100 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



REPLIES by Prominent Apiarists. 



Spraying Fruit Trees. 



Qnery, No. 14 — It fruit trees when in 

 blossom are sprayed with Paris green, what 

 will be the effects on bees ? What is the best 

 thing to do to prevent bad effects 'I Would 

 it help the matter if London purple were 

 used instead of Paris green ?— Subscriber. 



Prof. A. J. Cook replies as follows : 

 " I should have very little or no fear of 

 any harm. The nectar and pollen are 

 all that the bee cares for, and they 

 would be so free frona the poison, (the 

 nectar would be wholly free), that I 

 am quite sure that they would work no 

 injury. London purple and Paris 

 green are alike poisonous, so one would 

 nave no preference over the other. 

 But why spray the trees thus early ? 

 The only object will be to destroy the 

 codling moth-larva3. To rid our fruit 

 of this greatest apple pest, the poison 

 should not be applied until the blos- 

 soms have fallen." 



requires. Base the management upon 

 skill and a level head." 



Dampness and Mildew- 

 Query, No. 15 My bee-house is damp 



and mouldy but the bees are quiet. Must! 

 remove the bees to my cellar, or leav e them 

 in the dampness y—C. J ^,..,7^'^ ^^ 



Dr. J. P. H. Brown answers thus : 

 " If the bees are quiet and in good 

 condition, I would not disturb them ; 

 but I would sprinkle lime over the 

 floor, and place boxes filled with it in 

 different parts of the room to absorb 

 moisture." 



Where Bees First Deposit Honey. 



Query, No. 16 — Do bees, when carrying- 

 In honey rapidly from the fields, store it 

 directly in the surplus sections ? or do they 

 place it in the body of the hive to ripen, and 

 then carryjit above ? — J. W. B. 



Prof. A. J. Cook answers thus: 

 " Mr. Doolittle says that they do nei- 

 ther, but give it to the nurse-bees, and 

 the latter store it away. I have mark- 

 ed bees and found that they actually 

 do carry honey to the cells, and even 

 to the surplus sections above the 

 brood-chamber. It may be that all do 

 not do so." 



SuperTision of Labor. 



Query, No. 17. — I have several apiaries, 

 and would like the best plan to systematic- 

 ally manage them ?— B. 



Dr. J. P. H. Brown says : " To an- 

 swer this question satisfactorily would 

 require some knowledge of the local- 

 ities, and of the skill, industry and 

 executive ability of the manager. 

 What is ' the best plan ' for one person 

 might prove to be a very poor one for 

 another. Everything must be reduced 

 to a perfect system and order. The 

 lime should be divided between the 

 apiaries as the necessity of the case 



Bees Expelling Water from Sweets. 



Query, No. 14.— Some have asserted that 

 bees have the power of expellingwater from 

 diluted sweets, when on the wing, etc. Now, 

 I long to see this matter subjected to the eye 

 of science. Has there been a gland dis- 

 covered whose function, resembling that of 

 the kidneys, seems to be that of separating 

 water, etc.?— La Porte City, Iowa. 



W. Z. Hutchinson remarks as fol- 

 lows : " When feeding bees a consid- 

 erably diluted food, I have seen them 

 eject a colorless and tasteless fluid 

 when flying to and from the hives. I 

 have also seen the same phenomenon 

 when the bees were leaving their hives 

 in the morning during an excellent 

 flow of honey ; and I nave seen the 

 same thing when the bees were work- 

 ing upon buckwheat, but the ejection 

 was done at the field of buckwheat." 



G. W. Demarbe replies thus : 

 " That bees have the power to sepa- 

 rate and expel the watery portion of 

 ' diluted sweets ' while in the honey- 

 sac, is a proposition unsupported by 

 any conclusive evidence, so far as I 

 have seen. The discharges in the 

 form of a spray, seen when feeding 

 bees sweetened water in the open air, 

 are most probably caused by a well- 

 filled honey-sac pressing on the lower 

 intestines, discharging their watery 

 contents. No ' gland,' of which phys- 

 iologists have any knowledge, could 

 perform its functions in so short an 

 interval of time, as intervenes between 

 the filling of the honey-sac and the 

 discharges seen." 



