178 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



[August. 



anyone who says that honey from old 

 brood combs is as good as that from 

 new combs, will make an examination 

 with a magnifying glass after moisten- 

 ing the matter contained in old cells, 

 he will become convinced that young 

 bees leave excrements in them which, 

 of necessity, must taint the honey ; 

 if he is still satisfied that everything 

 is a model of neatness, let him be 

 consistent enough to taste of the 

 brown juice obtained by soaking the 

 comb in warm water for a while. This 

 will satisfy him." — Leipz. Bztg. 



Joh. Binder regards the moderate 

 breeder and swarmer as the best bee. 

 The German or brown bee fills this 

 bill for him. The queen excluder is 

 not needed with such a bee, so he 

 says, in Allgem. Z. f. Bzcht. 



Colony Records. 



Gerlach, Eisleben urges the keeping 

 or records of each colony. He uses 

 a card and makes all entries with a 

 lead pencil. (This is a good practice, 

 sure! but tack on that card, so it can- 

 not become lost. Broken sections do 

 pretty well if one has enough of them. 

 — F. G.) 



Treating "Slumgum." 



111. Mon-Bl., in speaking of "slum- 

 gum," says that it contains some wax 

 and is for this reason bought up by 

 peddlers at about one cent per pound. 

 There are special establishments which 

 treat this "slumgum" with benzine and 

 thus extract every bit of the wax. The 

 refuse is then used as a fertilizer. One 

 firm alone puts out twenty carloads 

 of such every year. It contains about 

 7 per cent, of nitrogen and i per cent, 

 of phosphoric acid, i8 per cent of pot- 

 ash, and looks like a dark colored 

 coarse powder. 



Bee Insurance. 



Many of the bee-keepers in Germany 

 pay i^ cents per colony to an insur- 

 ance company, the latter paying all 

 damages which may be caused by the 

 insured bees. This is not a new thing, 

 but I do not know that it has been 

 mentioned in our bee journals before. 

 There may be room in the United 

 States for a similar institution, as our 

 bee-keepers' associations do not fully 

 protect us. 



SWITZERLAND. 



Origin of Formic Acid. 



According to Planta the formic acid 

 in the honey originates in the blood 

 of the bee. Reidenbach claims old 

 brood combs produce the acid inde- 

 finitely. Dr. Bruennich, defending 

 the Planta theory, seems to get the 

 better of Reidenbach. Nectar, he says, 

 contains not a trace of it, but as soon 

 as the bee gathers it and is stored 

 in the stomach of the bee, the pres- 

 ence of the honey preservative, formic 

 acid, may be detected. 



Ask the Boy. 



"How much honey may be given a 

 boy of five, with safety, per day?" is 

 a question answered by a number of 

 different men in Schwz. Bztg. The 

 majority advise small doses, from 2 — 3 

 teaspoonfuls. I would not hesitate to 

 largely increase the dose if I had the 

 honey. 



Neat House Apiary. 



A very nicely kept house apiary is 

 shown in the Schwz. Bztg. Its owner 

 is J. Kung. The building is covered 

 with trellised pear and apple trees. 

 It seems to require a great deal of 

 care to keep these trees where they 

 belong, but the arrangement looks 

 very neat, and the owner says he ob- 

 tains fine fruits from the trees. A 

 prominent portico covers each en- 

 trance which can thus not be hidden 

 by the foliage. 



Favors the German Bee. 



Dr. Brunnich agrees with Joh. Bin- 

 der, that the common brown or Ger- 

 man bee is the best honey-producing 

 bee in existence for his locality. He 

 says not everything depends on great 

 prolificness of the queen, or, better 

 expressed, "of the colony of bees." 

 The bees which breed only moderately, 

 but at the right time, give better net 

 results than the bees unduly prolific. 

 Another factor, largely responsible and 

 often not sufficiently taken into ac- 

 count, is the longevity of the bees 



