226 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Apr. 15, 



considering that such was the place that would keep it best, 

 for it was thought that a cool 'or cold place was what was 

 needed for the preservation of this product; and it is very 

 hard work to get this notion out of the heads of many who buy 

 honey at the present time. However, it was soon found out 

 that if kept for any length of time in a cool, damp place, the 

 honey would commence to sweat or ooze out of the unsealed 

 cells and sour, while if left in such a place for two or three 

 months the cell cappings would assume a watery appearance 

 and finally burst, so that the whole would become a souring, 

 bad-smelling and bad-tasting mass. This led to the discovery 

 that just the reverse of a cool cellar was the proper place to 

 keep honey, if we wisht to have it improving on our hands ; 

 and so it has come to pass that every bee-keeper of any experi- 

 ence is to-day recommending a room, whose temperature can 

 be kept at from 80^ to 90^, as the only place in which honey 

 should be kept. By thus storing our product, we have the 

 honey growing thicker and of better quality as time advances, 

 and I see no reason why comb honey could not be kept for an 

 indefinite period, if always in such a place. 



But in having such a warm place in which comb honey is 

 stored, another diliBculty arises, which difficulty comes in the 

 shape of the larvre of the wax-moth, as our correspondent sug- 

 gests. Some of our bee-friends tell us that they are never 

 troubled with these pests, but unless comb honey is sorted as 

 it comes from the hive, I have yet to see a ton of comb honey 

 that does not have more or less of these worms on it, at the 

 end of three weeks from the time of taken from the hive, if 

 kept in a warm room. If the honey is sorted, and only those 

 sections which are snow-white put together, such combs will 

 rarely have any worms on them ; but all that are discolored at 

 or near the bottom, and those having any pollen in them are 

 almost sure to be damaged by worms, unless some precaution 

 is taken. 



After such honey has been away from the •bees about ten 

 days, if we inspect the cappings which are discolored, and 

 those about any cells of pollen, we will detect little places of 

 white dust resembling flour upon the surface of the comb, and 

 usually the more abundant near the bottom of the section. 

 Now, altho this place may not be larger than the eye of a fine 

 cambric needle, still it tells us for certain that a tiny worm of 

 the wax-moth is there, and that unless it is destroyed it will 

 destroy more or less of the comb which incases our honey. 



If, after several such examinations you fail to find such 

 little, white, fiour-like places, you need feel very thankful and 

 consider yourself more fortunate than many are. But, if you 

 should find these, the next thing is to sulphur your honey, as 

 this is the best known remedy at the present time. My way is 

 as follows : 



I take an old iron-kettle of suitable size, and put some 

 ashes in the bottom of it, so there will be no danger of fire re- 

 sulting from the heat from the coals which are to be placed 

 therein. When I have the kettle thus prepared, I take it to 

 the room where the honey Is kept, and pour sulphur over the 

 coals (the sulphur having previously been weighed), to the 

 amount of one-fourth of a pound to every 75 cubic feet con- 

 tained in the room, when the kettle is quickly pusht under the 

 pile of honey (it having been piled a little off from the floor 

 for the purpose), and the room closed. You will have to be 

 spry in doing this or you will get some of the fumes thereof 

 yourself, which is not very pleasant, I assure you, after hav- 

 ing a trial or two of the same myself. 



I now look at the windows (two of which should be provi- 

 ded for ventilation in any honey-room) to which any bee or fly 

 which may chance to be in the room will come, hoping to es- 

 cape their doom. As soon as I see that the last of these are 

 lifeless, I take out my watch, and after the lapse of five min- 

 utes, I open the windows so as to carry out the fumes as soon 

 as possible, for if allowed to settle on the combs it will give 

 them and the wood of the sections a greenish color, which will 

 damage the sale of the same. This same thing is sometimes 

 liable to occur if a larger quantity of sulphur is burned than 

 given above. It seems to be a very nice point to get the mat- 

 ter right, for if too much Is used the combs are sure to be 

 turned green, while if too little is used the worms will not be 

 killed. The above amount has been arrived at after years of 

 trial and experience. 



If more honey is brought Into the room after the first has 

 been sulphured, this is also watcbt, and when the flour-like 

 spots are found, the same operation is repeated, and so on till 

 I am sure the honey leaves my hands without danger of those 

 pests making an appearance after it has been placed upon the 

 market. 



