566 



THE .AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



in October, than any other month in 

 the year ; and unless tlie crop in the 

 country is very short, the holding of it 

 after that date results as a rule hi our 

 being obliged to accept of a less price. 



Thus I have fnlHlled my promise as 

 to giving you a series of articles on 

 the production, care and sale of comb 

 honey, and if they have been of any 

 benellt to any one reader of the good, 

 oifZ, Ajieuican JJEE Journal, I shall 

 not have written in vain. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Translated by Alfred NeiBhbour. 



Effects of Cold— Pollen Oatheriiig, etc. 



DR. DZIERZOK. 



The milder the winter is, the more 

 complete will be the repose of the 

 bees, and the lower will they be able 

 to allow the temperature to become 

 even when they have their winter 

 quarters, while increasing cold stimu- 

 lates them to breathe more frequently 

 and to consume more food ; in other 

 words, it stimulates their vital powers 

 to greater activity in order to be able 

 to offer the necessary resistance to 

 the cold. It will be seen from this 

 whether it is advisable to keep bees 

 exposed to the cold in winter. Theory 

 and experience, as well as the last 

 mild winter, demonstrate to us prac- 

 tically the fallacy of this opinion. 

 Exposure of the bees to extreme cold 

 certainly causes them to crowd to- 

 gether into as thick a cluster as possi- 

 ble, but it does not send them into a 

 sleep-like state of repose. On the 

 contrary, it startles them out of their 

 rest, compelling them to hum more 

 loudly, while i)reviously they were in 

 perfectly silent repose. Nor does se- 

 vere cold prevent premature breed- 

 ing. There is generally more brood 

 to be found in the hive in January 

 and February, when the weather is 

 very cold or a"f ter the temperature has 

 been very low, than during a continu- 

 ance of mild weather. Dr. Krasicke 

 acknowledges this fact, but explains 

 it in a peculiar manner by saying that 

 because bees consume more food 

 when the temperature is low, the pro- 

 duction of chyle would also be greater. 

 But it is a known fact, that in order 

 to create a higher degree of tempera- 

 ture, bees consume a large quantity 

 of honey only. The latter, however, 

 only supplies an increased quantity of 

 excrementitious matter as secondary 

 product, but no chyle. The presence 

 of much excrementitious matter in 

 their bodies, on the contrary, renders 

 the bees more incapable of producing 

 chyle. It is the disturbance of their 

 rest and incitement to activity in or- 

 der to raise the temperature, which 

 also directly affects the queen, induc- 

 ing her to deposit eggs sooner than 

 she would have done if the weather 

 had continued mild. The principal 

 cause of early breeding, however, is 

 the presence of much moisture, which 

 forms inside the hive when the tem- 

 perature outside is lower : water, as 

 is well known, forming by far the 

 largest constituent of the food of the 

 brood, and want of water prevents or 

 restricts breeding. 



During mild weather, when tlie dif- 

 ference in the temperature of the air 

 inside and outside the hive is but in- 

 signiticant, little or no moisture is 

 precipitated, just as the windows of 

 our rooms condense no moisture then. 

