1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



229 



from the honey. That it is practically re- 

 moved is certainly true. 



WATER FOR BEES. 



We are all aware with what avidity our 

 pets of the hive seek the watering-trough, 

 the brooklet, or even less attractive places, 

 where they may sip the needed water for 

 their sustenance. I presume many have 

 wondered what this water is for and where 

 it goes to. Do the bees take it for their own 

 immediate nutrition, or do they carry it to 

 the hive ? I believe there is little doubt that 

 it is taken by the bees for their own immedi- 

 ate use. It is in hot weather that the bees 

 visit such places, and they likely need water 

 just as other animals need the same. In the 

 work of the body, water is all-important. 

 The bees secure this at the pond or rill. We 

 know that, in the case of the higher animals, 

 water, when taken into the digestive canal, 

 passes very quickly into the blood. I pre- 

 sume that bees are no exception. I doubt 

 not that examination would show with bees, 

 as with other animals, that, in a trice, 

 after the water is sipped into the stomach, 

 it has been absorbed or passed through into 

 the blood. 



Some have argued from the fact that 

 bees are often seen around urinals that salt 

 is necessary for bees. While I do not think 

 that salt would be harmful, and very likely 

 in promoting absorption would be valuable, 

 yet in the case just mentioned it is probably 

 the water and not the salt that attracts the 

 bees, it proves the rather that salt is not 

 harmful. 



METABOLISM. 



This may be a new word to bee-keepers, 

 but it is a good word, and one the meaning 

 of which should be known to us all. By 

 metabolism we mean the work done in the 

 body, or the functional work of an organism. 

 We can not use any organ without resulting 

 breakdown of tissue. It follows that the 

 tissue must be built up. When the break- 

 down is more rapid than the rebuilding, then 

 we become tired. During the night the 

 building exceeds the tearing-down, and so 

 with the morning comes refreshment and 

 new vigor for the day's work. This whole 

 process of tearing down and building up. 

 consequent upon functional activity, we call 

 metabolism. Destructive metabolism, or 

 the tearing-down of tissue, is known as 

 katabolism. This, of course, gives rise to 

 waste, and the products of waste such as 

 the carbon dioxide thrown out by the breath, 

 and the excreta from the kidneys in our 

 case, and from the malpighian tubules of the 

 stomach in bees and other insects, may be 

 considered the ashes of katabolism. The 

 building-up process is known as anabolism. 

 The requirements for this building-up are 

 the presence of sufficient and suitable food. 

 Perhaps the most important of the food ele- 

 ments is the water referred to above, though 

 oxygen is even more imperative, for all ani- 

 mals must have that constantly. The word 

 "food," as usually used, refers to the other 

 food, which in case of bees includes the bee- 

 bread and the honey. 



FOOD OF BEES. 



No bee-keeper need be told that the food 

 of bees consists of honey and bee-bread. 

 The honey consists of invert sugar or re- 

 ducible sugar as it is often called. There is 

 no doubt that honey is one of very best kinds 

 of sugars to be taken as food. The sugars 

 and starch which, when eaten, are converted 

 into sugar in the process of digestion, are 

 known as carbo-hydrates. They are very 

 important food elements. While not enough 

 when taken alone to support the body, they 

 greatly conserve the other and more costly 

 food elements. Honey is the most soluble 

 and most assimilable of all the sugars. In- 

 deed, cane sugar has to be digested before 

 it can be utilized by the body. Bees, then, 

 do for us what we shall have to do for our- 

 selves if we eat cane or common sugar in- 

 stead of honey. Fats probably act much as 

 do the sugars. Alone they are not sufficient 

 for food, but they, too, conserve the more 

 costly proleids. The proteid food we must 

 have, even though we may have the carbo- 

 hydrates and fats. The proteids contain 

 chemical elements which are absolutely 

 necessary to the formation of tissue. We 

 get our proteids in muscle, cheese, and there 

 is a large amount of proteid also in beans, 

 and much in grains. The proteids of the 

 grains or cereals, we call gluten; that of 

 peas and beans and clover we call legumin. 

 It is found that the cheapest and best food 

 regimen has a ratio of about one to five. 

 We mean by this that there are about five 

 times as much of the carbo-hydrates as of the 

 proteid elements in a food of the most eco- 

 nomic ration. In case of our cattle we can 

 regulate this as we can also in our diet. The 

 bees do their own mixing. 



HONEY PROSPECTS FOR 1905. 



As we all know, California is away at the 

 front as a honey State, whenever we have 

 favorable seasons. The necessity in the 

 case is abundance of rain. The prospects 

 for next year are exceedingly bright. We 

 have now had over 10 inches of rain. Last 

 year at this time we had less than one inch. 

 Whenever we get 15 inches we can usually 

 count on a good honey crop. It is all the 

 better if the rain comes late in the season. 

 This year, as last, our rains are coming late, 

 and so will do the maximum good. Last 

 year we had a very meager rainfall, though 

 what we had came in a way to be all utiliz- 

 ed, and to give us the greatest benefit. 

 This year we are getting a large amount. 

 It is also coming gently in a way to be tak- 

 en up by the soil and fully utilized. It is an 

 interesting fact that, though we may have 

 an abundance of flowers, if the water supply 

 is cut short the flowers seem powerless to 

 secrete nectar, and thus our honey season is 

 a failure. Though we have not the same 

 opportunityto study this matter in the East, 

 yet bee-keepers of the East are made faniil- 

 iar with the same truth. I worked with 

 bees every year in Michigan from 1869 to 

 late in the 80 's, and never a year but we had 

 a fair yield of honey. Then for three suc- 

 cessive years we had very dry seasons— so 



