362 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



vorable as could be wished. Besides cultiva- 

 ted plants, a kind of wild borage and sage 

 is especially productive. Box- hives are used, 

 no attention being paid to cracks. A col- 

 ony generally sends out eight oo* ten swarms, 

 a dozen being no rarity. In spite of the fre- 

 quent tropical tempests and hail storms, 

 and numerous bee-enemies, both old col- 

 onies and swarms yield a full crop at har- 

 vest-time, which is in March, worth on the 

 average $7.50 to $11.50 The wax harvest is 

 especially profitable. Off seasons are un- 

 known to Dr. Klaus, and his expenses are 

 nothing except for boxes. He has tried 

 frame hives, but the great difficulty with 

 them is that the hives are so overflowing with 

 bees, that it is impossible to withdraw a 

 frame without crushing hundreds of them. 



La Revue Inteknationale. — Alford Duf- 

 ey, of Chili, reports a yield of 7285 lbs., or 

 an average of nearly 135 lbs., from his 54 

 colonies. 



AusTKAiiiAN Bee Bxtlletin. — W. Abram 

 ( a bee-keeper of experience and repute ) 

 has come to the conclusion that drones in- 

 herit temper. 



In connection with a can-manufacturing 

 firm, James Bennett experimented on dif- 

 ferent kinds of cans to ascertain which 

 would best resist hard usage. They were 

 tilled with water and repeatedly dropped 

 from a height of 20 inches. Those made of 

 light tin were single-seamed, and the others 

 double-seamed. Contrary to expectation, 

 those made of light tin stood the test long- 

 est, not leaking until the eighth drop. The 

 experiments showed the soldering to be so 

 important that a special style of soldering 

 was resolved on. Cans soldered in old style, 

 which are of heavy tin, always leaked the 

 first drop ; but the same tin after being 

 specially soldered did not leak until the 

 seventh drop. 



L.ApiooiiTOKE. — W. Vogel, editor of the 

 Noerdlicher Bienenzeitung. lately expressed 

 a doubt whether Langstroth was ignorant 

 of Dzierzon's invention at the time he made 

 his own. To this Alexander Schroeder, of 

 Trieste, replied by sending him a transla- 

 tion of the letter from Wagner to Lang- 

 stroth, dated Dec. 24, 1852, and printed by 

 Langstroth in his book. Vogel, however, 

 does not seem to be convinced, but remarks 

 "Though the attempt to throw light on this 

 affair is not successful at present, more 

 gropings in the dark will be made later. " 

 Editor Von Bauschenfele thinks there are 



" gropings " enough already, and that if any 

 one would permit himself to impeach the 

 veracity of the assertions of men so notori- 

 ously true as Langstroth and Wagner, such 

 a proceeding would be ascribed, on both 

 sides of the ocean, to malicious envy. "If 

 it had been possible" he says "to make 

 Langstroth appear a plagiarist, his enemies 

 among his compatriots would already have 

 done so ; since it is known that in his time 

 one of them crossed the ocean expressly to 

 interview eminent German bee-keepers on 

 the subject, and was obliged to return un- 

 successful. " 



The apicultural exports from Hungary 

 amount in value to $48(3,000, and an equal 

 amount is consumed at home. There are 

 about 25,000 bee-keepers, of which 2,000 be- 

 long to the association. 



The editor calls the following a model 

 for an extracted honey label. It appeared 

 in the Bienenpflege : " Genuine honey from 

 flowers, when recently extracted, is liquid 

 and clear. After some time it crystallizes 

 and becomes more or less hard. Adultera- 

 ted honey remains liquid and never crystal- 

 lizes. Honey solidified in a glass or earthen- 

 ware vessel can be liquefied by placing this 

 vessel in another containing water and slow- 

 ly heating oyer a gentle fire. Honey may 

 be preserved for an indifinite time by keep- 

 ing it in a vessel hermetically closed, in a 

 cool dry place. " But has it not been shown, 

 by some experiments made by the editor of 

 Gleanings, that adulterated honey some- 

 times granulates ? 



If oue cares to fuss with colonies of lay- 

 ing workers, it may be well to remember 

 that one Spies has asserted that they may be 

 re-established with certainty by giving them 

 unsealed queen cells. 



If we o'^serve, says Pastor Schoenfeld, a 

 bush full of flowers which is frequented by 

 bees, we notice that almost without excap- 

 tiou the new arrivals alight on flowers which 

 have just been visited and emptied, as if 

 thesa possessed a stronger and more agreea- 

 ble sceat. He thinks the reason is that 

 some of the fluid secreted by the bee in the 

 process of suction finds its way into the 

 residue left in the flower. But. he says, if 

 the secretion is abundant enough to do that 

 it is evident that the sweet carried home by 

 the bee is no longer pure nectar, but haa 

 already begun its transformation into hon- 

 ey 



Dbnvbb* Colo., I>eo. 10, 1896. 



