AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



137 



Tlie " Xro^wel Theory " of the 



Rev. W. F. Clarke, which some thought 

 to have gone asleep, seems to be travel- 

 ing around in a lively manner across the 

 water. A correspondent of the British 

 Bee Journal sends to that paper a clip- 

 ping from the Pall Mall Budget, to this 

 effect : 



It will be a surprise to many to learn 

 that, says a correspondent of the Hoi~ti- 

 cuUural Times, after all, the most impor- 

 tant function of the bee's sting is not 

 stinging. I have long been convinced 

 that the bees put the finishing touches 

 on their artistic cell-work by the dex- 

 trous use of their stings, and during this 

 final finishing stage of the process of 

 honey-making the bees inject a minute 

 portion of formic acid into the honey. 

 This is, in reality, the poison of their 

 sting. This formic acid gives to honey 

 its peculiar flavor, and also imparts to it 

 Its keeping qualities. 



The sting is really an exquisitely con- 

 trived little trowel, with which the bee 

 finishes off and caps the cells when they 

 are filled brimful with honey.* While 

 doing this, the formic acid passes from 

 the poison-bag, exudes, drop by drop, 

 from the point of the sting, and the 

 beautiful work is finished. 



Whoever the " I " may be, in the 

 above case, any one familiar with Mr. 

 Clarke's "Bird's-Eye View of Bee-Keep- 

 ing," will see a strange resemblance be- 

 tween the above paragraph and the note 

 on page 60 of said book. The writer of 

 the paragraph, however, has gone a step 

 farther than Mr. Clarke, and assigned 

 to the sting, the duty of flavoring the 

 honey. This helps to clear up the 

 sugar-honey question. As the flowers 

 have nothing to do with the flavor of 

 honey, the flavor being given by the 

 sting, find out the condition of the sting 

 when clover or buckwheat honey is 

 stored and by getting the sting in the 

 same condition when feeding sugar, you 

 will have respectively clover or buck- 

 wheat honey. And so of honey of any 

 other flavor. 



Evidently the editors of the British 

 Bee Journal have not carefully read Mr. 

 Clarke's book, for they say the " trowel 

 theory " was started "as a pleasantry, 

 no doubt." 



"When Bees Need Feeding. 



— Often we receive questions for the 

 "Queries and Replies" department 

 which should be answered sooner than 

 they would be if allowed to wait their 

 turn. Again, questions are asked that 

 can be as satisfactorily answered by one 

 person as if twenty or more replied to 

 them. The following query we think 

 comes under the two kinds we have re- 

 ferred to, hence we give it here with a 

 reply : 



How can you tell whether or not bees 

 need feeding ? C. G. R. 



The question, doubtless, refers to bees 

 in winter quarters. As a rule, there 

 should be no need for such a question to 

 arise, for bees should go into winter 

 quarters with more than enough stores 

 to carry them through, so that there 

 need be no attention paid to the matter 

 until spring. 



Still, there always have been, and 

 probably always will be, cases in which 

 there is danger that certain colonies 

 may exhaust their stores before leaving 

 winter quarters. If, among 100 colo- 

 nies, there are two or three that need 

 feeding, and you don't know which two 

 or three they are, but must overhaul the 

 whole hundred to find out, then if they 

 are fn the cellar it may be best to 

 let them entirely alone and run their 

 chances, but if out-doors, and a good, 

 warm day comes in which they fly freely, 

 you can look to them. 



You will tell whether they need feed- 

 ing in winter just as you would in sum- 

 mer, and that is by actual inspection. 

 Lift out the combs and see whether they 

 contain honey, but be sure that you 

 don't touch them when it is too cold for 

 the bees to fly. In the cellar, if abso- 

 lutely necessary, you can examine them 

 at any time, disturbing the bees as little 

 as possible. 



If, on glancing over the tops of the 

 combs without lifting them out, you see 

 quite a little sealed honey near the top 

 bars, there is no immediate danger. 



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