1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



307 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Honey the Proper Food for Bees. 



A. It. KOIINKE. 



Prof. Reklam writes in his paper, 

 Qesundheit (Health): "Bee-keeping 

 deserves recommendation not only on 

 account of ttie gains derived from the 

 sale of honey and wax, but much more 

 so because it furnishes a food for man 

 which is not excelled 1>> an\ other as 

 regards digestibility and nourishing 

 qualities; for it is taken up by the 

 blood vessels like water, without de- 

 composition or other chemical change 

 in the stomach, and thus serves as 

 food without a particle of waste mat- 

 ter, entering the animal tissue atonce 

 in a most available form." 



This being the case not only with 

 man, but also with bees, we can see 

 why young bees, which live only on 

 honey, need not leave the hive to void 

 their excrements before the 10th or 

 14th day. Only after their store of 

 nitrogenous compounds in the body is 

 exhausted by the secretion of food 

 through the glands in the head to feed 

 the larva-, it is that they are compelled 

 to resort to nitrogenous food contained 

 in pollen. 



This leads me to consider Mr. Hed- 

 don's theory, advanced in the Bee 

 Journal of Sept. 7, page 283, as the 

 only probable cause. I had the good 

 fortune last summer to stay with Mr. 

 Heddonabout2 months, during which 

 time we discussed the bacteria ques- 

 tion quite often as being the cause of 

 dysentery. Mr. Heddon had observed 

 that the colonies which were deticient 

 in stores, hence had to be fed in the 

 fall, generally escaped the disease; 

 those which had enough, or even more, 

 were the worst affected. Now, as feed 

 for the light colonies, Mr. Heddon 

 used a solution of the Very best white 

 sugar and honey, which was boiled to 

 nearly the consistency of honey. Those 

 colonies generally wintered well, fur- 

 nishing a very plausible reason for his 

 theory, for he reasoned thus: "If I 

 boil the food for the bees they are to 

 winter on, they do well ; if not, many 

 of them are diseased, hence it must be 

 bacteria, which are killed by the boil- 

 ing process, and remain alive in natu- 

 ral stores gathered by the bees." This 

 being his experience for a number of 

 years, it is natural enough to guess at 

 the theory he first advanced, although 

 I considered it as not probable. 



Mr. Heddon arrived at his latest 

 conclusion, he states very explicitly, 

 by actual ocular observation. He has 

 seen an excess of pollen in such colo- 

 nies as have been effected or died with 

 the disease, and puts the question, 

 "How can we prevent the bees from 

 an undue consumption of the pollen, 

 if not by robbing them of it?" 



Now it appears to me that the undue 

 consumption of pollen, in a cold win- 

 ter permitting no flight, is only a sec- 

 ondary (though immediate) cause of 

 dysentery, it being a result of a prim- 

 ary cause. Which bees in a colony eat 

 pollen, and for what purpose V are the 

 next questions to answer. It is known 

 that the most pollen is consumed when 

 brood is reared. It is also known that 

 brood-rearing is mostly done by young 

 bees. There are some few facts known 

 by scientific men and bee-keepers of 

 which the average apiarist is ignorant. 

 Some of these facts relate to the sali- 

 vary glands in the head of the worker 

 bee. It will be found on dissecting a 

 young bee, that the largest glands are 

 in the head, and secrete the food for 

 the young larvae ; this food or secretion 

 is the so-called royal jelly (which Mr. 

 Robinson pronounces semen), and is 

 furnished to larva- of the worker bees 

 in limited quantities to prevent an un- 

 due development of the sexual organs; 

 before sealing the cells containing the 

 larvse, they are supplied with a store 

 of honey and pollen. 



The feeding of the larva' with this 

 jelly soon exhausts the young bees, 



and to restore the lost nitrogenous 

 compounds, they have to resort to eat- 

 ing pollen to keep up this secret ion, 

 until finally the glands, by the con- 

 stant drain on them, are too weak to 

 fulfill their office, when the young bee» 

 leave the hive to gather honey and 

 pollen, if there is any. On examina- 

 tion, it will also be found that in old 

 bees these glands are all shriveled and 

 dried up. Some will ask, What has 

 all this to do with dysentery ¥ Every- 

 thing, as will appear by the following : 

 Toward spring bees commence to 

 breed. If there are not a large num- 

 ber of young bees the old bees must 

 act as nurses, being enabled to do so 

 only by consuming large quantities of 

 pollen. If they can fly now and then 

 no harm will follow; if not, dysentery 

 or spring dwindling is certain. Pollen 

 the bees must have if they are to 

 breed, but if there are plenty of young 

 bees, they will not consume more than 

 necessary. 



To prevent dysentery and spring 

 dwindling we want young bees ; to get 

 them, we most induce late breeding 

 by feeding, if the honey flow is scant 

 iii the fall or stops suddenly quite 

 early. It will thus be seen why Mr. 

 Heddon 's fed colonies generally win- 

 tered better than those not fed. 



