•260 



(JLKAX1X(JS IX HKK (11/11 IlK 



APK. l". 



little used tor talile purjKJses. since practical- 

 ly all Hawaiian honey is sold to the l)al<inir 

 trade, it has but few etjuals and no sui)eriors 

 as a tal)le honey. Honey-dew honey, on the 

 other hand, is a dark viscid substance, and 

 is wholly unlike other hone>s in llavor. etc. 

 It is entireh' used in the bakin<iand confec- 

 tionery trade, where it is hiirhly prized, since 

 it possesses bakinj; and boilinj; tiualities su- 

 perior to that of other honeys. By far the 

 ,y;reater i>art of Hawaiian honey is neither al- 

 i^aroba nor honey-dew honey, but is a natu- 

 ral blend of the two. In fact, there is no 

 distinct division between the two types, each 

 nierginji; imperceptibly into the other. It 

 has been recently decided l)y the Pure-food 

 Hoard that honey-dew honey may be sold 

 under the pure-food and druj; act by bein^ 

 labeled "honey-dew honey:" and since it 

 l)ossesses such excei)tional baking qualities, 

 and is not broujiht incomi)etition with table 

 honeys, in so far as table use is concernetl. 

 it is quite certain that the denuind for the 

 product will continue to increase, and espe- 

 cially since it is now a well-established fact 

 that honey-dew honey does not contain com- 

 mercial glucose or other added sugars. 



WINTERING 



ON HONEY-DEW 

 CLIMATE. 



IN A MILD 



Interesting Comparison of Vigor in Different 

 Strains of Queens. 



BV F. DUNDAS TODD. 



The season of l!)t)9on Vancouver Island re- 

 sulted in a com))lete failure so far as honey 

 was concerned: but the bees did the l)est 

 they could by storing up great (pumtities of 

 honey-dew. It is needless to say I looked 

 forwjird with considera))le anxiety to the 

 wintering, hoping the season would be one 

 of the old-fashioned kind they talk about 

 here when V)eeswere confined to the hive for 

 only a few days at a time. Pollen carried in 

 on ("hristmais day, flights in the middle of 

 .lanuary — these sounded good to me: but 

 would they materialize in the day of need? 



My duty, however, was to see tluit a rea- 

 sonable amount of good stores was i)rovid- 

 ed; so in the middle of Sei)teniber each hive 

 was carefully overhauled, and an eslinuUe 

 was made of the stores, weak colonies l)eing 

 combined with three exceptions which I 

 left as they were, to see what would hajipen. 

 I have no desire to be a paragon of wisdom 

 all at once, because you know a little fool- 

 ishness i)rovides a certain amount of excite- 

 ment. Right here let me say two out of the 

 three died, the sur\ivor Itcing the weakest 

 of the lot. 



Having learned the total (juantity of stores 

 on hand, the next step was to average by 

 exchange of combs the ((uantity in each 

 hive. The result was thai al)out 17 lbs. of 

 honey-dew was bunched in thecenterof the 

 division (I use the divisible hive): then 

 alxnit 10 lbs. of sugar syruj) was given to fill 

 uj) the outside frames. Kach hi\e thus had 



from 27 to .'in lbs. of stores; l)ut one was let 

 with 40 lbs. of lioney-dew and lo lbs. of ^u- 

 gar stores to see what would hai)i)en. Ii 

 turned uj) (jueenless in March. 



Most of my bee-keei)ing friends did noi 

 feed until a month later, i'roltably they 

 were wiser than I because it made more cer- 

 tain the consum|)tion of honey-dew before 

 winter set in. <iiven the same conditions 

 again, I feel I would ])ost|)one feeding till 

 the last i)ossible moment. 



The winter was not an open one by any 

 means. Flight ceased by the end of Xd- 

 vember. and not a bee was seen until Janu- 

 ary 11. when sunshine and a temi)erature of 

 4-")'^ drew bees from niosi lii\es. some (piite 

 freely. 'I'en days later the weather was 

 warm enough for a good tlight: and as every 

 hive showed signs of life the worst was 

 thought to be over. Hives were hefted, and 

 four that seemed light were given candy un- 

 der the (juilt. Out of curiosity the frames 

 of one hive were ({uickly gone through, and 

 note made of a i)atch of eggs covering a 

 s|)ace three inches in diameter in one of the 

 frames. On March 1"2 this same colony 

 showed brood in four frames. l)iit \ery little 

 of it sealed. The overhaul of the apiary at 

 thai date indicated that egg-laying did not 

 start until March 2, the day on which the 

 first i)ollen was carried in. 



On Feb. 8 one hive was susi)iciously silent, 

 and examination showed it to l)e dead of 

 starvation, but with three frames of stores 

 in the house — unfortunateU'. on the wrong 

 side of the hive. Two weeks later tlie ther- 

 mometer droi)pedto IN. and we got six inches 

 of snow: but the thaw came on the 2(>th. 

 with a temperature of 50°. and we had bees 

 Hying freely with snow on the ground. Four 

 silent hives were oi)ened. all beingapi)arent- 

 ly dead, two ho])elessly so. Two. being free 

 of mold, suggested a jjossibility of a resur- 

 rection, so they were at once set over strong 

 hives with wire netting l^etween. Sugar 

 syruj) was trickled between the frames. Two 

 days later one was ali\e. and therefore re- 

 turned to its own stand: l)ut the other was 

 l)eyond hope of recall. This i>< the second 

 tiiiie 1 have res1ore<l to life an ai)parently 

 dead colony after a short cold s|)ell. 



Hea\y rains followed the thaw. March 2 

 was warm and jjleasant. so the bees flew 

 freely, three colonies making a start with 

 the carrying-in of i)ollen. the very first l)eing 

 the one headed by the best (pieen of last 

 season's imj)ortation. It was in tine condi- 

 tion, having wintered with the loss of not 

 over a liuntlred bees, as shown by an exam- 

 ination of the bottom-board on Fel). 1"). 

 About March 7 the weather was delightful, 

 so the bees hustled in pollen at a great rate: 

 and now was the time to make some esti- 

 nuite of inside conditions by outsitle signs. 

 Several hiveshad plenty of bees llyingabout 

 the entraiu-e, l)ut little or no pollen was be- 

 ing carried in: so. feeling susi)icious. 1 over- 

 liauled the whole lot on the 121 h. when the 

 thermometer rose to iV.'°. in 21 colonies I 

 found brood-raising was well under wa>': 

 l)u1 7 had no signs of eggs and no fresh jxil- 



