146 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



July 



inch spacing. His extracting frames 

 are made one and one-lialf inces wide, 

 and old comb is used preferably to 

 fill tliem. After being used once, and 

 having tlie cells all lengthened out, 

 the queen cannot deposit eggs in them 

 — at any rate, the instances are very 

 rare when she does, even when the 

 br»od chamber is contracted. Such 

 thick combs prevent the storage of 

 pollen. Herr Weber says that a sub- 

 stantial extractor has to be used with 

 such heavy combs. 



queen cells over eggs or larvae?" arft 

 pretty well agreed that larvae are al- 

 ways selected. In cases where only 

 eggs are present the bees wait imtil 

 some larvae have hatched before cells 

 are built o\ev them. — Schweitz. Btzg. 



SIBERIA. 



That a colony of bees may be win- 

 tered without pollen, and even with- 

 out combs. A Ziche reports in Central 

 Blatt of having succeeded several 

 years ago with a naked swarm of bees 

 which he received from a friend late 

 in the fall. The bees M-ere put into 

 an empty straw hive and kept in a 

 garret above a heated room diu'ing 

 the winter months. They were fed 

 on liquid food (honey). At the close 

 of March no comb had been built, but 

 soon after they began in earnest to 

 build a comb. They were then placed 

 in the bee-house and feeding was con- 

 tinued. The colony proved to be a 

 proifitable one that season. 



"Apiculteur" says that there are sev- 

 enteen different kinds of linden trees 

 in Siberia which blossom in close suc- 

 cession, thus furnishing the bees a 

 long continued, most excellent honey 

 season. The principal hives used are 

 American hives. As the winters are 

 very severe, only strong colonies are 

 taken into the winter. Indoor-winter- 

 ing alone is practiced. 



AUSTRIA. 



During 1903 there were imported 

 into Germany, in round numbers, ac- 

 cording to "Die Biene und ihre 

 Zucht:" From Chili, 1,980,000 pounds 

 of honey; from Mexico, 636,000 pounds 

 of honey; from Cuba and Porto Rico, 

 1,267,000 pounds of honey; from the 

 United States, 840,000 pounds of 

 honey. 



Earthwax has largely taken the 

 place of beeswax. It is known under 

 the name of "ozokerit" and is found 

 in Utah, California, Roumania, and 

 Gahcia. Its color is dark brown, but 

 when refined can hardly be told from 

 the genuine beeswax. It is spaded 

 out like clay, and its value in the raw 

 state is 0.76 marks per* kilogram. — 

 Centralblatt. 



Otto Schulz, of comb foundation 

 fame in Germany, is now manufac- 

 turing comb foundation with a metal 

 base. 



Hans Techaczek appeals to the wives 

 of bee-keepers and urges them to en- 

 ter into the work of bee-keeping and 

 assist their husbands in the handling 

 of the bees. He says that it has come 

 under his observation a number of 

 times that, where the bee-keeper sud- 

 denly died, the bees and the apiarian 

 implements wei*e almost as good as 

 given away, when the wife, if she 

 had been able to continue the busi- 

 ness, might have had a good income. 

 Techaczek speaks in pai'ticular of the 

 death of a noted bee-keeper. Herr 

 Sparytka, who left an apiary of fifty- 

 eight fine colonies. They were sold 

 at a low figure. Schmid. of St. Valen- 

 tine, left a magnificent apiary, which, 

 when sold with all the apiarian im- 

 plements, did not bring as much aS' 

 his American foundation mill was* 

 A^orth.— Bienen-Vater. 



SWITZERLAND. 



Eight bee-keepers of Switzerland, 

 who give the answer to the question. 

 "Do queenless colonies construct 



It is a mystery where some of our 

 agricultural exchanges get much of 

 •the information (?) with which to 

 stuff thieir "Bee Departments." The 

 supply appears to be always ample and 

 divei'sified. It must be machine made. 

 A year or so ago one of the leading 

 .ioumals in this line stated that slow 

 cooling was the secret of bright yellow 

 wax. Now, from this same popular 

 source we get this equally brilliant 

 "tip;" "The experiment of clipping 

 the queen's wing to prevent swax-ming 

 has been tried with only inditterent 

 success." These are but samples of 

 the apiarian wisdom usually employed 

 upon the staff of our agricultural pub- 

 lications and syndicate newspapei-s. 



