1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



467 



this is not really the case, but it is true to a 

 fearful extent, as the laws against adultera- 

 tion fully attest. Fortunately sugar and flour 

 seem to get to us in a pure state, as their adul- 

 teration is difficult, and the things themselves 

 are about as cheap as any adulterant could be. 

 Liquor-sellers have long been styled the " poi- 

 soners-general " of the people ; but they must 

 certainly share that honor with the adultera- 

 tors of food stuffs which all niusi buy, while 

 they can get along without the liquor. Mr. 

 Eaton will be remembered with gratitude by 

 bee-keepers as the one who made such a vig- 

 orous attack on the adulterators of extracted 

 honey in Chicago two years ago. Concerning 

 this matter I quote the following : 



Pure honey may be defined as the nectar of flowers, 

 transformed, and stoied in a comb by the honey-bee. 

 Extracted or strained honey is the same article re- 

 moved from the comb by man, usually by centrifugal 

 force. Comb honey can be adulterated only by the 

 bee, which seems to have a patent on capping the 

 cells. Extracted honey, next to vinegar, is more 

 universally adulterated than any other staple food 

 products. 



In Minnesota, before the honey clause was added to 

 the Food Statute, about 3,3'3 per cent of extracted 

 honey proved to be adulterated. In Illinois, about 

 the same ratio of adulteration was proven to exist. 

 Last year a committee acting for the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association secured a large number of sam- 

 ples in Chicago. Being at that time employed in 

 commercial work I examined the samples for the 

 Association and found that more than .50 per cent 

 were adulterated. This month (Dec. 1900) finds extract- 

 ed honey again seeking the winter trade. Inspector 

 Mrs. Frank Hubbard has visited many stores in Chi- 

 cago, and reports finding very much less extracted 

 honey offered than the year before. This is owing to 

 the enforcement of State law requiring the labeling 

 of adulterated honey, thus driving a dishonest com- 

 petitor from the market. While none of the samples 

 taken this winter ha.ve as yet been analyzed, many of 

 them are of those brands which proved genuine in 

 former analyses. 



The most common adulterant of honey is glucose, 

 although adulteration with cane sugar and invert 

 sugar is possible, and sometimes practiced. The 

 adulteration thus ir\r discovered on the Illinois mar- 

 ket has been of the cheapest and most gross kind — 

 glucose flavored with a small slice of honey in comb. 



See also page 652, 1899. 



STARTING BEES INTO SECTIONS. 



Hiving Swarms on Full Combs and Starters; Hive- 

 Covers; some Peculiarities of the Colorado 

 Climate ; Welting Sections for Folding. 



BY M. A. GILIv. 



In advising the use of an extracting-super 

 to start to work in sections, are you not aware 

 that thousands of us bee keepers do not have 

 an extracting-super on the place ? I would 

 advise any bee keeper working for comb hon- 

 ey to exchange supers with colonies that are 

 tardy about working in sections with one that 

 has raa.A& a good start, a.nd be sure to carry 

 along some of the comb-builders (young bees) 

 which are the last to leave the super. The 

 colony given the super with full sheets of 



foundation will at once resume work, from 

 the force of the same habit you say they have 

 acquired by the use of your extracting-super. 



Dr. Miller asks you how many days after 

 the extracting-super is given before they will 

 start work in the sections. I would say that 

 depends upon two conditions — namely — the 

 condition in the brood-chamber, and the other 

 condition in the field. 



If the brood-chamber is full of brood, and 

 running over with bees, and the conditions in 

 the field are such that honey is coming in, 

 they will start at once ; otherwise they will 

 wait until these conditions do exist, even if it 

 takes all summer. I prefer to work for those 

 conditions that force the bees into the sections, 

 rather than to bait them, although I have just 

 finished filling 500 supers with drawn comb 

 for the first round. 



On page 239 Dr. Miller advises using full 

 combs and dummies to hive swarms upon. 

 Some one has said starters for the expert, and 

 full sheets of foundation for the novice, in 

 hiving swarms, but never full frames of comb 

 when working for comb honey. Somehow 

 my experience just fits the above advice, and 

 I feel like saying amen to it. If I have full 

 combs for young swarms I cut them out and 

 make them into wax, leaving from one to two 

 inches of comb along the top-bar ; this strip 

 will be stored full of honey within a very few 

 hours after hiving, and then you have just the 

 proper condition for getting honey in the sec- 

 tions, for the bees will commence building 

 comb upon each side of these narrow combs 

 of stored honey, and the queen will occupy 

 the new comb being built in the brood-combs; 

 and the honey coming in is thus forced into 

 the sections. I frequently get two supers of 

 comb honey by the time the brood-chamber is 

 filled. 



Some will say I will get too much drone 

 comb built. If the queens are old, and will 

 perhaps be superseded that season, such will 

 be the case. But there will be a time the next 

 season, between hay and grass, which, in fact, 

 is just the time for spreading brood, when 

 these combs will be empty or nearly so, if 

 kept at the outside of the hive ; then take 

 them out and exchange with full sheets of 

 foundation. This is the only time I use full 

 sheets in the brood chamber when working 

 for comb honey. The combs taken out are 

 made into wax. There are certain times when 

 the construction of comb is not as expensive 

 as some have been led to believe. As a rule, 

 I think bee-keepers could make much more 

 wax than is made. 



On page 233 you speak of a new cover you 

 have adopted for hot climates. Along this 

 line I wish to say that the best flat cover ever 

 put out for this climate was the old y& inch 

 thick, with grip on each end. and painted on 

 both sides so as to be reversible. The Hig- 

 ginsville and Danz. covers are not the thing 

 for this climate, and neither will be the cover 

 you have adopted, as I understand it is simply 

 your old flat cover covered with paper. Here 

 we winter out of doors, and sealed covers are 

 not the thing. With two or three thicknesses 

 of burlap, and an air chamber, our bees win- 



