870 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL^ 



Colonies for Comb . or Extracted 

 Honey— Sting-Trowel Tlieory. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 

 BY DR. C. C. MILLEK. 



On page 110, to the question how- 

 many colonies run for comb honey- 

 should be kept on a range which sup- 

 ports 75 for extracted honey, there is a 

 variety of answers, ranging from the 

 same number to double the number. I 

 suspect the reasoning on one hand was 

 something like this ; Only half as much 

 comb honey can be harvested by each 

 colony as extracted ; consequently there 

 must be twice as many colonies to gather 

 it, forgetting that a good part of the 

 honey must be counted to make wax %nd 

 to feed bees. 



On the other hand, those who say 

 there is no difference, reason that if 75 

 colonies clean the field, it doesn't make 

 any difference what they do with the 

 honey, whether they store it all as ex- 

 tracted honey, or make part of it into 

 wax. 



I suspect those who took medium 

 ground were more nearly right. For 

 the sake of illustration, suppose a single 

 colony cleans the field, working for ex- 

 tracted honey, thefe being 40,000 bees 

 in the colony, and 20,000 of the 40,- 

 000 working in the field. Suppose they 

 store 80 pounds when working for ex- 

 tracted, and 40 when working for comb. 

 If it takes 60 pounds to support the col- 

 ony, then when working for comb honey, 

 they must have a field that affords 100 

 pounds, and when working for extracted 

 honey a field that affords 140 pounds. 

 So it will not do to say that the same 

 number will work the same field in each 

 case, unless you say that they will store 

 an equal amount of extracted or comb. 

 Possibly some may have believed this, in 

 which case their answer was correct 

 according to that belief. 



THE STING-TROWEL THEORY. 



Here's 3,n item clipped from the Chi- 



cago News Becord of Jan. 26, 1893, 

 and credited to the Baltimore News : 



" Function of a Bee's Sting. — It will 

 be a surprise to many to learn that, 

 after all, the most important 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 dextrous use of their 

 stings, and that during this final finish- 

 ing stage of the process of honey-mak- 

 ing, the bees inject a minute portion of 

 formic acid in the honey. This is, in 

 reality, the poison of their sting. The 

 formic acid gives to honey its peculiar 

 flavor, and also imparts to it its keeping 

 qualities. The sting is really an ex- 

 quisitely contrived little trowel, with 

 which the bee finishes off and caps the 

 cells when they are filled brimful of 

 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." 



If I am not mistaken it is the same 

 item that was clipped from an English 

 paper not long ago and sent to the 

 British Bee Journal. So it seems to have 

 started on its travels across the water, 

 and is now having a wide circulation on 

 this side. If this were its first appear- 

 ance, it would be promptly denounced 

 by the bee-papers as the foolish lie of 

 some penny-a-liner. And is it any more 

 to be passed by in silence, because it 

 emanated from one who is the president 

 of an apicultural college — the only col- 

 lege of the kind, is it not, on the conti- 

 nent? For all who were familiar with 

 the bee-literature of a few years ago will 

 recognize in the item the " sting-trowel 

 theory " of Rev. W. F. Clarke. Tne only 

 addition to the original theory is that 

 the poison is here credited with giving 

 honey its flavor. 



So far as I know, Mr. Clarke never 

 gave the slightest hint of any proof for 

 his belief. He didn't pretend to have 

 any. Surely, if bees use their stings as 

 trowels in wax-building, he ought at 

 least to have looked and seen them at 

 the work before sending out his wild 

 guess. For thousands of bees are con- 

 stantly engaged in the operation in the 

 busy season in any apiary. 



If Mr. Clarke has the feeblest proof for 

 his statement, I hereby challenge him to 

 publish it ; and if he has not, I ask him, 

 in the interest of truth, to do all he can, 

 even at this late day, to undo the harm 

 done. 



Marengo, Ills. 



