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THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



April 



advisable to cut passage ways through 

 all the combs. 



Fobisch writes in Bienenvatti" of Bo- 

 hemia: There is no better bee for our 

 country than the native Bohemian bee 

 (which is of the same type as the com- 

 mon brown or black German bee). 

 Some may advocate and advertise- a bet- 

 ter, a more handsome bee, with foreign 

 blood, and they really attempt to make 

 us believe that bee-keeping is nowhere 

 without such; but that is all bosh. There 

 is no reasonable excuse for substituting 

 other bees in place of our good, indu.s- 

 trious and hardy native bee. It is poor 

 economy to throw away money for 

 these foreigners. 



GERMANY. 



Mr- Weygandt said at a bee-keepers' 

 convention in Erfurt, that the Norwe- 

 gian bee suited him best as a bee for 

 honey-production. He had tested all 

 or most all the other breeds for many 

 years and had finally settled on the 

 Norwegian. 



Maeterlink's interesting bee-book ha^i 

 been translated into the German, and 

 is now highly commented upon by Ger- 

 man writers. 



The bee-keepers of the Schwarzwald 

 have good reason to smile this year. 

 Their honey flow lasted from June to 

 the last of August. Strong colonies 

 gathered loo pounds surplus. Some col- 

 onies that did not have sufficient room 

 built comb on the outside of their hives 

 and filled them with honey. 



That total shade is beneficial to bees 

 is stated by Ebster, in Leipz. Bienen 

 Zeitung. (We have been rather unfortu- 

 nate in wintering colonies in total 

 shade, especially when they were facing 

 north.) 



"When do we find our hives without 

 brood?" This question is inswered in 

 Leipz. Bien. Zetung, as follows: In 

 afterswarms brood is quite often found 

 till clear into November, but surely 

 none in December and during the lar- 

 ger part of January. Manv times colo- 

 nies are found as early as October with- 

 out brood, but it is not the rule, iln 

 Western-Central New York, brood- 

 rearing comes to an end about Sept. 

 20, and the majority of our colonies 

 have no brood by October 15. 



Horses are sometimes stung to death, 

 and similar accidents happen occasion- 

 ally where bees are kept in large num- 

 bers. The bee-keeper may have to pay 

 for damage done in such instances. The 



bee-keepers in Germany may insure 

 against such casualties by paying a 

 small insurance premium (i 1-3 cents) 

 per hive. Soecial insurance companies 

 are organized for this purpose. 



Fleishman enumerates 118 different 

 I)ee periodicals as being the number 

 kept throughout the world. Austria 

 has 19. Germany 19, Suxemburg 1. 

 Spain I. Belgium 10, Netherlands i, 

 Sweden 2, Denmark 2. Russia 2, Am- 

 erica 18, Australia i. Especial men- 

 tion is made of the Brazilian Bienen- 

 phlege. a bee paper of Brazil, printed in 

 German. 



In order to improve our stock of bees 

 Distler says, in Phaelzer Bienen Zei- 

 tung, that best results can only be ac- 

 complished by judicious inbreeding. We 

 will have to overcome some difficulties 

 and meet with some failures, but if we 

 will carefully select the best to breed 

 from, we will surely make some gain. 

 Distler's idea is to breed queens and 

 plenty of drones from our best testecl 

 colonies, and never use any queen for 

 breeding, unless she shows the desired 

 superior qualities. It would be singu- 

 lar, he says, if bee-keepers should not 

 succeed in improving their stock, and, 

 in a measure, also that of their neigh- 

 bors. 



The past honey season has been ex- 

 ceptional in so far as the red clover has 

 yielded considerable honey, which the 

 bees have been able to appropriate. 

 Austria. America, Germany and other 

 countries report the same occurrence 

 in this respect. lAre these exceptional 

 honey yields due to the long tongues, 

 the superior stock of bees, or to some 

 other favoral)le conditions? I believe 

 the (|uestion is easily answered.) .An- 

 swer it then, Mr. Greiner- — Ed. 



A book on horticulture, written in 

 1723, in Germany, liy Dahuron. contains 

 in an annex a long chapter on bee-keep- 

 ing. The writer had itpparently some 

 correct knowledge of the bee and its 

 natural history, although he makes 

 many mistakes and weaves in myth. 

 .\bout curing queenlessness, for in- 

 stance, he says: "'Go to a healthy, strong 

 colony, cut out two pieces of comb con- 

 taining young brood, each as large as 

 a hand or larger, take along the ad- 

 iiering bees. Cut- out from the afflict- 

 ed hive similar pieces of comb and sub- 

 stitute the others with the brood. The 

 l)ees from the healthy hive brintr with 

 them the faculty of raising a new king. 

 This they acconr^lish in about fourteen 

 days." 



