86 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



March 



Mr. H. Harris has come to the conclu- 

 sion that any experim'enting with Apis 

 dorsata might as well be dropped as 

 an unprofitable project. The northern 

 part of India, it is said, harbors honey 

 bees closely related to our own, but no 

 case of crossing with Apis dorsata has 

 com'e to the notice of anyone. It 

 seems therefore probable that efforts 

 made by man to accomplish this object 

 would result in failure.— Heberly, in 

 Deutsche 111. Bztg. 



SWITZERLAND. 



Prof. E. Keller of Zurich recntly 

 made an autopsy of a peculiar year-old- 

 queen. This queen had been in a nor- 

 mal condition during the first period of 

 her life, but after enduring the winter, 

 all at once, in April laid no more 

 eggs. The microscope showed her 

 ovaries to be diseased or degenerated. 

 There were no eggs present and the 

 spermatheca was empty. A parasite 

 was discovered within the queen be- 

 tween the alimentary canal and the re- 

 productive organ which led the pro- 

 fessor to suppose this to have been the 

 cause of the queen's failing at an early 

 age. — Schweiz-Leztg. 



BRAZIL. 



The inven,tor of the queen excluder, 

 Mr. A. Hannemann, has a lengthy ar- 

 ticle in the Bienenvater, Vienna. It ap- 

 pears from this that even in Brazil 

 there are poor honey seasons, for he 

 says, that in one season from 80 to 90 

 per cent, of all bees starved. He him- 

 self saved his bees by feeding his re- 

 serve honey and 750 kilograms of su- 

 gar. Usually the seasons are good in 

 South Brazil. The two weak, dragged- 

 out colonies Mr. H. brough,t with him 

 across the water in 1855 increased dur- 

 ing the first season to 28 colonies. The 

 second year he commenced with 23 

 colonies and increased them to 250. 

 Bees seem to be given to swarming in 

 South Brazil, and his management aims 

 to make the best use of the swarms. 

 His giant hives, holding from 12 ,to 20 

 swarms with queens all caged, I have 

 described before on these pages. Mr. 

 H."s object in keeping the large num- 

 ber of bees is to produce chunk honey 

 and extracted honey. Formerly it used 



to be strained honey. It seems the ex- 

 tractor has found its way even into Mr, 

 Hannemann's yard. Late years Mr. H. 

 has also adopted more practical hives 

 than years ago, when he had to resort 

 to the knife to obtain his honey. The 

 L. hive seems to be in greater favor 

 with him than formerly, when it ex- 

 cited his ire. He now storifies. This 

 is gratifying to me; as I had occasion 

 raany years ago to cross swords — pens 

 — wi^h him. Hannemann believes in re- 

 newing queens often and says, it seems 

 to him that the Italian bee is shorter- 

 lived than the black bee. 



RUSSIA. 



Wurth says in Die Biene it has been 

 ascertained tha,t bees may endure con- 

 finement for eight months without be- 

 coming diseased. It is a common prac- 

 tice in Russia, he claims, to keep colo- 

 nied buried in the ground for seven 

 months during winter. 



HOLLAND. 



An effort is being made to induce the 

 government in Holland to pu,t the 

 teachers in a position to keep bees; in 

 other words, furnish them the bees, on 

 the grounds that they are best fitted for 

 the bee-keeping pursuit. 



GERMANY. 



The Rhein. Bztg. has figured out that 

 the bottoms of sixty bee fee,t measure 

 over one square centimeter of surface, 

 and that ten bees could hold in sus- 

 pense a weight of two kilograms. 



The transferring of larvae was the in- 

 vention of the German bee-master, 

 Mehring, but American bee-masters 

 have made a science of it and have 

 brought it to perfection. While Meh- 

 ring emptied a natural built cell, thus 

 preparing it for the reception of a 

 selected larva, the American bee-mas- 

 ters make their queen cells or cups 

 artificially, stock them with royal food 

 and larvae, or even eggs. This Ameri- 

 can method is beginning to become 

 iec(guJ;'.cd as ot value by our friends. 

 Rev. Klein describes it in Deutsche 

 Bzcht. and gives credit to America. 



