546 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



"It has been successful with me, and I am 

 equally successful in taking the virgin queens, 

 queen cells, or laying queens with me when 

 1 go to the out-apiary, and, on arriving, ar- 

 range things as you tell me you do; namely, 

 three frames of brood and one of honey, 

 without bees; when this hive is set over a 

 queen-excluder, on a strong colony, leave it 

 there three or four hours for the young bees 

 from the colony to run up on the brood, 

 when the hive is set off on the stand I wish 

 it to occupy, a caged ripe queen-cell being 

 given them, or a laying queen in a cage from 

 which she will be liberated in 20 to 24 hours, 

 or a virgin in a cage from which she will be 

 liberated in from 40 to 48 hours." 



"Well, I thank you. This last is the most 

 simple of all of the plans of making colonies 

 at an out-apiary." 



Somebody asks where that 60-cent French 

 honey came from. Probably from some sil- 

 ver leaf and golden rod. 



El Colmenero Esxianol, one of the most 

 welcome visitors to Pickings' desk, has sus- 

 pended publication. This leaves the Span- 

 ish apicultural field practically empty so far 

 as journalism is concerned. It is to be 

 hoped that our esteemed contemporay will 

 perform the phoenix act and arise from its 

 own ashes. 



<& 



The German Praktische Wegweiser says, 

 "The feeding of farinaceous foods may in- 

 duce that contagion — foul brood. Some bee- 

 keepers claim to have observed that bees in 

 the neighborhood of Hour-mills are most oft- 

 en attacked by that malady. It must be ad- 

 mitted that flour which has stood outdoors, 

 and made damp and moldy by dew or rain, 

 is not conducive to the health of bees. But 

 we must not conclude from this that such 

 food is the cause of foul brood, for that is 

 due to a special germ." The tight is on. 



Touching the pronunciation of the word 

 propolis, the following is instructive and in- 

 teresting: 



Dear Sir:— In regard to the discussion of the pro- 

 nunciation of the Greek word propolis, allow me to 

 state that, so far as the meaning is concerned, I have 

 nothing to say; but the preposition pro — in front of — 

 and iJoZis— city—have these respective meanings. The 

 same word, propolis, was, more than 2229 years ago, 

 used by Aristotle for the same purpose, viz., that 

 substance which bees accumulate in front of the en- 

 trance, holes, etc.. of their hives to protect ihem- 

 selves.from cold and all sorts of enemies. But as re- 

 gards the accent, I have to refer to that rule in Greek 

 grammar — 1. In compounds the accent remains where 

 it was when the last syllable is long, as in dia-b6<«s.' 



2. and the same is raised when the last syllable is 

 short; thus, pr6-polis, pr6-phasis, pr6-thesis, pr6ta- 

 sis, etc. Pericles Xanthoulis. 



Constantinople, Turkey, Feb. 13. 



While the above may be "all Greek" to 

 some, it certainly comes from good authori- 

 ty, as Greek is doubtless the mother tongue 

 of the writer. 



A French writer says foul brood is playing 

 havoc in the Grand Duchy of Baden. He 

 says that last fall there were 358 foul-broody 

 colonies in that small area (5690 square 

 miles), and in one section 32 apiaries were 

 diseased. A German writer, in commenting 

 on this state of affairs, in the Muenchener 

 Bienenzeitung (German), says, "One need 

 not be surprised at such a disastrous state of 

 things. It is the reward of negligence. 

 Bees are given adulterated wax; they are 

 fed sugar instead of honey; every day they 

 are visited at unseasonable times; the colo- 

 nies are evened up; to-day their brood-nests 

 are contracted, only to make them larger to- 

 morrow; stimulative feeding is practiced; 

 queens are replaced; drones are beheaded, 

 and what is the result of all this? The colo- 

 nies become weaker and weaker, maladies of 

 all kinds break out, and finally the apiary is 

 deserted." 



What better would it be on this side of the 

 water, without foul-brood laws? Can't this 

 be brought before the Indiana legislature 

 when a second attempt is made to get a foul- 

 brood law there? 



Mr. J. B. Leriche, of Amiens, France, is 

 an apicultural writer of great note in his 

 country. In speaking of nectar he says: 



"Nectar, in Greek, means that which does 

 not kill; that which confers immortality. 

 Mythologically speaking, it is a potation 

 which the gods drank on Olympus, and it 

 must not be confounded with ' ambrosia, ' 

 which was the food of the gods. GanymMd 

 poured it from a golden pitcher into the cup 

 of Jupiter; and Hebe, with an amphora of 

 alabaster crowned with roses, poured it into 

 the cups of the other gods. 



"Scientifically speaking, the name nectar, 

 according to the famous Linnaeus, is given to 

 the sugary and melliferous liquids that a 

 large number of plants yield, and which in- 

 sects, notably bees, gather with avidity. 

 Nectaries is the name of the organs which 

 yield nectar. 



Just here Mr. Leriche branches off on to 

 the subject of hydromel; and as that matter 

 is continually coming to the front I should 

 like to get accurate information concerning 

 hydromel. Is it intoxicating, or does it vary 

 much in power? A year ago my friend Mr. 

 Hempflinger, then working here, but who 

 had always lived in Hungary, made some 

 hydromel and gave me a bottle of it. I for- 

 got all about it for ten months, when I came 

 across it and pulled aside the wire over the 

 cork. It "went off" like a cannon. The 

 contents tasted like common pop flavored 

 with honey. 1 wrote to Dr. C. C. Miller in 

 regard to it, saying I could not perceive any 



