96 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



In April, 1889, the bill was intio- 

 ducecl to the Prussian house of repre- 

 sentatives, but referred to a commit- 

 tee where it will remain forever bur- 

 ied. By the wa}', I will remark that 

 the law is objected to by many Ger- 

 man beekeepers. 



Within a few years the question has 

 been very much discussed in Germa- 

 ny, " Do the bees need water in win- 

 ter and is it profitable to water the 

 bees at that time inside of the hive?' 

 Some beekeepers strongly recommend 

 giving a little water by the aid of a 

 bottle, while others think this is not 

 necessary. 



Theoretically, the bees need a little 

 water to prepare the larval food, as 

 soon as breeding commences. In some 

 localities the honey is much inclined 

 to granulate, and the bees need water 

 to dissolve it. If the bees cannot fly 

 out to get this water, they have to get 

 it inside of the hive or suffer badly. 

 The question now is : Is it more profit- 

 able to use a hive, so constructed, 

 that the moisture ma}^ condense on 

 the walls or near the alighting hole, 

 or to have the hive all packed very 

 warm and give the water by aid of a 

 bottle? For our northern friends, I 

 think this question is quite important ; 

 we are still very far from knowing 

 everything about wintering bees. 



In respect to the science of bee- 

 keeping, we find in the illustrated 

 Bienenzeituvg of Gravenhorst, some 

 very valuable articles from Mr. 

 Schoenfeld. 



He experimented with drones and 

 found that they will die in three days 

 if not fed by ihe workers with larval 

 food. These experiments explain now 

 at once, in what manner tlie drones 

 aie killed by the workers. They sim- 

 ply do not receive any nitrogenous 

 food. The reason for killing the 

 drones of a colony is not on account 

 of the end of the swarming season, 

 but the scarcity of pollen in the field. 

 With scarcity of pollen it is more dif- 

 ficult for the bees to prepare larval 

 food. At first the drone-brood is not 



fed any more ; then the drones are so 

 weak the second day that they are 

 easily carried out i)y the bees. Here- 

 by it is necessary to know that drones, 

 like the queen, feed themselves on 

 honey, but never eat any pollen. All 

 nitrogenous food for drones and queen 

 comes from the chyle-stomach of 

 worker-bees. 



Before the British Beekeeper.s' As- 

 sociation, in the meeting of Oct, 23, 

 1889, Mr. Grimshaw read a paper en- 

 titled '"Heredity in Bees." Quite the 

 same idea and hypothesis was pub- 

 lished by me in the German Bienenzeit- 

 ung, No. 10, 1879. At that time it 

 seemed quite certain that the larval 

 food was prepared by glands. But now 

 we know that this theory was a great 

 mistake, and Mr. Grimshaw thinks 

 that with the gland theor}-, his or my 

 theory on heredity would fall ; this is 

 not necessarily so. If the time allows 

 I will write on this subject. 



Selma, Tex. 



Double- vs. Single-wall Hives . 



A writer says in the Michigan Far- 

 mer in determining which is the bet- 

 ter, a double- or a single-wall hive for 

 practical results, we should consider 

 not alone the winter problem. At 

 the late International Convention, 

 where the matter was fully discussed, 

 it was not, nor can it besliown to be, 

 that a properly constructed double- 

 wall hive packed with suitable mate- 

 rial will not winter bees as well as 

 the single-wall hive in a good cellar ; 

 though it was shown, I think, conclu- 

 sively, that there is a small saving of 

 stores by cellar wintering. I think it 

 must also be conceded that it is on the 

 whole, the most economical s^'Stera of 

 wintering. Here, then, are two points 

 conceded in favor of single wall hives ; 

 but I propose to show that these are 

 more than offset by the superior ad- 

 vantages of the double-walled hive in 

 spring and summer. 



The saving of stores by cellar win- 



