iflo: 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1025 



its end, and already several of the instructors 

 were on band for the short summer session 

 of two weeks in August devoted entirely to 

 the instruction of women students. Among 

 the buildings was the ladies' dormitory, but 

 waiting for the arrival of the students. We 

 were also shown through the men's dormi- 

 tory where the i"egular-term students have 

 their quarters. An interesting feature in one 

 of the buildings was the apicultui'al museum 

 where all the various hives and implements 

 used throughout Europe and America at the 

 present time, as well as the old models of 

 hives, were on exhibition. We were then 

 shown through a series of bee-houses filled 

 with hives of the Berlepsch pattern, so com- 

 monly used in Eastern Europe. 



One interesting experiment in progress 

 was that of determining the fact whether 

 queens lay drone or worker eggs at will. It 

 has been heretofore advanced by some that 

 the position of the queen's body when ovi- 

 positing determines whether the egg is ferti- 

 lized or not. and that, when ovipositing in a 

 larger cell than a worker-cell, the egg passes 

 out without being fertilized. The interpre- 

 tation was that the body of the qvieen is in 

 such a position that the egg does not come 

 in contact with the duct leading from the 

 spermatheca. The experiment under way 

 was as follows: 



All worker combs had been removed from 

 the colony, and nothing but d rone comb sup- 

 plied to the bees, and no room was left for 

 the bees to build more comb. The result 

 was the rearing of workers in drone-cells, 

 showing that fertilized eggs can be deposit- 

 ed in drone-cells. The workers were some- 

 what larger than those reared in worker- 

 cells. The bees of the colony so treated were 

 more excitable, being, apparently, cross over 

 the imposition. 



The Banater (or Hungarian) bees are a 

 very gentle race, resembling in many respects 

 the more familiar Carniolans. They are 

 somewhat smaller than the latter, and have 

 a greater tendency to show yellow. This 

 yellow becomes more pronounced toward the 

 east, in the Siebenberg region. The writer 

 also noticed, in going southward through 

 Servia, Bulgaria, into Turkey, a gi'adual 

 shading off into yellow, and a steady increase 

 of the excitability shading off into the very 

 excitable bees of the Orient. It is said by 

 Hungarian bee-keepers that they have no ex- 

 cessive swarming with their bees, and that 

 the Banater bees are yet prolific and excel- 

 ent honey-gatherers. This is also the testimo- 

 ny of those who have had experience with this 

 race of bees as imported into this country. 



Among other things seen at Godolo were 

 the apiaries in Langstroth-Dadant hives, and 

 also the shops where the students learn to 

 make hives of this and other patterns. The 

 different experiments being conducted on 

 the farm with various honey-producing plants 

 were indicative of the value of the school to 

 the bee-keepers at large. 



Connected indirectly with the school are 

 some eight or ten inspectors who each have 

 a district of the kingdom to travel over and 



instruct and encourage the people in bee- 

 keeping. Along the lines of the state rail- 

 way, at the section and station houses, are 

 small apiaries fostered by the government, 

 for the dissemination of knowledge concern- 

 ing bees. To those interested in bees it is a 

 source of great pleasure to ride along on the 

 train and see apiary after apiary and realize 

 that the little kingdom of Hungary annually 

 expends in the interest of apiculture $50,000, 

 or a sum equal to five times that expended 

 annually by the United States for apiculture. 

 In the cool of the evening, our tour of in- 

 spection over, we sat out on the balcony of 

 the main building of the school at Godolo 

 and partook of our meat and bread and 

 grapes, even enjoying in varying degrees the 

 Hungarian national dish — uncooKed red pep- 

 pers. The sun slowly sank in the west, 

 lighting up the east with a reddened tint, and 

 the rolling prairies of the Danube brought 

 vividly to our minds the great plains of our 

 own America as we drowsily talked on into 

 the night. The next day or two found us 

 hurrying on the train to the south of the 

 kingdom, where we stopped at Temesvar to 

 turn aside and spend a quiet day with Baron 

 Bela Ambrozy, on his estate at Gyarmata. 

 Here again we met the gentle Banater bees, 

 as also later at Nagy-Becskerek and at the 

 agricultural fair at Pancsova on the Servian 

 frontier. The baron's bees were in Berlepsch 

 hives, some of straw as will be seen in the 

 accompanying cut, showing Baron B. among 

 the bees. It was with interest that we learn- 

 ed of the recent successful introduction and 

 propagation by the baron of our own honey- 

 plant, phacelia, so productive in California. 

 He finds that this plant blooms during the 

 summer drouth, and is a most invaluable 

 source of honey at that critical time. His 

 parting words were: "Tell the bee-keepers 

 of America to grow phacelia." 



A SEASON'S WORK WITH SECTIONAL 

 HIVES. 



Swarm Conti'ol and Conib-hoiiey Produc- 

 tion; a Hive-lifting Device 

 and Its Uses. 



BY J. E. HAND. 



[This article on the subject of swarm control in the 

 production of comb honey is of exceptional interest. 

 It is almost a startling innovation to suggest that 

 no colony must be allowed to cap its sections while 

 the honey-flow is on, and that the capping work must 

 be accomplished after the season is over by feeding 

 back. Did we not know that Mr. Hand is able to con- 

 trol swarming and produce all fancy honey by this 

 strange procedure we would hesitate to place this 

 before our readers without raising a question. In 

 order to read this intelligently, all prejudice should 

 be laid aside, and the statements as to the condition 

 of the colonies as set forth in previous articles should 

 be carefully kept in mind. Each of these articles 

 presupposes a thorough knowledge of what has been 

 written before, and without that knowledge the read- 

 er will fail to catch the whole plan. One of the points 

 to remember in the reading of this article is that Mr. 

 Hand has his apiary divided into three divisions of 50 

 each. One of the 50 is run for extracted honey that is to 

 be fed back to finish out untinished sections, and the 

 other 50 colonies are to be devoted to the production 

 of comb honey. On this point the reader would do 

 well to read over again carefully page 846 of our June. 

 I5th issue.— Ed.] 