Youngstown, O., Sept. i), 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Golden Honey Plant. 



G. L. TINKEIt, M. D. 



high enough, hid that it will prove the 

 one great fall honey plant, and super- 

 sede all others as its virtues become 

 known. I send a packet of the seeds. 

 New Philadelphia, ().. Sept. 16, L881. 



[We have received the packet of 

 seeds, which we shall plant next sea- 

 son. Every bee-keeper should make 

 a point of lending encouragement to 

 the development of new honey plants, 

 as sometimes the more popular varie- 

 ties are not suited to all climates and 

 soils. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Italian and Cyprian Bees. 



CIIAS. DADANT. 



We have growing extensively in this 

 section the greatest honey producing 

 plant for August and September that 

 can be found anywhere. It eclipses 

 buckwheat, goldenrod, asters, Spanish 

 needles, and every other fall plant for 

 both honey and pollen. From the first 

 day of August every year the bees 

 take to it and work on nothing else as 

 long as it blooms. This year, owing 

 to the drouth, it failed about the first 

 of September, but all through the hot 

 and dry weather of August it bloomed 

 in great profusion, and the bees worked 

 upon it from early morn till dark, ma- 

 king their trips of two miles (the near- 

 est large patch of perhaps 20 acres) 

 with all the excitement of a white 

 clover harvest. I passed the field sev- 

 eral times, and it was at all hours of 

 the day swarming with bees — my Ital- 

 ians and the blacks from neighboring 

 hives. 



Some colonies gathered 10 to 15 lbs. 

 of box honey from it, and some that I 

 divided tilled 4 full frames, besides 

 filling and sealing up the balance of 

 the frames. The honey is a beautiful, 

 transparent, golden-yellow color, hav- 

 ing a rich, aromatic taste, and might 

 well pass for " wild honey." It colors 

 the capping somewhat, but gives the 

 honey a rich appearance'. For the ta- 

 ble I prefer it to white clover or bass- 

 wood, on account of its fine flavor. 



It produces seed in great abundance, 

 and seems to be increasing on our river 

 bottoms and the adjacent hill-sides 

 every year— the seeds being scattered 

 by high water every spring. It will 

 grow luxuriantly anywhere, and once 

 established in a locality, it continues to 

 grow there every year, among trees or 

 in the open fields, to the exclusion of 

 all other plants. 



The plant grows from 5 to 8 feet high, 

 throwing up several stalks from the 

 same root, and branching out into 

 large corymbs of beautiful yellow 

 flowers, that in a large field makes a 

 perfect sea of continuous bloom. 



I believe that it can be cultivated to 

 great advantage to the apiarist, and 

 once a Held is set with it, it will remain 

 from year to year without further at- 

 tention, and furnish every year the 

 very best quality of honey for the bees 

 to winter upon and for the table. The 

 pollen is a tine golden-yellow, and 

 abundant. As no common name has 

 been given to the plant in works upon 

 botany, I have named it the " golden 

 honey plant" {Aetinomeris squarrosa). 

 If our bee-keepers are to cultivate 

 any plant for honey alone, I really 

 think that I have not rated the plant 



Several years ago I read an article, 

 in which the writer said that a queen 

 was worthless after having laid 200,000 

 eggs, and that queens could not live 

 more than 1 or 2 years, and some even 

 less. According to my experience, 

 queens can live 3, 4, and even 5 years, 

 some being prolific all the time. The 

 writer of that article was one of those 

 who used to put the color of the bees 

 above all other qualities, and I wrote 

 an article to warn the bee-keepers 

 against this pernicious idea. 



Having imported % of the Italian 

 bees introduced into this country, and 

 wintering many every year in our own 

 apiaries, I feel that I am entitled to 

 give my views in this matter. The 

 queens that we received from Italy 

 were not as bright in color, and their 

 bees were darker than those of their 

 daughters, after a succession of 2 or 3 

 generations, reared with a careful se- 

 lection as to color. But such a one- 

 sided selection was not to be followed 

 without regard to the other qualities, 

 for, according to our experience, and 

 that of hundreds of others who had 

 written to us on the same subject, the 

 leather-colored imported queens, and 

 their leather-colored progeny, were 

 more prolific, more hardy, more long- 

 lived, than were those of the very yel- 

 low bees. It is for honey that we 

 keep bees, and not for beauty. 



My article was considered by many 

 bee-keepers as drumming for the sale 

 of our bees, some people being unable 

 to understand that one cannot be 

 moved but by selfish motives. 



Mr. Demaree was the most eager 

 against the dark or leather-colored 

 Italian bees, and in his writings, as 

 well as in the Bee Conventions, he de- 

 nounced them as hybrid bees, full of 

 vindictiveness, and always ready tofiyht 

 (Bee Journal, Nov., 1880, page 520). 

 I would be pleased to know where 

 he obtained such a notion. I have 

 never had a complaint on the bad 

 temper of the imported bees we have 

 sold, and Mr. Demaree does not speak 

 from experience, as he never bought a 

 single queen from us. His assump- 

 tion that the leather-colored bees from 

 Italy are vindictive, was born in his 

 imagination. 