G. M. Doolittle answers thus : "I 

 think that the assertion is a mistake; 

 for there is no connection that I can 

 find between the honey stomach of the 

 bee and the intestines of the same, ex- 

 cept by way of the mouth. This water 

 seen to fall from bees while on the 

 wing, I believe to be thin excrement, 

 after carefully watching the matter 

 for several years. At least I am con- 

 vinced that it is the bees that have 

 just left the hive that exude it, rather 

 than those returning from the fields 

 with nectar." 



Prof. A. J. Cook remarks thus : "I 

 have never witnessed this phenom- 

 enon. I know of no physical law that 

 would enable bees to separate water 

 from nectar enroute to the hive. I 

 doubt their having any such power. 

 The renal or kidney-like organs of 

 bees consist of gastric tubules which 

 open into the stomach. I know of no 

 way to explain the phenomenon, and 

 so I am led to wonder if the observa- 

 tion is not at fault. Of course I know 

 and appreciate the truth of Hamlet's 

 remark: 'There are more things in 

 heaven and earth, Horatio, than are 

 dreamed of in your philosophy.' " 



na" The New Jersey and Eastern Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will hold their next 

 animal convention at Cooper Union, in 

 New York City, beginning on Wednesday, 

 March 11, 188.5, and to continue two days or 

 more. The committee promises a good 

 propramme,and extend a cordial invitation 

 to all. W. JJ. Treadwell, Ass't. Sec. 



Bee-Diarrhea in the South. 



Mr. G. W.Demaree, Christiansburg, 

 Ky., sends the following additional 

 remarks on query No. 4 as published 

 on page 36 : 



Having answered the query just as 

 it stands as a question, I would like 

 to answer it as it "appears to me." 

 In the first place I beg the pardon of 

 the querist, for saying that I am quite 

 sure that he is mistaken about the 

 condition of his bees. What he calls 

 " diarrhea " is not diarrhea in fact. I 

 have several times seen in my apiary, 

 in the early spring after breeding had 

 gotten well started and suddenly 

 checked by bad weather, a state of 

 things similar to that described by 

 the querist. 



It IS a well known fact that young 

 bees, when several days old, must 

 have a flight in the open air or suffer 

 the consequences. It is a law of the 

 youngling that it must void or perish, 

 and since nature requires that young 

 bees must take wing to answer the 

 calls of nature, it is easy to see what 

 must be the inevitable consequences 

 of forced confinement at an unpropi- 

 tious time. If Mr. Doolittle is right 

 in his conclusions, and I believe he 

 has thrown a flood of light on this 

 subject, a genuine case of bee-diar- 

 rhea must be sought for in a hive 

 where there are none but adult bees. 

 Such a case has never been reported 

 from the South by an experienced 

 apiarist. 



Plenty of air-space above the frames 

 will prevent untimely brood-rearing 

 in my locality. I discovered this in a 

 rather singular and unpleasant way. 

 Some thieves carried off a section- 

 case filled with sections, leaving an 

 air-space of over 1,000 cubic inches 

 above the frames ; I failed to find this 

 out until spring, and this colony was 

 strong and in excellent health, but it 

 had no brood. The bees were then 

 warmed with quilts, and made up for 

 all lost time, outstripping other colo- 

 nies which were well on tlie way when 

 they commenced. 



^" The Cedar Valley Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will hold its next meeting 

 on Feb. 24 and 2.5, 1885, in the Council 

 Rooms (opposite Burr's Hotel), Cedar 

 Falls, Iowa. A. D. Bennett, Sec. 



lO" The second annual meeting of the 

 Seneca County Bee-Keepers' Association 

 will l>e held in the Engine House at Ovid, 

 N. Y., on Feb. U, 188.5, at 9 a. m. All in- 

 terested are cordially invited to attend, 

 and make the meeting as profitable as 

 possible. All implements of the apiary 

 sent to the Secretary will be exhibited at 

 the meeting, and will be disposed of or 

 returned as the owner directs. 



Ika Wilson, Sec. 



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