78 



THE BEE KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Bon his bees escaped may have been that 

 they did not begin brood-reariny until the 

 middle of March, while the other colonies, 

 which were in warm quarters, began in Jan- 

 uary. The digestive organs of the latter 

 were perhaps too severely taxed in the piep- 

 aration of brood food when there was a 

 deficiency of pollen, accompanied by a lack 

 of that continual warm weather wliich in 

 summer is a cure for the disease. 



However, this does not explain the in- 

 fectious nature of the complaint. In this 

 instance it was extremely contagious, attack- 

 ing and overcoming not only the strongest 

 colonies, one after another, but also some 

 that were sent for from Hanover and 

 Carniola. 



L'Apicoltobe.— Crimson clover has from 

 time immemorial been sown in the fall in 

 Italy and harvested in spring. It yields 

 abundant nectar, but some think its honey 

 is not of the best quality. It is not easy to 

 distinguish its product, however, as it 

 blooms at the same time as the acacia. 



According to Prof. G. Canestrini, of the 

 Univerisity of Padaa, acetic fermentation 

 of honey only results from a too liquid con- 

 dition and is not frequent, while what he 

 terms a "musty " or " moist" fermentation 

 takes place more readily— whether the latter 

 is caused by absorption of moisture or not 

 is not stated. In this, carbonic ahydiide 

 and a mucilaginous substance are formed, 

 and lactic acid is also met with. 



The same writer, and Dr. Dubini also, 

 give a test for deciding whether honey has 

 come from foul-broody hives. If so, it con- 

 tains sulphuretted hydrogen, which shows 

 its presence by darkening or blackening a 

 silver spoon immersed in it. But it may he 

 doubted whether it would do so if the dis- 

 ease were not well advanced. 



Prof. Canestrini's method of separating 

 two swarms is to spray them lightly with 

 water, place a hive a little distance willithe 

 entrance turned toward the swarms, and 

 present a comb to them. When some bees 

 have collected on the comb, and have com- 

 menced to call their companions, the comb 

 is gradually moved toward the hive so as to 

 make a lengthening chain of bees following 

 after it. The two queens are to be hunted 

 for along the chain. 



Dr. Dubini says he has every reason to be- 

 lieve that Americans are mistaken in 

 Baying that Italian bees sometimes work on 



red clover, and asks whether they are not 

 confounding one species with another. But 

 controversies similar to that over the shield 

 which was blue on one side and red on the 

 other have already arisen over the honey- 

 producing qualities of the golden- rod, the 

 strawberry and the cotton plant, with the 

 verdict that both parties are right. If I am 

 not mistaken, a possible confusion of species 

 has been put entirely out of the question by 

 the personal observations of several of our 

 foremost bee-keepers, in particular by an 

 article of Mr. Doolittle's a few years ago 

 which I am unable to refer to : although 

 there are plenty others who, like Dr. Dubini, 

 in the course of their long and uninterrup- 

 ted experience have not seen the Italian bee 

 working on Trifulium x>ratense. But this 

 is a general assertion. Will the editor or 

 Mr. Hasty come to the rescue ? 



In Dr. Dubini's swarming management, 

 alluded to on page 128, further notices show 

 that he cuts out all the cells but one of the 

 old colony, which is set on the stand of a 

 strong colony which threatens to swarm, 

 the latter being removed elsewhere. How 

 this proceeding is a gain in the proceeds 

 from the </iree colonies I can only conjecture. 

 The operation is easily performed at this 

 time when the old colony has lost the bees 

 of the swarm and not yet received the field 

 bees of the colony whose location it takes. 

 At the close of the season, enough swarms 

 in the best condition are saved to prevent a 

 reduction of numbers, and the rest united 

 with the parent stocks. 



L' Apioulteur— G. de Layens by observa- 

 tions taken for two months on 89 col- 

 onies, finds that the number of ventilat- 

 ing bees corresponds to the amount of 

 honey gathered. The observations were 

 taken in the early morning, that being 

 the only time when the number of ven- 

 tilating bees could be exactly counted. In 

 a chart representing some of his results 

 by the graphical method, the line represent- 

 ing the progress of the flow, as determined 

 by a colony on scales, follows, in its main 

 bends, the curves of the lines representing the 

 number of ventilating bees from day to day 

 in three representiye colonies, one strong, 

 one medium, and one weak. The latter 

 three lines closely correspond with each 

 other. He found that the variation in the 

 number of ventilating bees did not corres- 

 pond with the variations in the internal tem- 

 perature of the hives, hence concludes that 



