THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



49 



ev-ening and the next morning. Drum- 

 ming, it seems, is a very quick operation 

 with the straw hives universally used in 

 the province. Doubtless, too, the bees 

 are pecularly adapted to it, in leaving 

 their combs quickly. If left to themselves, 

 the prime swarms would swarm again in 

 about four weeks. To prevent this, an 

 equal number of nuclei, of a handful of 

 bees and a 3'oung queen each, are formed. 

 When a prime swarm makes swamiing- 

 preparations, it and- a nucleus are drum- 

 med out and put in each other's hives, 

 which exchange places, so tha): the bees 

 have their old locations, but new hives 

 and combs. As the nucleus has done but 

 little comb-building, tlie prime swarm 

 finds plenty to do in filling up the hive, 

 and does not swarm, while the nucleus 

 builds up by means of the brood and 

 stores which the prime swarm had pro- 

 vided. ^Swarms are always put on the 

 stands of the old colonies, and a laying 

 (jueen frequently given to the old colony 

 three days after swarming. Queen-rear- 

 ing nuclei are a part of the apiary. Mi- 

 grator)- bee-kee])ing is nuicli practiced. 

 A characteristic of Ilannoverian bee-keep- 

 ing is that t^iough strong colonies are re- 

 (jnired, yet increase is the rule. They go 

 on the principle that three, four or five col- 

 onies produce more than one colon)\ To 

 attain these apparently contradictor)- ob- 

 jects, migration is practiced, and stinni- 

 lative feeding with "pounded" honey is 

 the invariable rule whenever no surplus 

 honey is coming in, until all chance of 

 surplus is over in the fall. The combs 

 nmst always be "sharp." Only young 

 queens are wintered, and new comb is 

 preferred for wintering. 



R. Dathe thinks old combs are excel- 

 lent for wintering, but that the colony 

 develops better in the spring on new 

 combs. 



He does not recommend equalizing the 

 force of colonies by exchanging places, 

 for the queen of the weaker colony is too 

 likely to be killed. 



An old bee-keeper claims that a sure 

 and speedy cure for robbing is to shut up 



and'remove the hive, put an empty one 

 in its place, and burn "something in it, 

 such as a piece of turf, which will keep it 

 continually filled with smoke. When the 

 robbers give up the matter, the orginal 

 hive is set back. He says that by this 

 method neighboring hives are not attack- 

 ed. 



To prevent honey in earthen vessels 

 from cracking when the honey granulates, 

 says P. Neumann, push a stick to the 

 bottom of the vessel while the honey is 

 still soft, and withdraw when the honey 

 has become firm. Another plan is to 

 simply turn the vessels upside down. 



The Mecklenburg foul-brood law, 

 which has proved of much benefit, would 

 never have become a law, says P. Neu- 

 maini, had not the Mecklenburg associa- 

 tion been for years in the habit of gather- 

 ing statistics of bee-culture, so that at the 

 proper time it was able to give complete 

 information to the authorities of the ex- 

 tent of bee-culture and the income re- 

 sulting from it, hence its importance. 



The same authority refers to two cases 

 of foul brood in which the cause was 

 "with certainty" traced to the use of 

 foundation made from wax rendered from 

 diseased combs. He does not give the 

 details. 



.According to the observation of a cer- 

 tain Casiki, all nectars are colorless; and 

 the various tints of honey are due to the 

 action of the fluids of the honey -stomach 

 on the diflFerent nectars. 



Baron Bela .Ambrozy, a Hungarian au- 

 thorit}', has always found that the honey- 

 sac of a fanning or "roaring" bee contains 

 thin honey; an indication that the con- 

 densation of honey is carried on in the 

 body of the bee. 



Dr. Dzierzon thinks that individual 

 bees have no fixed temparature of body; 

 and that it is a waste of time to try to 

 establish it. Unless the outside tempera- 

 ture is high, a bee is dependent upon the 

 cluster for the warmth necessary to its 

 existence; when deprived of that for any 

 great length of time, it perishes. 



Den'vkr, Colo., Dec. 20, 1897. 



