i889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



815 



ments are almost constantly coming and 

 going ; and the fact that they often disap- 

 pear very suddenly, without any apparent 

 cause, should lead us to be slow in deciding 

 that it was bee-stings or any sort of medi- 

 cine that produced the result. 



GREAT IS TRUTH, AND WILL, PREVAIL. 



I inclose a clipping- from the Farm, Field, and 

 Stockman, of Chicago, Sept. 28. I am happy to 

 see that there are some editors that are ready 

 to stand by the truth in this matter, instead 

 of gathering up the slander that has been tak- 

 ing the rounds of the press; and I feel that it is 

 our duty to express our thanks to all such, as much 

 as it is our duty to express our disgust and indigna- 

 tion to all such as are ready to publish lies and slan- 

 der concerning our honest and reputable industry. 



Bluffton, Mo., Oct. 1, 1889. S. E. Miller. 



The idea that comb honey is ever manufactured 

 is as absurd as it is false, and has been refuted so 

 many times that further denial seems superfluous, 

 and yet we occasionally see a newspaper with an 

 article on glucose and parafflne, and the American 

 Encyclopedia contains a rehash of the same old 

 slander. The fools aren't all dead yet. 



The tide is changed. We have now good 

 live substantial periodicals, outside of bee- 

 journals, that are championing the cause of 

 bee-keepers. In the name of bee-keepers 

 we desire to thank the Farm, Field, and 

 Stockman, and we hope they will continue to 

 use their large influence in contradicting 

 the manufactured -comb- honey nonsense. 

 Let bee-keepers also follow up and refute 

 every such slander upon our good people. 



ANOTHER RED-CLOVER STRAIN. 



The honey season in spring was short, but we 

 had considerable clover honey. I think I must 

 have a " red-clover " strain too. The progeny of 

 my first queen (a leather-colored one, and the best 

 1 ever had), about S colonies of Italians and hybrids, 

 went '.Wt miles to a 20 acre field, and these same 

 bees have stored sweet honey the past 8 weeks, 

 while the rest have worked on bitterweed. Since 

 July, the sources have seemed to be peaches and 

 bitterweed. Goldenrod and aster are now yielding 

 some very nice honey. There has been some 

 swarming, but they are to-day killing drones. 1 ex- 

 tracted last week from 5 to V frames per colony 

 from my best strains, weighing as many pounds 

 per frame, leaving lower story full. 



Pontotoc, Miss. C. P. Coffin. 



You have touched upon one valuable 

 trait of the Italians. They are much more 

 disposed to gather sweet honey, as you term 

 it, than either blacks or hybrids ; and I 

 have seen this state of affairs so many times 

 that I think it can not be a mistake. Now, 

 did any one ever know blacks or hybrids to 

 gather good honey while the Italians were 

 working on an inferior quality from weeds ? 



A BOGUS HONEY-BOOK. 



I will send you a new method of bee-keeping 

 which I gave $1 for, to learn something new; but I 

 got sold. Nelson Haner. 



Cedar Creek, Wis., Aug. 8, 1889. 



With the above comes a little pamphlet of 

 20 pages, copyrighted by Louis CrauxMudge 

 (pronounced Crow Much, we presume), pub- 

 lished in "Appleton," no State given, 1888. 

 Now, some of you may insist that a book of 



only 20 pages may be worth a dollar, after 

 all. Perhaps it may be, but I have never 

 seen such a one. They are usually made up 

 about as this book is. We will take three 

 paragraphs for a sample. 



Foundation Comb.— A great many people pay 

 out money foolishly for foundation comb, when it 

 can be made for the mere price of the wax and at 

 home. I know full well the artificial cells are all re- 

 modeled, and a plain surface is the best for bees to 

 start with. Take pure beeswax, melt and pour it in 

 flat pans. Make it about )i inch thick. Cut it in 

 squares to fit frames. Take a tine needle and thread, 

 and sew it in frames. A few stitches will do. The 

 bees will soon fasten the comb to suit themselves. 

 The above will save you many a dollar. 



Friend Mudge has also a bee-compound. 

 I have not learned how much a bottle costs ; 

 but if used without his druggist's prescrip- 

 tion he intimates that it will cost not less 

 than $500, for on the last page we read : 



A reward of $ 500 will be paid for the conviction of 

 any one using the above without my permission. 



Here is another item, in regard to extract- 

 ed honey : 



EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Uncap the cells with a warm knife, put the comb 

 in a sheet, hang it up in a warm room where there 

 are no Hies, and allow it to drip in a pan; stir the 

 comb at intervals. When honey makes a person 

 sick, boil and skim it before using. This will pre- 

 vent it. 



It is very fortunate that friend Mudge in- 

 serted the two last sentences ; for such ex- 

 tracted honey would be quite apt to make 

 almost anybody sick. 



"PROLIFICKS." 



I wish to say that I admire Gleanings, and the 

 free hearted manner in which you write about man- 

 ners and things. I was about as much shocked 

 when I came here from York State to see the man- 

 ner the Sabbath was kept as you were in Milwau- 

 kee by the girls playing ball. 



I found a swarm in the wood. " Prolifieks " I call 

 them. They are a large bee, and work on red clo- 

 ver. I had two swarms this spring from them. I 

 now have IT in all, from those two. No. 1 cast 4 

 swarms. The first of those 4 cast four more; one 

 of those last four cast one swarm, and this last one 

 sent off another— eleven in all. 1 never saw the 

 like before. George Peck. 



Snow, Wis., Sept. 30, 1889. 



WHY DIDN'T THE BEES TAKE THE FEED? 



T undertook to feed back some of my uncapped 

 honey about the first week in September. The bees 

 made a rush for it, and would cluster thickly upon 

 the combs, but would carry none of the honey into 

 the hive. They have plenty of brood in all stages, 

 also some uncapped honey in their hive. Why do 

 they refuse to take the proffered feed? 



Gordon, O., Sept. 9, 1889. F. A. Myers. 



Without more particulars it is a hard mat- 

 ter for us to say why the bees did not carry 

 any of the honey into their hives. If you un- 

 dertook to feed when honey was coming in 

 from the fields, of course the bees would 

 pay little or no attention to it. We presume 

 you put the combs in the open air, although 

 you do not say so directly. If you set them 

 in upper stories, very likely the bees decided 

 the honey was well enough as it was, for it 

 was their property already. In such cases 

 they often refuse to move it into combs in the 

 brood-nest below, unless only a small hole is 



