1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



743 



portion of a g'i'eeiihouse or forcing-house arrang-ed 

 for conserving the heat of tl:e sun, and so located 

 tliat honey could be run into the shallow v;i,ts di- 

 rectly from the mouth of the extractor, and drawn 

 off from the bottom of the vats into marketing- 

 receptacles, should give gotjd practical results. 



(2) Very tliin honey or lu'i-tar will not sour as 

 quickl.v as supposed by many, and may be safely 

 kept during- any period of cloudy weather we may 

 have during' the hot summei' months. 



(3) Tlie method of exposing- to air in a warm room 

 can not be depended upon to I'lpen very thin honey, 

 altliough it maybe serviceable for evaporating a 

 very small percentage of w;iter. 



(4) The method of cvapurutiiig by artificial heat 

 of stove or furnace is i;xpeiisive and troublesome, 

 requiring- constant watcliing- and care, and not giv- 

 ing as good results as had been hoped for. 



(5) The possibilities in the line of evaporating 

 honey for the purpose of increasing the yield and 

 preventing granulation are very great. A series of 

 experiments to determine the increase in produc- 

 tion by extr;ieting- freshly gathered honey would be 

 next in order and value. Wlicn the utility of tliis 

 metliod is fully demonstrated, supers with fixed 

 frames and extractors holding whole cases will be 

 used, and other apparatus conformable to the needs 

 of the new system. 



FEEDING BACK. 



Feeding btick extracted honey to secure the com- 

 pletion of unfinished sections at the close of the 

 harvest is practiced l)v some apiarists, but with 

 varying fiiuincial success. Extracted honey can be 

 transported long distances with much greiiter safe- 

 ty than can comb lamey. For this reason it has 

 been thought it might l)e profitable to feed bees ex- 

 tracted honey costiiiir 7 or s cents per pound to pro- 

 duce comb honey selling- ;it 13 to 1.5 cents, lo(;ating- 

 the apiary designed for lliis purpose near ii large 

 city or otfier favorable market. With theideiot 

 adding light upon this subject, extracted honey 

 was fed to a number of colonies under the following 

 conditions: The hives were contracted, and the 

 queens kept in the brood apartment by means of 

 excluding zinc. Five colonies were given two 

 crates each of unfinished sections, the sections of 

 the whole weighing 113 pounds. Three hundred and 

 thirty-eight pounds of lione3' were fed these five 

 colonies during twelve d;iys. The honej' was thin- 

 ned with I'Z per cent of water, and warmed before 

 feeding. The amount of finished lioney obtained 

 was 367 pounds, or a gain of 2.54 pounds by feeding 

 338 pounds of honey. Tlie hives were weighed both 

 before and after the honey was fed, and a gain of 

 36 pounds during the feeding recorded for the five 

 hives. The following gives the results from a 

 financial view: 



254 pounds comb honey by feeding at 14 cents f35 56 

 36 pounds stored in hives, at 8 cents 3 88 



38 44 

 Minus value of 338 po\inds fed, at 8 cents 27 04 



Profit as pay for labor, etc 11 40 



Two colonies were given crates of sections with 

 full sheets of foundation, and were fed extracted 

 honey, under the same conditions as the five colo- 

 nies above : 



Pounds. 



Amount of honey fed each colony 66Vi 



Colony No. 1, flinshed comb honey 41>^ 



Colony No. 1, gain in weight of hive !t 



Colony No. .".'. finished comb honey 3S 



i^olony No. 2, gain in weight of hive 7'/4 



Takhig these two colonies as a basis, the follow- 

 ing financial statement Is made: 



79V4 pounds comb honey at 14 cents $11 13 



16J4 pounds honey stored in hives, at 8 cents. . . 1 32 



13 45 

 Minus value of i:i3 pounds honey fed, at 8 cts. . 10 64 



1 81 

 Deducting from this profit the value of the sec- 

 tions and foundation used, the actual profit, as 

 pay for lalior, etc., is, at most, nominal. 



