130 FOOD OF BEES. 



filled with water, and inverted on a plate covered with a 

 small piece of carpet, will be sufficient. It can also be given 

 in the combs. Mr. Vogel, editor of the Bienenzeitung, on 

 the 19th of March gave to a colony a comb containing crystal- 

 lized honey, and another containing about three-fourths of a 

 pound of water. Within sixteen hours, both combs were 

 altogether emptied by the bees. 



273. A learned French bee-keeper, Mr. De Layens, made 

 many experiments in regard to this matter. 



"In the month of May, 1878, I put a lump of sugar near a 

 spot where a great many bees came for water; they paid no 

 attention to it. The sugar was then moistened and covered 

 with honey. The bees, attracted by the honey, came in great 

 numbers, and sucked up most of the moist sugar. After they 

 became accustomed to this, I decreased the moistening, till I 

 gave them nothing but dry sugar, when they brought water to 

 dissolve the sugar, and removed all except the parts which were 

 too hard to be dissolved easily." — (Bulletin de la Suisse, Nov., 

 1880.) 



The same writer has noticed that, in Spring, if the bees 

 are compelled to go veiy far for water, many of them perish. 

 He found a loss of three hundred and fifty grammes of bees— 

 four-fifths of a pound— from a hive, during a sudden Spring- 

 storm (606). 



From the 10th of April to the 31st of July, forty colonies 

 consumed 187 litres of water, about fifty gallons; the greatest 

 quantity used in a day being seven litres, or about fifteen 

 pints. 



That bees do not need water, in circumstances other than 

 those named above, is evidenced from the fact that, in im- 

 porting bees from Italy, Ave did not succeed in receiving them 

 alive, until our shippers reluctantly consented to send them 

 without water (595). 



Salt. 



274. Bees seem to be so fond of salt, that they will often 

 alight upon our hands to lick up the saline perspiration. 



