1901 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



209 



repeatedly spoken of in the German bee- 

 periodicals of late. The plant yields 

 nectar of rare consistency, containing 

 only S'i per cent, water. I have a few of 

 the plants growing in my garden now, but 

 not yet blooming. 



# 

 In uniting a queenless colony with a 

 queen-right colony Die Biene says the 

 proper way is to transfer the colony hav- 

 ing the queen to the hive containing the 

 queenless colony. 



Gerstung made the extravagant claim 

 recently that wherever his hive was 

 used the honey-yield had been good this 

 year. It appears, however, that bee- 

 keepers having other hives in use had 

 just as good success. 

 © 



Valentin AVust expresses this opinion: 

 It is easier to produce short-tubed clover 

 than long-tongued bees. 



EGYPT. 

 With the mummies in Egypt are often 

 found little figures representing different 

 animals and objects like eagles, keys 

 etc.. all skillfully moulded from beeswax 

 either in brown colors or gilded over. 

 It can therefore be assumed that the 

 Egyptians of ancient times had some 

 knowledge of bees and their products. 



m 



King Rameses III., twelve hundred 

 years before Christ, it is said, used 

 twenty-five thousand pounds of honey 

 during his reign of thirty-one years. 



F. Greinek. 



Decline of Bee-keeping in New 

 Zealand. Half of those who once kept 

 bees had given them up and the majority 

 of those who still kept them did not 

 know how to handle them. The true 

 bee-master loved his bees, closely studied 

 their habits, observed the quality of the 

 honey gathered from the different plants 

 and arranged, where possible, to secure 

 each separately. Hardly any other pur- 

 suit became more engrossing and more 

 profitable. The horticulturalist should 

 keep bees on account of their value for 

 pollenation purposes. A fair average 

 from each bee colony was 20 shillings 

 net profit. The great drawback to bee- 

 culture was foul-brood, which disease 

 should be taken in hand by the Agricul- 

 tural department, and its removal insist- 

 ed upon. In Canada the evil had been 

 coped with by legislation. The same 



• fostering care shown to horticulturists 

 should be extended to apiarists, for they 

 both belong to the one brotherhood. 

 Fruit-growers were more dependent 

 upon the bees than they knew of. 

 There was no insect that did so well for 

 the fruit-grower as the bee. It was a 

 profitable thing for fruit-growers to take 

 up. There was a time when the bee re- 

 quired no protection, for the foul-brood 

 did not exist. All over the country bees 

 were becoming a thing of the past, and 

 the industry was gradually falling into 

 disuse.— J. Allan, N. Z. Conference. 



CHILI. 



Prof. Ernest Bichet, La Serena, Chili, 

 gives some very interesting information 

 on the apiculture of that country. A 

 peculiarity is excessive swarming, due to 

 the mildness of the climate or the length 

 of the honey-flow, or perhaps both. 

 Even with large hives and combs already 

 built, it is impossible to prevent it. 

 Furthermore, there is quite an interval 

 between the period of swarming and the 

 heavy flow of honey, so even the second- 

 ary swarm will give some surplus. An 

 apiary of 160 colonies transferred in 

 frame hives, gave that same year 340 

 swarms and a surplus of 37,000 pounds 

 of honey (extracted) from the whole five 

 hundred colonies. The chief sources of 

 honey in this locality is a plant of which 

 the botanical name is Marrubiumvulgare, 

 the alfalfa, which is extensively culti- 

 vated, and some kinds of wild radish and 

 wild turnips. Elsewhere in Chili there 

 are other sources of honey. In his own 

 apiary he had once 18,400 pounds of 

 surplus from ninety-five colonies, all or 

 nearly all from the marrublwn. 



Bee-keeping is growing rapidly. All 

 the honey is exported, as the Chilians 

 never use honey except as mediciue. The 

 price is about four cents a pound. Mr. 

 Wiehet got for first-class honey, five 

 cents, delivered at Hamburg, Germany. 



In another paper it is stated that 

 moths and foul-brood are unknown in 

 Chili. 



SWITZERLAND. 



In nearly every second or third paper 

 published. in Europe we find the use of 

 the Riloche or some other press advised 

 for making foundation, and the apiarist 

 also advised to make his own foundation. 

 In using a metallic press, the best lubri- 

 cant is a mixture of three-quarters 

 water and one-quarter alcohol for the 