When this whole experiment was begun, and dur- 

 ing the time it was in I'rogress, no honey was 

 gathered fi-oni the fields: but before the scaling was 

 all accomplished, the fall honey-How began, and for 

 this reason the experiment was ended and the hon- 



ey removed sooner tliari would otherwise have been 

 advisable. 



The results obtained in this work or in any experi- 

 mental work of a similar character might vary 

 under more favorable or unfavorable conditions of 

 environment, and a continuation in various seasons 

 and under other conditions would alone give really 

 reliable results. The above trials are, however, 

 very encouraging, and k)ng-er and varied work in 

 this line is desirable. 



THOSE OLD BEE-BOOKS. 



ANOTHEK PEEP AT THE "GOOD OLD TIMES." 



James Bonner's treatise on bees was printed 

 in Edinburgh in 1795. The book has no partic- 

 tilar title other than "' Plan for Increasing the 

 Number of Hce-hives." Mr. Bonner was also 

 the author of a work on " Warping;" but just 

 what was "■ warped "' does not appear — possibly 

 a political speech or a sermon. The author's 

 name is well known to all persons who have 

 read much about the history of apiculture. His 

 brief account of himself is full of interest. He 

 had from the tirst a deep interest in bees, and 

 he consideis these especial bents of mind as 

 gifts from God. His father was a devoted bee- 

 keeper — devoted to the feeding of twelve chil- 

 dren — and boasted that, in good seasons, he 

 made as much money by his bees as nearly pur- 

 chased oatmeal enough for the family for a 

 year. He purchased a large qtiarto Bible with 

 the wax prodticed in one year.* A Scotchman 

 and a quarto 151 ble are as much to be expected 

 to complemetit each other as the two blades of 

 shears. Who can fail to notice the connection 

 between that tuition of IJible students and the 

 virtue, independence, and intelligence of the 

 Scotch? The elder Botiner was a weaver, and 

 followed his trade till within a few days of his 

 death, which occurred when he was 86. Prob- 

 ably that weaving accounts for the *• warping "' 

 I have referred to. 



Our author says that he himself was so much 

 interested in bees that, when he was :.'0 years of 

 age, he went to London to converse with Mr. 

 Wildman, the author of the book which I re- 

 viewed in the previous issue; but Mr. Wildman 

 had gone to Prance, and so Mr. Bonner con- 

 tented himself with purchasing every book he 

 could find relating to bees. and. strange enough, 

 he mentions every book I have so far reviewed. 

 During the honey season he was so intent on 

 the work of the bees that he hardly allowed 

 himself to sleep for weeks together. He speaks 

 of •■ the inhnite number of mellifluous flowers " 

 in his land. How many of the readers of these 

 pages ever realized that Edinburgh is as far 

 north as parts of Alaska, our arctic possessions, 

 and that all of Scotland is east of lltidson's 

 Bay ? The idea of flowers in such a latitude as 

 that seems strange ; but as the land is so deep- 

 ly indented all around by the ocean it is ren- 

 dered a very good place for bees. 



The year 1794 was memorable in Scotland for 

 its retnarkable flow of honey, and this led Mr. 

 Bonner to believe that, if the number of bees in 

 Scotland had been increased twenty or even 

 fifty fold, all would have done well. So mtich 

 carried away was our author with the idea of 

 possible increase in bees that it reminds one of 

 P. Benson's remarks on the iticrease of swarms 

 and apples, as seen on p. 3Si). CtLEAnings, 1S87. 

 Mr. lionner says : '• Were there but one hive in 

 all Scotland, in a cold rainy summer, even that 

 hive would produce but a very small increase, 

 periiaps swarm only once, and that swarm pro- 

 ducts only one pint of honey; wliereas if there 



* It should be remembered tliat Bibles, ;i8 well as 

 books in general, were mucli more expensive in 17911 

 tlian now. 



