March, 1908. 



American l^ee Journal 



Mr, Dadant — I was the one that asked 

 the question. My reason for asking it 

 was, that Mr. Taylor said this after- 

 noon that for years he had lost bees in 

 winter because they had fall honey, and' 

 that it was bad for bees. Fall honey is 

 the honey that is harvested between the 

 first of August and October, at least 

 with us. I wanted to bring out Mr. 

 Taylor and find out more information. 



Mr. Taylor — Some kinds of honey are 

 just as good as any for wintering bees. 

 Buckwheat honey is generally good for 

 wintering bees. Honey from swamp 

 flowers is good if gathered in a dry 

 fall when the weather is warm so that 

 the bees can ripen it. Fall honey gath- 

 ered from the swamps is often gathered 

 in rainy weather, and from flowers 

 which have an abundance of pollen, 

 which mixes with the nectar, and in cold 

 weather often the honey doesn't ripen, 

 and the stuff mixed with pollen in an 

 unripe state is apt to ferment; in such 

 ■cases it isn't good for wintering bees. 

 There is a difference in the source, and 

 it all depends upon that and the weath- 

 er. There are several kinds of fall 

 honey. Some are perfectly good. Buck- 

 wheat honey is always good. Golden- 

 rod is good. Boneset and other flow- 

 ers that grow in swamps, milkweed, 

 etc.. if honey is gathered in wet weath- 

 er it is apt to be bad for the bees. 



Mr. Dadant — I see there is a great 

 deal of diflfererhce in locality. We have 

 one apiary in particular, but I have had 

 3 apiaries (have 2 today) that are in 

 reach of the Alississippi River bottom. 

 This is very swampy. The bees gather 

 honey from the blossoms that grow 

 only in damp ground — the Spanish- 

 needle, for instance. Those apiaries 

 winter as well as any other. Mr. Taylor 

 is right for his own locality. It is 

 quite likely that boneset honey is bad. 

 Heartsease is all right. Its honey is 

 very thick, very rich, and all right for 

 bees to winter on. We don't lose any 

 more bees from those apiaries on the 

 Mississippi River bottoms than we lose 

 in apiaries producing almost exclusively 

 white clover honey. The greatest risk 

 is in unripe honey, or in a suddenly 

 cold season when the bees must go into 

 winter quarters with unsealed honej'. 

 The honey gathers moisture from the 

 atmosphere. In the main, Mr. Taylor 

 and I agree as to conditions. Fall 

 honey is not bad for bees if properly 

 ripened. 



Dr. Bohrer — We have no trouble un- 

 less we have excessive rainfall and mois- 

 ture. If honey is not properly evapor- 

 ated, and poorly sealed, there is trou- 

 ble. I have never had but one case 

 of dysentery among my bees. The sun's 

 rays did not strike the hive. It had no 

 chance to evaporate, and the bees had 

 no warmth in the hive to evaporate it. 

 It may have been the chemical condition 

 of the atmosphere. I don't know. The 

 honey seemed to be thick enough. At 

 one time I took 3 frames out of the 

 hive, but it was not all sealed. I wouldn't 

 have fed it to the bees, but we used the 

 honey up before it spoiled. At one time, 

 ■when I was living in Indiana, there were 

 thousands of colonies died of cholera. 

 The honey soured right in the combs, 

 in the apiaries and in the cellars, and 



dysentery among the bees was the re- 

 sult. It was not contagious, for as soon 

 as warm weather came ( saved the bees. 

 The same trouble that killed the bees 

 then existed all through the season. 

 The condition of the weather has a 

 great deal to do with it, excessive mois- 

 ture in the atmosphere. 



Mr. Wilco.x — My opinion is entirely 

 with what has been said. My opinions 

 are based upon experience. Fall honey 

 is not injurious because it is fall honey. 

 It is injurious for other reasons. Bone- 

 set honey is bad. Honey-dew is al- 

 ways undesirable. That is. the honey- 

 dew from aphides. The cause of fer- 

 mentation does not depend upon the 

 fact that it is gathered late in the sea- 

 son, but upon the conditions when it is 

 stored in the hive. Left in the hive and 

 the colony becoming weak, the honey 

 would absorb moisture from the air and 

 become poor honey. If the bees keep it 

 covered it is all right. The combs ab- 

 sorb moisture and the honey becomes 

 thin and unfit for food. 



