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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 2, 1900. 



honey alone, or for a general pure-food bill including honey 

 (which I think would be better, for then we could cooperate 

 with other sufferers from adulteration, and would get the 

 combined influence of several branches of industry), it mat- 

 ters not, for, anyway, it can be done only by organization. 



I am not going to give here a plan of operation — I will 

 leave that to older and wiser heads than mine — but I merel}' 

 wish to try to show some of the good that could be done 

 thru thoroorganization. We should also have a systematized 

 method of marketing the honey crop. We have no trouble 

 about marketing any other farm product, why honey ? 



There are a great many other things that could be ac- 

 complisht by uniting our forces, and I wish to say again 

 that it is the duty of every honey-producer to belong to the 

 local bee-society nearest to him. to the State society, and 

 to the National. This rule should stand good in every State 

 in the Union. 



Get into line, fellow bee-keepers, in this day of progress 

 and improvement, and let us show the people that we are 

 fully able to take care of ourselves and the interests of our 

 beloved pursuit. L,afayette Co., Wis. 



The Importance of Water for Bees. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



I HAVE been reading that splendid work on bee-keeping. 

 Root's " A B C of Bee-Culture " — a work of which every 

 American bee-keeper may well be proud — and the com- 

 ments in that, with what I read in the journals, leads me to 

 wonder if we all know all that is to be known regarding the 

 use of water in the apiary. Mr. Doolittle has said in the 

 American Bee Journal that bees need large quantities of 

 water when breeding, implying that water is used to feed 

 the young bees. 



In the higher animals, water, next to oxygen, is the 

 largest food factor in the animal physiology. When we 

 consider the work that water does in the animal economy, 

 we do not wonder at this. Water makes up the large pro- 

 portion of all the tissues of the body. I have seen the 

 statement that water makes up one-twelfth of the teeth, 

 and it is true that some of the liquids of the body, like the 

 saliva, are almost entirely made up of this liquid — 995 parts 

 of every 1,000 of the saliva are water. The animal, then, 

 needs water to form its very substance. 



Again, all the functional activity of the body — as ab- 

 sorption, circulation, assimilation — requires that all the 

 elements concerned in the operations be in solution. We 

 all know that water is nature's great solvent. Water is 

 what keeps all the nutrient substances of the body in solu- 

 tion. Water serves plants also in the same way. Plants 

 are not only composed largely of water, but water holds the 

 food elements of the plant in solution, and so we see why 

 plant and animal alike thirst for water. "~ 



Animals possess another function that requires much 

 water to carry it on. As this functon is very essential, 

 even necessary to life itself, we see another reason why 

 water must never be stinted if good vigor is to be main- 

 tained. I refer to perspiration. We know just how much 

 heat is generated in the body in an hour, and we know that 

 a rise of a few degrees of heat is fatal. Both of these differ 

 in different animals. It is found that on an average man 

 generates heat enough to kill him in between three and 

 four hours, were there not some way to cool him off. Per- 

 spiration is the way that this cooling off is done. There is 

 a tremendous heat-producing engine in the body. The heat 

 comes from what is called destructive metabolism, or kata- 

 bolism. These terms refer to the tearing down of tissue, 

 consequent upon the work of the body. 



Most animals get the water in all of the food, much of 

 which, as is true of many fruits and vegetables, may 

 contain over 90 percent of water in their composition. Bees 

 are less fortunate in this respect than are most animals, as 

 there is not a very large amount of water in either honey or 

 pollen. It is probable that bees need a very large amount 

 of water. They have tissues like other animals, which, as 

 we have seen, are largely composed of water. Their food, 

 like that of other animals, must be in solution to be avail- 

 able. They are very active, and this implies very rapid 

 metabolis. We have seen that metabolism is the source of 

 animal heat, and we do not wonder that bees soon warm up 

 when anything disturbs the heat equilibrium of the body. 



Is it not more than probable that bees must profit by 

 the mechanical aid which comes from evaporation of water 

 from their bodies ? I see no reason to doubt the truth of 

 this. Who of us has not seen the wet, sticky mass when 



the hives have been shut up on a hot day so that the water 

 could not pass off'. The bees can not ventilate the hive, 

 and the water of respiration, which at such times becomes 

 very rapid, and of perspiration, can not pass off, and we 

 soon have a forbidding mass of dead bees and water, which 

 becomes more and more gruesome, until death ends all. 



