38 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



season. This was the only perceptible 

 difference in the condition of the stocks 

 of the two Winters. If there was any 

 difference in their temperature, the 

 stocks that died were the wanner. 



I have now twenty-seven colonies in 

 the same cellar. They were stored 

 away about the middle of November, 

 and are now (Dec. 22nd) in excellent 

 condition. About the 1st of October I 

 found two or three of my strongest 

 stocks literally starved to death. On 

 further examination the serious fact 

 was disclosed, that in the twentj^-seven 

 surviving stocks there w^ere not twenty- 

 seven -ponndB oi honey I I immediately 

 purchased a barrel of good coffee sugar, 

 made it into syrup, and fed it to my 

 Bees. They are no w temporarily Winter- 

 ing almost entirely on sugar syrup, a 

 few of them only having the smallest 

 amount of honey ; and the less they 

 have of it. the better, in my opinion. 



It may be that cold will produce dys- 

 entery ; but I feel certain that its ab- 

 sence, or rather, the presen ce of warmth, 

 will not always prevent it. While 

 Bees should be kept in a comfortable 

 temperature, they should also have a 

 pure and healthy diet. The food, my 

 observation proves, is of more import- 

 ance than the temperature. Why, or 

 where, the honey is impure, I am not 

 now prepared to say ; but that it is at 

 times unfit for the use of the Bees, I 

 have no doubt. That good sugar syrup, 

 well cooked, is a healthy and sale Bee 

 food, I have demonstrated to my satis- 

 faction. Hereafter, if the droughts do 

 not render it unnecessary, I shall ex- 

 tract all the honey from my Bees in the 

 Fall, and feed them upon syrup. 



M. C. Hester. 



Charlestown, Ind. 



Translated for the American Bee Journal.. 



Dzierzon. 



The most complete check upon robbing 

 Bees is to place a bunch of grass, or wet 

 hay over the entrance to the hive. The 

 Bees will find their way to the entrance 

 to their own hive, the robbers will be 

 caught by the sentinels in passing through 

 the grass, and soon cease their pilfering. 

 — Exchange. 



EXTRACT FROM THE HISTORY OF BEE-KEEP- 

 ING IN THE GRAND DUCHY OF HESSE, 

 IN COURSE OF PUBLICATION 

 IN "DIE BIENE." 



Italian Bees increase faster and have 

 many {}ualities superior to the black. 



For the purpose of perfecting our 

 essay, we shall here submit the general 

 remark, that, not only France, who is- 

 well known to claim for herself the 

 credit of all great discoveries and in- 

 ventions, but also Germany has denied 

 to Pastor Dzierzon the merit of having 

 discovered anything new. They ar- 

 "•ued thus : The foundations on which 

 the great discoveries of the present era 

 rest, were present long before the ap- 

 pearance of Dzierzon ; the incidental 

 points at which the old and new eras 

 separate, must be sought for where the 

 first bright rays of light fell on that 

 mysterious darkness of bee-life — the 

 sexiuil relations of the three different 

 orders of bees. Into this darkness^ 

 however, before Dzierzon's time, some 

 fiaint glimmers of light had fallen ; and 

 he, like all great explorers of unknown 

 territory, had his forerunners and pio- 

 neers. Already had a Janscha (died 

 1774), a plain farmer of Upper Carnolia 

 and later, professor of Bee-keeping in 

 Vienna, made, by his observations in 

 the large apiary founded by the Em- 

 press Maria Theresa, the discovery that 

 the queen is impregnated by the drone 

 outside of the hive, and but once during; 

 her life-time. The discoveries of Schir- 

 ack, that queens may be reared from, 

 worker eggs, was also earlier, as also 

 his discovery of fertile workers. Based 

 upon these discoveries, and also the in- 

 vestigations made by the Natural Phi- 

 losopher, Eaumer, did Francis Huber^ 

 Avith the eyes of his assistant, Burnens^ 

 (Huber having become blind in early 

 manhood), make further observations, 

 and located a chain of facts which 

 spread a light over the natural history 

 and domestic economy of the Honey- 

 Bee. Then also the invention of the 

 movable-comb system was worked out,, 

 in anticipation, by the frame or leaf 

 hive, which served Huber in his obser- 

 vations, and was afterwards much im- 

 proved by Morlot and others. Now^ 



