JANUARY 1, 1916 



29 



HONEY FOR THE SOLDIERS. 



Large quantities of honey are given the 

 solders, not only the convalescent in the 

 hospitals and sanitoriums, but also to thnse 

 in the field and trenches. This has also 

 favorably influenced the general market. 

 Liquid honey is sent to the front in tin 

 tubes, in tin cans, and in cans with alumi- 

 num bottoms, and push-in cover, with the 

 sides of pasteboard. Crystallized honey has 

 also been sent in parchment paper, etc. 

 The soldiers appreciate the honey very 

 much. Bread and honey make a fair lunch 

 compared to dry bread. Those poor men 

 (friend and foe) in the trenches get their 

 hot meals veiy irregularly or not at all, 

 because the " field kitchen " can approach 

 only under cover of darkness; and even at 

 night it is perilous — sometimes impossible. 



NEW OR OLD COMBS? 



This question is much discussed at pres- 

 ent. By men of experience, extreme views 

 are advocated. Some hold that old combs 

 are dangerous; that they contain disease 

 germs; that a colony on old combs does not 

 develop itself as rapidly as on new ones; 

 that bees do not (or only rarely) swarm 

 from old combs; that they do not build 

 queen-cells readily, etc. Some say that 

 often beginners have unusual success be- 

 cause the bees are building much and are 

 on new combs; but later, when the combs 

 get older, and the bees are not allowed to 

 build freely, the former success is changed 

 to failure. 



Others with equal positiveness say that 

 old conabs are saturated with formic acid 

 which would kill all disease germs (?). If 

 such an old comb is taken out it spreads a 

 delicate perfume, and this perfume per- 

 vades the hive of a healthy colony. 



Usually extremes should be avoided in 

 everything as well as in the case of combs. 

 Some have recommended in the journals the 

 renewal of the brood-nest every two, three. 

 or four years. I think it is natural, and 

 correct from the practical point of vieAv. 

 to let the bees build. The extent is influ- 

 enced by the condition of the colony, the 

 weather, and the localitj% or, to be more 

 explicit, by the pollen and nectar furnish- 

 ing flora within the reach of the apiary. 

 Some few beekeepers use only virgin combs 

 in the extracting-super, believing that old 

 combs color the honey and affect the aroma. 

 I consider it very important to have only 

 first-class worker combs in the brood-nest, 

 and that it matters not so much whether 

 bffod has been reared in them for lliiee or 

 six yeai-s. T would not sup])re.ss, if I could, 

 the rearing of drones ; but would, if it were 



practicable, have a few of the best queens 

 furnish the drone eggs to the other colo- 

 nies — at least to such as are, after careful 

 consideration based on close observation 

 booked at the time, found undesirable. 



QUEENS MATED BY DRONES OF THE KEEPER'S 

 CHOICE. 



This should be the ambition of the ambi- 

 tious beekeeper — consummation devoutly to 

 be wished. All beekeepers seem to agTce 

 that, were it possible to mate the virgins of 

 the choicest breeding with drones from a 

 colony specially selected for the purpose, 

 we would, in a very short time, have bees 

 that would bring considerably more surplus 

 — to be more definite, double the average. 

 There would be gi'eater uniformity. Near- 

 ly all colonies would be populous at tlie 

 right time, few would swarm, and those that 

 would swarm would do so at a time when it 

 would least interfere with the purpose of 

 the beekeeper. They would be very indus- 

 trious, and easy to manage. 



The first and most important care would 

 be to give them sufficient room to store the 

 surplus during the honey-flow to supple- 

 ment the winter stores early in case they 

 should be short, and provide ample protec- 

 tion in winter, and especially in the spring, 

 against the inclemency of the weather. Such 

 colonies a beekeeper could, with the same 

 amount of exertion, manage double the 

 number of colonies, and these would avei'- 

 age at least twice the amount of surplus of 

 today. That means that a beekeeper with 

 such bees could secure four times as much 

 surplus as at present. If beekeepers want 

 more than that they should try another 

 planet. 



Even if the beekeeper should not reach 

 the goal (control of mating) it may be that 

 the conditions under which mating has tak- 

 en place for uncounted centuries are a suf- 

 ficient safeguard to exclude infei-ior male? 

 from taking part in the perpetuating of 

 the race, and prevent deterioration. 



If we heed the counsel eminent beekeep- 

 ers have given us as a result of their ex- 

 tended experience and careful obsei'vation. 

 we can at present improve our inferior half 

 of the apiary by careful selection of the 

 breeding material on hand that may have 

 been purchased and has been found well 

 adapted to the locality; but we must re- 

 member that the conditions under which, 

 from the time the egg is laid until the fer- 

 tilized queen is introduced to a full colony, 

 especially until the cell is capped, are at 

 least of equal if not superior influence in 

 deterniinii\ir the quality of the youni; queen 

 rather than her ancestry. 



Kempten, Bavaria, Germany, 



