252 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



November, 



tiou. The place for the honey sale is 

 to be so chosen that every visitor 

 must pass it. 



BRAZIL. 



The black, brown or German bee 

 was originally imported into Brazil by 

 missionaries. Runaway swarms soon 

 filled the woods and were the means 

 of preserving the honey bee in this 

 country. A writer from Brazil states 

 in Bienen Vater that only black bees 

 are kept there, but that he has just 

 succeeded in importing two Italian 

 swarms. The voyage from Geneva to 

 Rio de .Janeiro lasted 28 days and the 

 bees arrived in- fair condition. He is 

 now busy Italianizing his 14 colonies. 



GERMANY. 



Dr. Dzierzon has practiced clipping 

 queens for years for the purpose of 

 preventing swarms running away at 

 his out-yards. 



To what age to which the worker 

 bee may live was ascertained by the 

 same old veteran a great many years 

 ago, and before the bee had been med- 

 dled with, and had, as Dr. Gallup 

 would say, "degenerated." Dzierzon's 

 conclusion was that the worker may 

 live during the winter season and at- 

 tain an age of three months, but dur- 

 ing the busy season she lives but six 

 weeks. The queen sometimes attains 

 the age of five years. (From this it 

 appears that our bees have not degen- 

 erated during the past 50 years as has 

 been insinuated for as I have repeat- 

 edly proven our bees now live to ex- 

 actly that age.) 



Meier of Kapellen. according to Leipz, 

 Bztg., assures that bees can be induced 

 to make use of gathered wax in con- 

 structing comb. He experimented with 

 a little late after-swarm weighing but 

 one-quarter pound, fed it with honey 

 which contained particles of wax saved 

 up by straining extracted honey. The 

 dark color of the wax fed showed 

 plainly in the combs built by the little 

 colony. Wax offered dr.v, not in the 

 wet feed was not touched by the bees. 



Reidenback says in Phalzer Bztg.: It 

 has been observed that colonies re- 

 maining in the heath districts for 

 three seasons usuall.v show foul brood. 

 The reason for this rather queer occur- 

 rence may be found in the fact that 



there is no pollen produced in thos* 

 localities and the bees actually starve 

 or at least their vitality is reduced t( 

 such a low state that the foul brooc 

 Bacillus can and does soon get the up 

 per hand. Germany and Switzerlam 

 are said to have excellent honey cfoj)s 

 up to 100 pounds from single liive;|_ 

 have been reported. 



It is the custom of bee-keepers ij 

 Germany, when removing the accumu 

 lated dead bees, etc.. from under thei: 

 hives during the winter months anc 

 ill the spring, to sweep them upon : 

 screen and sift out all the particles o: 

 wax, granules of honey or anythin? 

 else and make a saving of them. Stei 

 gel, of Oberfellabrum. has made a care 

 ful study of this matter and has foum 

 that the wax, pollen and other parti 

 cles thus saved diu'ing 12 months 

 weighed only 7 1-4 grains. Incidentally 

 he remarks that this small amount o: 

 accumulation is evidence against th< 

 theory that bees void their excrements 

 in dry form within the hive. 



Reidenl>ach also claims that an ener 

 getlc, healthy colony cannot take fou 

 brood at all. as the bees would remove 

 every diseased larva very qiiickly; thai 

 the.v have within reach the vei-y besi 

 remedy to fight the disease — formic 

 acid. Formaldehyde vapor if properly 

 applied, he says, will kill even the 

 sjjores of Bacillus alvei. 



In Deutsche Bzcht. L. Spitz con- 

 demns, in the strongest terms, the prac- 

 tice of rearing queens by allowing a 

 colony to build queen cells over larvae. 

 To obtain good queens the.v should re- 

 ceive proper treatment from the e^ix. 



"Great size of qiieen bee," says 

 Fitzke in Centrall>latt, "is not an indi- 

 cation of prolificness." One of his col- 

 onies after proving itself a "number 

 one" for three successive years, being 

 ver.v populous all the time and paying 

 well for its keeping, in honey, was 

 found to possess a real dwarf queen. 

 After substituting a large, handsome 

 queen the colony kept running down. 



.\ccording to Schoenfeld formic acid 

 finds its w:iy into the hone.v through 

 the mouth parts of the bee. not by way 

 of the sting apparatus. Die Biene. 



F. Greiner. 



Naples. N. Y.. Oct. 4, 1903. 



