258 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[May, 



two to three weeks earlier than young queens ; 

 consequently five stocks in the cellar with old 

 queens had the dysentery when I set tlieni out 

 on the 26th of March, and large quantities of 

 dead bees ; probably two weeks longer of con- 

 finement would have used up the entire five 

 stocks. I discovered tliat two stocks were queen- 

 less in September, and introduced young queens 

 after it was too late for them to breed, hence 

 they bad all old bees and all died with dysentery 

 tlie first week in ^larch. If the weather had 

 been mild enough to have allowed them a puri- 

 fying flight I could have saved them. Knowing 

 that my queens were stopping their breeding too 

 early, 1 stimulated the stocks having my Grimm 

 and Hamlin queens and kei)t them breeding up 

 to the first of October. The consequence was 

 they went into winter quarters with all young 

 bees, and the result was (they were housed in 

 about the middle of November, and taken out 

 the 4th of April) that they remained compara- 

 tively dormant all winter, and the consumption 

 of honey was almost nothing, and on their first 

 flight there was no discharge, not even to speck 

 the snow one particle, and a table-spoon would 

 have held every dead bee in both hives. Now you 

 can see that the theory of caging queens in the 

 fall to prevent breeding and the consumption of 

 honey, is a splendid theory, but ruinous in prac- 

 tice. 



Again, if every thing is all right there is no 

 necessity for carrying out bees for a flight in 

 mid-winter. Our honey was excellent for win- 

 tering bees. No fault in the honey whatever. 

 Now don't understand us as saying that all bees 

 everywhere went up on the old age theory. The 

 balance of our stocks came out splendidly. 



E. Gallup. 



Orchard, Osage Co., Iowa, April 15, 1873. 



Eeview of Foreign Bee Journals. 



In the Eichstadt Bee Gazette for October (this 

 journal has been published twenty-seven years), 

 there is a report of the Beekeeper's Exposition 

 in the Crystal Palace of the Capitol of Bavaria. 



This Exposition was a success. " Truly," says 

 Baroness Lina von Berlepsch, in closing her re- 

 port, "the hearts of all beekeepers ought to be 

 filled with pride at seeing the marvellous results 

 of an enterprise founded by a new born associa- 

 tion." Baron von Berlepsch, when asked by 

 Professor Seibold, " Did you expect so much ?" 

 could but answer, " No ;" so numerous were the 

 products exposed and so superior to all expecta- 

 tions. 



The Baron, in an appendix to the report of 

 the Baroness, speaks of the different sizes of the 

 hives exhibited, and insists on the necessity of a 

 uniform size of frames. I'he importance of such 

 uniformity is increasingly felt in this country. 

 He says further : 



There were but two articles that could properly be 

 called new : a doicMe hive from ilehriui? and a model 

 for the winterinj; of bees in the ground, from An- 

 tonio VVugner, of Vibsbiburg. 



The great sensation of the Exposition was the 

 artificial honey of Mehring. He exhibited jars 

 containing honey and honey combs, claiming 

 tliat he had fed bees with a decoction of ger- 

 minated barley, prepared as by the brewers 

 when making beer, wliich the bees transformed 

 into honey in their stomachs. He says that each 

 liive can thus be made to yield a yearly profit of 

 twenty-five dollars, as the liquid does not cost 

 more than one-third the price of honey. 



I maintain in opposition to this, that bees 

 cannot change into honey any sweet substances, 

 for I have made similar experiments, and they 

 have always produced results the very opposite 

 to tliose claimed by Mehring. The substances 

 that I presented to the bees always remained 

 unchanged, and were never converted into 

 honey. Among the sevei'al experiments' that I 

 made with Gunther, in 1854.* 



I offered some prepared beet juice to the bees, 

 but they refused to touch it so long as I did not 

 mix it with honey. After adding about one-half 

 lioney to it they began to carry it into their cells, 

 but the mixt)ire showed no signs of change. In 

 1856 I had in Seebach a quantity of Relne Claude 

 1^1 ums. I extracted the stones, and gave the 

 juice to the bees. The taste was not changed 

 after it was stored in their cel!s. In 1857 I 

 cooked some very sweet pears and ofi"ered the 

 juice to the bees.f they would not touch it until 

 I mixed some honey witli it, but it remained 

 only pear juice when stored in their cells. _ These 

 are my experiments, and they are entirety con- 

 trary to those of Mehring. I invite all German 

 beekeepers to make similar experiments, to see 

 whether bees can convert a sweet substance into 

 real honey, or whether, according to my experi- 

 ence and tliat of Dzierzon, they can only gather 

 natural supplies without changing their taste. 



Like many beekeepers present at the Exposi- 

 tion, I am of opinion that Mehring for the pleas- 

 ure of hoaxing the beekeepers, exhibited real 

 honey as an artificial product. 



If his declarations Avere true, the matter 

 wottld be of the highest importance. The Asso- 

 ciation of Nurenberg has promised to experiment 

 in the matter. 



C. P. Dadant, Translator. 



The juice of barley (icort) has since been tried 

 by Mr. G. Barbo as a stimulating spring bee- 

 feed. We translate the article from the Italian 

 journal L' Apicultore, March, 1872. 



Ch. Dadant. 



* la 1S53, the Gilmore patent, with its arrange- 

 ment for converting cheap watered Cuba honey into 

 a splendid marketable article, was in full vogue, and 

 a large apiary was erected in Brooklyn, to show the 

 workings of the system. The cheap food was ex- 

 hibited, and the luxurious product (gathered, how- 

 ever, by bees from far different sources) was also 

 exhibited. The whole thing soon fell into merited 

 contempt. See p. 331 of the 1st edition of my work 

 (published in May, 1853), for a full exposition of 

 such frauds, and conclusions precisely similar to 

 those of the Baron. — L. L. L. 



t Columella recommends feeding destitute colonies 

 with such sweet juices. — L. L. L. 



