1903 



GLEAXINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



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To-day we start the glad new year 



With resolutions strong 

 To do the right, to aim up high, 



And grapple w th the wrong. 



REVUE INTERNATIONAL K. 



The Szviss Bee Journal says, in speaking 

 of honey as a cure for burns: A child two 

 years old was severely burned on the arm, 

 in boiling water. The membier was imme- 

 diately bathed in honey, and wrapped in a 

 linen cloth. The pain ceased immediately, 

 and the healing was very rapid, the honey 

 keeping the air from the burn. The ban- 

 dage was changed ever}' day. It was easi- 

 ly removed, without hurting the child, by 

 first moistening the cloth with warm water. 



Mr. Kyburz, in the Swiss Bee Journal 

 compares the Dad ant, Burki-Jeker, and the 

 German (Normalmass) hives, they having 

 respectively a capacity of 150, 100, and 55 

 liters. He finds that bees in the small 

 hives never reach a normal force. A hive 

 of 150 or 100 liters has its space better filled 

 than does one of 55 liters. The weight of 

 two colonies, one having 11 frames of 

 brood, the other 9, shows for the first a net 

 increase of 15,050 grams, and for the sec- 

 ond, 7450 grams, from the 2d to the 6th of 

 May. 



It now seems that one of the good medic- 

 inal properties of honey is due to the pres- 

 ence of iron — one of the indispensable ele- 

 ments in pure blood. Prof. G. de Bunge, 

 of Germany, says that, of all sugary sub- 

 stances, honey alone contains iron; and, 

 strange to say, the quantity is just about 

 the same as that found in white bread. In 

 2 lbs. of liquid honey he found l7-hun- 

 dredths of a grain of salt of iron; and for 

 this reason honey occupies among the hy- 

 drates of carbon, which serve as food, quite 

 an exceptional place. 



The editor says one of the things most to 

 be dreaded in the apiary is Monsieur le 

 Mole. "The mole makes a nest of dry 

 leaves in the hive itself, and there, finding 

 food and shelter, it lives like a rat in a 

 cheese. It eats honey. The mole is easilj' 

 recognized. It has a tail as long as that 

 of a mouse, but the animal is larger. Its 

 skin is a beautiful white on the under side, 

 and of a reddish brown on the back. It is 

 still more remarkable for its eyes, which 

 are large and prominent. It is a bad 

 thief." It is a long time since any com- 

 plaint has been made against the mole in 



this country. A little piece of wire netting 

 would keep them out. 



A Belgian bee journal tells of a bee- 

 keeper there who has discovered that some 

 birds, at least, will kill drones but never 

 touch a worker. He killed a dozen drones 

 and six workers and put them on a board 

 in front of a hive. This was to test the 

 discriminating powers of the nightingale, 

 which bird seems to be plentiful in that 

 country. In a few moments one of these 

 birds alighted on the board and took the 

 drones but left the workers, seeming to 

 know that the latter were loaded, and not 

 fit for the crop of a bird. We could spare 

 a few workers here for the sake of a few 

 nightingales. 



^J^eiofiboniyJleJdj 

 By 



5) 



RAISING QUEENS ; BEE- CAVES. 



"Good evening, Mr. Doolittle. I ran over 

 a little while to-night to have a talk with 

 you about something I am very much inter- 

 ested in. I am thinking of going into the 

 queen-rearing business next year; and in 

 order to plan rightly I should like to have 

 you tell me about how many queens can be 

 sold from one nucleus colony in one month. 

 If I can tell this it will help me in deciding 

 how many nucleus hives to make this win- 

 ter." 



"In answering this question, Mr. Jones, 

 I will say that very much depends on the 

 weather, the loss of queens when going out 

 to meet the drones, more being lost some 

 seasons than others, and whether you give 

 the nucleus colony virgin queens or insert 

 nearly mature queen-cells." 



"I did not suppose that I could introduce 

 virgin queens successfully, so had not 

 thought of the virgin-queen plan. Is such 

 plan generally successful?" 



" Some practice the virgin-queen plan and 

 are successful; and where this is done you 

 might succeed in sending off three queens a 

 month from one nucleus. But, either be- 

 cause I am unskillful or my locality is 

 different, introducing queens from one to 

 three days old from an incubator or queen- 

 nursery has proven an unsafe method with 

 me, and one that causes more labor and 

 worry than the time gained would compen- 

 sate for." 



That is as I had expected it would be 

 with me, from the few trials I have made 

 with virgin queens, and that was the rea- 

 son I asked about the success in the matter. 

 Supposing I use the ripe-cell plan, how- 

 many would I be likly to get in that way?" 



