534 



GLHANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 1 



WALKER S PLAN OF USING AN UfPER ENTRANCE IN CON- 

 NECTION WITH AN ALIGHTING-BOARD TO GET THE 

 WORKING-BEES DIRECTLY INTO THE SUPERS. 



nection with the ahghting-board scheme. I 

 procured 200 of the new excluders, and have 

 been using about 170 of them in the past two 

 weeks, and I am glad to be able to report 

 favorably. While, of course, the bees start 

 (luicker in the supers where no excluders 

 are used, or where they are obliged to work 

 largely over the old style, I find with good 

 (jueens after a start is once made in the su- 

 pers, with a good flow on, there is apparent- 

 ly no hindrance to rapid storing above the 

 new excluders; and I will say if the outcome 

 of the season bears out the opinion I have 

 formed so far (many supers having been fill- 

 ed in the last few days), I shall have a lot of 

 zinc excluders for sale very cheap. 



There is one point that I think I forgot to 

 emphasize as an advantage of no small im- 

 portance in using my alighting-board scheme; 

 and that is, the facility with which old queens 

 can be superseded and a supply of young 

 laying queens secured where a double brood- 

 nest is used, and one of the alighting-boards 

 arranged to carry the bees over the excluder 

 top of the lower story. 



It is also a comparatively easy 

 matter to allow more or less of 

 the working force if desired (on 

 account of pollen being in evi- 

 dence), to pass into the bottom 

 section of the brood-nest by leav- 

 ing off the wings at the sides of 

 the alighting-board which will 

 commonly be found necessary to 

 carry the bees above at the out- 

 set, as they are inclined to pass 

 either to one side or the other, 

 otherwise, and sometimes (if the 

 higher board is placed too high 

 at the foot) to pass under the 

 same. 



Clyde, 111., June 26. 



[The scheme of plural en- 

 trances in connection with the 

 use of perforated zinc, as here 

 shown, was mentioned by Mr. 

 E. F. Atwater on page 878 of our 

 issue for July 15, last year. C. W. 

 Dayton has been using the 

 scheme, but how long we do 

 not know. Others have referred 

 to something similar. 



Dayton's plan involved the 

 use of only an auger-hole; but we 

 should be inclined to think that 

 the Walker idea of having full- 

 width entrance to the super would 

 be much better. His plan seems 

 to be an improvement also, in 

 that it provides a large alighting- 

 board, obscuring to a great ex- 

 tent the old entrance, and at the 

 proper angle for a bee in flight 

 just as it alights. This we regard 

 as quite an important factor in 

 directing the flight of the in- 

 coming bees to the super direct 

 instead of through the old en- 

 trance, the brood-nest, and the 

 honey-board excluder. 



We shall be pleased to have 

 reports from others who may have tried the 

 same thing or something similar. — Ed.] 



THE STOMACH OF THE HONEY-DEE. 



How the Bees of a Swarm are Able to 

 Subsist for a Week on Merely the Con- 

 tents of their Honey-sacs. 



BY DR. BRUENNICH. 



In our former articles we have considered 

 the tongue, tracheas, etc., of the honey-bee; 

 but the organ which most concerns the bee- 

 keeper is the stomach. The honey-sac, a 

 part of the stomach, takes up every drop of 

 the crop; and every drop not only once, but 

 many times, has to pass this sac before it is 

 completely ripe. I believe, therefore, that 

 every bee-keeper who has a real interest in 

 apiculture will be glad of an opportunity for 

 the further study of the anatomy and physi- 

 ology of the stomach. 



If the head of a dead bee is fixed with a 



