March, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



151 



at the front of the yard. Likewise in mov- 

 ing bees to our outyards we always try to 

 set the weaker colonies at the front of the 

 yard, so that they will cateli these workers 

 whieli lielp to strengthen them. 



Our medium colonies are then placed in 

 the center of the yard and the heavy colo- 

 nies at the back. Now we have the yard 

 classified, and we know just which colonies 

 need immediate attention without going 

 over the whole yard. 



On the first warm day that is suitable 

 we proceed to go over the light colonies to 

 ascertain if they have enough stores to 

 carry them thru till the honey flow starts. 

 If we find that some are short of stores, and 

 we have not provided for this emergency 



by saving combs of honey, it is an easy 

 matter to borrow some from the heavy colo- 

 nies of the yard, provided they have no foul 

 brood. If there is disease in tlie yard, this 

 becomes a dangerous practice. After taking 

 the bees from the cellar they should not be 

 disturbed until the weather is settled, un- 

 less it is absolutely necessary. Care should 

 be taken not to loosen the sealed covers, 

 .and let in the cold air at the top of the 

 hive, as the bees cannot seal them up again 

 at this time of the year. 



When the apple blossoms bloom, we don 

 our white suits and bee-veils, and the fun 

 begins. I know that you are all anxiously 

 awaiting the blossom time. 



Clarksville, N. Y. 



TREMENDOUS GROWTH FORCE 



WHEN I was 

 assistant in 

 beekeeping 

 at the Wiscon- 

 sin College of 

 Agriculture, and 

 also queen- 

 breeder at that 

 institution, I de- 

 ter mined to 



study royal jelly or larval food, to find out, 

 if possible, just wherein lay its great nutri- 

 tive value. In searching thru all the chem- 

 ical and bee literature, I was able to find 

 only one person who had tried to throw 

 light on this subject. Dr. Adolph V. Planta 

 in 1888-1889 published an account of his in- 

 vestigation in "Zeit. f. Phys. Chemie. " His 

 chemical analysis, however, is only an ele- 

 mentary analysis. 

 Larval Food, in Drone and Worker Cells. 

 It has been often stated that it takes two 

 or three workers to support a drone. This 

 may still be true, but I felt that a little in- 

 vestigation into the feeding of the drone 

 and worker larva would not go amiss. The 

 work was done during the clover honey 

 flow, when the amount of larval food, sup- 

 plied to the young workers, is at its maxi- 

 mum. Every beekeeper has seen that in 

 early spring the larvae are fed more spar- 

 ingly. Two average colonies were chosen 

 in order to have a check on the weighings 

 that were to be made. 



The larvae from 100 worker-cells and from 

 100 drone-cells were removed. As nearly as 

 possible, larvae were chosen of about the 

 same age. The larval food was removed 

 from the cells and placed in watch glasses, 

 that were kept covered to prevent evapora- 

 tion. This was done with each colony, great 

 care being taken to have the watch glasses 

 properly numbered. The larval food adher- 

 ing to the larvae could not readily be re- 

 moved, so that the results are only approxi- 

 mate, yet they give us an idea as to the 



Inrestigations Reveal the Food Mir- 

 acle in Royal Jelly. 'Drone Eats 

 Five Times as Much as Worker 



By C. W. Aeppler 



relative quanti- 

 ties in each case. 

 Before the lar- 

 val food had 

 been placed in 

 the watch glass- 

 es these had been 

 carefully weigh- 

 ed on analytical 

 balances on 

 which one can weigh a ten-thousandth part 

 of a gram (a gram is about l/28th of an 

 ounce). In other words, one can weigh a 

 grain of dust on such a balance. 



After the watch glasses containing the 

 larval food had been weighed, the weights 

 of the empty glasses were subtracted in each 

 case, and the results were as follows: 



DRONE CELLS— Colony A : 100 cells contained 

 1.046 s;r: larval food, or. .01046 gr. per cell. Colony 

 B: 100 cells contained 1.0974 gr. larval food, or 



.01097 gr. per cell. 



WORKER-CELLS— Colony A: 100 cells contain- 

 ed .1843 gr. larval food, or .001843 gr. per cell. Col- 

 ony B: 100 cells contained .1970 gi-. larval food, 

 or .00197 gr. per cell. 



From the above results it ean be seen 

 that a drone-cell contains about 5.5 times as 

 much larval food as does a worker-cell. 

 These figures speak emphatically in favor of 

 full sheets of foundation to suppress the 

 rearing of drones. 



Chemical Analysis of Royal Jelly. 



The greatest obstacle to be met in making 

 a chemical analysis of larval food or royal 

 jelly is the small amount of the material 

 that any chemist can secure. Larval food 

 is about 70% water. Cows' milk is about 

 87% water. The 30% solid material in lar- 

 val food suggests the difficulty in obtaining 

 enough for analysis. It took me two years 

 to obtain enough larval food to conduct the 

 analysis and feeding experiments. This lar- 

 val food was obtained during the summer of 

 1915 and 1916. 



As the larval food was removed from the 

 queen-cells, it was placed in watch glasses. 



