THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



88 



spring, when the bees begin to G.y, we take out 

 the bones of the chicken fron\ tlie hxva, the bees 

 haviufi eaten a.ll the meat off ! Our stocks come 

 out siroug and healthy, and do not consume 

 one-half the honey that those do which are not 

 so fed Avilh meat." 



Now, I will warrant that nine hundred and 

 ninety-nine out of every thousand who read 

 this, will exclaim just as I did. Bat will not 

 some one try this mode of wintering bees, and 

 report success — or failure ? 



S. C. Palmer. 



Windham, Ohio, July 16, 1869. 



Dt^^A full account of this alleged Hungarian 

 mode of provisioning bees for winter is contain- 

 ed in Liittichau's "Suggestions for the improve- 

 ment of Bee-culture in Saxony," whicli was 

 published in Dresden, in 1778. Ltittichau is re- 

 garded by German apiaiiaus as a kind of 

 iVIunchhauseu in bee-culture, and is commonly 

 believed to h;ive invented the story. But in 

 this they probably do him injustice, as it is al- 

 ready givun in detail in the "Transactions of 

 the Economical Society of St. Petersburg," for 

 1776, and is there said to be the method employ- 

 ed by the Tartars, when, in unfavorable }'ears, 

 their bees have failed to Ixy up sufficient stores 

 for the winter. It is also siated that the Tartars 

 feed their bees with putrid fi.sh in defauU of 

 honey, and with the carcases of dead rats, mice, 

 and other "such small deer." 



Lutiichau likewise recommended feeding des- 

 titute bees with bread saturated with honey. 

 This, he says, was formerly employed by the 

 Hungarians, Poles, and Saxons, wiUi great ad 

 vantage— six or seven pounds of bread, thus 

 prepared, sufficing to carry a populous colony 

 safely through tiie winter, however poor in other 

 stores it may be. But it would seem that he 

 did not feed his own bees in this manner, for 

 his servant Zschaller, who lived with him sever- 

 al years, saj'^s they were never so fed in that 

 period. Heidenreich, who published his " Ex- 

 periences and Opinions in Bee-culture," in 

 17!)6, states tliat he tested this honey-bread pro- 

 visioning, with three colonies, iu the fall and 

 winter of 1778. The result w;is a complete fail- 

 ure — the bees dying before spring, and the hives 

 being pervaded by dampness and mould. 

 Others also, misled by Liittichau's representa- 

 tions, tried it in 1783 ; bur, as maybe supposed, 

 with no better success. We are uut aware that 

 any one, then or s nee, ventured to test the 

 value of spring chickens as the "staff of life" in 

 a bee community. — Ed. 



Pollen gathered by the bees from the blos- 

 soms of sweet cherry and from those of cur- 

 rants, is orange color ; gathered from those of 

 celandine and veronica, it is cream-colored ; 

 pale green finch coloied fiom those of plum 

 and pear trees ; yellow from maples and wil- 

 lows; bright yellow from butter-cups; SHflTron 

 yellow from sour cherry trees, wall flowers, 

 rape, sloe, and buckthorn. 



The egg-laying of the queen is regulated and 

 controlled bj' the will of the'woikers. When 

 they want brood, they fted the queen liberally. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 

 Questions by Querist. No. 7. 



Querist is still alive and reads the Bee 

 JouuNAL as much as ever ; in fact every article 

 is faithfully read. He desires to thank those 

 who have been kind enough to try their pens at 

 answering his questions in No. 6 ; but regreta 

 that some of those questions are misunderstood. 

 Henceforth he will try to be more explicit, so 

 that there may be no more mistakes. 



On page 55, volume 5, may be found this 

 statement: "The first and highest law of na- 

 ture iu inserts, is self-preservation in eating for 

 offspring. Tlie honey bee seems to be endowed 

 with this instinctive impulse, for the purpose of 

 preserving the brood iu .the hive." Now, is 

 iliis statement correct ? If the preservation of 

 the off'spring is the strongest instinct that gov- 

 erns the honey bee, then why does she remove 

 unsealed larvfE from the cells, to make room for 

 a rich harv« st of honey ? Mr. Otis, of Wiscon- 

 sin, claims that the strongest instinct that con- 

 trols the working bees is the love of storing hon- 

 ey. So it seems that the position taken by Mr. 

 Seay is at variance with that of Mr. Otis, and 

 one or the other must from necessity be in the 

 wrong Again, is it not a fact that, at times, 

 the self-preservation of the matured bees, is far 

 stronger than the love of offspring? Witness, 

 f )r instance, the destruction oi drone larvae dur- 

 ing a dearth in the honey harvest. 



Mr. Seay has much to'say about brood chill- 

 ing. "V\ here Querist lives, sealed brood is not 

 very likely to chill during June and July — the 

 swarming months ; and but few bees are neces- 

 sary to keep it at the proper temperaluie to ma- 

 ture. 



On page 56, same volume, I find this : — " All 

 artificial swarms should have their swarming 

 propensity excited at the time they are being 

 made. When that is done, and the combs are 

 properly arranged in the hive, there remains no 

 other reason why ao artificial swarm will not 

 leather as much honey, and build as much comb. 

 !n anv given time, as a natural swarm." 

 Whether there be any other reason or not, ii is 

 nevertneless a fact that, durii<g the first week, an 

 artificial swarm located in an empty hive, will 

 not gather as much honey, nor build as much 

 comb, as a natural swarm. Several attempts 

 have been made by the Jotjknal correspon- 

 dents to give the solution of this problem ; but 

 none has, thus far, given one that is satisfac- 

 tory. There are those among the Journal 

 writers who can give the solution, and on tliis 

 account the question is still open for discus- 

 sion. 



On page 57, Mr. Nesbit says that he guaran- 

 tees all the Italian queens he sells, and notifies 

 his customers that if they fail at any time to 

 produce workers with three yellow bands, that 

 he will replace the queen free of charge. The 

 object of making this extract is not to find fault 

 with friend Nesbit, nor to be personal ; but to 

 n)ake an inquiry. The present standard of 

 purity of Italian bees is the three yellow stripes 

 on the worker progeny ; but is that a proper 



