770 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 1 



about starting brood-rearing unless you do this, or 

 supply artiiiclal pollen. No pollen will be needed 

 during winter. 



7. If the bees died merel from starvation or freez- 

 ing, the combs could be used again with safety: but 

 it is well to make sure that the colonies had not 

 been weakened by some such disease as foul brood, 

 which caused them to succumb to the cold. In 

 cases where you can not be positive, it pays to melt 

 up the comb and substitute full sheets of comb 

 foundation. This Is not an expensive process, for 

 the wax you will get will more than pay for the 

 new foundation, although, of course, it will not pay 

 you for your labor of rendering the combs. Ordi- 

 narily, you do not need to pay any attention to the 

 dead bees in the cells, as the colonies to which you 

 give the combs will take care of them unless you 

 give too many to some one colony. — Ed.] 



Labeling Honey to Conform to the National Pure- 

 food Law. 



In regard to the pure-food law, will it be necessa- 

 ry to state the source or the particular bloom from 

 which honey is gathered? P^or instance, I have 

 honey gathered from white clover and aster, and 

 probably a trace of honey-dew. Will it be right for 

 me to ship honey and guarantee it to be all gather- 

 ed by the bees? Will it be proper to tag each pack- 

 age going to the same firm? 



Cornishville, Ky., Oct. 5. G. W. Morris. 



[In shipping honey in original packages it is not 

 necessary to label them: but If the original pack- 

 ages or small retail packages are labeled at all, no 

 misstatement should be made. It Is not necessary to 

 state the source of the houey; but the producer 

 should be very careful not to label alfalfa honey as 

 basswood, nor buckwheat as heartsease. If the 

 honey Is largely from white clover, with a very llt- 

 from aster and a bare trace of honey-dew, it would 

 be legitimate, we should say, to label the honey as 

 "white clover," for that is practically what it Is; 

 but if the aster and the honey-dew both give their 

 own flavor — particularly so If It can be recognized 

 by the ordinary coiisumer — you had better label it 

 just what It Is, " White clover, with a trace of aster 

 and honey-dew." But rather than do that we would 

 recommend putting on simjjly the words " Pure ex- 

 tracted honey," without mentioning the source. To 

 say any thing about honey-dew at all, when there 

 Is only a trace of It (not affecting the flavor), would 

 only prejudice the consumer against It. It must be 

 clearly understood, however, that when there is a 

 sufflclent quantity of honey-dew In any honey It 

 must not be sold for pure extracted honey. Unfor- 

 tunately, It would have to be labeled as " honey- 

 dew honey." It would hardly do to sell this for re- 

 tall consumption, and we would, therefore, recom- 

 mend selling it for manufacturing purposes — that 

 Is, for the bakery trade. It will not be necessary to 

 tag any package of honey if the package Is original 

 and your letter of description concerning the hon- 

 ey specifies exactly what the honey is. For exam- 

 ple, if you are selling John Jones & Co. white clo- 

 ver with a little aster in it, and a trace of honey- 

 dew, you had better. In your correspondence, state 

 this just as it is. If your letters do not misrepresent 

 in any particular it will not be necessary for you to 

 tag the packages: but when selling to consinners it 

 is advisable to put on some sort of label. — Ed.] 



Putting Wire Cloth over the Entrance of Cellared 

 Bees. 



Last Saturday, Oct. 29, 1 took ray bees In, as the 

 nights are very frosty, and the winds are cold in the 

 day time. The weight of the hive was 50 lbs., and I 

 think It must contain enough honey to winter 

 them indoors; but I should like to hear from you 

 as to what you think of my way of packing, and If 

 you think I had better return the colony to Its sum- 

 mer stand. I have a cement room in my cellar. It 

 was cemented four years ago, so It must be dry. I 

 took the hive in and stood it in a corner, not touch- 

 ing the wall on any side. It has two windows — one 

 at either end — which are darkened. It is under the 

 sitting-room where we have a fire most of the time. 

