1893 



GLEANINGS IN KEE CULTURE. 



255 



cutting out cells: a pair of small sharp scissors 

 lo clip queens" wings, and a pocket mirror, small 

 enough to carry in your vest-pocket. This last 

 is to help you find a bee when it is trying to 

 sting around your neck, where you can't see 

 without the glass. 



I have said nothing about sections, because I 

 would not advise you to try to raise comb hon- 

 ey the lirst year. I have mentioned nothing 

 but what I think you need. Some other things 

 might be added, but I don't advise you to spend 

 a bit more on your bees than necessary until 

 they repay you. Vou might save a little more 

 by making your own hives. A neat light hive 

 can be made from shoe-boxes. Get your frames 

 from the factory first, and make your hives to 

 fit. 



Hut with all your economy, don't scrimp on 

 foundation, and you will secure stniight ivork- 

 cr combs oil wired frames; an investment you 

 never will be sorry for as long as you work with 

 the bees. Chalon Fowls. 



Oberlin, O., Mar. 10. 



[These instructions are plain and" right t^- the 

 point, and we are glad to add our indorsement 

 to them.] 



A BACKWARD SPRING IN CALIFORNIA. 



BEE-PARALYSIS CAUSED BY CONDITIONS OF 

 CLIMATE BATHER THAN QUEENS. 



We are having a cold, backward spring. 

 While the roses are in bloom at Ventni'a. we 

 can see the mountains back of tlie Matilija 

 covered with snow, and that. too. only about 

 fifteen or twenty miles otf — more snow than we 

 have had for a number or years. Bees are con- 

 suming great quantities of honey for brood - 

 rearing; and if this weather continues ranch 

 longer, many colonies of bees will perish for 

 want of stores. 



Bee-paralysis (nameless bee-disease) has its 

 sway during this damp cold weather. Having 

 considerable of it to contend with every season, 

 I have noticed that it was wor.se during wetand 

 foggy weather. Warm dry weather seems to be 

 beneficial to the disease. Also when we have 

 a good honey -flow from the sages, or best honey, 

 it gradually disappears. I have been experi- 

 menting, by moving queens from afflicted 

 colonies tb an out-apiary, a few hundred feet 

 greater elevation, nine miles further away from 

 the coast: and the few queens moved thus far 

 have produced good healthy bees. Apiaries lo- 

 cated far aNxay from the coast are the least 

 troubled with it. As you advance toward the 

 coast, the worse it is. This proves to me that 

 it is not (ill caused by the queens; and I believe 

 that the forage and weather have a great deal 

 to do with it, although I have also cured it by 

 queens raised from afflicted colonies and other- 

 wise. My neighbor, Mr. Louis Walker, has 

 lost a number of hundred colonies by this dis- 

 ease, and it nearly discouraged him from con- 

 tinuing in the business. 



UNPROFITABLE FEEDING. 



I have a number of friends who are feeding 

 colonies in three-story hives, which is a great 

 mistake for this time of the season in Califor- 

 nia. It is much better to contract the brood- 

 chamber to one story, if possible, and save an 

 expensive waste of honey. 



Those having young drones flying should now 

 commence preparing for young queens, to su- 

 persede all old queens, and have a surplus on 

 hand at the proper time for young queenless 

 swarms. Clean all bottom - boards and the 

 frames, for easy and rapid manipulation, for 

 these burr and brace combs are a hindrance to 

 the greatest success. 



HOW TO PREPARE BEES FOR JIOVING. 



For those who intend moving bees on lumber 

 wagons, over rough roads. I would suggest put- 

 ting from two to three feet of loose straw into 

 the wagon-box: load all hives firmly together. 

 Fill gunnie sacks half full of straw: cushion 

 the outer edge between hives and side-board 

 and spaces. Bind well, and a considerate driver 

 is all that is required to make all go well. 



Ventura. Cal., Mar. 14. M. H. Mendleson. . 



SIMPLE METHODS FOR DETECTING ADUL- 

 TERATION IN HONEY AND WAX. 



The following is a translation which we make 



from the Bienenvater, a German bee-journal 



published in Vienna, Austria. While it shows 



a rather bad state of affairs on the other side of 



the pond, we are glad to note that it also offers 



a practical antidote for those evils. We would 



refer our readers to page 375 for an account of 



our own exi)eriments with some honey which 



we had reason to think was not pure. 



" Naug-lit so line has e'er been spun 

 But came at last to light of sun." 



Honey and wax, those costly natural products 

 which for thousands of years have played so 

 important a part in domestic economy, have, in 

 later times, iieen greatly debased. In place of 

 honey we have sugar; and in lieu of beeswax 

 we have mineral wax — ceresin and ozokerite. 

 Still, honey and wax are used for many purpos- 

 es; and although the price of honey, as com- 

 pared with that of other sweets, and the price 

 of beeswax, as compared with that of mineral 

 and vegetable wax, is but a trifle higher, yet it 

 is now the case, as it has been for years past, 

 that greedy men have adulterated the pure ar- 

 ticles with an inferior product, and sold them 

 as genuine. This adulteration of both of these 

 products is already the regular bvisiness of so 

 many, that there are in Switzerland several es- 

 tablishments now engaged in the production of 

 artificial honey. This so-called Swiss honey 

 contains but very little real honey, but mostly 

 potato or starch syrup. These Swiss honeys 

 are easily detected by very simple means. Last 

 year, however, there started up in Germany a 

 factory for the production of a new honey 

 product called sugar honey, the same compar- 

 ing perfectly, in its chemical features, with bee 

 honey; and "a skillful chemist (a sworn official 

 expert) could not prove it to be mixed. We 

 hope, however, that chemistry will ultimately 

 be able to succeed in showing this product to be 

 what it is. The other principal adulteration of 

 honey consists in mixing pure honey with glu- 

 cose (starch syrup, potato syrup, beet sugar, 

 corn syrup), carrot juice, flour, glue, traga- 

 canth. and water. Wax is mo^^tly adulterated 

 by adding tallow, ceresin, stearine, and vegeta- 

 ble oils. 



It is possible for chemistry to prove adul- 

 terations in wax by employing very simple 

 methods, as a general thing; but in some mix- 

 tures, however, the operation is very complicat- 

 ed, and on that account they are not touched 

 on here. 



HOW TO DETECT ADULTERATION IN HONEY. 



/. Adulteration with glucose.— Take a table- 

 spoonful of the. honey to be tested; pour it into 

 a small bottle: then add three spoonfuls of pure 

 spirit, and shake the whole thoroughly together. 

 In about a quarter of an hour theie will form 

 in the bottle a cloudy, whitish sediment; and 

 from this, oni' may be sure the honey is adul- 



