I907-] 



THE AMEklCAN BEE-KEEPER. 



279 



entirely agree with, that is, that some is replace by a queen that has 

 means should be adopted for heating been confined in a cage, the bees 

 the honey-room at night in changeable easily notice the change, and her in- 

 weather while the honey is maturing, troduction will be difficult. It is quite 

 Sometimes the nights are exception- different if the queen to be introduced 

 ally cold, and starts the honey gran- is taken out of the colony where she 

 ulating prematurely, and means should was laying. In such a case the change 

 be taken to prevent this. Some one is hardly noticed, and with the pre- 

 of the modern kerosene stoves would caution of guarding against robbers, 

 be very suitable for this purpose, and a little smoke, and powdering the bees 

 would cost very little indeed for up- with flour, the introduction is easy. 



keep. 



Testing for Making Vinegar and 

 Mead. — I should also like to draw 

 your attention to another use for the 

 hydrometer. In the making of vine- 

 gar, mead, etc., out of the washings 

 of cappings, broken honeycombs, etc., 

 we are told usually to test the strength 

 by the floating of a new-laid tgg, or 

 sound potato, which is another rule- 

 of-thumb business. The right propor- 

 tions of honey and water to make 



Queens reared in nuclei in the same 

 apiary are always accepted, whereas 

 those coming from another apiary are 

 not always, notwithstanding all the 

 precautions taken. From this it will 

 be seen that the best time for in- 

 troducing a queen that has come in 

 a cage is when queens have ceased 

 egg-laying, say, after September 15, 

 ■because the size of the stranger will 

 be about the same as that of the queen 

 which is to be replaced, and the bees 



vinegar is one and a fourth pounds of will not be surprised at her not laying 



honey to each gallon of water. In 

 this test glass I have put them in 

 that proportion, and you see the hy- 

 drometer gives the specific gravity as 

 1.040, so that, knowing this, you can 

 easily make correct tests of any wash- 

 ings you may have without there be- 

 ing any guesswork about it. The right 

 proportions for making mead are 4 

 pounds honey to the gallon of water, 

 so that by mixing half a pound of 



eggs. — British Bee Journal. 



BEE KEEPING IN MORAVIA. 



Abbe F. Adamec states in L'Api- 

 culture Nouvelle that in Moravia 

 (Austria) the number of bee-keepers 

 has doubled from what it was at the 

 end of last century, and increases daily 

 In 1906 there were in Moravia 95,329 



colonies of bees, of which 66,317 were 

 honey in a" pint of wateryou will have i" hives with fixed combs, 4,226 com- 

 the correct proportions for ascertain- bmed hives (hives with movable 



ing the specific gravity for mead. 



A number of questions were asked 

 and answered by the lecturer. — New 

 Zealand Farmer Stock and Station 

 Journal. 



THE REASON WHY QUEENS IN 

 CAGES BECOME SMALL. 



M. A. Wathelet says in Le Rucher 

 Beige that if a queen is removed from 

 a colony where she was laying, and 

 with abdomen expanded with eggs is 

 placed in a cage, the abdomen will 

 by degrees diminish in size as the 

 eggs are dropped. After a few hours, 

 as she no longer receives the digested 

 and stimulating food produced by the 

 workers, she becomes very small, and 

 after twenty-four hours is no larger 

 than a virgin queen, and is incapable 

 of recommencing egg-laying until she 

 has passed some days in a colony. 

 If in the spring a laying queen 



supers and brood-chamber with fixed 

 combs), and 24,785 movable-frame 

 hives, mostly of the Berlepsch type, 

 a form that was adopted in 1866. Dur- 

 ing the last four years the American 

 type of hive has been introduced, as 

 well as the Dadant-Alberti. The 

 former is used out of doors, and the 

 latter in bee houses or pavilions. In 

 order to use the American type of 

 hive in bee houses, a professor, M. 

 Edouard Hirube, turns the entrance 

 to one side, inaking the hives like 

 ours, with frames running parallel to 

 entrance, and he considers them more 

 handy for the bee-keeper to manip- 

 ulate. Moravia comprises three- 

 fourths of the Slav nation. There is 

 a monthly journal devoted to bee- 

 keeping, Pcelar Moravska, which ad- 

 vocates modern methods of manage- 

 ment. — British Bee Journal. 



Do you think or do you only think 

 vou think? 



