Foreign Items, 



GLEANED BY FRANK BENTON. 



Honey Vinegar.— Stir together a half 

 pound of honey and a quart of water, per- 

 mitting tiie wiiole to boil while mixing it; 

 then expose it to tiie rays of the sun, cover- 

 ing witii liglit muslin to prevent insects 

 from getting in, and in 6 weeks it will be- 

 come excellent vinegar, quite as good fla- 

 vored as that made from wine. 



Do Queens Lay Drone or Worker 

 Eggs at Will? — In reference to this 

 point, Herr Thorniann gives, in Deutscher 

 Bieneiifreund, the following information: 

 "During the past two years 1 have been 

 making experiments with the view of 

 breeding larger workers; and to this end I 

 have obliged queens to lay worker-eggs in 

 drone cells. At the present time there can 

 be seen in my apiary a colony that was 

 wintered on 7 drone combs, 4 of which now 

 have brood in them; no drone-brood, but 

 worker-brood in drone-cells." 



Rotary Bee-Hive.— A German agricul- 

 tural journal has a long description, with 7 

 illustrations of O. Freiwirth's Rotary Bee- 

 Hive., To a Yankee bee-keeper the affair 

 would look very much like a cheese-box 

 standing on one of its flat sides, having a 

 post through the center, attached to which, 

 at a little distance fi'om the bottom, is a 

 disk; through an opening in tiie circular 

 side the frames are slipped in until they 

 touch the center-post, the latter, witii the 

 disk, being revolvable. The inventor claims 

 that " with closed eyes the apiarist can put 

 the frames in place without crushing a 

 single bee." Germans are certainly very 

 patient, and, one would think, never in a 

 hurry. 



Introducing Queens. — Herr Benedict 

 Broglio states in the July number of Ver 

 Blenen-Zuechter, (Strassburg), that since 

 the spring of 1876, he has practiced, with 

 uniform success, the following method in 

 introducing queens: — The bees of the hive 

 to which the queen is to be introduced are 

 brushed from the combs into a box, then 

 dampened with fresh water, and poured 

 down before their hive, the queen being 



Eermitted to crawl into the hive with the 

 uzzing bees. Of course before this opera- 

 tion is commenced it is necessary to remove 

 the queen that is with the colony at tiie 

 time, or in case queen-cells are present, to 

 destroy them when the bees have been 

 shaken from the combs. 



Comb Foundation.— Der Elsaessisch- 

 Lothrlngtsche Bienen-Zuechter published 

 in ytrassburg, contains, in the July number, 

 the following editorial notice, and the arti- 

 cle on comb-foundation, which is printed in 

 this month's Journal: "Conio founda- 

 tion finds in our worthy co-laborer, Herrn 

 Dr. Reisser, President of the Leberau sec- 

 tion, a zealous defender. Those of our 

 readers who are familiar with the French 

 language have a clear exposition of the sub- 

 ject in Dr. Reisser's first letter, which is 



published in this number. The author will 

 furnish a series of letters on this important 

 topic. In the present letter he gives the 

 history of comb foundation and a statement 

 of its unmistakable value in the rational 

 management of bees. We may add that Dr. 

 Reisser manufactures his comb foundation 

 himself, and has worked out and tried prac- 

 tically everything which he will communi- 

 cate in his letters. 



"A not less eloquent defender of comb 

 foundation is HerrHubei, teacher in Nie- 

 derschopfheim, the possessor of one of the 

 largest and finest apiaries in Southern Ger- 

 many, and founder of the apiarian society 

 of the Grand Duchy of Baden. ' I was for- 

 merly a disbeliever in comb foundation,' 

 says Herr Huber, in the last number of the 

 EichsUiedter Bienenzeitung, ' but I ac- 

 knowledge now that 1 was wrong. It is 

 true that one can follow bee-culture without 

 movable-comb hives, also without comb 

 foundation. I have been able to get along 

 40 years without them, and since they are 

 very de-ar, have, perhaps, through not using 

 them, spared many hundred marks. But it 

 was only in the year 1877 that I came to 

 understand the truth in regard to this mat- 

 ter—that avoiding expenditures where they 

 should be made, was not saving. Every 

 apiarist knows how disagreeable and harm- 

 ful to the bees drone-combs in the brood- 

 nest are; yet, though I had employed al- 

 ways every known means to prevent the 

 construction of drone-comb in the brood- 

 nest, I was contending with this con- 

 tinually.' In the summer of 1877, Her Huber 

 placed 300 frames of comb foundation in his 

 hives, and with the exception of 2, they 

 were all built out with beautiful worker- 

 cells. Every practical bee-culturist knows 

 the value of such a result. Comb founda- 

 tion costs considerable, it is true; but the 

 saving resulting from its use is much greater 

 than the outlay required. So much in regard 

 to the question of artificial combs." 



Translated from h'ApiculUur Alsacien-Lorrain, by 

 Frank Benton. 



Comb Foundation. 



To M. H. Apicnlturist at Riquewihr. 



My Dear Friend:— In writing to me 

 that you will only decide in reference to the 

 employment of artificial combs, after an 

 acquaintance from A to Z, with all the ad- 

 vantages which they present, and wifh the 

 faults from which, certainly, they are not 

 exempt, you show yourself to be a prudent 

 man— one who does not wish " to buy a cat 

 in a sack;" but in asking of me all this in- 

 formation, you deceive yourself concerning ■ 

 the importance of my experience and the 

 value of mv judgment. I am not infallible; 

 far from that; therefore I would not wish 

 to impose my opinion upon you; neverthe- 

 less, as it is your desire, I will endeavor to 

 serve to you (though in somewhat broken 

 sentences), what I have, by hook or crook, 

 learned concerning tlie subject which en- 

 gages ywur attention. 



Very early in the use of movable combs, 

 apiarists finding that empty frames, or 

 frames simply furnished with comb-starters, 

 when placed "in a hive during the mouths of 



