Feb. IS, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



139 



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 Special Clrticles 



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Bee-Hives and Beet-Sugar in Germany 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK 



IN many respects the Germans lead the world. In general 

 agriculture they are away to the front. They have de- 

 veloped the sugar industry — beet-sugar^to a very high 

 position. Indeed, we must go to them for our own beet-seed 

 would we get the best. I hope this will not always be so, 

 and believe it will not, yet experts in Germany think that 

 America has not the requisite climatic conditions to grow or 

 produce the best beet-seed. This seems to me strange, for 

 in our grand country we can find almost any range of 

 climate — hot, cold, dry, or moist. 



In bee-culture,however, we do not find the same advance. 

 I have inquired much for honey, and often find none at all, 

 and, when I do find it, it is in form forbidding — great chunks 

 in a wide open vessel, which chunks, when raised, often drip 

 in most untidy fashion. When asked the price, I always 

 find it extremely high. I have never had less than one 

 mark (25 cents) asked for this stuff, which, in America, few 

 would either buy or sell. 



In the Agricultural Museum, in the great University of 

 Berlin, is a very extensive and complete collection of agri- 

 cultural implements. We find the best tools, from the reaper 

 and mower down to plow and hoe. Nor are the bee-hives 

 omitted from this general exhibit. Yet the bee-hives are 

 indeed a surprise. Surely the Germans need a Langstroth 

 to show them the hives that advanced bee-culture demands. 

 There is a large collection of hives in the exhibit, and they 

 are varied. I asked Prof. Plate, who very kindly and cour- 

 teously showed me through the museum, if these hives rep- 

 resented the hives now in use in the best bee-yards, and he 

 answered that they did. At my request he very cordially 

 allowed me to return to the hives and inspect them carefully 

 at my leisure. 



The most of the hives are made of braided or twisted 

 straw rope, though a few are of wood. The straw-hives are 

 attractive to look at, and I imagine would delight the poet. 

 Yet, in America, they would as surely be turned down by the 

 practical bee-man. The most of these straw-hives are of 

 the model of our common box-hives ; that is, they open only 

 at the bottom. This quite accounts for the dark-stained 

 chunk honey that is so often found in the market — honey 

 that never would be offered for sale in our own country. Of 

 course, such hives in these days when both in Europe and 

 America foul brood, and possibly other bacterial diseases, 

 wreak their disastrous mischief and ruin in many apiaries, 

 and call for closest scrutiny and inspection of every part of 

 the hives, are not to be tolerated, and will not be by those 

 who are alive to the needs of advanced bee-keeping. In our 

 own country some of the foul-brood laws have worked to 

 eliminate these box-hives as plainly a menace to the industry. 

 We should suppose that the Germans, as open-eyed as are 

 they in all matters of science and scientific research, would 

 be first and loudest to decry any such device that tends so 

 surely to hide the germs or presence of foul brood. For 

 other, though less weighty, reasons — such asqueenlessness, 

 weakness, bee-moth — the up-to-date bee-keeper will insist 

 that his methods and implements permit the fullest and 

 freest inspection of all his hives. 



But the frame hives are also in evidence in this collec- 

 tion. There are several of these, both of wood and straw, 

 and of several sizes and of very varied forms. In these the 

 frames rest on rabbets as they do in the Langstroth hive, 

 yet these hives open only at the end, and so all the frames 

 must be drawn out from the one door at one end of the hive. 

 Several of these hives are quite long — as much as a meter 

 in length. I can readily imagine that, once the frames are 

 glued down, it would be a picnic indeed to get them loose 

 and out. So great would be the difficulties of manipulation 

 that I feel sure that the manipulation would be reduced to 

 the minimum, and, in many cases, the bees would not be 

 handled at all, and we would find what are virtually closed 

 or box hives. I can hardly understand how any one could 

 use such hives if he had ever seen or read a description of 

 the real Lanstroth hive which opens at the top. 



