sa ye 
foreign queens. From some countries, and especially from some of the 
less experienced breeders, the losses in foreign queens are quite heavy. 
One of the evident reasons for this is the composition of the candy and 
the manner in which the cage is prepared for shipment. The candies us— 
ually become too dry and hard, or are the other extreme and become soft 
and sticky." Mr. Hambleton conducted an experiment "in which a series 
of different kinds of candies were coated by dipping them in melted 
beeswax. With the use of candy in this form it will be possible to send 
the candy long distances for the use of shippers of foreign queens, in— 
suring perfectly fresh candy for the bees when they are placed in the 
cage at the beginning of the journey. A small hole is made through the 
wax at the beginning of the journey, giving the bees access to the food. 
The use of the wax coating also permits the bees to determine the neces— 
sary Size of the opening into the candy, enlarging it only as the occa— 
sion demands, and the desiccation or unnecessary smearing caused by too 
large an opening is prevented." 
Rare crystals in honey.-The subject of this note is a sample of 
dandelion honey received at the Somerset laboratory in February from R. G. 
Richmond, of the Colorado Experiment Station. Mr. Hambleton says that 
"upon examination at the Bee Culture Laboratory, the sample showed a most 
interesting phase of granulation. Anhydrous dextrose crystals instead of 
the usual dextrose hydrate crystals were found. Only once before to our 
knowledge has this type of dextrose crystal been found in honey, so the 
sample was taken to the Bureau of Standards where the findings were veri- 
fied. Evidently the treatment the honey underwent had something to do 
with the formation of this type of crystallization." 
Commercial honey not a source of American foulbrood.-A. P. Sturte- 
vant, Laramie, Wyo., continued in February his study of the method of 
examining commercial honey for the presence of spores of Bacillus larvae 
White. He reports: "One lot of honey was inoculated with 5,000,000,000 

ee 
honey in a manner Similar to the method of making up a series of spore 
dilutions in water, each dilution being examined by the centrifuge— 
microscope method. By this method it was impossible to demonstrate the 
presence of spores in the dilutions theoretically containing less than 
500,000 spores per cubic centimeter. A second series of 10 cubic-centi- 
meter quantities of honey were inoculated with 1/10 cubic-—centimeter 
quantities of water dilutions of spores, giving a series of samples of 
honey with spore content ranging from 5,000,000,000 down to 50 spores 
per cubic centimeter. Then after centrifuging, a stained smear of 1/100 
cubic centimeter of the sediment of each sample was examined under the 
microscope and the spores present in 10 fields were counted. * * * A com— 
parison of these results with the examination of commercial samples in 
which only a very few spores were found as a rule, even when 50 or more 
fields were examined, would indicate that such samples probably contain 
less than 50,000 per cubic centimeter, the minimum infectious dose pro- 
ducing disease." | 
