1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



233 



Mr. Jones was unable to succeed as he wished, and after one 

 or two seasons gave up the project. 



California is liliely to follow in the wake of Mr. Jones with 

 more hope of success. Mr. A. D. D. Wood, so long and favor- 

 ably known as a bee-keeper, dealer in bee-keeping supplies, 

 and queen-breeder, in Michigan, has come to California and 

 proposes to engage solely in the breeding of queens. Mr. 

 Wood is negotiating for the privilege of locating two apiaries 

 on Oatalina Island, one in which he will breed only [talian and 

 the other where he will rear only Carniolan queens. It is 

 hoped that the flora of this island will be such as to warrant 

 the success of this effort. There is little doubt but that the 

 mountains will so break the sea-breezes that there will be no 

 hindrance from winds. Any one who has enjoyed the delight- 

 ful summer weather of Catalina will know that there will be 

 no objection because of too great cold. 



It is to be hoped that the island is large enough so that 

 two apiarie.s — one at each end — can be conducted, and yet 

 there be no intermixture of blood. This is certainly a matter 

 of general interest to bee-keepers, not only in California, but 

 throughout our whole country. 



We are sure that Mr. Wood's undertaking will be watched 

 with interest by bee-keepers all over the country. The bee- 

 keepers, especially of California, are to be congratulated that 

 so able and straightforward a man as Mr. Wood has interested 

 himself in this project. A. J. Cook. 



Grading^ Honey.— In the last Review, Editor Hutch- 

 inson wrote thus in referring to this subject and to the 

 " Miller grading :" 



Grading honey is spoken of in Gleanings for March 15. 

 Mr. Thos. Elliott, of Harvard, 111., uses a grading suggested 

 by Dr. Miller. This was a compromise between the Chicago 

 grading and that proposed at Albany in 1891. In 1892 the 

 North American, in its meeting at Washington, still further 

 " revised " this grading and adopted it. Since then the Re- 

 view has kept this grading at the head of its market column, 

 and it is printed on the blanks sent out to dealers for their 

 use in giving quotations, and quotations are given in con- 

 formity with that grading. The editor of Gleanings suggests 

 that we take up the Miller grading and use it, and says that 

 Gleanings stands ready to co-operate with any of its cotem- 

 poraries. Good ! But why adopt the grading of a private 

 individual (unless it is better) when that adopted by the lead- 

 ing bee-keepers' society of this country has been in use three 

 years by one journal, and during that time not one criticism 

 has been made by dealers or shippers'? If that adopted by 

 the North American has any faults, let them be pointed out 

 and have them corrected at its next meeting; but don't en- 

 courage the use of different sets of rules for grading, and 

 thereby bring in "confusion worse confounded." 



Editor Root, in Gleanings for April 1, copies the above, 

 and comments thus upon it: 



Since Mr. Hutchinson has called my attention to it, I have 

 carefully compared the two gradings side by side; and I must 

 confess that the one he uses, adopted by the Washington 

 North A-uerican, has the advantage in point of briefness. It 

 also has another important advantage— that it has been tried, 

 as Mr. Hutchinson says, three years, and " during that time, 

 not one criticism has been made by dealers or shippers." This 

 is a big point in its favor. In order that our readers may 

 more easily compare the two, I reproduce both the Miller 

 grading and the Washington North American : 



MILLER. 



Fancy.— Combs straight, white, well filled, firmly fastened to wood 

 •on all lour sides: all cells sealed: no pollen, propolis, nor travel-stain. 



No. I .—Wood well scraped, or entirely free from propolis; one side 

 of the section sealed with white cappingrs. free from pollen, and hav- 

 ing all cells sealed except the line of cells next the wood; the other 

 side white, or but slightly discolored, with not more than two cells of 

 pollen, and not more than ten cells unsealed beside the line of cells 

 touching the wood; comb fastened to the wood on four sides, 



No. a.— Three-fourths of the total surface must be filled and 

 sealed ; wood well scraped of propolis. 