While on this subject. It might be well for me to say that 

 I am not troubled nearly as much with these worms at the 

 present time as I formerly was, the reason of which I attribute 

 to my care that no combs are ever left exposed so as to brood 



these pests. Years of care along this line will certainly large- 

 ly free any apiary of this moth difficulty, unless we have those 

 keeping bees about us who pay no attention to this matter. 

 Hives of combs left in the yard after the bees have died from 

 them, (as I have seen them in many apiaries, till they were 

 sending out moths by the thousand and million, to be a nui- 

 sance for years to come), are often a bane to those who would 

 have thiugs as they should be. A little care on the part of 

 every one would save all this. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



How Far Do Bees Fly for Forage ? 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



I am askt how far bees will fly in pursuit of forage, etc. I 

 was the first person to introduce Italian bees into Iowa, in 

 the section where I lived, and I found them working on a 

 patch of buckwheat 5 miles directly north. The second sea- 

 son that I kept them an old bee-hunter traced them 6 miles 

 from my apiary. He was three days tracing them. He found 

 them at work on a field of buckwheat very freely, or, as he 

 exprest it, "slathers of them ;" and as he had never beard 

 of the Italians they excited his curiosity, and he was bound to 

 get them. He had to line them 3 miles across the prairie, and 

 3 miles through heavy timber. I lived just at the east edge 

 of the timber. I saw him as he came into the clearing, 

 and went and met him. He was quite excited, and 

 showed me his new race of bees. He had then got a strong 

 line, and thought he must be very near them. I invited him 

 to leave his box of bait and come with me. We were then 

 within 20 rods of the apiary, and when I showed him the 

 hives and bees he exprest great surprise, and said that he had 

 never heard of Italians, and he would bedoggoned if he would 

 have spent so much time hunting the pesky things if he had 

 known about me keeping them. He lost the line several times 

 in the timber. 



Italians are strong fliers, and how much farther they will 

 go in pursuit of forage I do not know. They did not seem to 

 be much exhausted on arriving at the hives with their loads, 

 as I watcht them closely at different times. Of course, they 

 flew over instead of through the timber, which was on the 

 river flats, while the prairie was considerably higher. 



And now comes another story : It is a fact that there 

 are bees on Catalina Island, and I am informed that they are 

 well-markt hybrids or Italians. So far as known, no one ever 

 took bees there in the first start. The distance from the 

 main land is called 30 miles. In March, when bees swarm 

 here, the wind usually blows from the east towards the Ocean, 

 and sometimes quite strongly. Wild swarms almost invariably, 

 that are passing over, move from east to west. In summer 

 the wind always blows from the west or southwest. A man 

 that kept some 25 colonies on the bluff or mesa, as it is called 

 here, at the edge of the Ocean, informed me that his abscond- 

 ing swarms would rise up in the air, and start over the Ocean 

 west. 



Now comes another story: A fisherman catching fish 

 about midway between the Island and the main land, saw a 

 swarm pass over his fishing boat, and they were passing from 

 the Island to the main land. This was at the time when the 

 wind was blowing strongly from the Island to the main land. 



Now, you Eastern chaps may think this sounds like a 

 " fish story," but I have no doubt about bees succeeding in 

 passing both ways. Of course, it is circumstantial evidence, 

 but that the bees are on the Island is a positive fact. The 

 question is, 'How did they get there f Orange Co., Calif. 



"^ 



The Reciprocal Influence of the Queen Upon 

 the Spermatozoa, and Vice Versa. 



BT ALEX. C. M. SCHRODER. 



All breeders of foreign races of bees have often observed 

 that the progeny of yellow queens which had been mated to a 

 black drone, showed this not only in their workers, but also in 

 the drone, which latter, according to the laws of the parthe- 

 nogenesis, are developt from uaimpregnated, say virgin, eggs, 

 and therefore should have no relationship to the drone that 

 mated with their mother ! 



It often happens that the same queen produces finer-look- 

 ing workers in her second season, whilst her drones are less 

 fine looking fellows; all the facts have not yet been ex- 

 plained in any satisfactory way, and many a one has been In- 

 duced to doubt the truth of parthenogenesis, in his own heart. 

 If not openly 1 Now, I do firmly believe in the virgin's propa- 

 gation of bees; I am convinced that the drones issue from not 



