2o6 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Notes From Foreign 

 ^<^Bee Journals. 



BY F. I,. THOMPSON. 



STRAINING SUGAR SYRUP. 



According to the Schweizerisclie Bien- 

 enzeitung, the poisonous ultramarine in 

 sugar can be entirely removed only by 

 straining the syrup through flannel. 

 Scarcely half can be removed b}' merel}' 

 skimming. When honey is lacking, 

 cream of tartar is preferred to tartaric 

 acid to prevent granulation. 



THE INVERSION OF CANE SUGAR. 



The editor says that very exact tests 

 have shown that a good colony can, at 

 most, satisfactorily invert 2>4 lbs. of sugar 

 syrup {2j^ American lbs.) in one night. 

 Therefore he is against the counsel fre- 

 quently met with to give the bees as 

 much as they will take at once, and for 

 that reason uses a pneumatic feeder hold- 

 ing just 2)4 German pounds, over the 

 brood nest. * 



He says that when bees are fed sugar, 

 they invariably, for days after, display ex- 

 traordinary diligence in flying out after 

 pollen, showing that sugar is a deficient 

 food. 



WHY HONEY KEEPS BETTER BY BEING 

 BOILED. 



The Pfaelzer Bienenzucht is quoted as 

 saying that the reason honey keeps better 

 when heated to the boiling point is that, 

 although the formic acid evaporates, the 

 albuminous ingredients, which are what 

 cause fermentation, are also separated in 

 the foam. 



BLOOD, CHYLE, AND BROOD-FOOD, AND 



THE BEES THAT PREPARE THE 



LATTER. 



Pastor Schoenfeld, the noted microscop- 



ist, is a defender of the new school. To 



* Querjf. How i.s it then that bees can di.spo.se 

 of so much greater quantities of floral nectar per 

 day, which I believe is mostly cane sugar, and 

 yet have it all grape sugar in the end? 



the objection made against the theory 

 that bees of different ages feed different 

 ages of brood, that if so, the fact that 

 sometimes old bees feed all ages could 

 not be explained, he replies that the 

 theory i., that bees consume honey and 

 pollen in varying proportions, according 

 to their ages, so that the chyle and 

 brood-food varies accordingl}'; hence, in 

 normal circumstances, it is a very natural 

 supposition. In the case of old bees act- 

 ing as nurses, we may suppose that bees 

 exercise choice; not, however, in deter- 

 mining whether the completed food 

 shall be of this or that degree of richness 

 — for that, according to the theory, is 

 out of their power — but in the proportions 

 of honey and pollen they consume, in 

 order to prepare the food. 



In a sense, he says, chyle, blood, and 

 brood-food are identical in bees. (This 

 is what lends force to Pastor Gerstung's 

 comparison of the various foods of the 

 colony, from nectar to royal jelly, to the 

 blood circulation of an organism. ) Chyle 

 in bees is formed by but one organ, the 

 stomach, not as in other animals by the 

 aid of the intestines. The difference be- 

 tween chyle and blood is not so marked 

 as in higher animals; so that bee-blood 

 may be viewed as refined chyle. But 

 this same chyle, when disgorged and 

 mingled with the secretions of the head 

 glands, is brood-food. 



THE INFLUENCE OF FOOD IN CONTROL- 

 LING SEX. 

 The discussion on Prof. Scenk's the- 

 ory of the influence of food in the pro- 

 duction of sex suggests to Gerstung that 

 a consideration of its po.s.sible influence 

 in the case of bees may be profitable. It 

 may be inferred, from a study of Dr. de 

 Planta's analysis of brood-foods, that the 

 tendency of the nutriment in bees lies in 

 the production of females by an easily 

 digestible mixture of certain proportions 

 of albumen, fat, and sugar in scanty 

 quantities, and in the production of males 

 by greater proportions of albumen and 

 fat, and less of sugar, in an undigested 



