1907-1 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



261 



THE BEE-KEEPING WORLD 



Stall Contributors: F. Greiner, Adrian Getaz 

 Contributions lo this department are solicited (rem all quarters ol the earth 



GERMANY. 



A newspaper of Mainz tells the fol- 

 lowing which is in line with Alexan- 

 der's discovery, that a plurality of 

 queens may be kept in one colony : 

 "Previously it was an indisputed fact 

 that only one queen was at the head 

 of every bee family. But since Prof. 

 Gatter has exhibited a colony of bees 

 which contained two laying queens, 

 concessions must be made. The two 

 queens of the Professor's colony be- 

 haved very nicely towards each other, 

 often showing affection for each oth- 

 er. 



R. Ostrowski has made some inter- 

 esting observations regarding sugar 

 feeding. He is preparing the syrup 

 by taking one pound of granulated 

 sugar to one pound of water, which, 

 ke says, makes a syrup of the stan- 

 dard sweetening power. Of this 

 syrup he feeds 4 pounds daily till 

 enough has been given. By weigh- 

 ing the colony a few days after feed- 

 ing he found his colony had gained 

 just half as much in weight as was 

 fed, consequently the gain per pound 

 cost him just exactly what the sugar 

 cost per pound. — from Allgemeine 

 Zeitung f. Bienenzucht. 



The general verdict of the German 

 bee-keepers gathered at Frankfurt 

 relative to the golden long-tongued 

 American bee was unfavorable. Even 

 Freudenstein, editor of the Neue 

 Bienenzeitung, who formerly cham- 

 pioned the American product, owned 

 up that the German bee was superior, 

 and said that he imported the Goldens 

 only for the sake of the experiment. 



Evidently the bee-keeping frater- 

 nity of Germany desires to do thor- 

 ough work when it comes to conduct- 

 ing their meeting, the "Wanderver- 

 sammlung." There is a general de- 

 sire manifested to have all subjects 

 which are to come up for discussion 

 published some time before the meet- 

 ing is held; advanced theories are to 



be given in full, so that material may 

 be gathered for or against by partic- 

 ipants. Contrary to this, among the 

 Americans the no-program theory 

 has been followed to a large extent 

 of late years. 



GERMAN EAST-AFRICA 



Native Methods. 



Bee-keeping as carried on in this 

 tropical colony has been mentioned 

 in these columns several times before. 

 The practices differ in different local- 

 ities, but all reports agree in as much 

 as bee-keeping is very profitable in 

 all parts. The natives of the Wad- 

 jagga tribe along the Kilimandscharo 

 take cuts of suitable logs, hollow 

 them out and hang them to the limbs 

 of the forest trees. It does not take 

 long before they are inhabited by 

 bees. As there is no winter to hinder 

 the work of the insects, the contents 

 of these rude hives are cut out about 

 every three months and carried to the 

 doors of the white farmers who us- 

 ually give about 35 cents for the con- 

 tents of a hive which yields in the 

 neighborhood of 25 pounds of honey 

 and one pound of wax. The white 

 farmers, in a measure, have adopted 

 some practices of the natives. They 

 fix up the cases in which kerosene 

 cans are shipped them; one case is 

 used as the brood chamber, another 

 one as a super. The last-named only 

 is fitted up with movable frames and 

 an extractor is used to obtain the 

 honey. To establish an apiary all 

 that is necessary is to set up the hives 

 in some convenient spot. They will 

 soon be inhabited. The African honey 

 bee Apis mellifica Adonsoni is smaller 

 than the German bee, and the thorax 

 is of a reddish color. 



The honey these bees gather is 

 darker than the good grades of Eu- 

 rope, very sweet, but not equal to 

 clover honey in flavor. Not a great 

 deal of honey is so far exported, but 

 quite a little of the wax, which is 

 said to melt at a higher heat, and 



