TIIE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



19' 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTON, APRIL, 1869. 



EIF*Teie 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 devoted nearly all our space, this 

 month, to our correspondents, though without 

 exhausting our files. A large number of articles 

 remain on hand, which shall have early atten- 

 tion. 



G3P" We are indebted to Mr. Woodbury, of 

 Mount Radford, (Eug. ) for the account, in our 

 last number, of the first day's proceedings of 

 the German Bee-Masters' Convention at Darm- 

 stadt. The proper acknowledgement was inad- 

 vertently omitted in " making up." 



IGiPA meeting of beekeepers will be held on 

 the 7th and 8th of April, at the Board of Trade 

 Hall, Jackson, Michigan, to organize a Bee- 

 keepers' Association, and to discuss matters 

 pertaining to bee-culture. A cordial invitation 

 to attend is extended, by tbe Committee of 

 Arrangements, to beekeepers from adjoining 

 States and from Canada. 



Mr. Grimm, of Jefferson, Wisconsin, sent us 

 a box of honey, gathered from red clover, last 

 season, by his Italian bees. It had a slight 

 pink tinge, and a peculiar, though not unplea- 

 sant, taste and odor. There seems to be no 

 doubt that the Italians can gather honey from 

 the blossoms of this species of clover, as even 

 the common bees can do so, when it is growing 

 in poor soil in a dry season. But how abundant 

 the yield is, in ordinary circumstances, remains 

 to be ascertained. 



We are pleased to learn that the good people 

 of Wenham, (Mass.) refused to sustain th e 

 town meeting resolution, banishing bees from 

 their bounds. The marvel was that, in these 

 days, such exclusion should be thought of or at- 

 tempted anywhere ; but, in view of the argu- 

 ments advanced in its support by some of its 

 advocates, of which a correspondent gives us a 

 specimen, we may cease to wonder. 



EST* A chemical analysis of the jelly with 

 which the larvce of worker bees are fed, was 

 made by Dr. Donhoff, about fiftsen years ago. 

 He found its principal constituents to be albumen 

 and fihrine, with minute portions of wax and 

 sugar — which latter he regarded as non-essen- 

 tials, and as accidentally present. He judged tho 

 jelly to be an animal secretion furnished by a 

 gland in the gullet, as pollen is never found in 

 the stomach of the bee. This analysis was not 

 considered altogether satisfactory or reliable ; 

 but we are not aware that any other has since 

 been made. 



Bees' Saliva. 



Bees usually moisten the pollen or meal slight- 

 ly with saliva, as they gather it, to enable them to 

 form it into pellets. The salivary glands of the 

 workers are very largely developed, and the 

 secretion of saliva is rapid and abundant. This 

 saliva has been regarded as an acid, but we in- 

 cline to believe that it will be found to be an 

 alkali. In comb-building it is obviously used 

 to render the newly-produced wax plastic, and, 

 at the same time, it probably gives to the wax 

 its pure white color — precisely such as results 

 from dissolving yellow wax in a solution of 

 pearlash. 



A further fact in support of this conjecture is 

 this, that the alkalies readily decompose grape 

 sugar (the chief constituent of honey,) produc- 

 ing formic acid, which is identical with the poi- 

 son of the honey bee. If the saliva is an alkali, 

 the production of the venom is easily accounted 

 for. 



Value of Pollen or Meal. 



Our correspondent, Novice, is by no means 

 singular in the opinion that a saving of honey is 

 some way effected, when bees are supplied with 

 meal in the spring, as a substitute for pollen. 



Dzierzon says — " Much honey is undoubtedly 

 saved, by means of pollen, in the preparation 

 of jelly ; for we see masses of brood maturing 

 in the spring, without finding the store of honey 

 much reduced, when bees are fed with meal." 



Of meal feeding, Mr. Bartels says, in the 

 Bienenzeitung, " It is always very beneficial 

 when there is a scarcity of pollen, whether the 

 bees use it for their own sustenance or for the 

 nourishment of brood. Much honey is thereby 

 saved." 



In the spring of 1857, the Baron ot Berlepsch 

 fed to his 106 colonies about 360 lbs of flour, or, 

 on an average, 3 lbs. 7 oz. per hive, and remarks 

 — "I am satisfied that by this feeding my stocks 



