1902 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



101 



► ^^ 44 ♦♦♦.M-^> M ♦♦♦♦»♦♦♦♦>-♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦^ 



THE 



Bee « Keeping World 



I 



AUSTRIA. 



Winkler, of Vienna, advocates clos- 

 ing up the hives during unfavorable 

 weather in the spring. He says, he has 

 observed that on cool windy days 

 sometimes nearly all fields bees were 

 lost. To prevent the colonies from be- 

 coming uneasy and excited when shut 

 in he has invented a peculiarly con- 

 structed ventilator, two of which are 

 attached to each hive, one at bottom 

 and one at top. These ventilators ex- 

 clude all light. Confined bees are to 

 receive water. (Bienenvater.) 



Rev. Adamec says in Deutsche lin- 

 ker, apiculture has sustained an injury 

 by large importations of foreign honey 

 bees. 



Dr. Semeleder asserts that one ot 

 his colonies consumed I2 quarts ot 

 water from February to May. The bees 

 had constant access to a feeder filled 

 with water. — The doctor's bees must 

 have been immoderate drinkers like the 

 German friend in my town who said 

 at court under oath, that he "drinked 

 27 glasses of hop-soda inside of an 

 hour" (and didn't get befogged either.) 



GERMANY. 



A new bee book is advertised in Get- 

 man bee periodicals under the promis- 

 ing title. "Returning to Nature." or 

 "Apiculture According to Nature.'' The 

 writer of the book. E. Kirchner, has a 

 superior hive to sell, which may ac- 

 count for the pompous title, and the 

 unwarranted claim made. The hive may 

 be a good one. It is made of straw and 

 some wood; it is horse-shoe shaped 

 and fitted out with suitable frames, 

 selling, complete, for $4.25 to $4.75- Mr. 

 Kirchner must have made a val- 

 uable discovery, for he says the bees 



can build only worker comb in the 

 brood frames, while the cells of the 

 combs in the honey chamber are of 

 such depth that the queen cannot de- 

 posit eggs in them. 



It is a common practice in Germany 

 to strengthen weak colonies by the 

 feeder process. A feeder filled with 

 syrup is placed under a strong colony 

 and when well covered with bees is re- 

 moved and placed under the weak one. 

 This is repeated several times. The 

 younger bees remain with the weak 

 colony to strengthen it. The older bees 

 will naturally return to their own hive 

 in the morning. The feeding, of course, 

 is done at night. 



Bienenzucht gives a long list of nec- 

 tar secreting plants; it is also stated 

 what the colors are of the different 

 honeys. According to this list, location 

 and nature of soil has a marked in- 

 fluence upon the color of the honey. 

 For example the linden furnishes a 

 dark-yellow honey on sandy alluvial 

 soil, yellow honey on clay soil, dark 

 honey on limestone soil. The color 

 of locust honey changes according to 

 soil from yellow to greenish and wa- 

 ter-white, of Esparsette-honey from 

 light yellow to red-yellow, etc It has 

 also been observed that the same 

 plants will yield differently colored hon- 

 ey in different years. However, this 

 may be due to a slight admixture of 

 other honey. 



Phacelia tanacetifoliji receives great 

 praise as a heavy producing plant of 

 late in Germany. As is said, the plant 

 is a native of North America. It is rec- 

 ommended as a fodder-plant, used in 

 its green state. It may be cut two or 

 three times in a season. The seed has 

 a market value of $30 per 100 pounds. 

 Five pounds of seed is sufficient to seed 

 one acre of land. It is claimed the 



