1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



279 



Question;) 'Box^ 



In the tnultitude of counsellors there is 

 safety. — Prov. 11-14. 



Winter " Honey ".Produclion- 

 Will Old.Tinie Honcy-!!!>ca. 

 sons Return 'i 



Query 11.— 1. Could bees produce honey 

 In January, if they were kept In a warm 

 building and fed bountifully on sugar syrup ? 

 I am told It is being done here in Ohio, and 

 the honey sold for one-flfth the price of gen- 

 uine comb honey. 



2. Do 5-ou thinli the time will ever come 

 again when bees will do as well as they did 10 

 or 12 years ago 1 I mean in the locality of 

 Ohio.— CoLnMBtrs. 



G. M. Doolittle— 1. This is a " fake." 

 2. Possibly, if the same conditions exist. 



R. L. Taylor— 1. I guess not. One- 

 fifth the price ! Poppycock. 2. Yes, 

 surely. 



W. R. Graham— 1. Bees cannot mafce 

 honey out of sugar. 2. I see no reason 

 why they should not. 



Prof. A. J. Cook— 1. Not long. The 

 bees would soon go where the wildwood 

 twineth. 2. I do not. Man destroys 

 more bloom than he adds. 



Rev. M. Mahin— 1. No. 2. I do not 

 know how it may be in Ohio, but I do 

 not expect them ever to do as well in 

 Indiana as they did in earlier years. 



B. Taylor— 1. I don't believe they 

 could. 2. I do not know. Here in 

 Southern Minnesota I have but little 

 hope of again reaping old-time honey- 

 crops. 



Mrs. L. Harrison— 1. No ! Honey is 

 the product of flowers. The Creator 

 never intended bees to be fed like pigs. 

 2. Solomon says, " What has been will 

 be again." 



W. G. Larrabee — 1. I don't know. I 

 am afraid there is some mistake about 

 this, for the sugar can't be bought for 

 one-fifth the price of comb honey. 2. I 

 don't know, but I am afraid not. 



J. M. Hambaugh — 1. No. It would 

 simply be sugar syrup, and should re- 

 ceive the condemnation of all honey- 

 producers. 2. In some localities, yes ; 

 others, no. Generally speaking, I fear 

 not. 



E. Prance — 1. No. Bees do not make 

 honey if you feed sugar syrup. The bees 

 will store it the same as you give them. 

 2. No. The timber is cut off, the fields 

 are cultivated, the old-time bee-pastures 

 are destroyed. 



H. D. Cutting— 1. If you know Just 

 "a little bit" about bees, does it look 

 reasonable to you ? Don't believe it for 

 a moment. 2. I will not venture an 

 opinion, but I would like to see two wet 

 seasons in succession. 



C. H. Dibbern — 1. I see no reason 

 why " honey" could not be produced as 

 suggested in January, but I am sure it 

 would not te profitable at double the 

 usual price. 2. Yes, the good years 

 will surely come again. 



G. W. Demaree— 1. Certainly not. It 

 would be out of " season " in the month 

 of January for bees to build combs if the 

 thing was possible at all. It is evident 



that that scientific " sugar-honey " idea 

 — bees "making honey "out of sugar — 

 will " bear fruit " for some time to come. 

 2. It will depend much upon the pecu- 

 liar turn agriculture may take. I don't 

 know about Ohio. But here in blue- 

 grass Kentucky the tobacco crop is de- 

 stroying bee-forage. 



Dr. J. P. H. Brown— 1. No. Sugar 

 syrup would still be sugar syrup, though 

 deposited in the comb. 2. I don't see 

 why they shouldn't do as well if the 

 same conditions could be restored. Here 

 is a big field for bee-savants to explore. 



Dr. C. C. Miller- 1. I don't believe it. 

 Even if I believed any one could get the 

 honey produced they wouldn't be such 

 fools as to sell for 3 cents a pound. 

 Wouldn't need to, and would lose big 

 money by it. 2. I don't know any rea- 

 son why it may not come again. 



Emerson T. Abbott — 1. Bees cannot 

 produce honey out of sugar syrup in 

 January, nor at any other time. We 

 hear a great many things in these days 

 that are not so. A vast deal of the 

 "honey" made out of sugar syrup is 

 the result of an over-fertile imagination. 

 2. I do not know anything about the 

 possibilities of honey in Ohio. 



Allen Pringle — 1. No. Neither in 

 January nor in any other month can 

 bees produce honey from sugar syrup. 

 Don't try to do it, or advise anybody else 

 to try. 2. The Ohio men must answer 

 this question. T do not think bees will 

 ever do as well again in any locality 

 where the forests have disappeared, 

 without special planting and sowing. 



P. H. Elwood — 1. This is as bad as 

 the artificial comb''and glucose filling. 

 The capacity of the average man for 

 being humbugged is great, or such 

 stories could never circulate. 2. Not if 

 your forage has been destroyed. If not, 

 old crops will return. However, we are 

 apt to remember the large crops longer 

 than the small ones or the failures. Not 

 all sunshine years ago. 



