T904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



837 



Miller has such an abundance of it, perhaps 

 he can enlighten us. 



A German journal announces the death of 

 Michael Ambrozic, of Moistrana, Austi'ia. 

 He was one of the best-known bee-keepers 

 in Europe, his advertisements for years oc- 

 cupying a large place in German bee-jour- 

 nals. He was a very progressive man, and 

 will be greatly missed. 



According to a writer in Rev. Eclectique the 

 marked increase in the honey-flow at times 

 during thunderstorms is owing to the elec- 

 tricity permeating the soil and accelerating 

 the outward movement of the fluids in some 

 plants. However that may be, it is certain 

 that lightning often does promote the secre- 

 tion of nectar. 



\i/ 



Mr. P. Noblecourt, writing to L'Apicul- 

 teur from a village in France, says, in show- 

 ing how slowly improved methods gain a 

 footing in some localities, "At Aubencheul 

 frame hives were not known [a short time 

 ago]. During last winter I made four new 

 ones which drew the attention of some 

 friends who made some to transfer in in 

 May. The harvest was good in our country. 

 Bee-keepers here have always been in the 

 barbarous habit of suffocating their bees to 

 get the honey and take the wax, hence they 

 could not profit by good years to build up 

 their apiaries. In winter they saved but a 

 few colonies in straw baskets or skeps. As 

 for an apiary, none exists here except one 

 at Villers, containing four Layens hives in a 

 magnificent garden. I intend to make the 

 new system known by giving and lending 

 books and pamphlets treating on apiculture. 

 Such is the progress (slow enough) that 

 apiculture is making in our country. " That 

 writer is a born missionary. 



L'Apiculteur for August, in its honey 

 reports for Havre, Marseilles, Hamburg, 

 and Belgium, reports sustained and increas- 

 ing prices on foreign honey. Chilian honey 

 seems to cut a wide swath in Europe. Con- 

 cerning the matter of cutting prices the 

 editor says, "The members of the Central 

 Society, on the 19th of June, decided to ask 

 115 or at least 110 francs, and that price 

 would have been sustained by the Parisian 

 dealers. But just at that time a Gatinais 

 house scattered circulars broadcast among 

 grocers, ofi'ering superfine honey at 105. To 

 offer honey at such a price, that house must 

 have had some guarantee from some one 

 against low prices. Whose fault was this, 

 if not the producers', who sold without in- 

 forming themselves as to what was going 

 on around them ? It seems to us the prices 

 of 1903 should have been sustained, as the 

 existing stock in the hands of wholesalers 

 does not seem to be considerable." That's 

 another case where those most interested 

 pull trouble down on their own heads as 

 well as on their neighbors, through lack of 

 information. 



EMBRYO LIFE OF THE BEE. 



"Can you tell me, Mr. Doolittle, how long 

 it is from the time the queen lays the egg 

 for a worker bee till the same emerges from 

 its cell a perfect bee?" 



"I do not know that I can, Mr. Barber." 



' ' I thought I had read, some time ago, 

 somewhere, that you thought 21 days was 

 the time." 



"I presume you did, for I have so written; 

 and that would be what I would say now if 

 I told you without any qualification or ex- 

 planation. But these qualifications and ex- 

 planations would make it so that I could not 

 place any exact time which would meet the 

 wants of a critic. But 21 days is near 

 enough for all practical purposes." 



" I think you claimed about six days in 

 the larval form in that article of yours which 

 I read." 



' ' Very likely. ' ' 



"Well, how do you reconcile that time 

 with the four and a half to five days as giv- 

 en by others?" 



" I do not try to do the reconciling. I let 

 the others do it." 



"How is that?" 



"Quinbygave in his 'Mysteries of Bee- 

 keeping Explained, ' which book was publish- 

 ed about 1865, that the egg, as laid by the 

 queen in worker-cells, hatches in three days 

 to a larva; this larva is fed by the nurse bees 

 six days, when the cell containing it is seal- 

 ed over, remaining thus for twelve days, 

 during which time it undergoes the change 

 'from caterpillar to butterfly, ' when the cov- 

 ering to the cell is eaten off and it emerges 

 a perfect bee — that being 3, 6, and 12 added 

 together, giving a period of 21 days from 

 the laying of the egg to the perfect bee. 

 Quinby's figures and dates have stood the 

 test of nearly forty years, and it is not for 

 his followers to try to do the reconciling, 

 but for the ones who give different figures 

 to prove that they are correct. ' ' 



"Does not the weather make any differ- 

 ence with these figures?" 



' ' Yes, and that was the reason I said that 

 21 days was not exact enough to meet the 

 wants of critics. Very warm weather hast- 

 ens this development to a certain extent, 

 and cold weather retards the same. ' ' 



' ' Have you tried the matter for yourself?" 



' ' Yes. Always being anxious to know 

 things for a certainty, so far as they can be 

 ascertained, I have conducted many experi- 

 ments along this and other lines. To test 

 this I placed a frame of nice worker comb 

 in the center of a populous colony about the 

 first of June, and watched it nearly every 

 hour till I found eggs in it; and when so 



