SCIENCE AND THE BEE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19164, 22 November 1927, Page 6

SCIENCE AND THE BEE.

CRYSTAL PALACE SHOW. NEW ZEALAND HONEY POPULAR (FHOM OUB OWN COSBESPOITOBHT.) LONDON, October 4. The fifth annual national two-day show of bees and honey, organised by the Kent and Surrey Beekeepers' Association, is the largest that has been held under these auspices, entries numbering 1000 as compared with 850 last year. It is taking place at the Crystal Palace. Sir David Burnett said that if it were not for the hive bees British crops of apples, pears, and other fruit would be negligible, so small would be the quantity. Beekeepers were, therefore, carrying a work of very great importance, although this was not sufficiently recognised. In spite of a most trying season for beekeepers—it had been the worst for years—the competition has been very keen in several of the classes. Another satisfactory point was the increase in the number of trophies which had been presented to the show. There were six new challenge cups this year. It was a great pity that the value of honey as a food was not more popularly recognised, because, in addition to British production, the demand for which exceeded the supply, our Dominions were now sending over good honey. Australia was making extensive arrangements to put some of her best honey on the English market, and the honey from New Zealand was getting popular. This year the committee had started a new scheme, and, in addition to seeing the finest show of honey in the country, visitors were having the opportunity of hearing some of the greatest experts in beekeeping. Bees from Czecho-Shrrakia. A number of observation bee hives, which can be fitted in drawing-rooms to enable one to watch through glass windew . every operation of the honey bee, are on view. Bees do not mind the publicity involved, observed an official, as he located an observation hive full of Carniolan or Czccho-Slovakian bees, popularly known as "ladies' bees," because they are so gentle. In the centre of a swarming section the queen bee was calmly at her task of egg-laying, and every other bee, observing the tr.idition of the bee court, faced her. Although these bees had been five days in the train from Czecho-Slovakia, they were as much at home on being released at the Crystal Palace as if they had spent their lives there. On leaving their hive they took careful note of its position, and their wonderful memories served them so well that not one missed the way back. A Cure for Kheumatism. One of the most interesting side issues in bee-keeping, tested by the experience of the old bee-masters, >s recognised to-day by the medical world namely, that "quantitative bee stinging" is a cure for rheumatism.' A London hospital is using this treatment, the size of the dose being regulated bv the number of bees used. There is something in the iormic acid which counteracts the ill-effects ot uric acid. One of the exhibitors, Mr Kobins, a Hampshire bee-master, of years' experience, was treated for rheumatism for three years without success. He then tried bee-stmging, and was cured in three months. Mr J. Anderson, one of the judges, said he had been stung hundreds or times, but after the first few times a bee-keeper scarcely notices it. ''Why, man, it' is good for some people, it cures rheumatism. It is not everyone who will take be© stings, for any other reason. I know a man who went into hospital for rheumatism, and they cured him with beo stings; when he came out lie said he would rather have had the rheumatism. It was not because the stinging had hurt him. It had taken away his taste for whisky." Whether that be true or not, it is a fact that most bee-keepers are teetotallers. Mr Anderson said it might be because eating the ' honey took away any desire for alcohol.

A thirteen-year-old boy with a handfull of live bees was an interesting individual. The son of a Bromley (Kent) bee-keeper, he has helped his father with the bees for eleven years. 'I took my first swarm when I was two years old," lie said. "I hold the skep while father shook the bough. I missed the queen, though, T can do better now."

Among the exhibits was a sample >f mead, big quantities of which are still being produced. Tt figures now, as in Anglo-Saxon times, at village rejoicings. Tt is as strong as whisky, and, strangely enough, the bee-keepers who concoct it are renowned, as a class, for being abstainers.