DECEMBER 15, 1912 



817 



and cheaper transpoi'tation than we have at present. 

 Parcels post will be a great boon to the bee busi- 

 ness provided the bees are not barred out because 

 of some fool's mistake. R. W. Ward. 



Uvalde, Tex. 



A Very Simple Honey-house Escape 



I think that the honey-house bee-escape shown 

 by J. E. Thompson, Oct. 1, page 636, is too com- 

 plicated. The accompanying sketch shows a very 

 simple arrangement of fastening screen wire to a 

 window, which I am using on my honey-house win- 

 dows, and which serves the purpose of a bee-escape 

 to perfection. It is so simple that a ten-year-old boy 



can fix it. The dotted lines marked A represent 

 boards % inch thick by 2 or 3 wide, the two out- 

 side ones reaching down to the bottom of or a little 

 below the window-sash, and the two inside ones ex- 

 tending down to the bottom edge of the top-bar of 

 the casing. All of these strips extend upward any- 

 where from 6 to 12 inches above the top of the win- 

 dow. Stretch and tack the wire across the window 

 to these strips and to the bottom of the sash, leaving 

 the upper edge of the wire loose, except where it is 

 tacked to the inside strips. Bees inside the house 

 will naturally alight on the screen, and just as nat- 

 urally climb upward and out of the house through 

 the %-inch space between the screen and the side 

 of the house itself, 6 to 12 inches above the top of 

 the window, according to the distance your strips 

 extend above the top of the window. Bees on the 

 outside, trying to get inside, will never find these 

 %-inch spaces that far above the top of the window, 

 but will put in all their time right at the top of 

 the window. 



I have used this arrangement for years, and never 

 yet have I seen a single bee get in from the outside, 

 while those on the inside crawl right on out without 

 stopping. B. W. Simmons. 



Meiiia, Texas, Oct. 7. 



[Our correspondent makes a good point in that 

 the wire screen should extend 10 or 12 inches above 

 the window-frame itself. One foot is better than six 

 inches, and we are not sure but 18 inches would be 

 better than 12. When robbers get started, and get 



on a perfect rampage, they will sometimes go down 

 back through the top of a screen window similar to 

 the one shown in the illustration; and it is, there- 

 fore, important to have plenty of space above the 

 window so that the exit for robbers will be high 

 enough above the window so as not to attract the 

 entrance of other robbers. — Ed.] 



Feeding a Bad . Proposition for One Not Prepared 

 for it 



In over thirty years of beekeeping I have never 

 had to feed until this fall. I attribute the fact to my 

 having always lived where there was never fall 

 nectar sufficient to be of any profit; and, lest sec- 

 tions be spoiled with the admixture of dark and 

 strong honey, or the colonies store an amount in 

 the brood-chamber insufficient to carry them over 

 winter, my practice has been to remove every sec- 

 tion-super the middle of July, when the clover yield 

 is done in the clover belts. Thus my colonies have 

 had all fall nectar for their own use, and ended 

 the seasons heavy with honey for winter stores. 



In this locality this year, though clover blooms 

 held much longer than usual, little nectar was got- 

 ten from them or fall flowers ; robbing is prevalent, 

 and stores are Quite short. 



I never even owned a feeder until now. I sent 

 for a Miller and some division-board feeders. Every 

 feeder, though painted at the joints, leaked, and ran 

 syrup out of the hive entrance. 



I find feeding, if not prepared for, expensive, 

 troublesome, encouraging to robbing, and very un- 

 certain as to results. T. Chalmers Potter. 



Doylestown, Pa., Nov. 22. 



Where Did the Goldens Come From? 



It is under discussion as to how the golden Ital- 

 ian bees originated — that is, what stock or stocks 

 they were bred from. Please let me know. 



Soledad, Cal., Nov. 16. D. A. PuGH. 



[Golden Italians were obtained through selection 

 in breeding; that is, by breeding from the yellowest 

 stock of Italians until the four or five banded bees 

 were obtained. Since the yellowest Italians come from 

 southern Italy, where the bees are known to be 

 crosser than the leather-colored stock from northern 

 Italy and Switzerland, the reason for the fact that 

 the golden Italians are more irritable on the average 

 is plain. Some of the goldens have some Cyprian 

 or Syrian blood in their makeup. This accounts for 

 the occasional strains that are unusually vicious. — 

 Ed.1 



The Physiological Effect of Feeding Sugar 



This was shown through an analysis recently made 

 of the unsealed and sealed sugar syrup extracted 

 from the winter-nest of a colony. 



In the unsealed stores the water contained was 

 19.5 per cent; in the sealed, 20.2 per cent; and so 

 greater than allowed for honey, and not, as might 

 have been supposed, greater in the unsealed cells. 



Invert sugar, 60.9 per cent in unsealed cells; 

 64.1 in sealed cells. The inversion of the sugar con- 

 tinues, even in the cells. Accordingly the amount of 

 cane sugar sinks from 14.9 per cent in unsealed 

 cells to 11.1 in sealed cells. This abnormally high 

 content of cane sugar betrays that it can not be 

 honey. The nitrogenous content is quite normal, as 

 found in pure honey — .28 per cent in the unsealed 

 and .36 per cent in the sealed. Whence comes this 

 albumen ? Not out of the sugar, but the bees have 

 added it out of its own organism. That explains 

 why it is that, after being fed sugar, the bee is so 

 eager for pollen with its rich store oi albumen ; also 