We know how we suffer on a hot day in case the air is 

 loaded with moisture. This moisture in the air is un- 

 favorable to evaporation, and the cooling process is stayed. 

 We are very much favored in this matter in Southern Cali- 

 fornia. The air is almost always dry when it is hot, and 

 the evaporation from the body is so rapid that we do not 

 feel even intense heat. I have known men to shingle 

 houses when the mercury was over 100 degrees, and they 

 seemed to feel no inconvenience. At such times a person 

 may plunge into an irrigating ditch, and in a very short 

 time his clothing will be entirely dr_v. Dry air must be 

 around us to permit this grateful evaporation. Do not bees 

 ventilate the hives on a hot day as we fan ourselves, 

 and as the dog extends its tongue to promote this evapora- 

 tion and so cool oft' ? As bees do not get as much water in 

 their food as do many other animals, and as they are very 

 active animals, and must be cooled off by excessive evapor- 

 ation, we readily see why they need much water, and whj' 

 they repair to the rill and pool when work is great, and 

 weather is warm. 



Of course, bees are most active in warm weather, and 

 then for two reasons they need much water. When the 

 weather is very warm we are usually more quiet, and so do 

 not need to do so much cooling off, and do not evaporate 

 so much water from respiration and perspiration. If the 

 weather is very hot, and we must perforce work hard, then 

 we breathe fast, sweat much, and must drink great drafts 

 of water to supply the needs of the blood. The water is 

 passing very rapidly from the blood, and must be as rapidly 

 supplied. Bees are hard at work on the hottest daj's, as 

 then is their harvest, and so they must have great quanti- 

 ties of water to suppl)' their pressing needs. 



I doubt, then, if it is correct to say that bees need water 

 to aid in brood-rearing. When they are very busy gather- 

 ing from the field, then brood-rearing is very active, and as 

 the bees are at hardest work they need to do very great 

 cooling off, both because of the heat and the activitv, and 

 so must have much water. In case we have a protracted 

 rain-storm, the bees do not stop brood-rearing, but do stop 

 the active gathering in the field. They stop gathering 

 water perforce. If water was directly necessary in the 

 work of brood-rearing, then rearing brood would stop at all 

 such times, which is not the case. Pollen or bee-bread is 

 necessary to brood-rearing, and when there is no pollen 

 then brood-rearing ceases. 



I think that we are safe, then, in holding that water is 

 necessary in the nutrition of the bees, and in regulating 

 the bodily heat. It is more important when the bees 

 are very active, and so in hot weather, when bees are most 

 active in the field, then it is that they need most water. It 

 is not likely that they use the water directly in rearing 

 brood, but as brood-rearing is usually most active when the 

 bees are at full work, it is a pretty sure indication of the 

 amount of water needed by the bees. Water is, without 

 doubt, very necessary, and so should always be supplied 

 when the bees can not get it near the apiary. In winter 

 the bees are so quiet that this need is fully met by the vrater 

 in the honej', which is the main, if not the entire, food of 

 winter. Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Beeswax and How It is Bleaeht. 



[Taken fro)ii t.hr Chlvatjo Jfecord, in its department uf " Shop-Talk on tin 

 Wonders of the t'rafls.") 



EVERY little while the commission men on South Water 

 street receive round, flat cakes of beeswax. Some of 

 them are dark brown, and others are light yellow, and 

 the man who hails from New Jersey can tell where the 

 beeswax came from by its color. 



"That dark-brown cake," he said, "came from Wis- 

 consin, for the bees up there are fond of the tobacco-plant 

 and wild grapes, but that pretty yellow cake came from 

 Iowa or central Illinois, and the bees that made it tapt 

 nothing but clover blossoms. Most of the beeswax goes to 

 the East, if it isn't too dark in color, for the biggest bleach- 

 eries are there. Cobblers, harnessmakers and tailors use 

 the dark-brown beeswax. They seeni to think it is the best 

 for their work. So it is in one respect, for the waxt thread 

 then is nearer the color of the leather, but shoemakers who 

 make fine hand-sewed shoes use the bleaeht wax. Down 



