THE AMERICAN AriCULTUIU^T. 



213 



each and tlu' supers hold twi'uly-four sec- 

 tions l\ X 4.1 X IJ with wood separators. 



My improved honey-l)oard has never yet 

 been passed by a (pieeii eitlier laying- or 

 virj^ln so that vii';i^in (pieens tliat may hatch 

 in brood combs al)ove layiny queens 

 cannot pass down to destroy the laying- 

 queen as they are sure to do if they have 

 the chance, for no queen cell in cDinlt 

 phvced above the honey-board are ever 

 destroyed by the bees of other colonies to 

 which they may be iiiven. This is a re- 

 markable fact and is now made public for 

 the first time. TIius all depends upon the 

 perfect working of the honey-board and I 

 may be pardoned, I trust, if I state that 

 the perforated zinc I use is the only per- 

 fect and reliable zinc for the purposes here 

 descrii)ed that has yet t)een made. 



The management of queen cells and vir- 

 gin queens and drones, by the new raan- 

 agcmeut I will reserve for another article. 

 We have a new field of discovery opened 

 up here, and while I have discovered much, 

 there is yet remaining much to be learned. 



Brace- combs. 



For years I have sought a remedy for 

 the many brace-combs that bees often l)uild 

 between the brood-frames antl honey- 

 boards and supers. It is at last found in 

 the new system of management, and the 

 use of tlie brood-ciiamber described. In 

 all cases of large swarms and where brood 

 is placed over other colonies there are no 

 brace ■coml)s built anywhere, so that> all 

 parts of the hive arc easily separable. 



Xew Philadelphia, Ohio. 



The above is a atei) in apiciilturitl advuncemeul, 

 of practical worth, and .should be practised by 

 all who wish to make the production of honey a 

 success. 



One point strikes us most favorably, and that 

 is tlic size of tlie brood-nest mentioned by Dr. 

 Tinlier. The same thing has been used in the 

 Bay State ai)iary the iiast two years, and we liave 

 adopted it as tlie standard brood-chamber for our 

 apiary. All the hives we have made and shipped 

 the la-^t two years have the same improved brood- 

 chambers. 



Our readers will remember that we stated in 

 the August issue that '• we had a better system 

 for getting comb honey than is practised by the 

 method of contraction," and we had reference to 

 this brooil-chamber. Like Dr. Tinker, I believe 

 in making the brood-uest the proper size and 

 then letting it alone. 



The doctor speaks of a inetliod of preventing 

 the budding of bridge-combs. That trouble is 

 entirely obviated by the way our brood-frames 

 are constructed. 



The only difterence between Dr. Tinker's sys- 

 tem and tiiat practised in the Bay State apiary is, 

 that the tloctor flnds it necessary to use a queen- 

 excluding honey-board and we do not, and no 

 (jucens have ever entered a section placed on the 

 Bay State hive, and no honcy-boarcl ol' any kin(l 

 IS used. 



Contribution to the Physiology of 

 the Honey-bee. 



].,. Stacukluausen. 



CoNTKAUY to the theory given in a pre- 

 vious article it may seem that many colo- 

 nies winter well and breed in early spring 

 witiiout any pollen. If the bees need pol- 

 len at this time, they must certainly have 

 SOUK! substitute. 



Nobody can believe that the bees can 

 prepare an albuminous food for the larvaj 

 from the albumen contained in their body 

 or l)lood, at least for weeks and months. 



The renewal of the body of the bee is 

 a very rapid one, or the food is digested 

 very quickly, so tlial a worker bee without 

 honey or other food will starve in thirty- 

 six hours. If the bees prepare the jelly 

 for the larvaj, the consumption of honey 

 and pollen is very great, so it is impossi- 

 ble that the body of a bee can spare so 

 much albumen as is necessary to feed the 

 larvse for weeks or months. This the more, 

 as the food for the larva? is not a secretion 

 from the blood, but a product of the 

 stcjmach. 



Schoenfeld experimented to find out this 

 substitute. 



The outer shell of a pollen grain (exine 

 or cuticula) is very resistive.^ jjThe 

 stomach of the bee has a great digestive 

 power . but cannot digest every pollen 

 grain. The stomach of the larva has this 

 power iu a less degree, and we see by the 

 microscope, that many pollen grains are 

 in the excreta? of the larva on the bottom 

 of the cell, when the young bee has 

 emerged. 



Schoenfeld has observed that in old, 

 dark brood-cond)s the cappiugs of the 

 brood and honey, the walls of the cell and 

 the bottom of the wax are mixed more or 

 less with pollen grains and their shells 

 (cuticula). Every comb once used for 

 brood shows a great number of pollen- 

 grains and remainders of them ; so every 

 comb, on which the bees had used old wax 

 partially, contains pollen. The older the 

 coml), the more pollen it will contain. 

 Black combs do not contain 50 per cent, 

 wax, coffee-brown combs 57.6 per cent. 



More than this, the fi'eshly built combs 

 are not pure wax every time; they do not 

 contain shells aud remainders of pollen, 

 but whole pollen grains; and the freshly 

 secreted wax scales contain some pollen, 

 too. 



Schoenfeld carefully took the wax scales 

 from comb building bees. Fifteen wax 

 scales were examined : only four were pure 

 wax, the others contained from four to 

 thirty pollen grains. 