In the Bee Journal for Sept. 14, 

 page 294, he continues his accusation 

 against the leather-colored Italian 

 bees, imagining that the bad temper 

 of our Cyprians comes from their mix- 

 ing with the dark Italian bees. Let 

 me advise him to read, in the same 

 number of the Bee Journal, page 

 291, what the Rev. Mr. Clarke says : 



" I am not enamored with the Cyp- 

 rians ; their temper is unamiable. I 

 had the pleasure of seeing a Cyprian 

 colony make Mr. Jones beat a hasty 

 retreat. It was a pleasure, because he 

 ridicules my veil, whichenabled me to 

 stand my ground, while he was forced 

 to flee." 



No doubt the Cyprian bees can be 

 handled by selecting the day, the wea- 

 ther.and the hour which will suit them. 

 Had we but 30 colonies to handle, as 

 is the case with Mr. Demaree, such a 

 selection of circumstances would be 

 easy ; but we have .5 apiaries, in 4 of 

 which we have Cyprian bees. When 

 we have resolved to perform certain 

 operations in one of our apiaries, and 

 have made the journey, it would be 

 very irksome to be delayed on account 



of the weather being unsuitable to the 

 handling of our Cyprian colonies. We 



want to master our bees, not to be 



mastered by them. 



Mr. Demaree says: ".Mr. Dadant's 

 evil report concerning his < 'yprian bees 



does not sound well, alter advertising 

 ami selling them.'' I would be glad 

 to know what we had to do? As soon 

 as we ascertained the had temper of 

 these bees we ceased advertising I hem, 

 although having ', of them on hand 

 yet. Would it have been more honest 

 to continue to sell them, without say- 

 ing a word about their irrascibility ? 



To sum up, I advise correspondents 

 when writing articles lor the Bee 

 Journal to give facts, well observed 

 facts, rather than assertions having no 

 better foundation than a too active 

 imagination. 



The mixture of the Cyprian and 

 Italian race does not produce cross bees, 

 as Mr. Demaree intimates ; on the 

 contrary, all our hybrids of Cyprian 

 and Italian are very gentle and beau- 

 tiful, though not so beautiful as the 

 cross and pure Cyprians. This is proved 

 by the reports of all those who have 

 them. I therefore think that the Cyp- 

 rian will do to cross with the Italian, 

 and let all remember, that we do not 

 say this for our interest, for we have 

 stopped advertising the Cyprian bees 

 ever since June. 



Hamilton, 111., Sept. 16, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Test of the Prize Queens. 



rev. e. l. briggs. 



The committee came together on the 

 20th inst., as appointed for their de- 

 cision in reference to qualities of the 

 contestant prize queens, which had 

 been sent me as such. They first de- 

 cided upon the numbering of the 

 standard of excellence, placing the 

 imaginary perfection of the coming 

 bee at 100, for each of the points as to 

 size, color, gentleness and prolificness 

 in offspring— total, 400. 



They unanimously gave their ver- 

 dict in favor of a queen and her pro- 

 geny, sent me by Dr. I. P. Wilson, of 

 Burlington, Iowa, the sum of all her 

 markings being 385, in 400. The sec- 

 ond one was from Win. P.Henderson, 

 of Murfreesboro, Tenn., her markings 

 being 363}$. The next was from Mr. 

 Wm. Lossing, of Hokah, Minn., hers 

 being ::i;.",'.j. The others were pro- 

 nounced splendid, but fell behind a 

 little in some of their points. No one 

 need fear in ordering queens from 

 either of the live contestants, if their 

 bees rate up with those sent to me. 



So well satisfied am I with the result 

 of the offer, that those who sent for- 

 ward their queens may draw on me, 

 if I am alive and well, for a young 

 queen from either one of these prize 

 queens, as they may choose in addition 

 to her sale price, without cost. The 

 sale price will be forwarded on my re- 

 turn home next week, or as soon as 

 the several bills come to hand. The 

 report, of course, will lie forwarded so 

 as to appear next week. 

 Wilton, Iowa, Sept. 22, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Honey Sweating and Watery. 



w. R. YOUNG. 



The honey season is over, and only 

 a moderate amount of surplus honey 

 secured. White clover, which is our 

 principal source, bloomed, but did not 

 yield much nectar. 



In June and July, 1879, I Italianized 

 my apiary. In 1880, my pets gave me 

 considerable surplus. I stored it in 

 an upper room of my dwelling house, 

 and was well pleased with Italians. 

 Soon I discovered the honey was be- 

 coming unsalable ; it would sweat, get 

 watery, ooze, run and saturate the 

 bottoms of the sections. While I had 

 blacks, I kept the surplus in the same 

 room, but never experienced any 

 trouble. I wrote to a bee paper for 

 the cause of it, and the reasons given 

 were : The room is not warm enough 

 and too damp, or the season was wet 



