TOB 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



pleasant, and sets gracefully upon their 

 stomachs, they want more, no matter 

 what you call it. 



Honey is not sugar syrup; it is not as 

 sweet. Most honey in this respect is 

 more like glucose, but it has the aroma 

 of flowers ; it has a honey flavor received 

 from the flowers; it contains an acid 

 secreted by the body of the bee, besides 

 another which the nectar contained 

 while in the flowers. 



Some honey is all grape-sugar, while 

 other kinds are part grape and part 

 cane. Some varieties have too much 

 flavor from the flowers, and some not 

 enough. Perhaps some might be im- 

 proved if the bees were fed granulated 

 sugar syrup while filling the sections, 

 but it does not pay. People are willing 

 to pay a confectioner for candy from 

 three to six times the price of the sugar 

 he used in making it, but very erro- 

 neously suppose the bee-keeper and his 

 bees can work it over into honey for 

 nothing. When sugar is worth more 

 than honey, they suppose the same 

 thing. 



The facts are that sugar never was, is 

 not now, and likely never will be so 

 cheap that the bee-keeper can devote 

 his capital, time and bees to it at as 

 great a profit as to devote, all three to 

 the gathering of honey from the blos- 

 soms. 



If some of the time spent in talking 

 and thinking about adulteration was 

 spent in studying how to produce rich, 

 ripe honey, and keep it so, we would not 

 not hear so much about impurity and 

 adulteration of our product, coming 

 from consumers. 



The present cheap sugar can be very 

 profitably employed in wintering bees ; 

 and this brings nie to a few thoughts on 

 the system of contraction, first discovered 

 and practically used by Messrs. Oatman 

 Brothers, and published by myself after 

 having experimented with and profitably 

 used it several seasons. 



In consideration of the fact that 

 rightly-prepared sugar syrup is much 

 safer than honey as a Winter food for 

 bees, at its present low price, togcither 

 with the advantages gained in the 

 quantity of surplus honey realized by 

 such use, it pays well to practice the 

 contracting system. 



Some writers do not perceives that we 

 gain anytliing by the above practice in 

 surplus honey, except what we lose in 

 the brood-chamber. Those who oppose 

 contractioii Juive so assert(sd, but tli(\v 

 have [jroved nothing. You cannot for- 

 ever go down-hill, but there will come 

 times when you must go up. You can- 



not practice contraction at one time of 

 the year without practicing expansion 

 at another. 



Now, what does this mean ? Not 

 alone that you force the best honey out 

 of the brood-chamber and into the sur- 

 plus sections, but that you breed bees to 

 become producers instead of consumers. 

 At a certain time of the year you need a 

 large brood-chamber ; at another, a 

 small one, in order to economically 

 breed bees for a purpose. The success- 

 ful practice of contraction must be gov- 

 erned entirely by the honey-flow ; it will 

 vary some in different seasons, and very 

 much more in different localities. Each 

 bee-keeper should understand its laws 

 and principles, when he will need no one 

 to direct his practice. 



In very many localities where the 

 dreaded Winter disease, known as "bee- 

 diarrhea," annually destroys portions of, 

 or whole apiaries, the feeding of sugar 

 syrup, even at the expense, trouble and 

 risk (risk of robbing) will now at the 

 low price of sugar, make it profitable 

 even to extract honey to make room for 

 the syrup. But how much nicer to 

 have the brdod-charabers all ready for 

 the syrup, and the honey it replaces all 

 ready for market, without such labor, 

 trouble and risk ; and that is just what 

 contraction accomplishes, in addition tc 

 its other uses. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



[*If the term laying-worker is used, 

 no one can misunderstand it. To call it 

 a " fertile worker " is misleading. — Ed.] 



Mm Bees at Fairs. 



W. C. FRAZIEK. 



At present there is some discussion in 

 the bee-world concerning the Judging of 

 bees at Fairs. As I have hail some- 

 thing to do for some years with the 

 management of Fairs, both local and 

 State, I will contribute my mite. 



Sto(,'k of almost all kinds has a stand- 

 ard by which it is judged ; in this re- 

 spect the bees are behind other stock — 

 they have no standard. 



VVliilo the scale of points as adopted 

 by the North American Bee-Keepers' 

 Association might do for the breeder in 

 his yards, and after having wintered a 

 queen and used her through oiu; honey 

 season, he might be able to form a 

 pretty correct opinion of how near she 

 would c()nu>, to filling the bill (though 

 not one in ton could apply it correctly). 



