TBE BEE^XEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Prof. Cook says: ''If we eat cane sugar, 

 we have to digest it. If we eat honey, it has 

 already been digested." Is this so ? Does 

 not honey need to be digested by the human 

 consumer of it ? Certainly it does. It has 

 been rendered easier of digestion by being 

 transformed from cane sugar to grape sugar. 

 That is all. But it must be digested by the 

 human stomach before it passes into the 

 blood. 



It is needless for me to say that 1 concur 

 with the Professor in what he says about 

 sugar-honey, for the readers of the Review 

 know that I was the first to endorse Mr. 

 Hasty's views on that subject. But that 

 "twenty-three pounds of honey syrup" (?) 

 which he tells us Mr. Larrabee fed the bees 

 in one night, which was extracted next day 

 and sampled by forty persons, who pro- 

 nounced it excellent honey, was not a fin- 

 ished and perfect article. It needed the 

 capping process during which the formic 

 acid is added. If it were so good next day, 

 what would it have been after capping ? 

 By the way, and this is for Dr. Miller, 

 Cheshire says. Vol. II., page 587: "Herr K. 

 MuUenhofE and Rev.J.W. F. Clarke have 

 pointed out that formic acid is provided by 

 the bees by depositing droplets from their 

 stings, which they touch on the face of the 

 honey." I am therefore in the good com- 

 pany of an eminent German scientist, 

 though I was not aware of it until I read 

 Cheshire's book. 



GuELPH, Ont., Nov. 15, 1892. 



Comments on a Beginners Day Book. 

 No. 12. 



E. E. HASTY. 



J Y colonies were to be packed two and 

 two for the first winter. The month 

 of December opened with many 

 colonies not yet packed. Some winters this 

 would have been a bad state of things. For an 

 average winter I presume it would be quite a 

 little better to have them all tucked up in 

 November : yet, at the risk of encouraging 

 procrastination, I will say I do not think it 

 makes very much difference. The very mild 

 January and February of this particular 

 winter probably prevented any harm that 

 might otherwise have resulted. 



" Dec. 22, 1879. Mild and favorable day, but I 

 only packed four colonies, things were so un- 

 handy." 



Unhandy is a superlatively troublesome 

 Andy. If we could only banish him com- 

 pletely it would be equivalent to more than 

 doubling our working force. And the force 

 we gain by a little wise expenditure of fore- 

 thought don't eat any ' taters, nor charge 

 any wages. ' Spects a whole number of the 

 Review might profitably be devoted each 

 year to the topic, " Having things handy." 

 When everything is really handy what a 

 mere trifle it is to pick a swarm from the 

 bush and hive it ! And what an awful job 

 when the contrary conditions prevail ! — no 

 hive ready, no ladder, no smoker, no basket, 

 no rig ; nothing in the right place, and some- 

 body too lazy to bring it back has borrowed 

 the place. 

 "Dec. 10th. Put in tin condensers in 3-1." 

 I wanted the frost that forms inside a hive 

 to condense and run down on a tin when 

 melting to some harmless exit. As things 

 usually work it swells and damages the qual- 

 ity of the honey in store, and soaks the inner 

 wood work until a chilly atmosphere inside 

 is assured for a long time to come. After- 

 ward I put in simple tin condensers into 

 many hives— some of my hives have them 

 yet— but such little ones only get a small 

 fraction of the water ; while to have them 

 large enough and spread abroad enough to 

 get it nearly all would make them a general 

 nuisance. Guess I shall have to say that the 

 winter condenser is an idea which may have 

 merit, but which has never been properly 

 worked out, 



" Dec. 19th. Made in a very few minutes a tack 

 punch from an old file. Proceeded to make a lot 

 of nail boxes— two bits of wide frame and a three 

 inch strip of tin tacked on." 



Mechanical handicraft was so completely 

 left out when I was made, that to succeed 

 at blacksmith work, or " anysmith " work, 

 makes me feel like crowing lustily. For a 

 mere trifle one can buy a punch which looks 

 nicely and behaves awkwardly. Or you can 

 have just the opposite state of things, one 

 that will look awkwardly and behave nicely, 

 by breaking a file square across the center 

 and tempering the shank of it. Strange to 

 tell, I value the working of a tool more than 

 the look of it— and the man himself more 

 than his clothes. 



"Dec. 19tli. Devised a tenement hive for 

 keeping undesirable swarms six in a bed, and 

 using the sealed brood to build up the honey- 

 storing colonies." 



This was not to be a winter device, but for 

 summer work. The invention never mate- 

 rialized itself. I have such a strong impres - 



