1896. 



THE AME 



RIC^N 



BEE JOURNAL. 



373 



taken from a bee-tree cut in the month of August, many years 

 ago, about 50 miles south of this place. Two of the party 

 died, but the third man recovered, and himself related the in- 

 cident to my informant. He said that there was very little 

 honey found in the tree, and that in eating it, they necessarily 

 consumed a good deal of " bee-bread." 



Perhaps in the above incident lies material for a reconcil- 

 liation of conflicting theories as to poisonous honey. My own 

 observation convinces me that honey gathered from ountain 

 laurel is not poisonous. But history and many well-attested 

 cases support the view that persons have been made sick while 

 eating honey. Now, it the pollen gathered from plants oi a 

 toxic nature is poisonous, it would account for the effects said 

 to be produced, and afford an opportunity for harmonizing 

 opposing experiences. 



I have seen some people eating comb honey from box- 

 hives in which there were occasional cells filled with pollen 

 and capped over. Though the taste in such cases is nauseous 

 to my own palate, some persons are not much inconvenienced 

 by the presence of a few cells of pollen. The soldiers of 

 Xenophon, who came upon the bee-hives — perhaps after a 

 long day's march, when they were tired and hungry to the 

 last degree, probably in the scramble of each man for a morsel 

 of honey-comb — did not stop to get rid of a cell of pollen here 

 and there, and so numbers of them fell sick, and the poison 

 which prostrated them may have been in the pollen and not in 

 the honey. 



My own firm belief is, that the Creator, who made the 

 honey-bee for man's use, has so arranged the order of Nature 

 that man will find in the use of the honey gathered by this 

 insect nothing to destroy life. Pollen was not intended to be 

 eaten. Its unpleasant taste under ordinary circumstances 

 would cause it to be Instantly rejected. 



It is to be hoped that the editor will invite those of his 

 readers who have had any experience "along this line," or 

 who know of well-authenticated cases of poisoning from the 

 use of honey, to make inquiries whether it was from eating 

 comb or extracted honey, and if comb honey was consumed, 

 whether pollen was not present in the honey eaten ; and to 

 report cases and compare notes in the American Bee Journal. 

 The occasional report of " death from eating poisonous 

 honey" is not calculated to advance the market quotations. 

 If the result of this investigation should crystallize into a con- 

 viction in the public mind that the only avenue of danger in 

 any case is through consumption of honey in the comb when 

 cells of pollen are present, it might be to the advantage of all. 

 Columbus, Miss. , Novice. 



NOT POSSIBLE FOR BEES TO STORE POISONOUS HONEY. 



Like Novice, on page 146, I was for a long time skeptical 

 concerning the theory of poisonous honey. Notwithstanding 

 a few eminent ones have, all along, asserted that bees gather 

 poisonous honey, and a few instances are recorded where per- 

 sons have apparently been poisoned by it, I must assert that I 

 do not believe it possible for a bee to store poisonous honey in 

 her hive. 



The bee was created for at least a two-fold purpose, viz.: 

 First, for the transmission of pollen from one flower to 

 another. Second, for gathering nectar from the flowers and 

 storing it in combs for food for man. 



While the instinct of the bee borders very closely upon 

 reason, the possibility of her furnishing man with a poisonous 

 diet was not left to instinct alone, but she was so constituted 

 that any substance that would be poisonous to man would be 

 poisonous to her. And the poisonous nectar (if there be such 

 a product) taken into the honey-sac would affect the tissues 

 and kill the bee before she could store it in the hive. I have 

 arrived at this conclusion after experimenting with several 

 poisons, feeding them to bees by dissolving them in honey. 

 In every instance the bee has been affected by the poison to 



that extent that she was not able to return to her hive, and in 

 most cases died within the fatal limit of the poison used. A bee 

 is more easily affected by a poison than is a man. A solution 

 of alcohol so weak that a man could not hold enough of it to 

 make him dizzy, will make a bee so drunk that she cannot get 

 home. Try it, ye Doubting Thomases, and doubt no longer. 

 Don't drink it yourself, but give it to the bee ! 



The mountain laurel and yellow jasmine (Gelsemium 

 sempervirens) are thought by many to produce poisonous nec- 

 tar, simply because their leaves and bark contain a poison. 

 There is a great deal of mountain laurel near one of my api- 

 aries, and the yellow jasmine is seen on every hillside, and 

 along the creeks and branches all around. On their return 

 home it is not easy to tell which 'lee has visited the laurel, but 

 every one that has been in the jasmine blossom is known by 

 her yellow coat. 



The laurel yields honey, and is visited by many bees from 

 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Yellow jasmine blooms here from April 10 

 to the 20th, while several other honey-yielding trees are in 

 bloom, and the bees seem to prefer it to any other. During 

 this time the bees usually store some honey. This is the first 

 honey we get, and as soon as the children find OaC that there 

 is honey coming in, they want some new honey ; and every 

 year we extract some of this half-ripe, watery stuff, and we all 

 eat of it very freely. (We didn't know it was poison.) We 

 sell several tons of honey to our neighbors every year, but 

 never heard of it making any one sick. 



Is it not likely that Dr. Brown has mistaken a case of 

 paralysis for gelsemium poisoning? (See page ISO, Vol. 

 XXXIV.} The symptoms are very much the same. Really, 

 I believe that in his diagnosis of the case under consideration, 

 he gives one symptom that is always present in paralysis, and 

 very rarely, if ever, present in gelsemium poisoning. 



Bessemer, Ala. J C. C. Parsons. 



ACRES OF MOUNTAIN LAUREL. 



Last season I had the care of 45 colonies of bees here 

 which increased to 52. Mountain laurel is everywhere pres- 

 ent, and I presume there was enough in the range of my bees 

 to cover more than 50 acres solid. The bees worked freely on 

 it for two or three weeks in June, at the same time that clover 

 and many other blossoms were at hand. The weather was 

 such that but little honey was secreted in the blossoms, and 

 no surplus was stored in the hives. There was no^evidence of 

 poisonous honey, and I do not learn that there ever^ has been 

 any complaint of poisonous honey here. 



The bees gathered some honey from early blossoms and 

 poplar trees ; then all at once the weather changed, and but 

 little honey was gathered for several weeks, and the bees did 

 not breed very fast until the sourwood blossomed in July. 

 Then in two or three weeks the bees filled up the hives and 

 600 sections. 



This was my first season here. A good many had told 

 me what fine honey the sourwood was, but I felt somewhat 

 skeptical, having always been used to clover and basswood 

 honey. However, I found it very fine, and, Mr. Editor, if you 

 have missed getting a taste of sourwood honey you have 

 missed a fine treat. I believe it is as good as clover honey, 

 and as fine looking. As it comes in warm weather in July, 

 the comb is very delicate. It is also very light in color. 



The fall flow commenced about the first of September, 

 and continued during the month, when a frost put a sudden 

 stop to operations. A large part of this was gathered from 

 Spanish-needles, golden-rod, asters and heart's-ease. There 

 was 900 pounds of this which was quite dark. Part of it 

 was extracted. One of our dealers said he thought it was 

 richer and better than the white honey, and I was willing to 

 have him think so. It seems to give satisfaction, but in some 

 Northern markets it would go begging. 



The Southern markets are poor, and it would be dilBcult 



