166 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



August, 



fore stopped their going out. Com- in. Slie was accepted.— Le Rucher 



menting un the incident, :Mi-. Debieune Beige. 



insists again on the necessity of 



furnishing the bees enough Avater and An apiarist had a colony- which for 

 flour to take care of all the brood they four years Avas the best of his apiai-y 

 may attempt to raise early iu the by a long way and had nerer swai'med. 

 spring. He claims that, contrary to While not exactly gentle by any means,, 

 the opinion gen0rally adn\iitted, the it could be handled- The fifth year, 

 bees will sometime take flour even af- he decided to requeen, and was sur- 

 fer the pollen has appeared in the field, prised to find that the queen which had 

 He uses the best wheat flour and puts been so good, was very small, quite 

 it in a comb in a sheltered place. The black, with short legs, but exceedingly 

 comb is placed horizontally and fur- quick. This shows that with queen 

 nishes a foothold for the bees, so they bees as with many other things, ap- 

 do not run the risk of being "drowned" pearances can not always be depend- 

 in the flour. — Le Rucher Beige. ed on.— Le Rucher Beige. 



It is often diflicult to know exactly 

 when to put on the supers. Too soon 

 means a loss of heat and thei'efore a 

 setback to the work of the colony, and 

 too late means a loss of surpuls. Mr. 

 Debienne puts the first super on a few 

 days before the main honey flow 

 comes. At the same time, he uncaps 

 whatever old honey is in the brood 

 nest. The bees are then forced to car- 

 ry it in the super to repair the combs. 

 That starts them at once to work in 

 the super, rather than crowd the brood 

 nest. Needless to say that ^Ir. Debi- 

 enne works for extracted honey. — Le 

 Rucher Beige. 



Mr. Giot is emphatically in favor of 

 placing the extmctiug combs vei-j' far 

 apart so the bees will build them very 

 thick. There is a saving of wax and 

 time for the bees to cap a less number 

 of combs. A saving of time for the 

 apiarist in handling, uncapping and ex- 

 tracting a smaller number of combs 

 for the same amount of honey. And 

 finally the queen will never lay in such 

 deep combs and the bees never deposit 

 pollen in them. — Le Rucher Beige. 



The process of wetting a swarm on 

 the wing t;> make it settle is well 

 known. But sometimes a swarm set- 

 tles and before the apiarist can hive it, 

 takes "french leave" and departs for 

 the woods. To prevent any possibili- 

 t.A' of such thing occuring, ^Ir. Wathelet 

 gives the settled cluster a good wet- 

 ting. That keeps it quiet fee- a while. 

 — Le Rucher Beige. 



Mr. Decortis had a colony which re- 

 fused to accept a queen. He finally 

 smoked it Avith tobacco until the bees 

 Avere asphyxiated (not quite dead of 

 course), and then merely put the queen 



Another apiarist sold a swarm to a 

 neighbor. An unusual actiA^ty was 

 soon noticed both by the swarm and 

 the old colony. Investigation, Avith 

 the help of some flour., soon revealed 

 the fact that the swarm was robbing 

 the old colony. As the old colony did 

 not try at all to repulse the robbers, 

 nothing could be done. These i^ro- 

 ceedings lasted eight days. Needless 

 to say that the neighbor paid the 

 owner of the old colony for the honey 

 robbed, as near as they couM guess at 

 the amount. — Le Rucher Beige. 



The load of nectar that a bee bring!* 

 home is estimated at one twentieth of 

 a gram (the American pound contains 

 4.o2 grams). 2,000 loads or trips are 

 therefore required to bring iu lOO 

 grams of nectar. But 100 grams of 

 nectar contain only 40 grams ®f honey. 

 If a colony gathers 10 lbs of honey a 

 day or rather the nectar necessary to 

 produce it, 250,000 trips will have to be 

 made. And if the colony contains 10,- 

 000 field bpcs, each bee will have to 

 make 25 trips every day- Add to that 

 the honey consumed, the pollen and 

 water brought in for the brood, and 

 we may estimate that during a heaA'y 

 flow, every field bee makes 30 or 40 

 trips every day. — Le Rucher Beige. 



CHINA. 



In the valley of Anning a tree 

 known to the scientists as Ligustrum 

 lucidum is found in abundance. In 

 the spring the bark of the trunk and 

 the limbs, becomes covered with ex- 

 ci'escences about the size of a pea. 

 Cutting these "peas" in two, shows in 

 the interior something like flour, but 

 which is really the eggs of the insect 

 knoAA'u as the white wax worm. 

 These "peas" are gathered and brought 



