^4 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Sept. 



II. 



How is it now with the honey. 



Is the honey placed in the cells by the bees 

 and that sucked from the flowers identical ? Or 

 is the latter chemically changed in the body of 

 the bee? 



This question cannot but be of great interest 

 to the practical bee-keeper. At present I am 

 not in a position to answer it, but I will explain 

 to you the process by which I hope to solve the 

 question. 



There is, as far as my knowledge goes, but 

 one chemically notice of this question : that 

 made by Kemper and Kraut, and they 

 do not solve the question. Bee-keepers, it 

 is true, have tried experiments which ap- 

 pear to show that the bees only gather from 

 the flowers and carry it to the cells without any 

 change. The acceptance of the fact that the 

 honey gathered by the bees undergoes a chemi- 

 cal change in its passage through the organs of 

 the bee, is readily given, when the facts dis- 

 covered by my researches into the nature of 

 pollen show that the mingling of the pure 

 saliva of the bee with the albumen of the pollen 

 is changed into peptone. It is readily to be seen 

 that, as illustrated by Fischer, the more than 

 ordinarily developed saliva glands perform the 

 largest part of the digestion of the l)ee, and es- 

 pecially the changing of albumen into pejitone, 

 which is a digested product of albimien not 

 fouad in nature. When the pollen brought in 

 by the bees is mingled with saliva, and such a 

 process or digestion takes place, why should it 

 be supposed that the nectar, gathered, swallowed 

 and again ejected should escape any change. 



This, it is well known, is a much disputed 

 question. Bach bee-keeper has his own idea 

 about it, and yet scientific investigation, especial- 

 ly chemical experiments, can solve it. I hone 

 that these questions will be solved theoretically 

 and practically by the able bee-keeper, Herr 

 Vogel, of Lehmanshofel, whom T cannot sufii- 

 ciently thank for his wonderful perseverance, 

 untiring counsel, and the noble experiments in- 

 stituted by him. Before I commence explaining 

 these experiments I would say that the pure 

 honey I used in the experiments contained no 

 nitrogen. The different species of honey, ob- 

 tained from Herr Vogel for experimental pur- 

 poses, proved itself free from nitrogen, should 

 there be nitrogen in any species of the honey, 

 so originates by the mingling of this honey, an 

 impurity. Pure honey comes solely from sugar, 

 and a very small quantity of aromatic matter, 

 which give to the several kinds of honey their 

 specific character. 



According to the plan of Mchring, malt food 

 is prepared, and in this the quantity of nitrogen 

 is fixed. This malt food I sent to Herr Vogel 

 to feed the bees with. The honey oljtaiued from 

 this food must be tested for nitrogen. Should 

 this honey, which I call " malt honey," be free 

 from nitrogen, or contain a very small quantity, 



then is this malt food, which is substituted for 

 the nectar of the flowers, changed by the organs 

 of the bee, and has undergone a chemical change, 

 since the bees cannot separate in the malt food 

 the nitrogenous substance from the hydrated 

 carbon in a mechanical way — as one sepa- 

 rates the chaff from the wheat. The organs of 

 the bees have, therefore, worked upon the malt 

 food, having wholly or partly digested the al- 

 buminous substance and ejected the hydro-car- 

 bon as honey. As, in my opinion, the bees par- 

 tially digest the malt-food, in like manner will 

 they treat the nectar, which usually contains 

 some pollen. In the one case we obtain malt 

 honey, in the other linden and other species of 

 honey, according as the nectar has been gath- 

 ered from the linden, apples, etc. The malt 

 honey differs in no respect from other honey, 

 except in the aroma, i. e., as the linden blossom, 

 and apple blossom, etc. 



Malt honey is not malt food lacking nitrogen- 

 ous matter, but it is honey, that is : the existing 

 hydro-carbon (malt sugar and malt dextrine) are 

 changed by the bees into honey sugar. Man 

 cannot think to accomplish this result without 

 the aid of bees. 



It is as little possible to make honey from the 

 gathered nectar, to make the separation of the 

 species of sugar from the albuminous matter, 

 which is united with the nectar; this change 

 must take place in the body of the bee. We 

 can, through the intervention of the bee, as be- 

 fore mentioned, prepare an artificial honey from 

 malt food, which is only distinguised from nat- 

 ural honey by its maltish aroma. 



Besides, this food of Mehring is by all held 

 useful as a means of nourishing the bee, as well 

 as for the preparation of honey, and hence will 

 be much used in districts poor in honey-yield- 

 ing blossom. 



The results of my researches concerning arti- 

 ficial honey will shortly be published in the 

 Biencnzeiiung. 



Db. W. Von Schneider. 



St. Petersburg, Aug. 6, 1872. 



After having read the above communication 

 Prof. Siebolt read to the Association a lengthy 

 and able essay, explaining the results of his 

 investigations into the glandular system of the 

 bee, of which we are here able to give but a 

 brief abstract : 



" From the foregoing observations I dare not 

 conceal the fact, that a doubt has been started 

 in my mind, whether the difference between 

 nursing and honey-gathering bees consists only 

 in their age, as has heretofore been supposed, 

 l)ut also in this, that the young bees are better 

 fitted than the old ones for preparing the food 

 for the larvfe, owing to their stronger and more 

 powerfully developed glandular system, since it 

 does not admit of a doubt that these glands 

 play a very important part in the preparation 

 of the food for the brood. 



