1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



163 



HEADS OF GRAIN 



From Different Fields 



FLORIDA HONEY THAT FOAMS WHEN PUT IN A WARM 

 ROOM. 



What can be done with honey that becomes foamy or 

 braded like when placed in a warm atmosphere ? 

 What I have in mind is honey from tupelo and snow- 

 vine. My theory of the cause of thisisihat the acid 

 from each is such that it will not do to put the two to- 

 gether; and the only remedy I know of is the mixing 

 of a proper proportion of orange honey. 



Washington, Pa., Dec. 20. H. E. Dille. 



[As the questions here asked refer to Florida honeys 

 that foam they were referred to Mr. O. 0. Poppleton, 

 who is an acknowledged authority on Florida honey 

 and Florida bee-keeping. His reply will be read with 

 interest.— Ed.] 



Mr. Root— Yours of Jan. 22, inclosing a letter from 

 Mr. Dille, has only just reached me, owing to my being 

 on an inspection trip to my bees down on Key Largo, 

 away from mail communication. 



I have had only a limited experience with foamy 

 honey, and most of that was unsatisfactory. I had 

 half a barrel of such honey in Iowa, and that cured it- 

 self by being allowed to candy solid. I then skimmed 

 off the liquid honey that remained on top of that 

 which was candied, and all the rest. The portion 

 which had candied very hard and solid was first class. 

 It appeared as though the thin foamy part of the honey 

 would not candy. The poor p^rt of the honey, that 

 which remained liquid, was only a small part of the 

 whole — less than a twentieth. If this particular lot of 

 honey Mr. Dille refers to is in the North, where it will 

 candy solid, I would suggest that he try allowing it to 

 do so in a suitably shaped vessel that will allow it to be 

 properly skimmed after being candied solid except the 

 top; then by the usual process reduce the candied part 

 of the honey to its original liquid coDdition. It is a 

 question with me whether, in this particular instance 

 I refer to, the real curative agent was the candying or 

 the after-reliquefying by heat; but I suspect it needed 

 both. 



Honey kept in a southern climate does not candy 

 solid enough to use the above process, and I have had 

 only the one experience referred to in the North; and 

 all bee-keepers know how apt single experiences are 

 to lead one to wrong conclusions; so what I have 

 written is only a suggestion which may call out some- 

 thing much more valuable. 



In addition to the above I would say that I do not 

 think Mr. Diile's theory of the cause of the foaming is 

 correct. Mixing two kinds of honey would cause no 

 trouble unless one of them was of bad quality. I have 

 seen some honey that was full of air-bubbles under the 

 caps, and such honey is sure to foam after extracting. 

 It seems almost impo sible for the bees to cure <>ome 

 kinds of honey properly, but they will seal it up all the 

 same. 



Stuart, Fla., Feb. 5. O. 0. Poppleton. 



A NEW WAY OF USING THE CAPPING-MELTER. 



I have used a capping-melter the past season, and I 

 think it is one of the best things that have been put 

 out of late. I injured the honey the first time by hav- 

 ing too much heat ; but afterward I used just enough 

 heat so that the wax would not cool in the end of ihe 

 spout and clog, and the honey so obtained is improved. 

 I let the cappings fall from the knife into a tub and 

 drain a short time, and then dip them into the melter 

 a-f needed. The cappings are all melted by the time 

 the honey can be drawn from the extractor. I have 

 two reasons for allowing the cappings to drain before 

 putting them in the melter. I have two uncappers 

 part of the time, and the capping-melter is hardly big 

 enough for both of them. A large galvanized tub wiih 

 a quarter- inch-mesh strai er allows two-thirds of the 

 honey to drain out in a few minutes so that there is 

 not so much to heat, and quicker work can be done. 

 Then I turn the heat down so that the wax will cool 

 and harden in the outer end of the spout, then increase 

 it slowly until it runs freely. By this process no harm 

 is done to the honey. 



Vesper, Wis. A. B. WHITE. 



TWENTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE SHOWS THAT BEE-STINGS 

 DO NOT CURE RHtUMATISM. 



