322 



JOUKNAIi OF HOBTIOOLTDBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



£ AprU 26, 1877. 



particular flowers becomes the honey of commerce. The high 

 temperature of the hive in the height of the season (and indeed 

 at all times), would naturally produce some change in the com- 

 position of the honey even before it left the honey-bag of the 

 insect if retained there for any time (which I much doubt), 

 although I am more disposed to believe that the change takes 

 place in the cell after deposition there, when it is certainly sub- 

 jected to a long duration of extreme heat. 



But this after all will only account for a small part of the 

 great difference between the nectar and the honey analysed. 

 Where is the glacose found, which is about half the component 

 material of honey ? Where the mannite, &c. 1 Will it be pre- 

 tended that these are inherent in the stomach of the bee, or 

 secreted there by any mere subjection to hive-caloric or to any 

 other conceivable process of which a reasonable account can be 

 given ? 



If we may assume that the flowers from which bees gather 

 the bulk of their food produce the nectar described and nothing 

 else, is it not more reasonable to suppose that they gather the 

 materials of which honey is composed partly from other sources, 

 a'!, for instance, from the leaves and stems of plants and trees 

 which they are known to frequent, and from what is called 

 honeydew in its various forms, or from some other sources 

 external to themselves which are at present unknown to us ? If 

 this be the case it will be seen that the nectar is only one of 

 the ingredients in the composition of honey collected abroad. 



All these matters have to be carefully investigated before we 

 can form any definite conclusion as to the making of honey by 

 bees.— B. & W. 



CRUDE AND PERFECT HONEY. 



It has not been my intention or wish to return again to this 

 subject, but as your correspondent " P. H. P." of Hitchen has 

 stated some facts which he thinks cannot be reconciled with a 

 statement of mine which he has quoted, it may be well to notice 

 his remarks and observations. One of his hives last year 

 gathered a great deal of honey, which was stored in supers which 

 were placed on and beside his hive. The bees could enter the 

 supers without going through the hive. He says, "All the bees 

 which entered the side supers alighted on the floorboard, which 

 was larger than the circumference of the hive, and passed into 

 the supers direct with their bm'dens of honey." At an entrance 

 in a top super there was " a continuous stream of honey- 

 bearers daily passed in at this opea corner and discharged their 

 burdens at once. The honey was of the finest flavour and aroma." 



I d) not for a moment question the truth of these statements, 

 but I ask, What do they prove ? Simply that bees will readily 

 work through doors in any part of their hives and carry honey 

 from flowers unto them by either front or back doors, either side 

 or top entrances. Bnt this, as it appears to me, does not touch 

 the question of crude and perfect honey. I have always advised 

 bee-keepers to have no outside doors in supers, and to prevent 

 bees from entering them but through the hives. This we do to 

 prevent bees from entering supers with dirty feet and pollen on 

 their legs, for we have never known a super of comb partially 

 filled by an outside door free from pollen. Were the supers of 

 " P. H. P." without pollen in their cells ? If they were without 

 it, what did the daily stream of bees passing into them do with 

 the pollen on their legs ? Where did they leave it ? This is 

 not a quibble, but an important question in the discussion. 

 Those who assert that bees carry honey direct from flowers to 

 the pure white virgin combs in supers appear to have an easy 

 way of jumping over difiiculties. Thousands of bees every 

 working day carry home both honey and pollen. In supers 

 properly managed and filled there is not a particle of pollen in 

 one of its cells, nor a bit of comb soiled with dirty feet. But 

 passing over the difiioulty (which our friends never seem to 

 notice) of finding a storehouse for pollen, together with the 

 time and toil of filling it, I repeat once more that crude honey 

 found in flowers and carried into hives or supers is re-swallowed 

 before it is finally stored away and locked up. Whether the crude 

 honey goes into nadirs or supers, by the front or side entrances, 

 it is afterwards converted by the bees into honey proper. 



I trust our friends will excuse me if I ask them to read again 

 the lecture by an American apiarian on this subject which 

 lately appeared in the columns of this Journal. It is the most 

 elaborate and comprehensive lecture on this subject which I 

 have yet seen. But as the evidence of our own senses is the 

 most convincing of all, may I ask the readers of this Journal 

 to test tbe question at their own conveuience with their own 

 bees during the coming summer ? — A. Pettiobew. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



JFoTVL's Intestine (H. G. M.).— It is very severely nlceratetl. 



Death in One HrVE {Sigma, Herts).— yie eannot say with any degree of 

 certainty what caused the death of one of your stocks. Probably the qneen 

 of this hive died in the autarao, or whoa there were uo eggs in the hive; 

 the bees therefore could not rear a young one to take her place, or hatch 

 yoimg workers enough to survive the winter and early spring months. Those 



which were bred in the summer of last year gradually died of old a^e, still the 

 population of the hive was reduced in nombers so much that the heat neces- 

 sary for bee life could not be kept up. The small clusters of bees you found 

 dead among the combs were chilled iuto a motionless state, and thus died. 

