WATER. 127 



cress or other aquatic plants are kept, to preserve it from 

 putrefaction, and to prevent the bees from drowning, will 

 do very well. For a small Apiary, a jug or bottle (fig. 44), 

 filled with water, and inverted on a plate, covered with a 

 small piece of carpet, will be sufficient. It can also be given 

 in the combs. Mr. Vogel, editor of the Bienen-Zeitung, on 

 the 19th of March gave to a colony a comb containing crys- 

 talUzed honey, and another containing about three-fourths 

 of a pound of water. Within sixteen hours, both combs 

 were altogether emptied by the bees. 



273. A learned French bee-keeper, Mr. De Layens, 

 made many experiments in regard to this matter. 



" In the month of May, 1878, I put a lump of sugar near a 

 spot where a great many bees came for water; they paid no 

 attention to it. The sugar was then moistened and covered 

 with honey. The bees, attracted by the honey, came in great 

 numbers, and sucked up most of the moist sugar. After they 

 became accustomed to this, I decreased the moistening, till 1 

 gave them nothing but dry sugar, when they brought water to 

 dissolve the sugar, and removed all except the parts which were 

 too hard to be dissolved easily." — {Bulletin de la Suisse, Nov. 1880.) 



The same writer has noticed that, in Spring, if the bees 

 are compelled to go very far for water, many of them per- 

 ish. He found a loss of three hundred and fifty grammes 

 of bees — four-fifths of a pound — from a hive, during a sud- 

 den Spring storm. 



From the 10th of April to the 31st of July, forty colonies 

 consumed 187 litres of water, about fifty gallons ; the great- 

 est quantity used in a day being seven litres, or about fif- 

 teen pints. 



That bees do not need water, in circumstances other than 

 those above named, is evidenced from the fact that, in im- 

 porting bees from Italy, we did not succeed in receiving 

 them alive, until our shippers reluctantly consented to send 

 them without water (595). 



