THE VINNOJIVO AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. EDITED BY SAMUEL WAGNER. -To Us, both field and grove, Garden and Orchard, lawn and flowery mead, Are free allowed and given." PARLIAMENT OF BEES, JOHN DAY, 1607. VOLUME VII.--1871-72. PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 1872. INDEX TO AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. Bees, the "coming" 77. Bees, an hour among 78. Bees in college 116. Bees, the yellow and the black 68. Bees, improvement of 130. Bees, death in winter depository of 264. Bees without brood 132. Bees, to prevent robbing among 136. Bees, weight of the honey 97. Bee feeders 20, 159, 254. Bee hives, 120, 155, 253. Bee orchard, a 131. Bee culture, nomenclature in 50. Bee keeping in the West 65.. Central Illinois Association 48. Michigan Bee-keepers' Convention Tennessee Apiarian Society 190. tion 160. The Southern N. York and North- Canada, encouraging report from 56. Cross-bred bees 149, 219. Cursory remarks and observations 156. Debeauvoy's hive 197. Dried cow dung as a fumigator 268. Dzierzon theory, test of the 118. Editorial 21, 45, 69, 93, 94, 116, 141, 151, Eggs, non-hatching 96, 119, 133, 145. Fertilization, non-flying 177, 268. Fertilizing queen bees in confinement Foul brood 124, 125, 126. Hive, proposed improved 192. Hives at the Indianapolis convention, 225 Hive controversy 9, 39. Honey, balsam of 31. Honey bee, the age of 25. Honey boxes, proper size of surplus 59, Queens, breeding 12. 136. Honey cask, timber for 183. Honey district, inquiries for a good 17. Honey extractor and strainer combined 60. Honey, extracted 79. Honey in comb or extracted 154. Honey, production of 105. Queens, fertility of 58, 67. Queens, raising 14, 85, 100, 122, 123, 239. Honey resources from a strange quarter Queens, drone layers from virgin 186. 115 Hrusethka and the Italians 13. Illinois, report from 55. Italian bees not working in boxes 152. Italian queen bees, purity of 10. Kansas, letter from 34. Queens, winter-bred 191. Queens piping 44. Queens, my experience with hybrids 230. Queen progeny of a failing queen 125, Queen bee laying in a queen cell 129. Queen mothers 147. Queen nurseries 242. Queenless colonies, on introducing young Side opening hive wanted 228. Six months of disaster 261. Stocks in summer, removal of 231. Sugar syrup for wintering bees 252. Tennessee, the honey region of West 63. Thomas' hive improvement 40. The twin hive as a non-swarmer 200. Triumph hive described 205. Upward ventilation 202. Useful suggestions 157. Wagner, Samuel, death of 211, 237. National Society of Beekeepers 203. INDEX TO CORRESPONDENTS. Abbe E. P. 124, 157; A Beginner 64, 182; Adair D. L. 253; Bailey F. M. 66; Baker W. 247; Barclay G. W. 65, 106; Cameron N. 34, 143: Chapman A. 84; Collins H. T. 36; Dadant C. 80, 86, 116, 197, 207, 259; Dadant C. P. 269; Davis Enthusiastic 55; Enquirer 252. Fearon G. F. 185; Flory J. S. 14; Fortune J. P. 203; Fox Gallup 12, 30, 59, 122, 163, 186, 191, 200, 202, 207, 215, 226, Halifax 2d 40; Hamlin T. B. 67; Hazen J. T. 143, 270, 167; James 60; Jerard G. W. P. 115, 124, 210; Jones D. A. 56. Kellogg, W. M. 273; King E. A. 92; King W. R, 126, 179, Langstroth L. L. 1, 175, 193, 213, 217, 223, 236, 242, 244, 249, Mahin M. 130, 149, 181, 201, 251; Mansfield W. D. 168; Nesbit H. 10, 192, 210; Novice 3, 6, 26, 51, 74, 99, 121, 179 O'Neil M. A. 159; Osborn H. N. 42; Old Fogy 68. Palmer Bros. 138; Parmely E. 16; Peabody J. L. 18; Querist No. 2 90. Rigg J. 107; Rowel S. 18; Rusticus 140, 160, 204. Salisbury A. 85, 244; Scientific 8, 59, 80, 157; See H. 23; Taylor W. P. 41; The Smallest Novice 63; Tillerghast 66; Vogel 98. Walter J. N. 66, 83, 271; Weeks C. 67; Wheeler G. T. 44, EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, DC. VOL. VI. AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE; PORN JANUARY, 1871. [Translated from the Bienenzeitung, for the American Bee Journal.] On the Variations of Weight in a Colony. So long as several factors or elements in any problem operate concurrently, their separate values never having been investigated and ascertained, we are not in a condition to estimate properly, or accurately assign their several contributions to the general result. We can only take the latter into consideration in any process having reference to the particular elements or factors; and if in such case, the inferences thence deduced do not involve any obvious contradiction, we may regard the process as proper and legitimate. Hence, the evaporation of moisture from the honey stores in a hive, the departure or absence of bees, and their presence or return, their loss and consequent diminution of the population, and the quantity of nutriment required for the sustenance of the colony, must be regarded as variable factors, which in the course of a day affect the weight of a hive. That the weight of a hive ascertained at different periods of the day, will furnish evidence showing the general effect of these several influences and of the activity or inactivity of the population; but it does not enable us to ascertain the positive loss or gain of honey. For example (to make myself more clearly understood) if a beekeeper, at a time when pasturage is plentiful, weighs his hive at 9 o'clock in the morning, and finds the gross weight to be 33 lbs. 10 oz., and and at 9 o'clock in the evening finds the gross weight to be 39 lbs. 10 oz., he would not hesitate, in accordance with popular views, to assume and assert that his hive had that day gained 6 lbs. of honey; and this without intending to indulge a spirit of exaggeration, or with any design to palm off on the ignorant as truth an unquestionable error. No. 7. still issuing multitude. At about noon the At about 7 o'clock in the evening perfect This relative result (since we may regard the scantily introduced pollen-probably as 1 to 10 in proportion to the honey-need not here be taken in account) is the true value which must serve as the basis of our calculations when the pure gain of honey is to be ascertained. And here let me say that 34 lbs. is the greatest increase which my very populous colony gave me, in any one day in the last two years. If then, proceeding from this standpoint, we would present our observations figuratively, we should be struck by the remarkable uniformity which the line representing the measurements obvious with reference to time and weight both in the general term and, when closely considered, in detail also. So, for example, how in summer, the decrease is rapid from the opening season till towards the middle of July, and thence forward maintains an equilibrium. And, still more how, after the blooming of heather to the 15th of September, the weight diminishes at first rapidly then scarce perceptibly; so that in both years, of the diminution of five pounds in weight in the course of the entire months, four pounds were lost in the first half of the period, whilst the loss of the remaining pound occurred in the second half of the period. One might suppose that some temperance society had here brought its just apprehensions into play, and that after wasting hilariously their stores in riotous living Samuel Wagner, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. According to my observations, when I approach my hive, at 6 o'clock in the morning, in favorable weather, thousands of bees have already gone forth to forage, and the hive weighs from five to eight ounces less than it did on the preceding evening; and it continues to decrease in weight, so that by 9 o'clock we shall occasionally find a diminution reaching fully three pounds. Only then does it again begin to grow heavier, showing that the returning workers, with their gathered stores, are gradually overbalancing the Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by |