THE AMEBIC AI^ APIGULTURIST. 



259 



ion that every diseased colony will 

 die before another spring, and if the 

 combs are destroyed, and the hives 

 properly cleansed, it may never ap- 

 pear again. Unless it reappears we 

 would advise no one to experiment 

 with it. Some writers have expressed 

 the opinion that the bees are merely 

 chilled. Would the bees in some 

 colonies die from cold while others 

 are at work gathering honey? We 

 saw one infected colony dying at the 

 rate of about iifty bees each day, 

 while the healthy bees in the same 

 hive were working smartly.^ 



— A writer in Scribjiei-'s Montlily 

 gives a very interesting account of 

 comb-building. "When a swarm of 

 bees is about to leave its old home 

 and seek another one, each bee fills 

 itself with honey. After entering 

 their home the gorged bees suspend 

 themselves in festoons hanging from 

 the top of the hive. They hang mo- 

 tionless for about twenty-four hours. 

 During this time the honey has been 

 digested and converted into a pecul- 

 iar animal oil, which collects itself in 

 scales or laminae beneath the abdom- 

 inal rings. This is the wax. One 

 of the workers, called the founder, 

 then draws from its own body, by 

 means of its clawed foot the scales 

 of wax, and crumbles and works with 

 its mouth and mandibles, till it be- 

 comes pliable, and it issues from the 

 mouth in a long narrow ribbon, made 

 white and soft by an admixture of 

 saliva from the tongue. Meanwhile 

 the other bees are making ready their 

 material in the same way. On the 

 ceiling of the hive an inverted solid 

 arch of wax is built, and from this 



1 Since the above was put in type M'e have 

 seen the result of an experiment we tried lor 

 a triend upon two colonies that were badly 

 di.<eased. We raised the honey-boards and 

 llufw :i handinl of fine salt over the frames 

 and combs, and then daslied about one-half 

 a pint of water ovei' all to moisten tlie salt. In 

 a few weeks, or after all the diseased bees had 

 died, all traces of the disease had disap- 

 peared. It really secerned to us that the bees 

 were snlTering for something of the kind and 

 60 we tried the experiment. Will others try 

 the same and report the results ? 



the first foundation cells are exca- 

 vated, all the subsequent ones be- 

 ing built up and around these which 

 are usually three in number. The 

 size and shape of the cell are deter- 

 mined by its future use, but all comb 

 is formed of two sheets of cells placed 

 back to back, the partition walls of 

 the two sheets always alternating with 

 one another. If the cells are in- 

 tended for brood, twenty-five cells 

 of worker and sixteen of drone go to 

 the square inch." Von Berlepsch, 

 a celebrated German apiarist, de- 

 clares " that he has known cases in 

 which a swarm have built three hun- 

 dred square inches of comb in a 

 single night." 



— For a short time the "Apicul- 

 turist " will be sent to any address, 

 three months, on receipt of 25 cents 

 in postage stamps, or five copies, 

 three months, for ^i.oo. 



Please call the attention of your 

 brother beekeepers to this most lib- 

 eral offer. 



— We should be pleased to receive 

 reports from all those who keep bees, 

 whether encouraging or otherwise. 

 If you have conducted any exper- 

 iments the past season, and they 

 have proved successful and practical, 

 please report the result of them for 

 publication in the "Api". Don't 

 feel that you are not competent to 

 write an article for publication, but 

 send us a plain statement of facts, 

 and they will prove both valuable 

 and acceptable. Please send in 

 your articles and thus help make one 

 of the most interesting bee journals 

 published. 



— Mr. A. E. Bonney of Adelaide, 

 South Australia, has favored us with 

 a copy of the South Australian Ad- 

 vertiser containing the doings of 

 Parliament regarding the matter of 

 setting apart the Island of Kangaroo 

 for the purpose of establishing an 

 apiary, from which pure-bred Italian 

 queens may be had. To show the 