Dr. A. F. Bonney, p. 784, Dec. 15, is right in his opin- 

 ion of bee-stings as a cure for rheumatism Those 

 having old volumes of Gleanings will, by referring 



to p. 994, Dec. 15, 1889, see that I was enthusiastic in an 

 article hailing the bee-sting remedy. Now, after twen- 

 ty years of experience with rheumatic pains and bee- 

 stings as a side-issue, I have come to the same conclu- 

 sions as has Dr. Bonney. Take one hundred persons 

 who have had rheumatism and been cured, you will 

 find that scarcely any two of them used the same rem- 

 edy. The fact is, very few of them ever experienced 

 rheumatism to the degree that I have and are now 

 cured. Sometimes the terrible malady will apparently 

 leave its victim; but in an old chronic case like my 

 own there is no cure known or guaranteed except 

 through quackdora. 



THE miller cage DESCRIBED YEARS AGO. 



In Gleanings, p. 769. Oct. 1, 1889, there is a cut of a 

 cage that I devised to introduce laying queens on the 

 candy plan, and an article describing my method of 

 using it. The Miller introducing-cage now used al- 

 most universally is identical with my device in every 

 detail, except that the Miller cage is flattened and will 

 go between the brood-combs without spreading them, 

 and the queen is released without further molestation, 

 which is an important factor in introducing queens 

 successfully. 



Shickshinny, Pa. S. W. TAYLOR. 



ARE EXCLUDERS HONEY-EXCLUDERS? 



In my opinion excluders are honey-excluders to a 

 certain extent. The excluder is a tight fit for a honey- 

 laden bee. Just take it home to yourselves — if you had 

 a pack on your back, and had two doors you could go 

 through, wouldn't you choose the larger one? If the 

 flow is light I can imagine them saying, "Oh, well! I 

 don't want to get any honey to-day. There isn't much 

 honey, anyway, and I hurt myself so much pushing 

 and shoving through those bars." To prove this, I 

 will say that the bees do not carry honey below half so 

 much when the excluder is on, and I presume it is for 

 the same reason that they do not carry it above quite 

 so willingly as though the excluder were off. "The 

 hive that has an excluder on always has more honey 

 in the brood-chamber, and less brood than the one that 

 hasn't one. And then they say the excluded queen 

 was not so prolific as the other. Strange that it should 

 be this way 80 times out of 100 at least. 



As to di-tance making a difference in the amount of 

 honey gathered (see page 22), I should say it does. 

 When the distance is close they make more trips dur- 

 ing the day, and it stands to reason that if they have to 

 go a mile they can't gather honey as fast as if they had 

 to go only a yard. As well ask, does a high wind have 

 a bearing on the amount of honey gathered? Are they 

 not both a hindrance? Their water also should be 

 close at hand so that they won't have to waste more 

 time than is absolutely necessary. 



MRS. M. E. Pruitt. 



Ranch Vigo, Eola, Tex., Jan. 7. 



[There has been some discussion on this question, 

 pro and con; but some of our best bee-keepers — those 

 who produce honey by the carioad— make the unqual- 

 ified assenion that excluders do not in any way inter- 

 fere with the amount of honey stored above. While 

 they do exclude pollen to some extent, this very exciu- 

 sion is something that is desired, for it is better to keep 

 pollen out of the surplus honey.— ED.] 



HOW far do BEES FLY? 



Myself and neighbor own the only Italian bees in 

 the county, and it is seven miles in an air line to H<im- 

 burg. L-ist sp ing I transferred eight colcnies for Mr. 

 C. L. Baker, of that place. I commenced about 9 o'clock, 

 and by 10 o'clock I noticed 5 or 6 Italians there attempt- 

 ing to rob. By 3 P.M. it looked as if I could have hived 

 a pretty good swarm of them. The next day there 

 were more of them. Now, where did they come from? 



Hamburg, Ark., Dec. 16. W. D. Johnson. 



[It is our opinion that your own Italians did not fly 

 seven miles. While we have known bees to go that 

 distance over a body of water, it is very doubtful 

 whether they wouid go as far as that unless- it were 

 over a valley from one hill to another; and even then 

 the maximum distance, we should say, would be five 

 miles. The reporis that have come in during the past 

 few months have indicated pretty conclusively that, 3S 

 a rule, bees do not fly over an average range of much 

 more than a mile and a half; and appaiently most of 

 the honey is gathered within a radius of one mi e from 

 the yard. While there are exceptions, of course, vet 

 thcFe exceptions only prove the rule. If you will look 

 a little carefully and make some inquiry you wil' find, 

 in all probability, that there are some Italian bees in 

 the locality not far from where you did the transfer- 



