IHE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



247 



other two terms, in other words to find the 

 value of X in the expression : 12: X 20 } 

 27 : ; 2^14 : X 41 '4 + T!!;'.,. The value of X 

 will be found to be almost exactly 2%. But 

 it is of) days since the bees were hived, and 

 if we allow 5 days for the time that elapses 

 before active fcediuy bej^ins, 80 days re- 

 main — nearly time euou^'h for a generation 

 and a half. Making proper allowance we 

 may say, till some crucial experiment is 

 made, that it requires nearly two pounds of 

 honey for the production of a pound of un- 

 hatched brood. Of course, much pollen is 

 used in addition. If the mature bees dur- 

 ing their active life use any considerable 

 amount of honey with their more substan- 

 tial pollen diet, that complicates the matter. 

 If the same line of reasoning be applied to 

 the colonies of June 2.'?rd, proper allowance 

 being made for the difference in the length 

 of time during which feeding has been go- 

 ing on, and for the greater proportion of 

 uncapped brood, they will furnish striking- 

 ly corroborative evidence. 



That the assumption made above is not a 

 violent one is shown clearly, so far as the 

 performance of one colony can do it, by No. 

 9 of the table. An artificial swarm of about 

 the average strength of others of the same 

 date the total amount of its honey product 

 is considerably above the average. The re- 

 sults in the case of this colony prove, so far 

 as they go, that artificial swarms may do 

 fully as effective work as natural ones. 



It is only necessary to point out further 

 that No. 10, the colony with a virgin queen, 

 in proportion to its strength, out did all its 

 competitors in the production of comb hon- 

 ey — the point where excellency was least 

 looked for — a result which seems at least to 

 call for a suspension of judgement on the 

 question of the desirability of virgin queens 

 in colonies used for the securing of comb 

 honey, 



Lapeer, Mich. July 27. 1896. 



Notes From Foreign Bee Journals. 



F. L. THOMPSON. 



kEIPZIGER Bienenzeitung. —A. Ludwig 

 concludes from careful experiments by 

 Dr. Doenhoff and himself, that bees de- 

 prived of honey, if supplied witli bee-bread, 

 will live eight hours longer than they other- 

 wise would. Under such circumstances they 



will consume enormous quantities of bee- 

 bread, most of which remains undigested. 

 When, however, Dr. Doenhoff fed confined 

 bees twice a day with a thoroutch mixture of 

 bee-bread and water, they tlirove on it and 

 were lively and healthy at the end of live days. 

 Bee-bread when mixed with concentrated 

 honey gives up Init little of its aU)umen, but 

 gives up much more to water or watery hon- 

 ey. Water i)enetrates the cellulose covering 

 of the pollen gram and swells the nitrog- 

 enous interior ( protoplasm ), rendering it 

 susceptible of digestion. If it reaches the 

 intestines before this is done, the moisture 

 of the latter only produces fermentation. 

 The result is inflammation and constipa- 

 tion. 



Now " May sickness," according to re- 

 ports, occurs soonest in the strongest col- 

 onies, which start breeding soonest, enticed, 

 usually, by a series of warm days with op- 

 portunity for getting honey and pollen. 

 Then follows unfavorable weather, no op- 

 portunity for flight, and more or less May 

 sickness— young bees whose intestines are 

 swollen with yellow fieces. 



Here he makes a quotation from an article 

 in the Bienen-Vater signed I. B. Trotzmuel- 

 ler, who selected two colonies for experi- 

 ment. To these lie gave thin food as long 

 as the unfavorable weather continued. Eight 

 or ten diys after it ceased. May sickness 

 began in the other colonies and lasted five 

 days, but spared the colonies treated. On 

 the next occasion he thus treated half his 

 colonies. They showed not the slightest 

 trace of the disease. All the rest were 

 more or less affected. Since then he has fed 

 all his colonies whenever bad weather sets 

 in in the spring, and from that time, or for 

 about thirty years, has not had the disease 

 in his apiary. Herr Ludwig therefore con- 

 cludes that the commonest cause of May 

 sickness is the checking influence of lower 

 temperature on rapidly breeding colonies. 

 It may be prevented, but cannot be cured 

 when it has already set in. He thinks even 

 the giving of pure water might suffice to 

 prevent it. But it is important to begin 

 just as soon as the cooler weather sets in. 

 "It seems to be a fact," he says "that May 

 sickness is unknown to those bee-keepers 

 who practice stimulative feeding regularly 

 and in the right way." I eannot refrain 

 from a suggestion here, which is wholly 

 theoretical, but cari do no harm. Bees have 

 their own watering-places, where they ivill 



