TM-m J^TWHRICJCN BEB JQURNfKILr. 



71 



Harvey and Mr. McKnight sustained 

 the " digested nectar." 



If we all live this year. Prof. Cook 

 can prove his theory by experiments 

 (if 111! has not already done so), that 

 the digestion goes on from flower to 

 hive, by catching, on the entrance- 

 board, some 10 or 20 bees before they 

 enter the hive, and dissect them at 

 intervals of 3 to 5 minntcs, to see the 

 progress of digestion going on. 



Fulda, Ind. 



GOLDEN-ROD. 



Honey from the Oolden-Rod 

 and Wliite Daisy. 



Written lor the American Bee Journal 

 BY E. W. COUNCILMAN. 



There has been so much written 

 abont golden-rod in the bee-papers 

 during the past season, that I had 

 thought the subject entirely exhausted, 

 but still the articles come. One man, 

 away up in Aroostook county, Maine, 

 claims that bees get no honey from 

 golden-rod, and another in the same 

 State claims that it is a splendid honey- 

 producer. Another bee-keeper, away 

 out in Iowa, says that he never saw 

 but one bee on a golden-rod flower, 

 and that looked like a '■ scared bee ;" 

 another, a little this side, in Wiscon- 

 sin, claims that his bees have done 

 splendidly on golden-rod, gathering a 

 fine lot of rich, amber honey, for 

 which he obtained as good a price as 

 he did for his clover honey. 



Thus it has gone all the fall. The 

 little "joker" was first under one 

 thimble, and then under the other. 

 The fact is, many men are not careful 

 in their observations, before showing 

 their conclusions. 



In this locality, for three consecutive 

 seasons, we have had a very poor 

 honey season, and bees have been 

 compelled to work on anything from 

 which they could get a living — golden- 

 rod, white daisies, yes, even Jacob's- 

 ladder ; I do not know positively 

 whether they got honey from these 

 flowers, for I did not ask them to let 

 me smell of their breath, or taste of 

 what they were getting ; but this I do 

 know, they worked busily on all of 

 these flowers, and would "leave buck- 

 wheat untouched, to work on golden- 

 rod "from early morn to dewy eve," 

 day after day — and I never supposed 

 bees worked for fun ; in my experience 

 with them, whenever they undertook 

 to do anything, they meant business — 

 at least, they have made for me more 

 " business," sometimes, than I could 

 well attend to ! 



Whether the bees got honey from 

 golden-rod, or not, they worked on it 

 profusely, and in preference to buck- 



wheat, and we got nearly, if not 

 quite, as much of the amber honey 

 as we did of tlie while honey, and but 

 very little of it was buckwheat. 



Many old liee-keepers claim that 

 bees get no honey from white daisies ; 

 that bees went "light" on it, except 

 to rest themselves. This I know to be 

 untrue. When my bees have been 

 bringing in yellow honey, and when 

 they would alight at the entrance, the 

 slight jar it would give them, would 

 cause the dust to fall from their little 

 bodies, so that the entrance would be 

 covered with yellow dust. 



I have been to the fields, and saw 

 them working on the white-daisy fields 

 — wh}', it would look and sound like a 

 buckwheat field in full bloom, and 

 their little bodies seemed to be liter- 

 ally covered with the daisy dust, and 

 they were not packing it on their legs, 

 either; they were as " busy as bees." 

 traveling all over those large sunflower- 

 shaped daisies, and plugging them 

 with their slender bills — acting just as 

 though they were getting honey, and 

 I believe they were. I also believe that 

 when they work so industriously on 

 golden-rod, passing other honey-pro- 

 ducing flowers b}', they are getting 

 honey. The true theory is this : Some 

 flowers produce honey in one season, 

 and other flowers produce honey 

 another season, and bees take the 

 honey wherever they can find it ; and 

 if the necessity requires it, they will 

 not scruple to get it from a neighbor- 

 ing hive, for a bee has no conscience, 

 or is it at all scrupulous when on a 

 foraging expedition. 



