November, 1915. 



American ^ee Journal 



bees, and upon being told beet sugar, 

 she told us that in California they had 

 found beet sugar killed bees. Imme- 

 diately we changed to cane sugar, and 

 thenceforth those bees began to thrive, 

 and rebuilt up to a fine, strong colony. 



I am wondering if Dr. Phillips, Uncle 

 Sam's beeman, has any information on 

 this question ? 



Kansas City, Mo. 



-^•■^ 



Some Public Misstatements 



BY A. F. BONNEY. 



Answer fo the " I\:tfifiinier.'^ 



•« BkLEASE give a brief discussion 

 l* of honey and tell from what 

 ' sources it is derived. Ans. This 

 food product which is deposited by 

 bees in the honey-comb is a sweet, 

 thick liquid. It is clear and transparent, 

 but when kept for some time it solidi- 

 fies into a granular white mass. The 

 sweet juices of flowers are collected by 

 neuter bees and deposited in their 

 honey-bags where they undergo certain 

 chemical changes which convert them 

 into honey. 



" Honey produced by young bees is 

 called 'virgin honey.' Older bees pro- 

 duce honey that is more or less yellow 

 in color. The flavor of honey depends 

 largely on the plants from which it is 

 obtained. Clover and other plants are 

 often cultivated near big apiaries to 

 serve as bee food. Clover is a favorite 

 for this purpose because honey made 

 from its blossoms is almost pure white 

 and the flavor is excellent. Honey is 

 a valuable article of food and also has 

 a medicinal value. Honey is sometimes 

 produced artificially from glucose." — 

 Pathfinder. 



Editor of Pathfinder, 



Washington, D. C. 



Dear Sir : — I know you will pardon 

 me when I call your attention to some 

 misstatements in the above quotation 

 from your issue of July 1. 



" Honey produced by young bees " is 

 not whiter than that deposited by older 

 bees, and the term " virgin honey" is a> 

 obsolete as is pounding tin pans to 

 make a swarm come to the ground. 

 The color of honey depends entirely 

 upon its origin. That from white 

 clover, basswood, sweet clover and 

 some other plants is "white;" that is, 

 almost colorless, while that from hearts- 

 easeis " amber" colored, and the honey 

 from buckwheat is very dark. The 

 flavor of honey depends entirely upon 

 its origin, and experts in honey can 

 form a very close idea as to the source 

 from sample offered. 



I know of no case where plants have 

 been raised solely as a honey supply, 

 save only sweet clover, which beekeep- 

 ers have put into waste places until 

 there is a great deal of it. In this part 

 of the country not much surplus is 

 secured from it, but it is a source of 

 honey after the white clover ceases to 

 yield. 



If you will take the United States 

 Dispensatory for it, honey has no me- 

 dicinal value. Formerly it was used a 

 great deal in making "pill mass," but 

 in 30 years experience as a druggist, I 

 have never had occasion to dispense it 

 as a medicine. 



"Honey is sometimes produced arti- 

 ficially from glucose." Pardon me, 



but that is awfully funny. Honey is 

 glucose, pure, while the glucose you 

 probably allude to, corn syrup, is made 

 by treating starch with dilute sulphuric 

 acid. This murderous chemical com- 



pound was formerly used to adulterate 

 honey, but since the passage of the 

 pure food laws there is but little if any- 

 thing of the kind on the market. 

 Buck Grove, Iowa. 



Dr. Miller's ^ Answers^ 



Send Questions either to the office of the .'American Pee Journal or direct to 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, \\.\. 



He does not answer bee-keepine questions by mail. 



Miscellaneous Questions 



1. From one source I have it that in the 

 early part of the season, when hives are full 

 of bees, in addingafull-depthsuper.it makes 

 no difference whether it is placed above or 

 below. Another advocates putting it always 

 below, especially in case of comb honey 

 supers having already been put upon the 

 original hive, and claims that this alone 

 prevents swarming in about half the cases. 



2. In a few of my colonies a day or two 

 ago. I noticed three or four queen-cells open 

 at one end. showing normal exit of queen, 

 and. besides, as many queen-cells still 

 closed. Do you think that there was a 

 swa'm for every open queen-cell except 

 one ? 



3. In one case I caught the swarm as it was 

 emerging, and was about to put it on the old 

 stand, when I noticed such a state of affairs 

 as just depicted, and then I also saw (in the 

 parent hive) a queen light in body. She 

 skipped on the other side of the frame and 

 then Hew off. Was this her mating flight? 

 Thinking so. I did not change the position of 

 the hive, as the queen, on returning, prob- 

 ably would have gone into the wrong hive. 

