100 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



May, 



imperfect queen could be raised; but 

 nevertlieless laying workers appeared 

 and in large numbers at that. Mr. 

 Mercier also recalls the fact that in 

 queenless colonies wintered over never 

 develop laying workers. — Le Progi-es 

 Apicole. 



Mr. Simouart of Quievrain, Belgium, 

 relates an experience with laying work- 

 ers. After the fact was ascertained, 

 he united that colony with one having 

 a queen. As usual in such cases the 

 drones were destroj^ed at once; but 

 what caught Mr. Simonart's attention 

 is the fact tJiat during the next six days 

 a portion (about half in all) of the 

 workers of the laying worker colony 

 was destroyed, more or less every day. 



When two colonies refuse to unite, 

 the bees of one are usually entirely de- 

 stroyed or nearly so, and that is done 

 within two days at most. But in this 

 case, half the population is accepted, 

 while the other half, or about, is grad- 

 ually destroyed. Mr. Simonart thinks 

 that such being the case, the destroyed 

 bees were those engaged in laying or 

 the actual laying workers. He thought 

 that these killed bees had somewhat 

 larger abdomens than the others. There 

 could be no mistake as to which popu- 

 lation the killed bees belonged to. as 

 one colony was pure blacks, and the 

 other pm-e Italians. — Le Progres Api- 

 cole. 



Mr. Philijipe says that cotton waste, 

 such as is used by the railroad engin- 

 eers, is one of the best fuels for ihe 

 smoker. — Le Proges Apricole. 



ITALY. 



In a previoiis contribution I stated 

 that the leaves of the lime ti*ee bruised 

 in the hand, attract the bees, and are 

 used in Southern Italy to induce a 

 swarm to settle where it is wanred. 

 The same item has reappeared ;igain, 

 but this time it is the Ismon trp^) that 

 is named. The two kinds ar? so near 

 alike that there could not be any dif- 

 ference. fOur Florida friends are in- 

 vited to ti-y. Perhaps the orange tree 

 leaves might do.) A Germaji paper 

 suggests that where the lemon tree 

 does not grow, the bark or peelings of 

 a lemon might be a good substitute. — 

 L'Apiculteur. 



ALGERIA. 



Mr. Bourgeois says that while the 

 Punic bees are usually vex-y cross, yet 

 at times they can be liantlled as easily 

 as any others. He adds that as hnney 

 gatherers they are some'.vhat superior 

 to the Italians and Carnoiians, at least 

 so far as such as he had are concerned. 

 — L'.\picultuer. 



RUSSIA. 



It is stated in "Ung. Biene" that 

 bees were kept more extensively in 

 Russia a thousand years ago than now. 

 At Emperor Ivan's time the exports 

 of honey were 810,000 kg. At the 

 jiresent time the number of colonies 

 kept are 5,106,722, the amount of hon- 

 ey they produce 65,418,880 pounds, the 

 wax represents 10,797,760 pounds. 

 Russia consumes more honey and wax , 

 than she produces A great deal of 

 these products are imported from Hun- 

 garia. 



It is known that the honey fully ri- 

 pened contained in the hives during the 

 winter, is too thick for immediate use. 

 It was formerly admitted that the wa- 

 ter evaporated from the bees and con- 

 densed against walls of the hives fur- 

 nished the water necessary to dilute 

 the honey. Berlepsch was the first to 

 discover that such water contains nox- 

 ious matters evaporated with it and is 

 not used by the bees. Lately a Rus- 

 sian apiarist, Mr. Tseselsky, discover- 

 ed that the bees are in the habit of 

 uncapping the honey in advance. This 

 Avhen uncapped, absorbs the moisture 

 of the air, and is thus diluted. Com- 

 paring the freshly uncapped honey 

 with that uncapped several days be- 

 fore, he found that the last had ab- 

 sorbed one-half to two-thirds of its 

 weight of water. The lower the tem- 

 pera tin-e, the more water had been ab- 

 sorbed. He also insists on a sufficient , 

 ventilation to carry away the noxious | 

 gases, and other products of the bodies 

 of the bees, and bring in the necessary 

 moisutre to dilute the honey. — L'Api- 

 cultenr. 



ALGERIA. 



The most extensive bee-keeper in 

 Algeria is Mr. Bourgeois. He now owns 

 several thousand colonies bought fron 

 the Arabs and French colonists and 

 transferred in modern hives. The Eu- 

 ropean process of transferring consists 