Newark Valley, N. Y. 



G-ERMANY. 



A Very Intereslingr Ctatliering of 

 Oerniau Bee-Keeperii. 



TrcmslatecL for the American Bee Journal 



BY REV. STEPHEN EOESE. 



I have just forwarded to the Deutsche 

 Imker aus Boehnien, brief notes from 

 the proceedings of the International 

 Convention, held at Brantford, Ont., 

 translated into German. 



The December number of the above 

 bee-paper, has just arrived, and re- 

 ports, among other articles, one item 

 of special interest, being a report of 

 the grand gathering of the 3rd annual 

 Wanderversamluug (traveling gather- 

 ing) and Exhibition of the German 

 Bee-Keepers' Central Union, held at 

 Stettin, Prussia, on Sept. 6th to the 9th, 

 with the opening address of the Hon- 

 orary President, Graf. Behr, of Regen- 

 dank. The many hundreds of bee- 

 keepers from all parts of the country, 

 mingled their voices in three cheers 



for the Deutsche Kaiser, after which 



the bee-keei)iiig fraternity was wel- 

 comed by an able address, from the 

 Chief-Hurgomuster of the city, which 

 was followed by a speech from Judge 

 Kollings, of Fallersleben, criticising 

 re|)resentativi! Letocha's new law on 

 apiculture, now before the Agrar-Com- 

 iiiission of the Prussian Legislature, to 

 take ertect on Oct. 1, 1890. 



Teacher Lehzen, of Hanover, raised 

 the question, " How can bee-keeping 

 be made most profitable ?" and recora- 

 mended the home (German) honey- 

 bee, and cheaply prepared hives. 



Tlie grand bee-master, J. G. Kanitz, 

 of Friodland, East Prussia, stated that 

 where winter lasts as it does in their 

 Polar bear country, for five to six 

 months, to achieve success in bee-keep- 

 ing, a new method must be adopted ; 

 after which Pastor Rabbone, President 

 of the Central Union, spoke very flat- 

 teringly concerning the growth and 

 interest of the Union, and bee-keeping 

 in general, during the past year. 



The meeting closed with a feeling 

 of great enthusiasm, and another tliree 

 cheers \vas given for the Presiding 

 Faculties of the Union. 



In connection with the Wanderver- 

 samlung, was held an exhibition of 

 live bees, hives, apiarian supplies and 

 products, and it was astonishing, for 

 the catalogue of exhibits in its five 

 departments contained 594 exhibitors, 

 and, as a matter of course, the in- 

 numberable articles on exhibition 

 could not receive very special atten- 

 tion in the part of the great throng of 

 visiting inspectors, but the impression 

 made upon this occasion seemed to 

 deeply afl'ect both the bee-keepers and 

 the visiting public. 



The great throng of people passed 

 from the " Birken-Allee " inn, into the 

 stone wall-enclosed garden, which was 

 dotted to the right and left with hives 

 of live bees, of various sty'.es and 

 shapes. On the out-skirt of the beau- 

 tiful, large garden, stood a large 

 building, with immense sized halls, 

 for the reception of the nectar sweets, 

 and other purposes ; an adjoining 

 room contained a large library of 

 books on apiculture, of both early and 

 recent dates, and with it every volume 

 of the Preusische Bienen-Zeitung (Prus- 

 sian Bee-Gazette) from 1855 to 1889 ; 

 established by Grand Bee-Master J. G. 

 Kanitz ; and in order to make this 

 gathering of bee-keepers memorable, 

 the committee had arranged, first, a 

 view of the city ; next, a steamer ride 

 on the River Oder, to Frauendorf 

 (Ladie-stown), where, on Elisershoohe 

 (Lizzie's heights), the Stettin Teachers' 

 Association surprised the bee-keeping 

 fraternity with a number of beautiful 

 choral songs, sounding through the 

 air. 