 Weak stocks in cold spring months often perish in this way. Aboat a month 

 aso we discovered that a strong hive in our own garden had lost its queen. 

 We at once united its bees to a weaker stock, and thus made it a strong one. 



Bees in Super (Q.). — Your bees have moved up bodily into the super to 

 save the trouble of carrying down their stores, like sensible creatures. There 

 is but one queen and one family. Perhaps your best plan ia to let them be as 

 they are for the present. By-and-by, doubtless, as the population increases, 

 the queen will move down and resume possession of the hive below, after 

 which you can take away the super at your pleasure, allowing the bees to 

 fill it with honey after hatching out or otherwise as you prefer. We do 

 not think it a good plan to leave supers with honey on hives during the 

 winter. 



SHrFTiNO Bees into L4koee Hives (H. E. B.).— It is best to wait till 

 the bees swann, and to put the swarms into the new hives with or without 

 bars. A very expert bee-master might perhaps successfully transfer the 

 whole of the comb.s from one hive to the other, but it is a delicate operation, 

 and would fail in the hands of a novice. 



Preserving Mushrooms (£. C.).— Wipe them quite clean, take oat the 

 brown, pare off the akin of the large ones, lay them on paper, aul pat them 

 in a cool oven to dry. Keep them iu paper bags in a very dry place. Waen 

 wanted for use simmer them in gravy, and they will swell to nejrly their 

 former size; or you may simmer them in their own liqijr till it dries up in 

 them, shaking the pan ; then dry them on tin plates, with spice or not as 

 you think proper. Tie down with a bladder or keep them iu a dry place or 

 in paper. To preserve peas green you will find full directions in our No. 800 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Camden Square, London. 



Lat. 51° 33' 40" N. ; Long. 0' 8' 0" W. ; Altitude, 111 feet. 



REMARKS. 

 18tli.— Fine morning; lair all day, but dull; warmer towards the evening, 



when raiu fell. 

 19th.— Fine forenoon, very bright about 3 p.m. and all the afternoon, and a 



moonlit night. 

 20th.— Very fine all day, but rather thick and dark for some time about 5 p.m. ; 



lunar halo about 9. 

 2lst.— Rainy all the fore part of the day, the after part fair but dull, foggy 



about 9. 

 22nd.— Fino early, but a shower at 10 a.m. ; thunder about 5 p.m., with shower 



soon after, and heavy rain abgut 9 p.m. 

 23rd.— Much cloud all day, with frequent showers, which were at times heavy; 



thunder heard at S.SOp.m. 

 24th.— Very fine forenoon ; very dark and a slight hailstorm jast before 6 p.m. 

 Temperature very nearly the same aa last week, and near the average for 

 the season.- 3. J. Symons. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— April 25. 

 Business still continues to improve, and though an increased supply of all 

 kinds of forced fruit has reached us, prices have in all cases been wall main- 

 tained, with the exception of Grapes, which, of course, will now rapidly iall 

 in value. The demand for forced vegetables is good, French Baans selling at 

 higher rates. 



FEUIT. 



s. d. 8. d. 



Applea i sieve 3 6to7 



Figs doz. 12 20 



Filberta lb, 



Cobs lb. 1 16 



Grapes, hothouse lb 15 25 



Lemona ^ lOO 6 10 



, ^ICO 8 13 



Artichokes dozen Ot< 



Asparagiia ^103 6 



Beans, Kidney ^ lOO 2 



Beet, Red dozen I 6 



Broccoli bundle 9 



Brussels Sprouts. .j sieve S 



Cabbage dozen 1 



Carrots bunch 4 



New do. 1 6 



Capsicums ^10) 1 6 



Coleworta.. doz. bunches 2 



Cucumbers each 6 



Endive dozen 1 



Fennel bunch 8 



Garlic lb. 6 



Herba bunch 8 



Lcttace dozen 1 



Leeks bunch 4 



B. d. B. d. 



Peaches doz. 15 OtoSO 



Peara, kitchen doz. 



dessert doz, 8 12 



PineAppies lb. 2 5 



Strawberries oz. 6 10 



Walnuts bushel 5 8 6 



ditto ^100 19 2 



Mushrooms pottle 1 6 1 



Mustard & Cress punnet 2 



Onions busbel 



pickling qu<irt 4 



Parsley. . . . doz. bunches 2 



Paranipa dozen 



Peas quart 6 



Potatoes bushel 3 6 



Kidney do, S 



New lb. 6 



Radiahoa . . doz. bunches 1 



Rhubarb bundle D 6 



Salsafy buudlo 9 



Scorzonera bundle 1 



lb. 



Turnips bunch 



New do. i 



Vegetable Marrows 



