004 



GLEANINGS IN liEE CULTURE. 



Sepi*. 



Friend (;.. il was because of so many mis- 

 liaps in I lie way of queens getting under tiie j 

 bottom-boards, etc., tliat I decided that our | 

 bottom-boards must be cleated clear round, 

 so that there should be no space for ([ueens. 

 spiders, or toads, to get under the bottom- 

 board : and I therefore concluded to make 

 the bottom and cover of the Simplicity hive 

 exactly alike. Where there is a hole under [ 

 the hive, a new swarm is almost sure to 

 make a mistake and crawl jnu7f;the hive in- ' 

 stead of into it. I have never heard of both j 

 queens being injured during a combat be- 

 tween the two queens. If your hive holds 

 only seven or eight frames, and you should 

 want to use it for a winter hive, you could 

 not have chaff division-boards at each outside, 

 and still have combs enough to winter the 

 bees on. If you think the number of Simplic- 

 ity hives already in use is not a valid argu- 

 ment, suppose you try a few eight - frame 

 hives in your own apiary, and see how long 

 it will be before you conclude it does make 

 a difference, where you have to work them 

 interchangeably with others. I do not be- 

 lieve that a hive with fewer frames will do 

 better.— Yes, it is somewhat troublesome to 

 introduce a queen to a hive that has an upper 

 story on. Upper stories, however, I believe, 

 are now considered to be the lesser of the 

 evils attendant on having the whole number 

 of combs spread out horizontally.— I do not 

 think your criticism about the use of words 

 well taken. If you look at the word" stai-ch " 

 in Webster, you will find two different refer- 

 ences. One is the dry article, and another is 

 the verb signifying the act of applying the 

 starch. There is no name that I know of 

 for the starch in a semi-liquid form, as it is 

 prepared in laundries ; and, of course, this 

 is what we refer to when we mention using 

 it as a lubricant^ 



SOUR HONEY, AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT. 



T see in Aug. 1st Glkanings, page .531, that G. E. 

 Hughes asks what to do with sour honey. As there 

 are others who may have sour honey, and do not 

 know what to do with it, I will give you the plan 1 

 used last year. I took a wash-kettle, filled it about 

 three-fourths full of honey, put this in a large pot 

 of water, put fire under, and boiled the water. As 

 long as any scum rises to top of houoy, skim it off 

 and put in a vessel to cool; keep the scum, and you 

 will get some honey at bottom. You can keep hon- 

 ey this way any length of time, and do what you 

 please with it. Now, who will gi\e us a cheap way 

 to filter honey— i. e., to make dark honey clear? 



New Orleans, La., Aug. 4, 1885. D. M'Kenzie. 



It occurred to me, friend M.,tO suggest 

 scalding the honey to remove the sourness, 

 as the women-folks do with syrups, pre- 

 serves, etc.; but scalding, so tar as my ex- 

 perience goes, is so apt to give the honey a 

 sort of cooked taste that 1 thought I would 

 about as soon have it sour as to have it 

 scalded. 



HONEV "TURNING TO SUGAR." 



It is an old saying, that "misery loves company." 

 That is why T have felt less lomsomf since reading 

 friend Gordon's report in Aug. 1st Gleanings. 

 With us, however, it is not alone the white-sumac 

 honey that has turned to sugar, but all the honey 

 made this season from maple bloom till the present 



time. In d nucleus hive I found two pieces of 

 comb as large as my hand, and these were partly 

 filled with candied honey. These combs were built 

 within a week, so our latest honey is as bad as the 

 earliest. We have had a very dry season till lately, 

 and I did think that accounted for the sugar; but 

 for the past three weeks we have had abundance of 

 rain; still the sugar nuisance continues. I at- 

 tempted to extract some of the honey, but gave up 

 the job in disgust. By revolving- the combs at a very 

 high speed I could get about 10 lbs. from a story 

 containing 40 lbs. of honey. It was very dark honey 

 while the sugar remaining in the cells was almost as 

 white as granulated sugar. I think the bees have 

 concluded the sugar business is a fraud, for they are 

 carrying out the sugar and dumping it in front of 

 the hives. VV. E. Skinner. 



Warrentou, V'a., Aug. IT, 188.'). 



No doubt your candied honey looks like 

 sugar, friend S.; and after you have thrown 

 out the liquid portion by means of the ex- 

 tractor you have something very much like 

 loaf sugar, which is made in the same way, 

 by draining, or throwing out by centrifugal 

 force, the liquid portion ; but it is not sugar, 

 strictly, after all ; or, at least, not what we 

 understand by the term sugar. All solid 

 sugar taken out of honey is grajje sugar, not 

 cane, if I am not mistaken. 



TURNING THE TABLES. 



I take Gleanings and the Amerieau Bee Jimrnal- 

 With your perforated zinc to put between brood- 

 chamber and top hive I can raise bees and honey by 

 the mile, without any winter fixings; but with all 

 these advantages you can put me in Blasted Hopes. I 

 see honey is very low, and still falling— no sale, no 

 difference how attractive it may be. I see a great 

 howl put up against adulterating honey with syrup. 

 I see no way to sell our honey but to adulterate the 

 common syrup with it. That would be turning the 

 tables " clean over." No use sending you a report. 

 1 have honey enough— more than I can seU. 



Columbia, Tex., Aug. 14, 188.5. .1. W. Park. 



Well, friend P., your remedy is a novel 

 one indeed— pi'oducing honey so cheaply 

 that, instead of adulterating honey with su- 

 gar, unprincipled venders will go to adulter- 

 ating syrup with honey. AVoiildn't that be 

 a novel undertakingV And now who knows 

 but our troubles may end in this way? I 

 presume there is more than one article in 

 their line where nice honey is cheaper than 

 some grades of syrup. 



THE PROQENV OF A CARNIOLAN gUKEN CROSSED 

 WITH AN ITALIAN DRONE. 



I have a Carniolan queen that came from Geo. H. 

 Knickerbocker, of New York. She was mated witta 

 a yellow drone, and has so far given good results,— 

 considering the season, which has been a poor one — 

 there being no white-clover honey. The bees work 

 early and late; and when it rains, if not too hard. 

 They have male the whitest combs and the best- 

 looking honey, and a good deal more of it. than the 

 average of bees. They are very hardy, and as 

 gentle as Italians. The old saying is, that " one 

 swallow does not make a summer," but I shall have 

 enough next year to give them a better test. 



There is one point of which I wish to speak; and 

 that is, they stick to the boxes better in cold nights, 

 and I consider that one of the best. After taking 



