140 



GLEANIJVGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Fkh. 15. 



may chop off some of our orders; but I think 

 it is only fair for bee-Ueepers to be properly on 

 their gnard. 



Now let us turn to a more encouraging view 

 of the situation. Cold winters, accompanied 

 with snow, a? is this winter, are said to mean an 

 abundance of clover; and that, of course, means 

 honey. The moral is, save your bees and get 

 the honey. 



BOGUS HONEY. 



The following letter will explain itself: 



Friend Roof.— The altaclietl letter was received by 

 me in answer to ati advertisement for a situation as 

 stenosraplier or book-keeper. As it seems to settle 

 a number of questions in reg-ard to bee-keeping-, I 

 thought it migrbt interest you. The " king bees " 

 had better get together and form a trust or they 

 will soon find their oc<-upation gone. AV. HiCKOx. 



Lakewood, O., Feb. 2. 



And here is the letter referred to. It is very 

 evident that Mr. McCarthy got hold of the 

 wrong man. It is a little surprising that he 

 should " give himself away " quite so bad. 



Box KiS, LakcwDiid, ().: 



Dear Sic:— Do you care to take an interest in a 

 good paying business? I have an article whose 

 merits are unequalpd in the markets: it is manu- 

 factured Iioney, made from the oils and extracts of 

 flowers tliat the bee gathers its honey from. I put 

 it up in 1-lb. jars, labeled and sealed ready for 

 the market, at a cost of 7 cts. per lb. It retails it 

 20 cts. per lb. I am a poor man, and have to work 

 for my living. 1 have not got the money to go 

 ahead with, and want some good honest man to 

 take one-half interest and Vielp me put tlie goods on 

 the mai'ket Thi^ is a sood chance for the right 

 party; so if you do not caie to investigate, perhaps 

 you have a friend who would. I have explained 

 the best I can at present. Hoping to hear from you 

 soon I remain 



Respectfully yours, 



1732 St. Clair St., Cleveland. W. J. McCarthy. 



I thought best to give our readers the con- 

 tents of the letter from Mr. McCarthy. I do not 

 know certainly whether he intended to put this 

 manufactured " stuff" on the market as pure 

 honey or not; but the presumption is rather 

 that way. Mr. McC. says he is a poor man 

 and wants some good honest man to take 

 an interest in the business. Honest man! it 

 would be hard to find one who would engage 

 in that business— that is, providing he proposes 

 to sell bogus honey for the pure. If any of 

 our readers in Cleveland are located where 

 these eoods are sold they will oblige us by giv- 

 ing the particulars. 



ADVANTAGE OF CHAFF HIVES IN THK CELLAR. 



Wk have generally supposed that single- 

 walled hives wen^ plenty warm enough for cel- 

 lar wintering; that to put chaff hiven in such a 

 place was both an unnecessary expense and a 

 waste of cellar room, to say nothing of the 

 work of toting these unwieldy things, full of 

 bees and stores, )ip and down steps back and 



forth. Notwithstanding it looks like wearing 

 an overcoat In the house. Dooliitle has decided 

 (see A)nericm> Bee Journiil) that it pn\is, both 

 in the saving of stores, and the better condition 

 of the bees. This conclusion he has reached 

 after some carefully conducted experiments, 

 and now not only seven-eighths of all his colo- 

 nies are in chaff hives, but three-fourths of 

 them are in the cellar. His chaff' hives have 

 loose bottom-boards, and are raised up from 

 the same while in the cellar by blocks of stove- 

 wood. In summing up he says: 



I havejust been In to see theni, so that T might 

 tell the reader the ditference between tliese and 

 those in single-walled hives. Those in the single- 

 walled hives are clustered closely on all parts of the 

 cluster— bottom, top, and sides— the same as they 

 would be outdoors, only not quite so completely: 

 while those in the chaff hives are clustered just as 

 closely as the others at the bottom of the cluster, 

 and a little way up the aides; but hs j'ou come to- 

 ward the upper half of tlie colony, tlip bees stand 

 out around the combs the same as they would in 

 summer: while at the top, all along next to the 

 cushion and cotton cloth, they make no pretension 

 at clustering whatever, although you can look at 

 them a long time without any of them stirring, no 

 matter how close you hold the light to the hive. In 

 this way they have free access to all parts of the 

 hive, so a coloTiy never starves, so long as there is 

 any honey in the hive, by theii' eating the honey 

 from one side and failing to move over, as is fre- 

 quently the case. 



But the greatest item of the whole is, that these 

 colonies in chaff hives do not consume nearly as 

 much honey as do those in single-walled hives, while 

 the safety of their wintering successfully is more 

 fully assured; for the less honey consumed by a 

 good colony of bees insure their more perfect win- 

 tering. Where hives are wheeled right into the cel- 

 lar, as I do mine, the labor of putting them in is 

 little more than with single-walled hives, and this 

 labor question is all there is against the matter, ex- 

 cept that a less number can be put into a given 

 space; and the saving of honey will, T tliink, more 

 than compensate for the extra room needed, and 

 pay for building a little larger, where it should be 

 necessary. 



I am inclined to think Doolittle is right. At 

 all events, it would oe well for a few others to 

 try the same experiments. If you have any 

 double-walled colonies out doors that look as if 

 they would go up before spring, put them in the 

 cellar now. But, say— it occurs to me that the 

 great majority of the makes of chaff" hives, 

 perhaps all of them, have tight bottoms. Colo- 

 nies in winter cases can be so tried at all events. 



FIVE-BANDEKS RECEIVING MORE HARD KNOCKS 

 FROM BEE-EDITORS. 



The editor of the Canadian Bee Journal, 

 after stating that he is as anxiousa s any one to 

 have bees which will give large yields of honey, 

 which are easily handled, and which have 

 beauty, says this: 



Were we to engage a man or maid to perform our 

 work simply on account of looks, it would he 



