408 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



more is gone. This brief time measures the 

 passage of the water to the blood. How 

 often is the same true of horses! They 

 come to the drinking-trough very thirsty. 

 Given an opportunity, they will drink 

 enough to injure them, perhaps enough to 

 prove fatal. If, on the other hand, we give 

 them a little and then in a few minutes we 

 offer them more, they refuse to take it. 

 Next to oxygen, water is the greatest req- 

 uisite of all the food elements. In bees, it 

 is the medium, so to speak, that carries all 

 the others. No wonder that the ever active 

 industrious bee needs water, and so hies to 

 pool or spring. They sip the water, and it 

 passes at once to the blood. Our knowledge 

 •of the way water acts with higher animals 

 will convince us of this fact. It would also 

 prove poor economy for the bees to put this 

 into the cells where it would at once mix 

 with the honey, only to be evaporated later. 



. ANOTHER DEFINITION OF HONEY. 



I have often referred to honey as digested 

 nectar. Most of our honey is floral honey, 

 or comes from flowers. This is cane sugar, 

 which is chemically very different from the 

 glucose or reducing sugars. It is also less 

 soluble and less assimilable. If cane sugar 

 is injected into the blood it is not used, but 

 is eliminated by the kidneys. This shows it 

 unfit for metabolism. The same is not true 

 of reducing sugars. Thus with all animals, 

 ourselves no exceptions, cane sugar must be 

 changed to reduc ng sugar by the digestive 

 processes. The bees do this with the nec- 

 tar, and the result is honey. Yet this defini- 

 tion is really an imperfect one, for, in case 

 the bees take honey-dew. they take a reduc- 

 ing sugar which then, of course, needs no 

 digestion. This really may be an argument 

 in favor of honey-dew for bees, just as we 

 argue in favor of honey for human food. 

 No doubt honey is one of the most excellent 

 sugars for us. as it is already digested, and 

 so is no tax on the body energies. I have 

 not a doubt that it requires less vital energy 

 for bees to produce honeV from honey-dew 

 than from floral matter, for honey-dew, 

 like glucose and honey, is already a reduc- 

 ing sugar. 



THE SEASON IN CALIFORNIA. 



Bee-keepers in the East will be glad to 

 hear that California bee-keepers are all jubi- 

 lant at the present time. I have now lived 

 in Southern California over 11 years, and 

 never in all that time have we had any 

 thin? like the prospects for success along all 

 agricultural lines that we have to-day. 

 This is peculiarly true in the direction of 

 honey-production. I have just visited the 

 canyons, and the wealth of flowers and the 

 promise of future bloom is truly gratifying. 

 I can see no possible chance of a honey fail- 

 ure the coming year. Of course, continu- 

 ous cold winds are always unfavorable to a 

 honey crop. That we should have such 

 winds for the season through is certainly 

 not to be expected. 



Inspector Hutchinson has practically 

 cleared the JState of Michigan of foul brood, 

 at least he doesn't know of any that exists 

 at the present time. 



I DO not now remember a more favorable 

 spring for bees than this. Reports of good 

 springing and good wintering have been 

 universally favorable. 



Regarding theSibbald non- swarming sys- 

 tem, two different bee-keepers claim priori- 

 ty in a published description of the method, 

 and both say it is all right. Particulars 

 n>-xt issue. 



Particular attention is directed to the 

 article by E. W. Alexander in this issue, on 

 his method for running for increase, and at 

 the same time controlling swarming, and 

 getting big crops of honey besides. It is 

 not often that we publish an article which 

 has more intrinsic merit than this. 



PUNIC (TUNISIAN) BEES, 



There has been considerable discussion of 

 late in the American Bee-keeper regarding 

 the merits of this particular race of bees, 

 introduced some years ago by Mr. John 

 Hewitt, of England. About thirteen years 

 ago we tested the stocks of two different 

 queens sent us by Mr. Hewitt; but we found 

 them to be very undesirable, bad about 

 propolizing* and stinging, and in every way 

 they were much inferior (unless in the one 

 point of honey-gathering) to Italians, and 

 I so reported in these columns at the time. 

 The editor of the American Bee-keeper, 

 after copying this editorial, calls attention 

 to the fact that " Mr. Root is not very ex- 

 plicit as to the extent of the test which was 

 there given of these bees." As above stat- 

 ed, the opinion was based on two fair-sized 

 colonies from the two queens obtained di- 

 rect from Mr. Hewitt. If I remember cor- 

 rectly the queens were imported by Mr. 

 Hewitt him.self, and then afterward sent us. 

 Our experience with the bees at the time 

 seemed to be quite in line with that of Edi- 

 tor Cowan, as reported in the British Bee 

 Journal of June 16 and July 7, 1892, and 

 later with the article by Mr. Benton in the 

 October American Bee-keeper for last year. 

 If I am correct the Punics are nothing more 

 nor less than the Tunisians under another 

 name. While I admit our test was not con- 

 clusive by any means, yet because of the un- 

 desirable traits that we discovered, and 



* They not only daubed the frames, btit smeared the 

 cappings of their combs with a dirty-red glue. 



