THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



234 



drone to be an indicator of prosperity, 

 or want, etc. 



November, 



Small colonies with yonng queens 

 may be safely wintered if properly 

 cared for. Many times, yes, very oft- 

 en. One of these small colonies will 

 outstrip the populous one the follow- 

 ing season. There is vim in them. 



CHINA. 

 There are two kinds of bees found in 

 China. The large vicious bee is never 

 molested by the natives. The small 

 black bee builds its nests on the un- 

 derside of large limbs. The natives 

 hunt the nests and often obtain large 

 amounts of honey and some wax from 

 them. 



trating her brood on a few. To obvi- 

 ate this, a correspondent of the Rucher 

 Beige advises to leave the necessary 

 number of combs for the brood sepa- 

 rated at the usual distance. The oth- 

 ers are to be put considerably farther 

 apart. The bees extend the length of 

 the cells accordingly, and being entire- 

 ly too deep for the queen to lay in, 

 she omits them. There are other ad- 

 vantages. Less number of combs for 

 the same quantity of honey means less 

 original cost, less work for the bees 

 to cap them and less work for the 

 apiarist wheu it comes to uncapping 

 and extracting. 



BELGIUM. 



The Rucher Beige quotes from a 

 German paper an assertion as to 

 whether the more water the honey 

 contains, the less it is liable to candy. 

 Mr. Stachelhausen contests the prop- 

 osition. He says that in America (that 

 is, the United States) the honey is 

 heated in order to evaporate as much 

 water as possible, and the less water 

 is left, the less are the chances of 

 candying, luat heating the honey will 

 prevent candying is certain, but it is 

 not caused by evaporation. At the 

 temperature used (120 degress F.) the 

 evaporation is insignificant. Some- 

 times the honey alrearlv candied is 

 liquefied simply by putting the jars or 

 other vessels in warm water, without 

 opening them. In such cases thei'e is 

 no evaporation at all. The explanation 

 must be sought in some other direc- 

 tion. 



Honey is chiefly composed of two 

 sweet o"i->ctnnces in variable propor- 

 tions. One '■ called dextrose, and it 

 crystalizes comparatively easily. The 

 other, called levulose, crystalizes only 

 under '^--'^'-tional conditions. The 

 treatises on chemistry tell us that the 

 application of heat or the presence of 

 an acid gradually transforms the dex- 

 trose into levulose. I suppose this is 

 what takes place when the candied 

 honey is heated. The less dextrose the 

 mixture contains, thje less are the 

 chances of candying. 



The question whether bees can oi 

 cannot transport the eggs has nevei 

 been completely settled. Now am 

 then some incident comes to ligh 

 which seems to show that they do it 

 at least, under some special circum 

 stances. To the few cases alrea; 

 quoted in these columns the following 

 can be added: A correspondent ii 

 visiting a colony that he knew to hav 

 been without - nneen for some tim( 

 was surprised to find two queen cell 

 occupied, but no other brood. H 

 finally remembered that some days b( 

 fore, he had put on the floor of ths 

 hive a piece r>f broken comb containin 

 some honey and a few eggs. Undoub 

 edly these two cells contained egg 

 transported from the broken piece 



sp 



A NEW NATIONAL ORGANIZA- 

 TION. 



The Layens hive is very much used 

 in Europe. It is a one-story hive for 

 extracted honey something near what 

 we call the "Long Ideal" hive. Occa- 

 sionally the queen lays a little in al- 

 most every comb, instead of concen- 



The Bee-Keepers' Review says: ". 

 National Honey Exchange was bom t 

 the St. Louis convention. Five prai 

 tical bee-keepers, widely scattered ovfj 

 the country, were chosen as a con 

 mittee to draft a constitution and bj 

 laws, and something like $700 worth ( 

 stock, at $25 a share, was subscribe 

 for on the spot. This may be the ei 

 tering wedge that will eventually raif 

 producers to a higher plane in the sel 

 ing of their honey." This has somi 

 thing of a harsh metallic ring chara' 

 teristic of modern business method 

 and is in pleasing conti-ast with tt 

 rather doleful tone of the old bell hue 

 on the shoals of Foreign Competitic 

 which has lately been permeating tt 

 apiarian atmosphere. The constit 

 tion and by-laws of the Nation; 

 Honey Exchange, when ready, will I 

 very interesting reading for honey pr 

 ducers. 





