142 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



[July. 



gy of the bees. His works on the 

 senses of bees, their digestive appar- 

 atus, the nutrition, the preparation of 

 the food for the queen and the brood, 

 the heat, the foul brood, etc., will 

 never be out of date.— Le Rucher 

 Beige. 



FRANCE. 



A Self-built Hive. 



In the "Jardin des Plantes" that is 

 the B'otanical Garden of Paris, are 

 two colonies of bees in hollow trees, 

 one in a catalpa, the other in a sopho- 

 ra japonica. This last gave a swarm 

 which instead of seeking a lodgment 

 elsewhere concluded to start house- 

 keeping under a large branch of an- 

 other sophora near by. The swarm 

 when settled made a cluster about 

 one foot in diameter and somewhat 

 longer. During the summer six 

 built, four of them did 

 differ from those con- 

 structed in hives. The one on the 

 north side was formed of small cells 

 walls. It was connected 

 one with strong 



combs were 

 not materially 



with thick 

 with the next 

 braces of wax. 



Another similar comb formed of 

 two pieces joined at an angle pro- 

 tected the opposite side. The ends 

 of all the combs were considerably 

 thickened and were connected togeth- 

 er on a portion of their length. The 

 whole was somewhat like a hornet's 

 nest with a very wide entrance at the 

 bottom. 



The swarm died during the winter 

 for lack of provisions. It is presum- 

 ed that nearly alt the honey they gath- 

 ered was spent in building that edi- 

 fice. — L'Apiculteur. 



Top Entrances. 



During the last two seasons, Mr. 

 Devguchelle has tried putting the en- 

 trance above the brood-nest. There 

 was no increase in surplus for the 

 reason that in both years there was 

 no surplus to be had. These two 

 years are the worst he ever had during 

 his bee-keeping life. When a child, he 

 assisted once in the taking up of a 

 bee tree. The hole in the tree was 

 quite large and an enormous quan- 

 tity of honey was secured. The open- 

 ing or entrance was at the top and to 



dislodge the bees a hole was made at 

 the bottom and enough smoking 

 through it, drove the bees out 

 at the top. The remembrance of 

 that tree with the flight hole 

 above the honey largely contributed 

 to induce him to try putting the en- 

 trance above the brood nest. He 

 tried it on twenty-two colonies, the 

 entrance was placed immediately be- 

 low the top bars of the frames, so 

 as not to interfere with the rabbets 

 supporting them. The bees began the 

 brood near and immediately below the 

 entrance. The colonies with the en- 

 trance above seemed to have raised a 

 little more brood than the others. The 

 bottom of the hives were perfectly 

 clean. In the fall the colonies with 

 the entrance above put their provis- 

 ions on the back of the combs, pre- 

 ferably on the upper part, the cluster 

 remaining near the entrance. 



A very unexpected thing appeared. 

 There was considerably less mortality 

 during the winter in the hives with the 

 entrance above, or at least a much 

 less number of dead bees found on 

 the alighting board. An examination 

 of a few showed that the bottoms 

 were clean and that the dead had 

 not been left inside as might be sus- 

 pected. — L'Apiculteur. 



Bees and Their Queen. 



Some time ago, an eminent writer, 

 Dr. Buttel Reepen, of Germany, had 

 a curiosity to find out to what extent 

 the bees worship or love their queen. 

 Among his experiments, he put in a 

 box the queen and about one hundred 

 bees with a little food. Two days 

 later, the bees began to show signs 

 of weakness. After two more days 

 only four workers were alive, the 

 queen was yet as sound as ever. A 

 little later only one worker was left, 

 and while she was barely able to 

 stand she presented the queen with 

 the last drop of honey she had in her 

 honey sac. One hour later she was 

 dead but the queen did not seem to 

 suffer yet. — L'Apiculteur. 



"Reduce the entrance of all vi^eak 

 colonies or the first thing you know 

 there will be a wholesale fight, and 

 these colonies wiped out and nothing 

 remain but the hive and to wonder 

 how it happened." 



