stung between the rings of the abdo- 

 men. If stung in the thorax it may cripple a 

 leg, the nerve that controls the leg being af- 

 fected thereby, and that's generally the cause 

 of crippled queens. The colony of such a 

 (jueen is not likely to do good work. [Dr. 

 Bruennich's statement harmonizes with ob- 

 servations that we have been able to make. 

 —Ed.] 



Can bees fly backward, p. 380? At their 

 regular work you may see nothing of the 

 kind. But set a hive off its stand and put 

 on the stand an empty hive. You will not 

 only plainly see the bees flying backward, 

 but uphill at that— just been trying it. 



Later. — Been watching bees at play. Same 

 flying backward uphill. [We have watched 

 the bees, but never have seen them fly back- 

 ward on an ascending plane. Did you ever 

 see them fly backward on the same plane like 

 a hummingbird? — Ed.] 



Austrian bee-keepers, if I understand the 

 thing correctly, changed to a frame so little 

 different from the Langstroth size, because 

 their former deep frame by turning over 

 could become a comparatively shallow one. 

 Ought to have said so before, but didn't 

 know enough. [This puts a new phase on 

 the whole situation. If the Austrian bee- 

 keepers changed to a size that would enable 

 them to use the same frame, hung either 

 way, then we can see some reason why they 

 should adopt the size they did. We hereby 

 extend to them our apologies. — Ed.] 



John \yARD, referring to a Straw on page 

 :V.}0, asks: "Where do you buy foundation 

 that comes clear down to the bottom-bar? 

 The light brood that The A. I. Root Co. sell 

 does not." Only the sizes most commonly 

 in use are listed, but you'll have no trouble 

 getting any size you order. If splints are 

 used enough it will be nothing strange if the 

 deeper size is listed. Whether the bottom- 

 bar be plain or split, I suspect it is quite im- 

 Eortant that the foundation be waxed to the 

 ottom-bar, so the bees will be less likely to 

 gnaw a passage. [Foundation can be bought 



of any of the manufacturers cut to any size 

 desired. — Ed.] 



H. E. Crowthers' brief mention of five- 

 inch splints, page 42fj, may lead to a real im- 

 provement. If bees gnaw at the splints, 

 they always begin at the bottom. Now, if 

 the splints are not needed at the bottom, and 

 the end of a splint is inside the cluster, may 

 be the bees will not feel it their duty to gnaw 

 it. [This suggestion we consider wortTiy of 

 further experiments. Apparently five-inch 

 splints would eliminate all trouble. We sug- 

 gest that some of our subscribers try the 

 short ones under conditions when the bees 

 would usually gnaw a wooden splint. We 

 would also suggest that long and short splints 

 be used in alternation in the same frame. If 

 the long ones are gnawed out from the bot- 

 tom and the short ones untouched, it would 

 give us a pointer on what the bees will ac- 

 cept. — Ed.] 



Here are some figures from Russia, L'Api- 

 culteur, 472: A worker larva, at its largest de- 

 velopment, weighs, according to Dr. Dengof, 

 184 milligrams. That may be better un- 

 derstood if I say it takes 2465 larvae to weigh 

 a pound. According to Prof. Fischer it takes 

 3042. As the young bee matures, its weight 

 diminishes; and 4279 bees, as they emerge 

 from the cell, weigh a pound. Yet there is 

 a little nourishment in its stomach, and, ab- 

 solutely empty, it takes 4930 to the pound, 

 after Dengof, and 5532 after Berlepsch. Aft- 

 Tsecelsky it takes 4348 emerging workers, 

 and 2314 drones, to make a pound. Swarm- 

 ing bees weigh 3490 to the pound. An aver- 

 age swarm of lyi to 2 kilograms (3.3 to 4.4 

 pounds) contains 12,000 to 16,000 bees, hav- 

 ing taken up 16 to 21 ounces of honey. [The 

 figures as to the number of bees in a pound 

 are substantially the same as the figures made 

 some years ago, reported in these columns. 

 Swarms of bees usually weigh more than or- 

 dinary bees in a normal condition in a colo- 

 ny.— Ed.] 



Gaston Bonnier, Apiculteur, 204, says the 

 popular notion that bees find their way a 

 long distance because they see so far with 

 the compound eyes is all wrong. A carrier 

 pigeon has some sense by which it finds its 

 way home where sight is impossible; same 

 with a bee. Catch a bee on the flowers, cov- 

 er its eyes with a coat of blackened collodi- 

 on, and, when freed, he says, this blind bee 

 will steer straight for home. [Some of these 

 experiments should be verified before we 

 come to any definite conclusion. Perhaps 

 the darkened collodion would shut off all 

 possible vision. If a bee can intuitively go 

 back to its home, we do not understand why 

 it does not do so when taken away from the 

 environment or range of the bee flight to 

 which it has been accustomed; but no; it will 

 make numerous circles to mark all surround- 

 ing objects, so that it may distinguish its own 

 home, and these circles constantly enlarge 

 as it takes in all the surroundings. Appar- 

 ently vision is an important factor in deter- 

 mininiy a bee's location homeward, but it is 

 probably not the only factor.— Ed.] 



