32 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



February, 



Know he'll try 'n' guess he'll win 

 Here she goes for hit him ag'in." 



"Von Humbug is the man wot owns all 



these ere shows, 



,, i_ . 1 ^ 'T • 1 ' ^;^ And if you'll give him half a chance 



Arter all guess best let Lish np ^>,j, ^^j,^ ^^ ^^^^,^ ^^ ^^^^^_„ 



along. It s royal fun for em as amt -' 



blind in their own conceits. John Hardscrabble. 



414414 ♦♦»»♦»♦ ♦♦♦»♦♦»♦♦ -M-M-^4- ^H^A 



THE 



Bee -Keeping World 



4444M»H ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦- 

 AUSTRIA. 



GERMANY. 



E. L. Gatter was probably the origi- 

 nal inventor of the drone trap having 

 constructed one in i860. The honey 

 extractor received his attention in 1870, 

 a comb-basket was added making it 

 possible and practicable to reverse the 

 combs without removing from the ex- 

 tractor. 



To relieve the pain of a bee sting 

 Grundig says strong salt brine rubbed 

 into the wound is very beneficial. 



In speaking of the honey producing 

 plant phacelia, Mr. Bela Ambrozy says, 

 the plant proved to be a great success 

 with him; that he had planted about 

 one acre in the spring of 1902 and that 

 the larger part of his honey was the 

 result of this planting. The little blos- 

 soms he says are visited by the bees 

 from early till late; generally three or 

 four blossoms would furnish enough 

 honey for a bee-load. He estimates 

 that from two to four acres, planted to 

 phacelia, furnish sufficient forage for a 

 large apiary. (Let the reader remem- 

 ber here that an apiary consisting of 

 20 colonies would be considered a large 

 one in Austria). The harvesting of the 

 phacelia. Ambrozy says, is attended with 

 some dif^culties. The plant ripens seed, 

 and continues to bloom right along; 

 the proper time to harvest the crop 

 will have to be judiciously selected. 

 The seed shells easily. The best tirne 

 to cut, bind and set up the bundles is 

 early in the morning^ before the dew 

 is ofif. Canvas-covered wagons are 

 used to convey the crop to the barn. 

 The curing takes two or three days. 

 A phacelia association is talked of in 

 Hungaria. 



A cement made of plaster Paris, thin 

 glue and iron-filings answers well for 

 repairing ant-eaten hives and bottom- 

 boards, or to stop up any holes or 

 cracks in hives. This cement is recom- 

 mended in Deutsche Bzcht for smooth- 

 ing motheaten frames. 



Gerstung says, the bee-keepers of all 

 other countries, but Germany, have ad- 

 opted such hives as are accessible from 

 the top only. 



To preserve pollen filled combs: 

 Sprinkle with pulverized salt or brine. — 

 Illstr. Bztg. 



The presence of formic acid in the 

 honey is explained by Reidenbach by 

 the discovered fact that all combs are 

 more or less impregnated by this sub- 

 stance which is a necessary antiseptic 

 to preserve the health of all bee colo- 

 nies. On account of its volatile char- 

 acter it is all present in the hive, af- 

 fects the food, the honey, the young 

 bees and all. 



It is not a very uncommon thing that 

 colonies die of starvation with plenty 

 of honey in the adjoining combs. If 

 the bees had any recollection or know- 

 ledge that they had stored a supply of 

 honey for their need in any part of the 

 hive they could easily, and would, move 



