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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



October 



A little of it will not do much 

 harm, but if there is an excessive 

 quantity, it must be removed or the 

 bees will not go through the winter 

 successfully. Probably the best plan 

 is to remove the frames that contain 

 it, bodily, in September, and substi- 

 tute empty combs and feed up quickly 

 with good, thick, warm sugar syrup 

 to take its place. If frames of comb 

 containing honey are on hand it 

 would be better to exchange the 

 frames of honeydew for these, as the 

 storing of syrup in the fall in large 

 quantities wears the bees out pre- 

 maturely and this causes excessive 

 mortality in the winter. The combs 

 of honeydew can be put back in the 

 hives in the spring, when it will be 

 used up for feeding the brood, so that 

 it need not be wasted. If the matter 

 is delayed until too late in the fall to 

 feed syrup, and combs of honey are 

 not on hand, a good-sized cake of 

 well-made candy placed over the 

 frames, after the honeydew has been 

 removed, will carry the bees safely 

 through the winter. 



Honeydew, caused by aphides and 

 other insects that live by sucking the 

 sap of trees and plants, is most 

 abundant, as a rule, after spells of 

 dry weather. A very large amount 

 of sap is extracted by aphides which 

 have the remarkable habit of ejecting 

 from their food canal surplus food 

 material through two small tubes 

 provided them by nature for this pur- 

 pose, in the form of the sugary sub- 

 stance commonly known as "honey- 

 dew." At one time, before it was 

 discovered that honeydew is an insect 

 excretion, or more correctly, an ejec- 

 tion, it was supposed that it was 

 simply an exudation from the leaves 

 of trees and plants, which its ap- 

 pearance on their upper surface would 

 seem to indicate. This, no doubt, is 

 how the name of "honeydew," which 

 does not appear at all appropriate to 

 the present known conditions, first 

 originated. Honeydew varies consid- 

 erably in color and flavor from dif- 

 ferent kind of trees. That gathered 

 from the oak is usually of an inky 

 blackness and partakes of the flavor 

 and nature of the tannin for which 

 the oak is noted. On the other hand, 

 honeydew gathered from the birch is 

 light in color and not so very easily 

 distinguishable from honey itself. A 

 few plants are known to exude sac- 

 charine matter apart from the blos- 

 soms, w^hich bees sometimes gather, 

 which, as it is not associated with 

 aphides or other sap-sucking insects, 

 should therefore not come under the 

 same category as honeydew, as it is 

 a different material. One of the 

 most familiar examples of this is the 

 vetch that secretes a sweet substance 

 or true nectar at the axils of the 

 leaves. As a general rule honeydew 

 does not granulate, and the water 

 content being greater than the legal 

 standard, viz. 25 per cent, for Cana- 

 dian honey, under the provisions of 

 the Adulteration Act, for this, if for 

 no other reason, it should never be 

 put on the market and sold as honey. 

 A good many colonies of bees die 

 during cold winters by reason of a 

 clear beespace, or passageway, not 



being provided by the beekeeper over 

 the tops of the frames, and some- 

 times through insufficient ventilation, 

 the latter causing the often fatal con- 

 dition known to beekeepers as 

 "sweating." 

 Nelson, Kootenays, B. C. 



Shall We Carton Our Comb 

 Honey 



By F. Greiner. 



MR. EDITOR: I want to draw 

 the attention of the beekeep- 

 ers to this fact, that nearly 

 all merchandise, whenever it is prac- 

 ticable, is put up and handled in 

 sealed packages. It is true that in 

 some stores such things as crackers, 

 ginger snaps, rolled oats, other cer- 

 eals, etc., are dealt out by the pound 



now when the change to the more 

 sanitary method is absolutely neces- 

 sary. Comb honey will not find sale 

 very much longer without being put 

 up in cartons. I should even favor a 

 law compelling producers of comb 

 honey to so put it up. The manner 

 in which comb honey is displayed in 

 many a retail store, exposed to dust 

 and flies, cannot help but produce a 

 detrimental effect. Sales will fall 

 off or will be unsatisfactory as to 

 price. The wise will adopt the car- 

 ton, I dare say. Mr. E. R. Root said, 

 at the field meeting in Camillus a 

 short time ago, that they had no 

 losses with comb honey shipped by 

 rail when cartons were used, which 

 is not a small matter in favor of this 

 newer method. 

 Naples, N. Y. 



THE FRANCE FAMILY AT HOME 



in quantities to suit purchasers, but 

 it is also a fact that the more refined, 

 the particular people, demand such 

 goods in sealed cartons. We do not 

 like to see the grocery clerk put his 

 hands onto the things we want to 

 eat. A clerk may have handled some 

 filthy tobacco, or fish, or cheese, or 

 he may have used his fingers for — ■ 

 well, we can imagine purposes for 

 which untidy fingers may be used — 

 and without washing he may grab 

 into the cracker barrel and deal out 

 the crackers a customer wants. 

 Honey is not often touched by the 

 hands of a clerk, but is subject to 

 taint in many ways. Dust accumu- 

 lates thereon; flies leave their mark 

 upon it; besides, grocerymen do not 

 like to handle comb honey on ac- 

 count of its frailty. It behooves us, 

 therefore, not only to cater to the 

 wishes of the retailer but those of 

 the man and the woman who want 

 everything for human consumption 

 put up in a sanitary manner. The 

 carton solves the problem. Some of 

 our beekeepers sell their product 

 without putting it up in this more 

 expensive way. This is true. I have, 

 for years. The time, however, is here 



Western Market News 



By Wesley Foster. 



BEEKEEPERS seem to have little 

 faith that comb honey will ad- 

 vance in proportion to extract- 

 ed honey, but indications now look 

 more favorable for comb honey. 

 New crop comb honey has been sold 

 to retailers at $4.00 to $4.50 per case 

 of twent3'-four sections. These sales 

 have been small in quantity. Carload 

 offers of $3.25 to $3.50 are reported 

 and doubtless most of the comb 

 honey crop will be sold at these fig- 

 ures or better. 



Extracted honey is selling at 10c to 

 12j/^c per pound f. o. b. Colorado com- 

 mon points. These prices are for 

 large lots. The price to the retailer 

 is from 12c to 15c, where it is sold in 

 bulk. 



One criticism that should be made 

 of the market reports is that qualities 

 and colors are not always mentioned. 

 When we speak of the price of ex- 

 tracted honey in the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region, we have in mind honey 

 running from light amber to water 

 v/hite. The tendency is to make 