Others of these hives had only the top-bar of the frame, 



and so the combs were built or fastened to the side of the 

 hive, and all removal of the frames demand that each comb 

 be cut free from the hive at both ends. Think of the labor, 

 the drip, the killing of bees, not to mention the danger of 

 the comb falling from the top-bar when it had no other 

 attachment I It is said of the great Dzierzon that he used 

 such hives, and became very expert in handling the frames. 

 It is hard to believe that one so gifted— one who gave us 

 the fact of parthenogenesis among bees — could be so slow 

 to appreciate and avail himself of the great discovery of our 

 own Langstroth. 



I was also surprised to see so few of the hives that would 

 permit an extra chamber for surplus, or any way to secure 

 top-storing. Of course, the poetry of bee-keeping today 

 lies in the production of the beautiful comb honey, in the 

 neat, exquisite sections. All this would be sacrificed in 

 these hives that are wholly without any top openings, antl 

 so wholly destitute of provision for surplus outside the brood- 

 chamber. 



As I expect to remain in Germany until May, I shall 

 hope to visit some of the most advanced "bee-masters," 

 and shall then see just how the hives are used, and if there 

 are none of our style of hives. If there are none, then surely 

 it would be wise for Germany to provide a thoroughly up- 

 to-date American apiary, that all our implements and meth- 

 ods might be seen and studied. Such an object lesson would 

 surely work a revolution in bee-keeping, as it did in America 

 nearly a half century ago, when Langstroth gave to the 

 world the greatest invention ever known to the bee-keeping 

 art — the movable-frame bee-hive. 



Beet-Sugar as a Beh-Food. 



The matter of cheap food for feeding bees is one that 

 interests the bee-keepers, especially in such regions as Cali- 

 fornia, where the frequent dry seasons make feeding im- 

 perative. At our California beet-sugar factories we can 

 obtain a cheap, poorer article of sugar that is good and safe 

 for bee-food, but not so high-priced as the best granulated 

 sugar. This leads me to say a word of beet-sugar produc- 

 tion. 



Germany leads the world in this industry. She has a 

 large institution just at the north of this great city, where 

 research and instruction in all matters of beet-sugar produc- 

 tion are constantly carried on. There are students from all 

 sections of the world. I never saw a finer, more complete 

 laboratory. The head of this institute is Prof. Herzfeld, 

 who has no superior in beet-sugar lore. As stated above, he 

 thinks Germany alone can produce the best beet-seed. He 

 craves for Germany European markets, and fears only 

 Cuba— and not her, unless she becomes annexed to the 

 United States. In this last case, he fears the energy and 

 push which would come with American ownership. The 

 past year has been one of exceeding prosperity in the beet- 

 sugar industry. The beets have gone 20 tons to the acre, 

 and have given 18 percent sugar. Both these figures are 

 exceptionally high. 



30 Heilbronner Strasse, Berlin, Germany. 



Why Dequeened Colonies Don't Swarm 



BY L. STACHELHAUSEN 



WHY will a colony, dequeened so long that it is without 

 unsealed brood during 4 or more days, not swarm ? 

 In an article in the late Western Bee Journal, Mr. 

 Adrian Getaz says that by caging the queen, or dequeening, 

 a colony can be prevented from swarming if this colony is 

 without unsealed brood at least 4 days. The article is re- 

 printed on page 64S (1905). The statement is no doubt cor- 

 rect, but about the explanation given by Mr. Getaz I have 

 some doubts, and will explain it, as Dr. C. C. Miller, in his 

 reply to the mentioned article, is inclined to accept Mr. 

 Getaz's explanation as correct. Mr. G. says : 



"During these 4 days or more without unsealed brood, 

 the young bees having no brood to feed, take to the field, 

 and become actually field-bees notwithstanding their age, 

 or rather youngness. Later on, when the queen begins to 

 lay again, the excess of nurse-bees has thus ceased to 

 exist " . _ 



About 40 years ago Baron Berlepsch, in Germany, made 

 exact experiments, which proved that generally the young 

 bees have a play-spell when 9 days old, and will become 

 field-bees on the 16th day after hatching from the cells. 

 Another experiment proves that the bees of a colony, in 

 which no actual field-bees are present, and no brood were to 

 be fed, when 11 days old could not gather any pollen or 