 1 took a super and nailed a burlap In It so that It 

 would be about an Inch from the frames. I filled 

 this with dry maple leaves and placed it over the 

 frames. I laid another double thickness of burlap 

 on top, and then nailed a jjiece of wire screen 

 across the entrance of the hive. I thought they 



would be all right; but the bees are never quiet. I 

 have gone down to listen; and. although the room 

 Is quite dark, I can hear them at that screen trying 

 to get out. The temperature of the room Monday 

 was 48°, and will be 45 about all winter. Is It right 

 the bees should be so fussy, or had I better put them 

 outdoors and freeze them to sleep? I greatly desire 

 to winter them. 



Athol, Mass., Nov. 2. R. E. Baker. 



[Your manner of putting bees in the cellar is all 

 right with this exception: It will not do to use wire 

 cloth over the entrance. Get that oflf as soon as 

 you can. The bees must have an opportunity to 

 get out. Then, furthermore, we fear your cellar Is 

 not dark enough. The temperature must not go 

 higher than 45° much of the time. If you shut the 

 bees In with wire cloth they will attempt to get out 

 and make a perfect uproar In the hive, when. If the 

 entrance is free, they will crawl out where the at- 

 mosphere is cool, and go back again; but the cellar 

 must be kept very dark. 



In a climate such as you have in Massachusetts It 

 Is a question whether you would not do better to 

 put your bees outdoors. Cellar wintering will not 

 work very well in a mild climate. It must be con- 

 tinuously cold for two or three months. It would 

 be far better for you to have a double-walled hive. 

 If you do not wish to get a new hive you ought to 

 have a winter case or some sort of protection over 

 the single-walled hive outdoors. — Ed.] 



That Sour Smell Due to Freshly Gathered Gold- 

 enrod Honey; the Fine Quality of Golden- 

 rod After it is Ripened. 



I notice a communication from D. F. Miller, Wil- 

 klnsburg. Pa., p. 670. He seems to be puzzled by a 

 sour smell from his hives. This sour smell Is from 

 the goldenrod. We have It every fall when the 

 bees are working on that plant. When the flow 

 ceases he will notice it no more. The goldenrod Is 

 one of our main sources for a fall flow. It is very 

 abundant In this vicinity. The bees generally fill 

 one or more supers from this plant. Somebody re- 

 marked to me about the rank smell the bees emit- 

 ted while at work on It. He said they would not 

 care for honey made from a plant that smelled like 

 that. Don't you worry about that. The bees are 

 good enough chemists to take all the smell out and 

 make delicious honey that will make your mouth 

 water a little later. People have asked me to keep 

 goldenrod honey for them in preference to any oth- 

 er. It makes a fine light-amber honey of exquisite 

 flavor and good body. 



I have a little joke on one of our near neighbors 

 who noticed this smell when the goldenrod was at 

 its best. She thought it came from the chicken- 

 house, as they keep both bees and chickens. Call- 

 ing the man one day she told him the chicken- 

 house needed cleaning. He protested, saying it was 

 as clean as he could make It. Not noticing any 

 improvement she went and inspected the chicken- 

 house and found it as clean as a whistle. Continu- 

 ing to get a whifl of the smell through the open 

 window she searched around the house, through 

 every closet, and around the sink, but could not 

 make out where it came from until she went out 

 near the bees, when she said to herself, " It must 

 come from those bees." When I asked her one day 

 if she ever noticed It she told me her experience, 

 and wanted to know what I thought was the cause 

 of the trouble. 



Stamford, Ct., Nov. 4. E. Vanderwerkin. 



Bees on Shares; a Peculiar Situation. 



I write to you for advice. A friend and myself 

 bought five colonies of bees last spring for 83.00 

 apiece, each paying half: also each was to do half 

 of the work, but my friend went back o.i me. He 

 left his half of the work for me to do, principally 

 because he can not handle bees. Now what share 

 should I have if I do all the work next year? The 

 expenses are equally divided. I have my idea of 

 what per cent I should receive; but he, on the oth- 

 er hand, will neither give nor take for the bee.s, nor 

 does he want to give me a per cent for doing the 

 work. 



Toledo, O. F. R. Pettys. 



[It is the usual rule, when liees are kept on shares, 

 for one party to furnish all the bees, hives, and 

 equipment, and the other furnish all the labor. At 

 the close of the season both share equally in the 



