SEPTEMBER 1, 1914 



689 



I have seen this in hives used for some time. 

 This was with single-walled hives; but al- 

 though more difificult I see no reason why it 

 could not take place with a double-walled 

 hive. I have no doubt that in the case men- 

 tioned by Mr. Kaufmann, page 606, Glean- 

 ings, the water went through in the same 

 way. 



Having seen such blisters on several 

 occasions in the past, I have felt for years 

 that so far as the welfare of the bees is 

 concerned, they would be better off with 

 unpainted hives. This would make Dr. 



Miller's contention quite right; he advocates 

 unpainted hives. I have, however, not been 

 able to reconcile myself to unpainted hives 

 — no, not even unpainted supers. 



HONEY IN WAR. 



At a Rochester, N. Y., beekeepers' con- 

 vention I heard it stated that the German 

 soldiers received honey as part of his daily 

 I'ation. If this is the case there must soon 

 be a shortage of honey. 



Brantford, Canada. 



BEES AND "MOVIES' 



BY PRANK BROOMALL 



Is a moving-picture parlor a dangerous 

 place to visit? Are you liable to inhale or 

 become inoculated by disease germs? Let 

 me give my experience. My vocation keeps 

 me indoors mostly ; but this particular year 

 was rather dull in my line, and I found 

 myself with considerable time on my hands. 

 One evening I stopped in a "picture" house 

 near my home, and during the course of 

 the show a film was shown of all the impor- 

 tant work of the apiary, or at least nearly 

 all, such as the manipulation of the frames, 

 the hunting of queens, including a gTeatly 

 enlarged close-at-hand picture of the frame 

 with the queen on it ; also extracting honey, 

 swarming and hiving, packing comb and 

 extracted honey ; and last, but not least, the 

 consumer enjoying buckwheat cakes and 

 honey for breakfast. 



Again the. question, " Are picture houses 

 filled with germ-laden air?" I answer, 

 decidedly, yes! at least I came from that 

 place with a well-developed case of bee- 

 fever, and the good wife has since pro- 



nounced it hopeless. Honest Injun ! I 

 believe she is catching it herself. 



The morrow found a card on the way to 

 the Department of Agriculture, Washing- 

 ton, D. C, and before the end of the next 

 week I was eagerly devouring the informa- 

 tion contained in the Government bulletin 

 entitled " Bees." 



Event followed event in rapid succession 

 as the disease reached the fever heat. The 

 name of the secretary of the nearest bee- 

 keepers' association was procured, and soon 

 I was in possession of a full colony of 

 golden Italians. Since then I have experi- 

 enced the various delights well known to 

 beekeepers. I have made increase by both 

 nucleus and the Alexander method (I prefer 

 the former), have raised queens, and, the 

 most pleasing of all to a beginner, is the 

 harvesting of the first pound of honey. 



I find myself a living reality of the picture 

 I have told you about — " buckwheat cakes 

 and honey for breakfast." 



West Philadelphia, Pa. 



NOTES FROM GERMANY 



BY J. E. HEBERLE, B. S. 



FERTILE EGGS IN DRONE COMB. 



Inspector Hoffmann reports that he re- 

 ceived from Lehrer Schneider a piece of 

 drone comb from which perfectly normal 

 worker bees emerged. This drone comb was 

 from a colony that had ten large combs — 

 larger than the Langstroth frames, which 

 had only small patches of drone comb at the 

 corners ; all the rest was good worker comb. 

 So far as I know it has ne\er been recorded 

 that a queen, wlien there is but little drone 



comb in the hive, and ample worker comb, 

 would lay in drone-cells fertile and unfer- 

 tilized eggs. 



* * » 



ORIGIN OF FORMIC ACID IN HONEY. 



Is formic acid produced in the body of 

 the bee, or is it derived from the oxidation 

 of sugar? Muellenhof asserts that the for- 

 mic acid comes from the sting and poison- 

 gland of the bee. Prof. v. Planta is of the 

 oi)inion that it originates in the salivary 



