1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



53 



parts of the hive, so a colony never starves as long 

 as there is any honey in the hive, by their eating 

 the honey from one [side and failing to move over, 

 as is frequently the case. But the greatest item of 

 the whole is. that these colonies in chafif hives do 

 not consume more than two-thirds the honey that 

 those do in the single-walled hives, while the safety 

 of their wintering successfully is almost fully in- 

 sured, for I have yet to lose the first colony in 

 these hives where wintered in' the cellar. Where 

 they are wheeled right into the cellar, as I gave in 

 a recent article in Gleanings, the labor of put- 

 ting them in is very little more than with ordinary 

 hives. Of course, a less number can be put into a 

 given space, yet 1 think the saving in honey will 

 more than compensate for building a little larger 

 cellar, where it is necessary. 



BEES BY THE POUND INT THE MAILS. 



On page 970 of Gleanings, 1889, 1 notice you see 

 " important results " from the sending of bees in 

 the mails. I also notice a rather less bitter com- 

 ment than some previously made on the same 

 thing, in the last Review. Now, all I have to say 

 further on the subject, after what I have already 

 said, is, that, when the time is ripe for sending bees 

 by the pound in the mails, they are going to be so 

 sent, and nothing can hinder them. You speak of 

 the impossibility of making a cage stout enough, 

 and at the same time light enough, not to be brok- 

 en. This will be easily accomplished when such 

 want is felt, or the time is ripe, as spoken of above. 

 What is there to hinder Inclosing the cage in a sack 

 of stout burlaps, and, if necessary, the whole again 

 in a sack made of duck or bagging? This would 

 make it so that nothing short of willful meddling 

 could get the bees out into the mail-bag, and yet 

 the bees could have all the air they require. 



Borodino, N. Y., Jan. 3, 1889. G. M. Doolittle. 



I suppose from the above, friend D., we 

 are to gather that bees are much better off 

 in the cellar in chaff hives, providing they 

 have abundant lower ventilation ; and I am 

 inclined to think this latter a pretty g(>od 

 thing, no matter where they are wintered. 

 I know that bees do sometimes seem to suf- 

 fer, even in the cellar, wliere there is but lit- 

 tle over them to keep the warm air from 

 passing away. Now, in your arrangement 

 you had the whole top of the hive so well 

 protected that the warm air, being lighter, 

 filled it completely, enabling the bees, as 

 you say, to move about from one part of the 

 hive to another, without being obliged to 

 knot themselves up into a dense wall or 

 cluster. Leaving such abundant ventila- 

 tion below would permit any bee that got 

 too warm to go down and get fresh air to its 

 heart's content ; while others that do not 

 care for fresh air (like sundry human be- 

 ings) could stay where it is hot and close all 

 winter if they choose. I have seen bees 

 winter in the cellar in just that shape. They 

 would be standing around on the tops of the 

 frames, and even up against the sides of 

 the hives, sometimes a single bee at a time, 

 and all as still and motionless as if dead. 

 A little of your breath, however, would start 

 them to life. Very likely this state of af- 

 fairs would be great economy in the use of 

 stores ; but will the arrangement you de- 

 scribe always secure this state of affairs V— 

 Perhaps bees may be put up as you de- 



scribe, so that even the banging of the sacks 

 of mail would not break the duck or bag- 

 ging, and let them out. But I hope no one 

 will try it— at least, not just now. 



"WHAT IS HONEY 



PROF. COOK undertakes TO MAKE IT PLAIN TO 



US. 



I AM requested by one of our best bee-keepers to 

 give a fuller explanation of the nature of honey. 

 He says: "I feel certain you are correct, and it is 

 through a misapprehension that any one is dis- 

 quieted by what you have written on the subject." 

 I believe this friend is correct, and so I am glad to 

 add a word in the matter. 



WHAT IS DIGESTION? 



Digestion is the act by which food is so changed 

 that it can be absorbed, or can pass from the stom- 

 ach to the blood. Water and salts are already in 

 that condition, and so need no digestion. White of 

 egg, muscle, starch, and cane sugar, are not in that 

 condition, so they must be digested when taken as 

 food. Whatever animal, then, eats cane sugar, 

 must digest it. This digestion simply changes the 

 cane sugar to a reducible sugar, one of the glucose 

 group of sugars. This reducible sugar is just as 

 wholesome as is the cane sugar; and as it needs no 

 digestion, it may be more healthful food than the 

 cane sugar. One of our Michigan physicians has 

 told me that he believed that honey, for this very 

 reason, is a more wholesome— a more healthful 

 food, than is cane or common sugar. Nectar is cane 

 sugar dissolved in water. When the bee sips the 

 nectar she adds to it the secretion from the four 

 large racemose glands, which empty into a single 

 duct right at the base of the tongue, where the nec- 

 tar enters the mouth. These pass together into the 

 honey-stomach, and here the honey digestion takes 

 place, indeed, there is nothing in the honey-stom- 

 ach except the nectar, or honey, and the pollen 

 which is sucked in with the nectar. This pollen is 

 mostly separated from the honey by aid of the 

 stomach-mouth, as shown by Schiemenz, before the 

 bee reaches the hive. Thus only the honey, with 

 possibly a little pollen, and, if the bee is collecting 

 very rapidly, some still undigested nectar, is emp- 

 tied into the cells when the bees reach the hive. 

 The nectar was cane sugar, neutral, and turns the 

 ray of light to the right. The honey is reducible 

 sugar, acid, and turns the ray of polarized light to 

 the left. 



Now, these are all facts, as certain as that bees 

 gather sweets from floyers. As they are facts— long 

 well known to science— it is our duty to accept 

 them, even though they were unwelcome. But 

 why are they unpleasant? Reducible sugar is as 

 clean, and possibly more healthful, than is cane 

 sugar. A healthy secretion is added to change the 

 sugar; but milk is a secretion, and we regard it as 

 one of the most inviting and wholesome foods. The 

 digestion took place in the honey-stomach, a clean 

 reservoir from which it comes, any way, so no one 

 need object to that. Although honey is certainly 

 digested nectar, there is nothing in this that should 

 alarm or disquiet any one. It is clean, wholesome 

 nectar, transformed in a clean vessel by aid of a 

 clean, wholesome, secretion. People who have not 

 studied the question of digestion may associate 

 something unpleasant with the word. This is quite 

 uncalled for. It is not the digested food that is un- 