No. .'!.— Must weigh at le;i8t half as much as a full-weight section. 



bur the Classes of honey I would suggest the four already in use, 

 sufliciently understood from the names alone; namely, light, ambek, 



DARK, MIXED. 



WASHINGTON. 



Fancy.— All sections to be well filled: combs straight, of even 

 thickness, a.nd firmly attached to all (our sides; both wood and comb 

 unsolled by travel-stain, or othersvise; all the cells sealed except the 

 row of cells next the wood. 



No. 1,— Ail sections well filled, but combs uneven or crooked, de- 

 tached at the bottom, or with but few cells unsealed; both wood and 

 comb unsoiled by travel-stain or otherwise. 



In addition to this the honey Is to be classified according to color, 

 using the terms white, amber, and dark. That is, there will be 

 •' fancy white," " No. 1 dark," etc. 



The reader will readily see thatthe Washington is briefer, 

 and really covers all the Miller grading does, with the excep- 

 tion that it allows for no No. 2. The editors of the bee-jour- 

 nals could easily hitch on such a number if such should be 

 necessary. 



Now, then, it does not seem to me that we need very 

 much discussion. What we need now is action on the part of 

 bee-journals. If a majority of the others agree, I am willing 

 to commence with the Washington North American grading, 

 and put it at the head of our Honey Column, the same as Mr. 

 Hutchinson has been doing. Why do I select the Washington ? 

 Because it has been tested three years, and the other has not 

 been tested at all ; and because it really covers all that is set 

 forth in the Miller grading. I believe that most of the com- 

 mission men who have furnished us quotations, have also 

 furnished them for the Review. That being the case, they 

 could easily adapt themselves to the grading used in the Re- 

 view, in Gleanings. 



If all the editors fall into line, the system will be practi- 

 cally universal ; and thereafter shipper and buyer can desig- 

 nate their honey by this grading. No doubt it will save a 

 good many jangles, and a good deal of descriptive matter re- 

 garding honey that now is necessary. What say you, brother 

 editors? 



The American Bee Journal will gladly co-operate with 

 Gleanings and the Review in this matter. If begun at once, 

 it will be helpful during the approaching season. 



CONDUCTED BY 



DR. C. C mrLLER. ALARMNGO, ILL. 



LQuestlons may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.! 



A Colony that Starved. 



Last spring we started with one colony of bees which 

 swarmed three times. The first swarm got away after being 

 hived twice, and the remaining two we saved. Not wishing 

 for honey, but increase, this spring found the last swarm dead 

 from starvation. On examining the hive there was no brood 

 or queen to be found ; there was about one quart of bees. I 

 looked very carefully over them, but found no trace of the 

 queen or a queen-cell. It seems they neither gathered honey 

 nor reared brood. What was the matter that they had no 

 queen or queen-cell? It seems that they did nothing but 

 build comb, of which there was plenty. There were small 

 clusters of bees woven together with a kind of web, and in this 

 web there were some small red eggs. Do you think there was 

 some insect that fastened the bees together, preventing them 

 from working ? Novice. 



Portland, Oreg. 



Answer. — When bees starve to death the queen is very 

 small, and you might easily miss her. If the bees built work- 

 er-comb, there was pretty certainly a queen present. The 

 web that you found present was the work of the wax-worm 

 probably, and the small red eggs were those of some insect 

 that happened to be present, but probably had nothing to do 

 with the destruction of the colony. 



Robbing Among Bees — Robber-Traps. 



Some one wrote me lately that he finds he can't get much 

 surplus if his hives are all together, i. e., in one yard — "the 

 bees rob from each other so." I had never noticed this among 

 my own bees ; but since the idea has been put into my head, I 

 have been carefully watching, and find now, with a flow just 

 ceasing, that a good deal of what appears to be quiet, sneak- 

 ing robbing seems to be going on — not much fighting with it, 

 either, hardly any — still one-half seems to be quickly robbing 

 from the other half. Is this usual, in your apiaries? It is not 

 the result of carelessness, as many of the hives which appear 

 to be visited by robbers have not been opened for some time. 



My informant also happened to mention that if you find 



