THE AMEBIC AN APICULTURIST. 



165 



favor; tliey are easily uncapped and suit 

 our varial)ie climate better than deep ones 

 (8i inches). 



Binjeld, Berks, Eng. 



Alley's Drone-and-queen Trap. 



R. B. Woodward, M.D, 



"NVk have used fifteen drone-andqueen 

 traps the last three years, and liave ob- 

 served very closely their workings. We 

 keep from (ifteen to twenty colonies, partly 

 for honey and partly for the pleasure and 

 the diversion of the pursuit. 



Our occupation is that of a physician 

 and we are compelled to be away from 

 homealarge part of the time. Our office is 

 away from our residence and apiary — the 

 latter is located on one of the most fre- 

 quently travelled streets in the village. 



We do all the work in handling the bees 

 ourselves as it would not justify us in hir- 

 ing a person to assist us.. Our bees often 

 swarm when we are miles in the country 

 and gone all day, and yet we have never 

 lost a swarm or a queen in swarming. 

 Neither have we hived a swarm that has 

 clustered except one which clustered on 

 a shade tree about seven feet from the 

 ground on the sidewalk, and we did this 

 for the safety ot the public. 



When I wish to start another after the 

 swarm is out, I set the old hive back and 

 a light nucleus box in the place of the old 

 hive and the trap containing the queen in- 

 side the box. If the bees have clustered, 

 I take a long pole and stir them up wlien 

 they will soon come rushing back and go 

 into the box or nucleus hive. I then carry 

 the box or hive to where I want it to 

 stand, having first prepared the hive with 

 foundation, comi)s, or what I wish. I take 

 out the trap and set it in front of the 

 hive and shake all of the bees out in front 

 of the hive and they will soon begin to run 

 in, when I open the trap and let the queen 

 run in with them, etc. I then put the old 

 hive back in its place and the work is done. 

 For increase we usually divide. To pre- 

 vent increase I use the methods heretofore 

 given' in the Ai'icultuuist and am suc- 

 cessful. 



With us the traps are surely indispen- 

 sable and we could scarcely get along 

 without them, as they save us much anx- 

 iety and troible in hiving swarms and 

 trouble in going on our neighbor's prem- 

 ises after swarms, etc. 



Further, Ave have observed closely as to 

 the ingress and egress of the workers and 

 cannot see that the trap materially ob- 

 structs them in their work. To persons 

 who keep a few bees and are compelled to 

 be absent a great part of their lime, we 

 can most cheerfully recommend them as 

 one of the greatest improvements and 

 conveniences in the pursuit of beekeeping 

 in «?j?/age, and we have no personal or pe- 

 cuniary interest in so stating. 



Somerset, Ohio. 



Contribution to the Physiology of 

 the Honey-bee. 



L. Stachelhausen. 



The food for the larvae, how prepared. 



It is a well-known fact that all young 

 bee larva; receive a whitish jelly prepared 

 by the bees. The worker larvae are fed 

 by this jelly till the fourth day ; after this 

 their food is very diflerent. The queen 

 larvae get this jelly in abundance all the 

 time. The jelly in queen cells seems to 

 be more thick and yellow, while tiie food 

 of the worker and drone larv£e is more 

 watery, this is caused by evaporation 

 because the royal jelly is longer in the 

 cell than that for worker bees. Not only 

 this ; the larval food for queen, drones and 

 worker bees is of diflerent chemical com- 

 position. 



The question is now, how is this jelly 

 prepared? v. Berlepsch affirmed long ago 

 that this jelly is the same fluid found in 

 the true stomach of a breeding bee — chyle. 

 About 1872, Prof. v. Siebold affirmed that 

 tills royal jelly is secreted by glands (sal- 

 ivary glands) and that the true stomach 

 is closed against the honey stomach by a 

 valve, so it is an impossibility that the con- 

 tents of the true stomach should be vomit- 

 ed by the bees. He meant hereby the piece 

 n, o (seep. 135) of the stomach mouth pro- 

 longed in the true stomach. These glands 

 were examined and described by Siebold, 

 and later Leuckart had the same opinion, 

 that the royal jelly is secreted by glands. 



There are several diflerent reasons 

 against this theory. Schoenfeld still be- 

 lieves that the royal jelly is prepared in 

 the true or chyle stomach of the breeding 

 bees. To prove this, he examined this 

 named organ very carefully. 



We have seen that the piece, n, o, is by 

 no means a valve but has quite other func- 

 tions. If the royal jelly is prepared in the 

 true stomach and should be vomited, this 

 organ is no hindrance. First, the true 



