THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



January. 



Ireland. 



The Postoffice Department of Ireland 

 is in a predicament. A swarm of bees 

 had taken possession of a public mail 

 box in Dublin. The owner of the 

 swarm had been prevented from open- 

 ing the box to secure his bees and 

 therefore left them in it. This in turn 

 proved effectual to prevent the mail 

 carrier from collecting the mail matter 

 in the box. A report was sent to the 

 Postmaster General, who then offered a 

 reward of two shillings to any one re- 

 moving the bees. No one has been 

 tempted by the generous offer so far, or 

 wanted to take the risk, for the owner 

 of the bees made threats to prosecute 

 anyone molesting his property, claim- 

 ing that the officials had prevented him 

 from recovering the bees. And there 

 the matter stands, many people waiting 

 for their mail which is in the custody 

 of the swarm of bees in the mail box. — • 

 (From Bienen-Vater.) 



Germany. 



Germany levies a heavy import tax 

 on honey, but admits bees free. Some 

 shrewd people in adjoining countries, 

 particularly in Holland, bring hives 

 heavy with honey over the line, then 

 brimstone the bees and sell the honey, 

 thus avoiding the import tax. The Ger- 

 man bee-keepers have raised a cry and 

 demand more effectual protection, lim- 

 iting the weight of a hive of bees to 

 about 20 pounds. In America very lit- 

 tle harm would result from such im- 

 ports of honey-laden hives. Consum- 

 ers here are more exacting and would 

 not buy honey from brimstoned colo- 

 nies, except at a very low figure, and 

 even then not in large quantities. 



At a bee-keepers' meeting in Reich- 

 elsheim, D. Ellenberger said that he 

 weighs every colony after the honej. 

 season to ascertain the amount of hon- 

 ey each has. 



Dicket stated that last winter man> 



colonies star\ ed with plenty of stores in 

 adjoining combs of their respective 

 hives. Poor and ill-constructed hives, 

 he thinks, are responsible for it. 



To winter bees successfully or per- 

 fectly has always been regarded as the 

 master-test of a bee-keeper. Rev. 

 Schick expressed his sentiments on that 

 score by saying, the matter of winter- 

 ing bees is not a serious one, providing 

 certain rules are carefully followed, and 

 then he enumerates a long string of 

 such. Editor Schrimph made the re- 

 mark that the long string of rules was 

 sufificient proof of the difficulty and ser- 

 iousness of the wintering problem. 



At the same meeting of bee-keepers 

 Dickel explained in brief words his 

 theory of the equality of all eggs laid 

 by a normal queen. He has never of- 

 fered any proof except such as he 

 found in his experiments with the bees 

 themselves. He demonstrated on a hive 

 of bees having been made queenless il 

 days before the time of the convention 

 the correctness of his theory. ♦ 



The adulterated honey, as found in 

 Germany, is usually decorated with 

 showy labels. The reading on them 

 does not contain real falsehoods, but is 

 so ingeniously worded as to produce in 

 the would-be-purchaser the belief that 

 he has the genuine article before him. 



Rabes in Deutsche Bienenfreund ad- 

 vises to daily feed all colonies after the 

 close of the honey season and after all 

 surplus honey has been removed, small 

 quantities of honey or syrup in order to 

 induce the bees to keep up breeding till 

 late in September. The young late- 

 hatched bees will winter much better 

 than the July and August-hatched bees, 

 which will all be gone by March, so he 

 claims. (The bees of the writer stop- 

 ped breeding earlier than common this 

 year. In years past we have not found 

 it profitable to excite our bees after the 

 close of the season by stimulative feed- 

 ing.) Pastor Wiegand stimulates his 



