36 



THE AMERICAN APICULTUHIST. 



FOREIGN NOTES. 



Friend Newman of the A. B. J. pub- 

 lishes again the German bee-laws. It 

 is a mistake ; this law has never been 

 enacted and Germany, like this country, 

 has no bee law as yet. Didn't friend 

 Newman read "Foreign Notes" in the 

 June issue of the Apr ? 



Mr. Rauscheufets in Italy, editor of 

 the Apicolture found by experiments 

 that bee-brood, nymphs, larvae and eggs 

 will die at a temperature as low as 32° F. 

 If the temperature is lower than 32° the 

 brood will die in about an hour. 



A frame of brood taken from the hive 

 and kept in a decreasing temperature 

 will show that at 40° the larvae will chill 

 and stop eating. Larvae not exposed 

 more than two or three hours to such 

 low temperature will when replaced in 

 the hive show some signs of life, but 

 much of it will perish. The same low 

 temperature that will kill the larvae will 

 kill the embryo in the eg^. The author 



• concludes from his experiments that a 

 short revision of a colony in early spring 

 or in winter will do no damage to the 

 brood. This is in accordance with our 

 experience. 



It is estimated that in the province 



• of Hanover, Germany, 200,000 colonies 

 of bees were wintered 1889 and the 

 honey raised that year was worth over 

 .4I millions of marks (over one million 

 dollars). Among these 200,000 hives 

 'there are not more than ten or twelve 

 thousand frame-hives ; the rest are straw 

 skeps. In other parts of Germany there 

 are probabl)- a much less number of col- 

 onies, but more frame-hives proportion- 

 ately. 



Many able writers in Germany rec- 

 ommend having a great amount of pol- 

 len in the hive before winter time, to 

 secure a good wintering. How is this 

 compared with the pollen theory? 

 • Several remedies for foul- brood are 

 recommended : sulfaminol and beta- 

 naphtol. What next? 



Mr. VV. Abram of Australia received 

 from Mr. Lamberteughi of Italy, three 

 queens, which were on the road just 

 two months ; two of them arrived alive. 



I mention this because it is said that the 

 worker bees would not stand such a 

 long journey. 



Selma, Texas. L. Stachelhausen. 



DEAD BEES ABOUT THE ENTRANCE. 



During the winter season, it is very 

 common to see quite a number of dead 

 bees about the entrances of the hives. 

 Many become alarmed at the sight of 

 this, and conclude that there is some- 

 thing wrong, and, in their ignorance, 

 tear up the colony, to make an exami- 

 nation, only to find that all is apparently 

 right. Tnis untimely handling and dis- 

 turbance in cold weather is very hurt- 

 ful to the bees, and in all such cases 

 there is no indication of anything wrong. 



Bees die off daily, in great numbers, 

 throughout the entire year, but during 

 warm weather, when they have the lib- 

 erty to fly every day, these dead ones 

 are carried off by the colony, and they 

 disappear unnoticed by us. But, dur- 

 ing winter, they die and drop to tiie 

 bottom-board and collect there, and on 

 the approach of a warm day, the bees 

 carry them to the entrance and drop 

 them outside. It is not unusual to find 

 quire a handful of dead bees lying at the 

 entrance, on such occasions. There 

 may, at times, be as many as a pint of 

 them, and no serious damage may be 

 expected. All unprotected hives will 

 produce more of these dead bees than 

 those that are well protected. — A. H. 

 Duff, in the National Stocknia?i. 



FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS. 



Bees serve as active agents in the fer- 

 tilization of plants, and are not destruc- 

 tive in the least degree. They are 

 profitable, because they gather and store 

 up that which would be entirely lost, 

 without their aid. They work in places 

 that are rarely seen, and the fence- 

 corners and neglected spots are often 

 valuable pasture fields for them. Though 

 regarded as resentful in nature, yet they 

 can be cared for easily, for, like animals, 

 they are conquered by kindness. — Ex- 

 change. 



