478 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



pass out of mind; but in this case, after a 

 short time, the finger swelled up, then the 

 hand, then the forearm. Severe pain pre- 

 vented him from sleeping, and his physician 

 was obliged to adopt active measures. By 

 neglecting to purge the wound thoroughly 

 he brought on blood-poisoning. 

 \4> 

 E. T. Abbott says, in Busy Bee: 



A writer in the Drovers' Journal advises placing 

 empty hives in the bee-yard in the location where they 

 are to remain, in advance of swarming time, so that 

 the swarms may be hived without delay as soon as 

 they leave their old quarters, and says that much 

 trouble and often loss of bees may be averted by this 

 timely precaution. It seems to us that this is likely to 

 cause more loss of bees than any thing else. The 

 hives should be kept in a cool shady place until you 

 are ready to hive the swarm. A swarm placed in a 

 hive that has been standing in the sun is almost sure 

 to leave it. If you do not want your swarms to go to 

 the woods, keep your hives in the shade until the bees 

 are ready to occupy them. 



Mr. Abbott says further: 



Every bee-yard should be equipped with a few drone 

 and queen traps. They may seem quite costly, but 

 even one can be so manipulated as to save a deal of 

 trouble in hiving swarms. A swarm-catcher and a 

 good long pole is another tool which will be found to 

 be very valuable during May and June. These can be 

 made by the bee keeper, or bought of supply-dealers, 

 as suits his fancy and his pocketbook. 



\t/ 



Considerable excitement prevails in Ger- 

 many among the bee-men over the statement 

 of Mr. Freudenstein, who says, in the New 

 Bee Journal, that nectar is nothing but su- 

 gary water, and, consequently, a bee-keep- 

 er has nothing to do but to give sugar to the 

 bees in order to get a good crop of honey. 

 It is said that this assertion will be warm- 

 ly contested at the next apicultural con- 

 gress at Strasburg, in July. This conven- 

 tion, by the way, will be a big' thing, and 

 attracts far more of the public attention 

 there than any bee convention in this coun- 

 try. Some things connected with it we 

 hardly consider conducive to good morals 

 here. A French journal before me savs, 

 "A lottery of 50,000 tickets, at SO pence 

 each, will not only furnish the exposition 

 committee the means of purchasing a large 

 part of the objects represented, but it will 

 afford the buyers of tickets a chance to se- 

 cure some fine collections on exhibition." 

 Overlooking all that, however, the program 

 for the whole week is on a grand scale, 

 backed by the government, and will be a 

 notable event. The governor of Alsace- 

 Lorraine will preside over the festivities. 

 At the congress, in spite of his 93 years. 

 Dr. Dzierzon will take part. In fact, the 

 whole event is in his honor. He will speak 

 on "the best hive." Those Europeans 

 know nothing about Sunday as we under- 

 stand it, but they know how to honor a 

 great man when they find one. Lang- 

 stroth's comparative obscurity in this coun- 

 try would have been unknown in Europe. 



Since the above was in type, the follow- 

 ing program has come to hand from Mr. J. 

 Dennler, President of the Press Committee: 



1. Dr. Dzierzon, L,owkowitz : How should a hive be 

 constructed to meet all requirements of the bee- 

 keeper? 



2. Teacher Burckhardt, Weinsberg. The develop- 



ment of the brood in spring, on basis of peiiodical 

 investigations in different hive .systems. Thesis I : 

 The brood development is more favorable in hives 

 with ample dimensions than in those with small 

 ones. Thesis : .Steps ought to be taken to intro- 

 duce larger dimensi'^ns generally; the indication, 

 " normal measurement," should be changed. 



3. Bassler, Prague. How have we to look at bee life 



in the light of modern science? 



4. Rev. Klein, Enzheim. Feed paste and female bee- 



larvae 

 5.- Editor Reidenbach, Rebhorn. The latest in the 



battle with foul brood, 

 fi. Langer, Prague. The recognition of bee honey 



with serum. 



7. Editor Bohnenstengel, Busslar. The perambulat- 



ing meeting and its reform. 



8. Rev. Grtebener, Hoffenheim. The education of the 



bee-keeper. 



9. (?) In matters of the protection question regarding 



honey. 



ABOUT QUEEN- REARING. 



"Are you verj' busy to-day, Mr. Doolit- 

 tle?" 



" No more than usual at this time of the 

 year, Mr. Jones. What can I do for you? 

 It is always a busy time for the bee-keeper 

 after the bees are well under way at brood- 

 rearing. " 



"Yes, I supposed so. But I wanted to 

 have a little talk with you about rearing 

 queens. I want to raise some this summer, 

 and raise them at just the time I wish them; 

 but I see it is stated that queens reared by 

 natural swarming are generally superior 

 to those reared from eggs laid in worker- 

 cells. Is this a claim beyond reasonable 

 question? If so, how do our queen-breed- 

 ers secure the thousands they send out?" 



" It would be but reasonable to infer that 

 a plan of queen-rearing which has brought 

 vigorous healthy bees all the way from be- 

 fore Samson's time down to the present, in 

 their native haunts, must produce queens 

 that were very good, to say the least." 



"That is all right; but do you actually 

 think that an ^^^ laid in a queen-cell is 

 anj' better than an &^^ laid in a worker- 

 cell? " 



" To say that an ^^^ laid in a queen-cell 

 by the same queen is a better and more vi- 

 talized &^^ than one laid in a worker-cell, 

 is something that very few, if any, would be 

 ready to assume. From years of close ob- 

 servation I can not think that there is any 

 difference in favor of the egg, no matter 

 where it is laid, whether in queen, worker, 

 or drone cells, providing said ^^^ is prop- 

 erly fecundated." 



" What is the diff^erence then? " 



"To my mind, the difierence comes in 

 the treatment of the innate life of that o^^^ 

 after it has come to the larval form. In 