Eugene Secor — 1. I advise you to try 

 that yourself on one colony ; and when 

 you have produced the first 10 pounds 

 of honey, you will know that you can't 

 believe all you hear or read. If it does 

 not cost you 5 times the price of honey, 

 I'll miss my guess. 



" Behold, we Isnow not anything; 



1 can but trust that good shall fall 

 At last— far off— at last, to all— 



And every winter change to spring." 



—Tennyson. 



J. E. Pond— 1. I don't think it would 

 be practicable to do so. At any rate 

 they can't produce honey from sugar 

 syrup. 2. I do not know of any reason 

 why they will not. Bee-keepers owe all 

 the trouble there is in the matter to 

 themselves. When they learn wisdom 

 from sad experience, times will improve. 

 It is just such matters as are involved in 

 Part 1 of this question, that causes 

 much of the trouble that now exists. 



James A. Stone — 1. I would not think 

 the colony would be strong enough to 

 gather any surplus syrup at that time. 

 As to honey, they never can gather or 

 produce it from sugar syrup. Keep your 

 ears open and you can Itcar anything. 

 But if a beekeeper is doing what " Co- 

 lumbus " is told is being done, he ought 

 to, and will be, boycotted. 2. Yes. 

 When bee-keepers learn that their bees 

 must have pasturage the same as their 

 animals. 



Mr. L. D. Stilson, editor of the Nebraska 

 Bee-Keeper, reported, April 17, that " Bees 

 are doing Ijnely this spring." That's the 

 general report up to this time — April 18. 

 Hope it will continue. 



Dr. C. C. Miller, of Marengo, III., has 

 been appointed a commissioner to the Pres- 

 byterian General Assembly which meets 

 for about 10 days at Saratoga, N. Y., May 

 31. It is the highest honor conferred on a 

 layman in the Presbyterian church. And 

 the Doctor well deserves it. 



Mr. Allen Pringle, of Selby, Ont., in 

 the April Review, lets the daylight in upon 

 the doings of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation. Some things will hardly bear 

 the light of day, and we'll be glad to see 

 how the Ontario stands it. Mr. Pringle 

 usually knows his ground before he stands 

 upjn it. 



Editor HuTcmusoN, of the Review, ex- 

 pects to attend the meeting of the Philadel- 

 phia Bee-Keepers' Association, May 16. and 

 read an essay on "The Production of Comb 

 and Extracted Honey." Every bee-keeper 

 within 100 miles of the " City of Brotherly 

 Love," ought to be present to meet and 

 hear Mr. Hutchinson. 



Mrs. J. M. Null, of Miami, Mo., we re- 

 gret to learn, has been sick all the past 

 winter, and under the doctor's tender care. 

 Mrs. Null is one of Missouri's best bee-keep- 

 ers, and could tell quite an experience it 

 she were so inclined. We hope she may 

 speedily recover, and be equal to her former 

 self, when we had the pleasure of meeting 

 her— at the World's Fair and St. Joseph 

 conventions of the North American. 



Mr. Hasty, in Review, asks us what we 

 would advise him to do, seeing he is over 

 200 pages in arrears in reviewing the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. We would advise him to 

 do just as be pleases, and we will promise 

 to be satisfied. So now he can't go wrong. 

 But if Mr. Hasty attempts to recapitulate 

 all the good things some people say they 

 find in the Bee Journal, he'll not run out of 

 material for bis Review department very 

 soon. 



Mrs. J. N. Heater, of Columbus, Nebr., 

 spent the winter in the South with Mr. 

 Heater, returning home about April 15. 

 She found her bees in fine condition, not a 

 single colony lost in wintering. Mrs. H. is 

 probably the most prominent lady bee- 

 keeper in Nebraska. Our readers know her 

 by her replies in the " Question-Box " for 

 several years past. We had the pleasure of 

 meeting both Mrs. and Mr. Heater at the 

 World's Fair convention. They are a jolly 

 couple. 



Mr. Thomas G. Newman and wife, with 

 their daughter (Mrs. F. H. Chenoweth) and 

 her two children, all started for California 

 last Thursday, April 23. They left the 

 Union Depot at 2:40 p.m., where we went 

 to ■■ see them off," and say good-bye. A 

 number of their friends and relatives went 

 to the station to see that Mr. Newman and 

 family had safely begun their long journey 

 toward the " Land of Sunshine." They ex- 

 pected to reach Los Angeles on Tuesday, 

 April 2S, where they were to spend a day or 

 two, and then continue on their way to San 

 Diego, where they will make their home. 

 Mr. Newman's many bee-keeping friends 

 will be glad to welcome him to California, 

 and Chicago will hardly again ,seem the 

 same to us without him. Our best wishes 

 go with Mr. Newman and family, for many 

 years of good health and happiness in their 

 new home in the " Sunset State." 



