1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



31 



almost immediately after her sexual desires have 

 been gratified ; while she is in heat she will not 

 lay an egg. Should the queen remain unferti- 

 lized she will commence to lay drone eggs in 

 four or eight days after her sexual desire passes 

 away, should this take place in the early sum- 

 mer; should she, on the contrary, become ferti- 

 lized, she will begin to lay eggs in about forty- 

 eight hours after impregnation. The reason that 

 an unfertilized queen should begin to lay some- 

 what later than a fertilized queen, is explained 

 by the fact that the bees care less for an unfer- 

 tile than a fertile queen, and furnish her with 

 less food, thus delaying the development of her 

 oviaries. That a queen fertilized late in fall will 

 generally not lay till the following spring is well 

 known. 



Should the bee-keeper furnish the bees of 

 such a stock for two or three days food, the 

 entire hive will be stimulated to new life, and 

 the queen will receive rich food, and even late 

 in autumn she will begin to lay. This is one of 

 the safest ways of determining whether a queen 

 hatched in fall has been impregnated, for should 

 her eggs produce workers there is no longer 

 any doubt as to her impregnation. 



Sartori. — We have also a doubting Thomas 

 in Italy, who causes us shame by the nonsensi- 

 cal stuff he publishes in the newspapers, in con- 

 tradicting which our bee-keepers have to waste 

 much valuable time. There is a gentleman in 

 the United States who has offered to pay $10,- 

 000 for fifty queens fertilized in confinement. 

 We believe in the conclusion arrived at in Ger- 

 many, that it can never be done. 



Concerning Artificial Honey, and the Latest 

 Discoveries Relative to the Preparation of 

 Wax and the Nourishment of Bees — Address 

 of Dr. C. Th. Evon Siebold. 



The readers of the Bienenzeitung will, doubt- 

 less, remember that some years ago a large Ag- 

 ricultural Fair was held at Munich, in which 

 one branch was devoted to bee-culture. The 

 Bavarian bee-keepers exhibited here many arti- 

 cles of interest. Among the articles exhibited 

 none attracted more attention than the articles 

 of Mr. Mehring, of Frankfort, which received 

 the name of artificial honey (Kunsthonig). Even 

 Baron Leibig took great interest in this artifi- 

 cial honey, on account of the dispute, whether 

 the honey obtained by Mr. Mehring through 

 feeding his bees with malt extract was true 

 honey, whether the bees really prepared this 

 honey, and whether through eating this malt 

 sugar it would be transformed into honey. As 

 the possibility of bees preparing honey from 

 malt sugar was on many sides denied, it is of so 

 much the more value, that Baron Leibig took 

 the matter in hand chemically analyzed this malt 

 honey or so-called Mehring artificial honey and 

 compared the result with the like analysis of 

 true or natural honey. Baron Leibig, however, 

 was prevented in this proposed examination of 



the honey agreed to be sent to him by Herr 

 Mehring, on account of the resignation of his 

 assistant, Dr. Schneider. The Baron desiring,, 

 if possible, to obtain a practical bee-keeper as 

 well as chemist to aid in this investigation. I 

 nominated Herr Vogel, of Lehmannshof el, as ar- 

 bitrator of this investigation, in so much as I 

 well knew that no one could bring to the under- 

 taking more skill, impartiality, and correct 

 judgment, than this our much honored bee- 

 keeper. 



Herr Schneider had also determined to in- 

 clude in that investigation the preparation of 

 wax. But before these weighty experiments 

 could be brought to a conclusion they were 

 stopped by the acceptance by Dr. Schneider of 

 the position of Chief of the Chemical Division, 

 of the Royal Mint at Petersburg. 



As I knew that this convention would be in- 

 terested in these experiments, with the advice 

 of Baron Leibig, I wrote to Dr. Schneider, ask- 

 ing him to communicate to the Association the 

 results of his experiments and investigations 

 relative to the wax and honey questions. Dr. 

 Schneider has kindly responded to my request, 

 and I have now the pleasure to lay his report 

 before this convention. 



Communication of Dr. Schneider to the Thir- 

 teenth Annual Convention of German Bee- 

 Keepers. 



I. 

 Concerning Pollen and Wax Building. 

 An examination of the Literature of Apicul- 

 ture discloses a great number of interesting ob- 

 servations made by intelligent bee-keepers on 

 the origin, progress, and life of the bee. Men 

 of science have also been interested in the bee, 

 especially zoologists. Authorities like Siebold 

 and Levekant have undertaken the most beauti- 

 ful experiments. On the other hand, chemistry, 

 and especially physiology, has in a very differ- 

 ent manner studied the nourishing products of 

 the bee and their secretions, with the excepf ion 

 of wax, although for ten years, the consumption 

 of food by the bees has been means of deciding 

 weighty chemical physiological processes, as for 

 example, the production of fat. 



Instigated by the artificial honey exhibited 

 at Munich, last fall, by Mehring, I determined 

 on a series of experiments to illustrate the pro- 

 duction of wax and honey. The results thus 

 far obtained in this field I have published in 

 Leibig's Annals of Chemistry and Pharmacy. 

 The experiments relative to pollen and the pro- 

 duction of wax have perhaps less value to bee- 

 keepers than to physiology ; briefly shall the re- 

 sults I obtained be given ; while this is an un- 

 disputable fact, that wax is a secret of the bee, 

 an acknowledgement won from so experienced 

 a naturalist as Hoppe-Seyler, who, at the late 

 meeting of the Society of Naturalists gave as 

 his understanding this : That there is no ground 

 for tlie acceptance of the theory that wax is pro- 

 duced out of the body of the bee, but much 



