536 



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Mr. Cowan said thai in the case of 

 the drone larvre finly was free pollen 

 found after the third day. 



Mr. Grimshaw explained the absence 

 of pollen by statinji: that there was a 

 filtering medium whieh prevented the 

 husks being pumped back, the feeding 

 valves being provided with hair, whicli 

 would stop the regurgitation of the 

 pollen. 



Mr. Lyon remarked that Mr. Che- 

 shire had been able to find out what 

 flowers had bloomed in any particular 

 district by making a microscopical ex- 

 amination of larva? showing the re- 

 mains of pollen husks. 



Mr. Cowan said Mr. Cheshire had 

 stated that in worker larvre there was 

 undoubtedly pollen added to the food, 

 and that the pollen-grains were living 

 and found in a gi'owing condition, 

 which was a mistake. 



Mr. Meggy said his views exactly 

 coincided with Mr. Grimshaw's, and he 

 thought that in the present state of 

 knowledge they might fairly accept a 

 part of each of the theories advanced. 



Mr. Cowan said that Schiemenz and 

 Leuckart distinctl}' slated that the food 

 was the produce of the glands, while 

 Sclionfeld had shown that it was pos- 

 silile for the bees to eject the food from 

 the chyle stomach. The latter au- 

 thority, however, did not denj' that 

 the glands contributed to the food, but 

 he did affirm that they were not the 

 sole producers of brood food. He 

 (Mr. Cowan) would like to ask Mr. 

 Grimshaw how he supposed the bees 

 forced out the glandular secretion ? 



Mr. Grimshaw could not answer 

 that, but said man}' extraoi'dinary 

 facts could not be explained. He would 

 ask how it was that the fertile worker 

 b}' simple excitation of the ovaries was 

 able to lay drone eggs ? 



Mr. Lyon would like to know if 

 heredity was controlled by food, 

 whether there would be any difference 

 between the eggs of a Ligurian queen 

 when nursed bj" black bees, and the 

 same eggs when nursed Ijy Ligurian 

 bees ? 



Mr. Grimshaw said no doubt there 

 would, but of course special changes 

 could not be traced in two generations, 

 but might take hundreds of years to 

 produce. Mr. Sambels had given im- 

 portant evidence on that point. He 

 believed that the character of the bees 

 (whether quiet or vicious) was gov- 

 erned not so much !)}■ the queen, as 

 was generallj- supposed, but by tlie 

 nur.se-bees. 



Mr. Cowan said, with regard to the 

 salivarj' secretion in the human being, 

 we would spit that out; but the bee 

 had no power of doing the same, but 

 could only pour out its secretion on 

 the foods coming in, and the outlet is 

 just in the right position for this. 



Mr. Gleunie and Mr. Grimsliaw 

 agreed that if a vicious colony were 

 started in the apiary, and a succession 

 of vicious bees followed, each colony 

 would probably become worse and 

 worse, and it would be better to de- 

 stroy the lot and start afresh. There 

 was no doubt that vicious bees were 

 much more prevalent at the present 

 lime than formerly, a fact to which 

 Mr. Lyon bore testimony. 



Mr. Cowan exlubited a diagram of 

 bee-clustering during winter, showing 

 the variation in temperature of the 

 cluster side by side with the variation 

 of temperature in the open air. 



On the motion of Mr. Lyon, a hearty 

 vote of thanks was passed to Mr. 

 Cowan for his interesting and instruc- 

 tive address. — Dritish Bee Journal. 



BEE-HOUSES. 



Great Advantage to be Derived 

 from House-Apiaries. 



Read at the Colorado State Convention 



BY H. KNIGHT. 



Bee-houses, or more properly speak- 

 ing, house-apiaries, was selected for 

 my subject because, as ,many of you 

 know, it is one of my hobbies, and a 

 successful one. 



By ■' bee-house" I do not mean a 

 shed with the out-door hives put under 

 it ; neither do I mean a house in which 

 to store honey ; but a house with the 

 hives arranged in tiers around the in- 

 side, each hive having an entrance e.x- 

 tending through to the outside. 



Eastern bee-men, on account of 

 moths and dampness, have pronounced 

 them a failure, until recently I notice 

 that several are using them success- 

 fully. One man in Kansas has even 

 taken out a patent for a bee-house. 

 His idea is to have it lathed and plas- 

 tered. I do not know whether he has 

 the walls decorated with gilt paper, 

 with a fancy border or not, but I do 

 know that in my experience all that is 

 necessary is inch boards for the walls, 

 the hives to set back 2 or 3 inches and 

 connected by runways. The space 

 between the hives and wall admits of 

 a passage of air which keeps the hives 

 much cooler than if they were close 

 to the outside. 



Mr. A. I. Root says that smoke from 

 tlie smoker is more troublesome, as it 

 cannot pass off quite so readily, which 

 I will have to admit, although if large 

 openings are pi'ovided in the ends, no 

 serious trouble need be feared. 



Many bee-men say: " I want the 

 hives close to the ground, because the 

 bees can bring in more hone)' ; they 

 can fly down instead of up with their 

 loads." I say to them : "How is it 



that we had the past season 11 colonies 

 that gave us from 190 to 200 pounds 

 each, in one-pound sections, and 10 of 

 those hives were from 3 to 9 feet from 

 the ground ?" 



Another bee-keeper says: "When 

 the entrances are so close together (2 

 feet) the bees cannot locate their 

 hives, and tliey also interfere in flying 

 to and from their hives." Now, when 

 the alighting-boards are of different 

 colors and shapes, tlie bees make no 

 mistakes by going in at their neigh- 

 bors' doors. I have watched them 

 closely many times to see if they could 

 fly without a collision, and have come 

 to the conclusion tluxt they can switch 

 oft' just right every time. 



One of our Rocky Mountain bee- 

 men, on going into one of our bee- 

 houses, asked if those on the north and 

 west did so well as those on the other 

 sides. His grand-fallier was a bee- 

 keeper, and had told him that the 

 hives must front eitlier south or east. 

 To all those of such fogy notions I ask. 

 How is it that the bees on the west side 

 of all our bee-houses give us the most 

 honey ? But such is the fact, and I do 

 not know why, unless it is the moun- 

 tain scenery in view from their front- 

 doors that puts extra vim and business 

 into them. 



One reason why I think the house- 

 apiaiy far in advance, is that any bee- 

 keeper can handle double the number 

 of colonies, as we have everything 

 almost within arm's length, and when 

 we take off honey, which every true 

 bee-keeper deliglits to do, it is not 

 scattered all over an acre of ground, 

 but is all close together in the bee- 

 house. 



Another verj' important feature is 

 that we can, by locking the door, feel 

 pretty certain that our hives will not 

 leave us before our next regular visit ; 

 and too, where we have out apiai'ies, 

 we do not have to bring them home to 

 winter, and then haul them out again 

 in the spring, as many in the East do. 

 We can leave them on the summer 

 stands, and under lock and key. A 

 bee-house, too, is even better than a 

 chaff hive, both for wintering and 

 summering, as the atmosphere in the 

 house, where there are a large number 

 of colonies, is kept at a more even 

 temperature. 



It is an undisputed fact that quiet- 

 ness is essential during our no-honey 

 season. A changeable temperature in 

 the hives causes restlessness, consump- 

 tion of honey, old age and death to 

 many of the bees. An even tempera- 

 ture, somewhat below the freezing 

 point, is what is wanted to cause the 

 bees to relapse into that semi-torpid 

 condition of successful wintering. A 

 bee-house comes the nearest, excepting 

 a cellar, to producing this state, and is 



