48 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



March 





THE 



Bee -Keeping World 



GERMANY. 



UNITING BEES. 



^Nlulot says in "Die Biene" that bee- 

 keepers have arrived at a wrong con- 

 clusions, when they think they can more 

 successfully unite bees by spraying 

 them with strong smelling substances, 

 or smoking with tobacco smoke, than 

 b)' uniting them without such means. 

 Bees will usually unite peacefully, par- 

 ticularly at night, and when they can- 

 not be united without these auxiliaries, 

 peppermint or tobacco will not do it 

 unless the bees are almost stupefied or 

 overcome with the drugs. Clear water, 

 he says, will be as effective as anything 

 else. 



Whether it is the peculiar hive-odor 

 by which bees of one and the same col- 

 ony recognize each other is not yet 

 fully and satisfactorily proven, although 

 we cannot understand what other factor 

 it could be. At any rate there is a 

 field open for investigation. 



The honey bee does her work as 

 prompted by the impulse of the mo- 

 ment. Wherever she happens to be 

 she performs such work as she finds 

 needs doing. — Dzierzon. (The writer 

 don't believe that bee-keepers agree to 

 this conception of the bee.) 



At a bee-keepers' convention in Ger- 

 many Rev. Selig said, the people should 

 familiarize themselves with bee-keep- 

 ing, (il Because of the beneficial in- 

 fluence it would have upon man. (2) 

 For the good of the bees themselves. 

 (3) Because of the ad\antage bees are 

 to the plants. 



H. Ritter expresses his doubts in Die 

 Biene as to the queen mating, but once 

 in her life. (Clipping queens for a ser- 

 ies of years should settle that matter 

 for him.) 



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DISTUKIJING BEES IN WINTEK. 



The reason why an apiary should be 

 located where the bees are not annoyed 

 by noises and disturbed by jarring, is 

 thus given by Zurricher. in Schlesui"-- 

 Holstein Bienenzeitung: During cold 

 weather bees are closely packed in their 

 hives and occupy the least possible 

 space; by consuming honey they keep 

 up the necessary warmth. The consum- 

 ed honey is so well assimilated as to 

 leave bu,t a small amount of residue in 

 the intestines of the bees and under 

 favorable conditions they can retain this 

 accumulation or excrement till spring- 

 time comes. However, when disturbed 

 h^' heavy jarring the cluster is brok- 

 en, the bees become uneasy and scat- 

 ter about the hive. To a great extent 

 this causes loss of heat: to replace this 

 requires the consumption of an extra 

 amount of honey every time the dis- 

 turbance occurs. The accumulation in 

 the intestines under such conditions is, 

 of necessity, greater than it would have 

 been imder more favorable circumstan- 

 ces. If the bees have not frequent 

 flights it may come to such a pitch that 

 they are unable to hold the excrements 

 and are obliged to void them inside of 

 the hive: which will, of course, prove 

 disastrous. 



On the other hand. Wurth, in Die 

 Biene, tells of an apiary located in the 

 upper story of a cooper shop. With 

 all the noise and hammering and jarring 

 below them the year round, the bees 

 do well and usually pass the winter in 

 good shape. 



The writer has a glass-observation 

 hive standing in an upper room in his 

 house. It has been there for years. The 

 bees seem to endure all the noises, the 

 walking on the floor and the slamming 

 of the doors without bad results. They 

 always have wintered as well as other 

 colonies in the yard, and a little better 

 than the average. 