 At such a time the bees may be suffer- 

 ing from want of moisture, but as 

 long as the suffering does not become 

 acute it does no harm. It has rather 

 the advantage that it keeps tlie bees 

 back from breeding until they are 

 able to fetch in sufBcient quantity, 

 the water which is indispensable in 

 the preparation of chyle. It is best 

 that breeding should be delayed till 

 such a time when the bees are able to 

 gather fresh pollen in considerable 

 quantity, as many colonies, especially 

 young ones, possess but a small stock 

 or none at all of this material, which 

 cannot be dispensed with when food 

 is to be prepared for the brood. This 

 is generally the case at the time of 

 flowering of the alder tree, so that 

 bagfuls might be collected from many 

 trees, especially from those in isolated 

 positions, and the bees might supply 

 themselves from this source with pol- 

 len for the whole year. If favored by 

 the weather, they could take full ad- 

 vantage of the alder flowers, which 

 mostly make their appearance in 

 March. Unfortunately, however, on 

 account of the uncertainty of the 

 weather at that time of the year, the 

 pollen is frequently a complete fail- 

 ure ; and should the weather happen 

 to be favorable, the flowering time of 

 the alder passes too quickly to be 

 fully utilized. The flowering season 

 of the alder might be artificially pro- 

 longed if branches with plenty of 

 flower-buds were cut off and kept in a 

 cool and shady place until the (lower- 

 ing time was coming to an end, when 

 they might be put into the ground in 

 a sunny spot near the apiary. But on 

 account of the uncertainty of the 

 bees being able to fully utilize these 

 flowers, even if in the neighborhood 

 of the apiary, we might render them 

 a far greater service if we took the 

 trouble at the time of falling of the 

 alder flowers to collect the jxillen 

 which Nature offers in such abun- 

 dance in order to supply the bees with 

 it. We might perhaps moisten it with 

 honey and squeeze it into the cells. 



I have taken this trouble in former 

 years, but found it rather a tedious 

 and troublesome labor, and I have 

 often asked myself the question 

 whether it would not be possible to 

 obtain the valuable substances which 

 pollen contains— viz., the nitrogen, 

 theiessential oils, the ferments and 

 salts from the entire buds, if these 

 were collected before the pollen be- 

 came scattered abroad by the wind, 

 either by a process of drying or roast- 

 ing, by pulverization, or dissolved as 

 a kind of tea, and to make them pal- 

 atable to the bees by mixing them 

 with honey. The solution of this 

 question would be a worthy and most 

 commendable task for bee-masters 

 wlio at the same time are thorough 

 chemists. 



It would certainly be better if the 

 various artificial contrivances to keep 

 our bees supplied with the substances 

 their economy requires were not 



needed. The weather late in last 

 summer and in the autumn was most 

 unpropitious for the impregnation of 

 queens, and in this district at least 

 rendered it altogether impossible. In 

 former years it was a rare exception 

 in my apiary to find queens remaining 

 unfertilized even if reared late in the 

 season. Even about Michaelmas, 

 when one would naturally expect all 

 drones to have disappeared, my queens 

 still became fertile if only a few really 

 fine days intervened to allow them to 

 fly out again and again, and often far 

 away from their hive. In the year 

 1S67 the weather during the whole 

 month of September was inclement 

 and cheerless, and not one young 

 queen became fertile, but on the 8tli 

 of October a calm, warm and sunny 

 day followed. After the bees had 

 been playing joyfully I examined sev- 

 eral hives with young queens in the 

 afternoon, and found that eight of 

 them exhibited the sign of impregna- 

 tion ; in fact, all ray queens for im- 

 pregnation became fertile, although 

 the number of drones in my apiary 

 scarcely amounted to a hundred. 



All the young queens which had 

 not become impregnated at the time 

 of our meeting at Erfurt last year re- 

 mained unfertile, and had finally to 

 be thrownaway as worthless. Warned 

 by this experience. I examined after- 

 ward five parent liives, in which I 

 certainly did not expect a change of 

 queen to have taken place, and dis- 

 covered either no queen at all or a 

 virgin queen, and wasobliged to unite 

 these colonies with smaller colonies, 

 as I had no longer any spare queens 

 at my disposal. In this respect the 

 mild weather which prevailed late in 

 the autumn, and even this winter, 

 was also very welcome, as it enabled 

 operations to be performed which in 

 colder weather could not very well 

 have been attended to. 



Carlsmarkt, Germany. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



That Bee Foisouing, Etc. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



Mr. Moore's article on bee-poisoning 

 is "company" to my misery. I am 

 surprised that I should have forgotten 

 to mention the swelling about the lids 

 of my eyes, though the under lids 

 swell most, but not as much as Mr. 

 Moore's. They itch and burn first. 

 They get their immediate affection 

 from poison thrown into the air, but I 

 have often wondered if I should have 

 any such sensations if I never got 

 stiing. I handle bees rapidly, and get 

 nearly all my slings upon the hands, 

 from pinching the bees accidentally. 



How strange that Mr. Demaree and 

 myself should each write an article 

 containing arguments and proofs upon 

 the same subject, for the same page 

 of the same issue of the same paper at 

 the same time. And what a contrast 

 between our opinions ; also between 

 the results of our operations based 

 upon these opinions. Now, honor 

 bright, I think that if Mr. Demaree 

 would only get out of that big "Blue- 

 Grass region" (all flesh is grass, but 



