THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



209 



must be diluted with water, using" at 

 least as much water as honey. As a 

 rule, sugiir is a much cheaper food for 

 bees than is the case with honey, and 

 there is no dang-er of its use contamin- 

 ating- the apiary with disease, while it 

 is a much safer food for winter stores. 

 When I find foul brood in a neig-hbor- 

 hood, and spend a lot of time tracing- 

 it to its source, I think it is half of the 

 time that I find it orig-inated from some 

 bee-keeper feedings honej' that had 

 come from a distance. 



»^-»^'»^'»^« 



"How to Keep Bees" is the title of a 

 delig-htfully written book by Anna B. 

 Comstock, and published by Double- 

 day, Pag-e and Company, the publish- 

 ers of Country Life in America, which 

 is a sufficient guarantee of its typo- 

 graphical beauty. The illustrations 

 are beautiful, and the style simple and 

 direct, but there is an indefinable 

 something- about it that makes a veteran 

 bee-keeper feel that the writer has had 

 a more intimate acquaintance with the 

 pen than with the bee smoker. The 

 book is intended for beg-inners, and it 

 seems as though it would answer the 

 purpose in an excellent manner. The 

 price of the book is $1.00, and it can 

 be obtained of the publishers. Double- 

 day, Pag-e t'<: Co., New York, or the 

 orders can be sent to the Review office. 

 The Review and the book one year for 

 only $1.75. 



*^fc^ta^^^rf*«-\ 



Has Each Colony of Bees a Characteristic 

 Odor? 



Perhaps one of the hoary headed 

 errors that bee-keepers have been 

 taug-ht for years, is that bees recog-nize 

 their fellows by some characteristic 

 odor. The American Bee-Keeper bring-s 

 up this question, and cites an example 

 of the bees of a g-olden Italian colony 

 being- more or less mixed with other 

 colonies, and bees from other colonies 

 being mixed with the bees of the golden 

 colony, all with apparent harmony. 

 No dead g-oldens wore found in front of 



other colonies. As a rule, I believe 

 that a bee coming- in loaded with honey 

 will be admitted to any colony. Just 

 how bees recog-nize each other is diffi- 

 cult to decide. When a robber tries to 

 enter a colony, it is almost certainly 

 collared and led out. Perhaps odor 

 plays no part. It may be that it is the 

 actions that g-ive it aw;iy. Here is a 

 point: In making- up colonies I usually 

 take combs, with the adhering- bees, 

 from about three different colonies, put 

 them all tog-ether in a new hive, and 

 g:ive them a queen. Such colonies de- 

 fend themselves ag-ainst intruders from 

 the very first. It would seem as though 

 the different "scents" wouldbesobadl3' 

 mixed up as to be of Uttle value. 



But there is some way in which bees 

 recognize one another, at least, there 

 are times when they do. A small 

 swarm of Italians once tried to join a 

 colonj-^ of hybrids in my apiary, when 

 the hybrids turned in and killed every 

 last one of the Italians. Ouerj', how 

 did they recog-nize them ? Was it their 

 color ? Or had they been away from 

 the hiv.e so long- that their sacs were 

 empty ? 



We have been told for j^ears to cage 

 a queen for several hours, or days, in 

 the colon}' to which we wish to intro- 

 duce her, and the reason given is that 

 the queen may acquire the same scent 

 as the colonj'. It would seem that 

 there is some odor about a queen, as, if 

 a cage is left in the open air, after it 

 has contained a laying- queen for some 

 length of time, flying- bees will gather 

 about and cluster upon it, the same as 

 they will upon a queen, but whether 

 this odor is different in dift'erent col- 

 onies, or with different queens, is an 

 open question. 



»^<*««^^» 



A Model Apiarian Premium List — That of 

 Colorado. 

 I don't know as I have ever published 

 in the Review an apiarian premium 

 list, but that of Colorado is so good 

 that I must print it as a mode). It is 