Mr. Wheeler — I have a little experi- 

 ence that proved to me very definitely 

 that honey-dew was not detrimental to 

 bees. A friend of mine where I keep 

 the bees in the summer time, at La 

 Grange, 111., suggested to me when I 

 moved my bees up to the sweet clover 

 in July, that I let his stand there. 

 There were 11 colonies. They went to 

 work right away, and worked all 

 through August and September and 

 filled the hives. I was talking to Mr. 

 Burnett about it. We thought now was 

 the time to find out whether or not 

 honey-dew is fatal to bees. Under the 

 same conditions as my bees were, his 

 bees came through in tip-top good shape. 

 I don't believe there was an ounce of 

 honey but was gathered from the 

 aphides. But they wintered well on it. 



Dr. Bohrer — Fall honey is good win- 

 ter food. As good a winter food as my 

 bees ever had is heartsease. My bees 

 load the hives with it and they always 

 winter well on it. It is a very dark 

 honey. (Couliuucd next month.) 



RcfIcctionLy.j^., 



California Bce-Kceper ^W 



^^ 



By W. A.lPRYAL, Alden Station. Oakland. Calif. 



Honey and Lemons. 



Here are two extremes — honey and 

 lemons. One is sweetness for the gods ; 

 the other sourness personified. Yet, I 

 am going to show that they go well to- 

 gether; that they can be used not only 

 by the bee-keeper but by everybody. 



Have lemons and honey in your home 

 and you need never be sick — provided 

 you be a wise consumer of them. Hon- 

 ey may be used all the time ; lemons may 

 be used as frequently as you wish, and 

 the oftener the better. I have used 

 honey and the juice of lemons for colds, 

 and there is no better remedy, I be- 

 lieve. In preparing lemon candy use 

 some honey in the mixture, and it will 

 be all the better. 



The medical fraternity well knows 

 the value of lemons ; not so many are 

 acquainted with the medicinal properties 

 of honey. I am going to quote a couple 

 of paragraphs about the lemon I foutid 

 in a paper. Instead of using sugar in 

 some of the remedies, honey may be 

 substituted with advantage : 



"Lemonade made from the juice of a 

 lemon is one of the best and safest 

 drinks for any person, whether in health 

 or not. It is suitable for all stomach 

 diseases, excellent in s-ckness, in cases 

 of jaundice, gravel, liver complaint, in- 

 flammation of the bowels and fevers. 

 It is a specific against worms and skin 

 complaints. Lemon-juice is the best an- 

 tiscorbutic remedy known. It not only 

 cures the disease, but prevents it. Sail- 

 ors make daily use of it for this pur- 



their gums with lemon-juice to keep 

 them in healthy condition. The hands 

 and nails are also kept clean, white, 

 soft and supple by the daily use of lem- 

 on instead of soap. It also prevents 

 chilblains. Lemon is used in intermit- 

 tent fevers, mixed with strong, black 

 coffee, without sugar. Neuralgia, it is 

 said, may be cured by rubbing the parts 

 affected with a cut lemon. It is valuable 

 also to cut warts. It will remove dand- 

 ruff by rubbing the roots of the hair 

 with it. It will alleviate and finally cure 

 colds and coughs, and heal diseased 

 lungs if taken hot on going to bed." 



In addition to the above, I will state 

 that when applied to the hands in con- 

 nection with glycerine the hands are not 

 so liable to retain propolis stains after 

 being washed ; in fact, it is much easier 

 to remove the troublesome propohs 

 when the hands are thus treated. The 

 lemon-tree is a much easier tree to grow 

 than most people imagine. We have a 

 continuous supply of lemons from our 

 trees the year round, and they are as 

 fine and large as one could well wish 

 to see. Bee-keepers in the greater part 

 of California and all the warmer por- 

 tions of the United States, should try 

 to raise a few lemon trees. They will 

 not regret it if they do. 



pose 



We would advise every one to rub 



Changing Names. 



Botany is supposed to be a fixed 

 science ; that's what it is for. Yet there 

 has been a good deal of shifting of 

 botanical names during the past score 

 of years. To some extent this is neces- 



