March 8, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



147 



I think that Mr. Doolittle reported at one time un- 

 favorably on the use of sectional brood-chamber hives, l)ut 

 that report may have been due to "locality." There is one 

 thing- to be said in favor of the sectional hive — an apiary 

 can be requeened by its use very cheaplj', if properlj' 

 managed. 



Of one thing I am tolerably well convinced, and that is, 

 that the wintering of bees without the necessity of feeding, 

 and the securing of a large amount of surplus, are things 

 which can not be with any certainty combined. The time 

 may come when these results may be approximated, but it 

 will be after more attention has been given to the rearing 

 of our queens. 



I will remark here that there is one other advantage in 

 the use of the sectional brood-chamber hive besides the one 

 above mentioned. Full sheets of foundation in the brood- 

 frames may safely be dispenst with. 



If I lived in Northern Illinois, and were keeping bees 

 with a view to comb-honey production, and wisht to reduce 

 the labor and expense of feeding to insignificant propor- 

 tions, I would use the deep S-frame hives, fill the frames 

 full of wired foundation, and be content with the amount of 

 surplus that Providence and the bees permitted me to have. 

 It is unsafe to hive swarms, or to build up nuclei, in the 

 deep hives or frames having only starters of foundation. 

 The man who tries many different sizes of hives will sooner 

 or later find that the departures from the standard should 

 not be made without mature consideration. 



Decatur Co., Iowa. 



Bees Sting-ing- Farm Stock — What to Do. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



THE readers of the bee-papers will remember Mr. Clark, 

 of San Bernardino Co., Calif., who has had for a good 

 many years a large and very profitable apiary. Mrs. 

 Clark has full charge of the bees, and in certain seasons 

 has done all the work of this large apiary, and has secured 

 very large yields and corresponding profits. I had the 

 pleasure of spending the night with Mr. and Mrs. Clark not 

 long since, and learned of an occurrence which was very 

 interesting to me, and I think will be to most of the readers 

 of the American Bee Journal. 



Mr. Clark has a spring situated some distance to the 

 west of his apiary in the canyon. He had a fine Jersey 

 cow which he used to picket out to feed. The forage was 

 especially good between the apiary and this spring. Mr. 

 Clark observed that the bees were flying toward the spring 

 for water in great numbers, yet the good feed tempted him 

 to picket the cow on this line, as the apiary was some dis- 

 tance from the place, and he apprehended little or no dan- 

 ger. Yet the fact that there were so many bees did raise a 

 question in his mind, but not knowing that cattle were un- 

 like horses, he picketed the cow slightly, so she could get 

 away in case of an attack. 



At night, when Mrs. Clark went to get the cow, she was 

 cold in death, and a great many bees were dead around her. 



There are several facts in this account that I think are 

 of special interest, and should be noted by all bee-keepers. 

 The first, that the instincts of the cow when she is stung 

 will not lead her to run away as would be the case with the 

 horse, and she stands by until stung to death. Mrs. Clark 

 told me the cow was very close to where she was picketed. 

 She had pulled the stake up so she could have run away if 

 she had been so disposed. 



Again, the fact that the attack was so general that 

 most of the colonies in the apiary were very much depleted 

 in numbers. 



Every apiarist has observed that when one bee stings, 

 others, maddened by the odor of the poison, join in the at- 

 tack. But I should not have expected that all the bees of 

 the apiary would thus become so demoralized as seems to 

 have been the case in this experience of Mr. Clark's. I do 

 not think I should have hesitated to have picketed the cow 

 at this place, but I can see now that it would be dangerous. 

 I should have expected the cow to have run away, and 

 should not have lookt for such a general attack. The fact 

 that the bees were going en masse to and from the spring 

 would, of course, tend to make any attack a general one, 

 and that seems to have been the case at the Clark's. The 

 loss was heavy, for not only was the cow killed, but the 

 apiary was seriously injured by the loss of a great number 

 of bees. 



This is the first time that I have ever known of a cow 

 being attackt in this way. I have known several cases of 



horses. Some years ago Dr. Southard, of Michigan, had an 

 accident of this kind. His team ran away and went dash- 

 ing into the apiary, which was situated in a grove. Of 

 cour.se, the horses struck the tre<s and were thrown down, 

 and as the bee-hives were turned bottom side up the horses 

 were terribly attackt. Dr. Southard, being an experienced 

 bee-keeper and also a physician, knew just what to do. He 

 at once liberated the team and led them to the barn, and 

 covered them with blankets which were kept wet with 

 cold water. Altho the horses were terribly stung both of 

 them recovered. 



Here, then, we have another point that is worth remem- 

 bering. Of course, the inflammation and congestion con- 

 sequent upon so many stings would be terrible, and any- 

 thing that would lessen it should be done. The blankets 

 constantly wet in cold water would be one of the best agents 

 to accomplish this. If Mr. Clark had discovered his cow at the 

 beginning of the attack, and had led her into an enclosure, 

 the bees of course would have at once left and would have 

 ceast the attack. If this had been followed by the use of 

 the wet blankets very likely the cow's life could have been 

 saved, even tho she might, at the time, have received thou- 

 sands of stings. 



I was once stung quite seriously myself. Over 80 stings 

 were taken from my face, but by taking means as above to 

 counteract the congestion, I suffered no serious harm, tho I 

 hardly need say I was not exactly comfortable for two or 

 three days. Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Report of the Colorado State Convention. 



rContinued from pag-e 135.] 



ANAI<YSIS OF HONKY. 



Dr. Headden, professor of chemistry at the State Agri- 

 cultural College at Fort Collins, then gave a lecture on the 

 analysis of honey, illustrated by performing actual experi- 

 ments with chemicals, together with an explanation of the 

 polariscope illustrated by one he had with him. It was 

 found impossible to report this lecture, owing partly to the 

 technical nature of the subject, which required complete 

 instead of fragmentary notes to be taken, and partly owing 

 to the constant reference to objects such as solutions, test- 

 tubes, etc., used in the experiments. It was, however, to 

 those who were present to see and hear, a complete and 

 lucid explanation of the theory and practice of both the 

 chemical and dialytical methods of analysis, illustrated by 

 the performance of the actual chemical process, except that 

 the quantities of the ingredients were not measured, as 

 they would be in an analysis. Specimens of dextrose and 

 levulose, the two sugars of honey, were exhibited. 



Among other things. Dr. Headden said that the pres- 

 ence of not more than 10 percent of cane-sugar did not show 

 adulteration, and that he had analyzed sugar syrup fed to 

 bees, and found it wholly inverted. 



[The following digest of Dr. Headden's lecture ap- 

 peared in Gleanings in Bee-Culture for Feb. IS : — Editor.] 



Whatever sugars may be present in the nectar of flowers 

 matters not in answering the question as to what sugars 

 may be present in honey ; for it has been proven by direct 

 experiment that the bee, in imbibing and disgorging the 

 sugar, will invert as good as all of it, even tho it be a pure 

 cane-sugar syrup which is fed. Honey is essentially the 

 solution of invert sugar, composed of approximately equal 

 parts of dextrose, levulose and water. The name applied to 

 such a mixture of sugar when it has been derived by action 

 of a hydrolitic agent upon cane sugar is " invert " sugar, 

 and when occurring as a natural sugar it is called fruit 

 sugar. Usually there is but little cane sugar present in 

 honey, especially in that deposited by the ordinary honey- 

 bee. 



Honey candies upon standing, because of the ability of 

 the dextrose to assume a crystalline form much more readily 

 than the levulose ; therefore, if the candied honey be sub- 

 jected to sufficient pressure the greater portion of the levu- 



