THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



177 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTON, MARCH, 18G9. 



' The American Bee Journal is now 

 published monthly, in the City of Washington, 

 (D. C.,) at $2 per annum in advance. All com- 

 munications should be addressed to the Editor, 

 at that place. 



We have received from Mr. Lambrecht, of 

 Bornnm, in the Duchy of Brunswick, two com- 

 munications for the Bee Journal, which we 

 shall translate and insert at an early day. The 

 first is an essay on "the production of the queen 

 bee," in which some novel views are presented, 

 and the subject is treated with much ingenuity. 

 The second is on "the effect of water on the 

 combs and the life of the bees," being a contri- 

 bution to the foulbrood question, in elucidation 

 and support of the views expressed by him in 

 his previously published articles. 



Those who have empty drone combs will fiud 

 them convenient and useful in feeding rye or 

 oat meal to their bees. Fill the cells on one 

 side of such a comb with meal, and set it slant- 

 ing within the shelter of an open-end box, and 

 the bees will carry off the meal with compara- 

 tively little waste. To attract the bees to the 

 place, some diluted honey poured in an empty 

 comb, should be placed in the box a few 

 days previous, and removed when the meal 

 feeding is to commence. The edges of the cells 

 appear to furnish the bees with the requisite 

 support and facilities for quickly forming the 

 pellets into which they shape the meal when 

 packing it in their baskets. 



Where a colony of bees is to be fed to keep it 

 from starving, it must be done immediately 

 when it is discovered that impending want ex- 

 ists, and continued regularly, plentifully and 

 perseveiingly, until the opening season enables 

 the bees to supply themselves from natural 

 sources. Yet food should not be furnished so 

 lavishly at any time, as to induce the bees to 

 store it up in the cells in quantity, or lead to 

 a premature production of brood. There is 

 nothing gained in having young bees mature, in 

 a tolerably populous colony, much in advance 



of the usual honey-gathering season. The heat 

 of the hive will tempt them to fly out at unpro- 

 pituous moments, and many will be chilled and 

 lost. Far better retard brooding to a later pe- 

 riod, so as to have the working tone of the col- 

 ony in full strength and continuous vigor, just 

 when the usually profuse supplies of nature can 

 furnish employment to unlimited numbers. 



Those who resort to stimulative feeding usu- 

 ally begin too early, and feed too liberally. In 

 the Middle States it is early enough 1o begin 

 about the first of April, and administer small 

 doses, say a spoonful, of diluted honey, in the 

 evening of alternate days, at the mouth of the 

 hive. 



At a recent meeting' of Hanoverian beekeep- 

 ers, at Celle, Mr. Lehzen, who bad all along 

 professed to regard the Italian bees as in no re- 

 spect superior to the common kind, stated that 

 be bad been induced to change his mind by ob- 

 serving that a rape field situated at a great dis. 

 tance from an apiary, was visited exclusively 

 by Italian bees — thus demonstrating that these 

 enjoyed a wider range of flight than other bees, 

 and could consequently command greater or 

 more diversified resou:ces. 



Dr. E. Parmly, of New York, has sent us a 

 small phial containing "some bees from Mount 

 Lebanon, said to be closely allied to the Egyp- 

 tian," though, in alcohol, no difference is per- 

 ceptible. Also, "two bees lately received from 

 Ceylon, which are not named. They are smal- 

 ler than the Egyptian, and differently marked." 



The Board of Superintendents of the New 

 York Central Park are following the example 

 of the Acclimatization Societies of Paris and 

 Berlin, in introducing bees. They have now 

 several Italian colonies ; and have taken active 

 measures to procure other foreign varieties. 



Seed Catalogue and Floral Guile for 

 1869.— M. O'Kcefe, Son & Co., the celebrated 

 Seed Importers and Growers, of Rochester, N. 

 Y-, have just published their annual "Cata- 

 logue of Seeds and Guide to the Flower and 

 Vegetable Garden." This new and valuable 

 work contains full descriptions of about fifteen 

 hundred varieties of flowers and vegetables, 

 with instruction for their cultivation, and di- 

 rections in regard to the best use to make of 

 them in laying out parterres, gardens, etc. It 