 What do you think of this ? Kentucky. 



Answers.— I. Putting an empty story un- 

 der the body, with sections over brood, 

 would hardly work satisfactorily, for the 

 bees would be likely to do little or nothing 

 in the sections until both stories below were 

 filled. For extracted honey it would be a 

 different story. Indeed, it is exactly the 

 Demaree plan to prevent swarming, pro- 

 vided an excluder is put between the two 

 stories, the queen being in the empty story 

 below the excluder. 



2, It is possible that a swarm had issued 

 for each but one vacated cell, but it is more 

 likely that no swarm had issued with a vir- 

 gin, but that a royal battle had occurred, 

 with only one survivor. 



3. It may have been her mating flight, but 

 more likely it was a flight from fright. 



A Sulking Swarm 



I had a swarm that alighted near the top 

 of a tall walnut tree, then very strangely, for 

 tfie queen's wings were not clipped, the 

 swarm returned. Ihis swarm had a tremen- 

 dous lot of bees. On examining the hive I 

 found lots of queen-cells, and I put all but 

 two or three of the frames containing 

 queen cells into another hive-body. Before 

 1 set this aside 1 placed it on top of the 

 parent hive with an excluder between. In 

 about an hour I set this aside of the parent 

 hive and placed on the latter two supers so 

 as to afford plenty of room. The swarm is 

 in the cell-less hive. Now. in spite of two 

 days of rain lots of the bees insist upon 

 hanging outside at the entrance and on the 

 front wall. How would you manage this 

 situation '> Pennsylvania. 



Answer.— I suppose you mean to ask how 

 I would manage so that that swarm would 

 go to work instead of sulking. The frames 

 with lots of queen-cells you put in another 

 hive, and presumably you set this on a new 

 stand with enough bees to care for the 

 brood. The main point is that you left with 

 that very strong swarm all frames that had 

 no queen-cells on them. If there were any 



considerable number of them, that would 

 mean a good deal of brood, making the bees 

 feel, if you will allow the expression, as if 

 they had not yet swarmed. The manage- 

 ment I would suggest would be to take away 

 all but one of those frames of brood, possi- 

 bly returning them a week or ten days later. 

 That miglit suggest to them that the swarm- 

 ing business was all attended to. and it was 

 up to them to go to work. 



Dark Honey— Ventilation 



I am mailing you a small package of dark 

 amber honey, which our bees are gathering. 

 We have white sweet clover and goldenrod 

 near at hand. 



\. 1 am very desirous to know from what 

 source this dark rank honey is obtained and 

 if it may with safety be used for winter feed. 

 It is a delicious article after raising its tem- 

 perature to about i8o degrees Fahr. for one- 

 half or three-fourths hour. 



2. What do you think of ventilation at the 

 top of a hive in winter ? Is it important, 

 and if so would it not be proper to cut a 2- 

 inch hole through a quilt and place the cloth 

 cushions filled with cork chips on top of 

 this ? I use table oilcloth for quilts in sum- 

 mer and winter. Is there anything better ? 



Indiana. 



Answers —I. I am sorry to say that I am a 

 poor judge as to different kinds of honey. 

 My guess would be that this is a mixture of 

 different honeys, possibly of all the kinds 

 you mention. You do not mention asters. 

 Some have found aster very bad for winter; 

 and if you do not have considerable of that 

 kind of honey I should not feel very anxious 

 as to ttie other honeys you mention for win- 

 ter stores. 



2. There is a decided difference of opin- 

 ion as to the matter of upward ventilation 

 in winter; some reporting success with 

 sealed covering, others reporting disaster. 

 In either case it is important to have warm 

 covering overhead for outdoor wintering. 

 You may be on the safer side not to have all 

 sealed tight, and the plan you propose may 

 work all right. I used oilcloth, same as you 

 for years, but for many years past have had 

 no covering over brood-frames except the 

 hive cover, and this method I like better. 

 But it must be remembered that I winter in 

 cellar. 



Probably a Fake 



The enclosed clipping is from the South 

 ern Ruralist for Aug. is What does the 

 man mean? I do not understand ai all It 

 seems to me he must be crazy. I thought 

 the pure food law totbide the use! of sugar 

 in such a way. Tennessee. 



Answer —Among other things, the clip- 

 ping contains the following: 



" 1 will now proceed to explain my experi 

 ments with 'sugar syrup' feeding, to pro- 

 duce nice section or box honey, even in sea- 

 sons when the natural honey and flowers 



fail Last season, when our honey 



flow was a total failure. 1 had gas run into 

 my bee house, made 25 special feeders to go 



