June 22, 190S 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



437 



^ (£ontribiitcb ^- 

 Special Clrttcles 



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Making a Bee-Hat— Hiving Swarms 



BY C. E. MEAD 



EVERY one likes his own fixings. A hot bee-veil is as bad 

 as being stung, for some folks. 

 Take a strip of blaci wire-cloth 6 or 7 inches wide, 

 depending upon the length of your neck. Make a hoop of it 

 that will just go around the outer rim of a straw hat. Sew 

 the top edge of the wire-cloth to the edge of the brim 

 of the hat. Sew a cylinder of mosquito-baron the lower 

 edge of the wire, and cut it out so it will fit over the shoulders. 

 Bind the lower edge with cloth having some B B shot or 

 gravel stones in the lower edge. Put it on and button your 

 vest, and your face is safe and cool. Air will go through wire- 

 cloth and not through veiling. You can see through black 

 better than any other shade. To those who do not wear vests 

 in hot weather, sew two pieces of tape to the back flap just 

 where it will come under the arms, and tie over the front or 

 breast-flap. 



HIVING INACCESSIBLE SWARMS. 



The first swarm I ever hived was in as bad a place as I 

 ever saw. It was on the trunk of an apple-tree that had the 

 top broken off by the wind, and the sprouts had grown on the 

 trunk from 2}4 inches thick and less. An old bee-keeper told 

 me mashed burdock leaves wet were offensive to bees. So I 

 took a butter firkin, holding about S gallons, and sprung sticks 

 in, which were cut a little larger than the diameter. My 

 companion sprung two of the largest of the sprouts apart and 

 outward, and we put the firkin in against the trunk, then 

 packed burdock leaves right behind the firkin and next to the 

 trunk, so that the bees could not get in there. Then we made 

 an oblique circle of burdock leaves around the trunk, the 

 highest point meeting the packing between the firkin and the 

 trunk. A few bees were put up in the firkin on a sprout, and 

 then by the use of a burning rag on the opposite side from the 

 firkin they were soon stampeded into it. 



We carefully spread the sprouts and took the firkin, with 

 a board under it, to the bee-house where we turned it head 

 down, put two sticks on top, and sot the hive on them, and let 

 the bees run up into the hive. 



You can put a light box or basket, open end down, on tup 

 of a limb that is too big to shake, and let the bees run up into 

 that. Then hive 'o suit. With a branch that you can shake 

 or jar the bees off by bumping, just hold a light box under it 

 and then shake them into it, place the hive over the box, 

 covering the surplus space with a board, and let them run up. 



A good way is to put two empty hive-bodies where you 

 wish to have the bees stay. Dump the bees into them and 

 set the hive, with frames, on top of the two bodies, and put 

 on the cover. Remove the two lower bodies in from S to 7 

 days afterward, and put on surplus room, if the season de- 

 mands it. If the bees are the least bit cross, sprinkle them 

 well with sweetened water. They do not care to sting with 

 honey-sacs full. Cook Co., III. 



What Is Honey ?— Definitions Reviewed 



BY DAVE S. DUNLOP 



THE question. What is honey ? is one with which cheujists 

 as chemists have no concern, and can have no authority. 



The question, Whatis honey ? can be answered only by — 

 1st, the naturalistor student of beelife from a scientificstan<l- 

 point ; 2d, the man who deals in honey as a commercial prod- 

 uct — bee-keeper, honey commission merchant ; and 3d, the 

 purchaser or consumer of honey — the average mortal. 



Prof. Eaton, at the Chicago-Northwestern convention last 

 December, said the Department of Agriculture had asked its 

 chemists for a definition of honey. If this statement is exiict, 

 it is very surprising, and the Department of Agriculture is on 

 entirely a wrong track. A chemist, as a chemist, has no more 

 authority to define honey than he has to define water or to 

 define milk. The chemist's work begins just after the delini- 

 tion of a thing has been made. His work is to discover con- 

 stituent elements, component parts, their proportion and man- 



ner of combination. Water is not defined as H2 0, but H2 O is 

 said to form water. The definition of water is settled by long 

 usage, and the chemist merely says that in this thing defined as 

 or called water he finds the constituent elements are hydrogen 

 and oxygen in certain proportions rombined in a certain man- 

 ner. Where the water comes from, be it from clouds, the 

 physical geographer and weather liureau are asked about the 

 matter : if from artesian wells, then geologists are consulted 

 about the earth's hidden strata. If it is to be used for manu- 

 facturing purposes, the manufacturer is consulted; if to be 

 used as a beverage the physician Is consulted. But the chem- 

 ist is concerned, as a chemist, neither in the place nor manner 

 of the origin of water except as it affects his calculations or 

 instruments, nor is he concerned with its subsequent use at 

 the time he analyzes it. 



What is true of water is true of milk and everything else. 

 The naturalist defines a mammal and its food secretion which 

 he terms milk. This fluid having been defined by the natur- 

 alist, then, and not till then, does the chemist's work begin. 

 He analyzes to see what this substance called milk consists of. 

 What is true of water and milk and everything else is equally 

 true of honey. The chemist has nothing to do with bee's as a 

 chemist. He has nothing to do with a honey-comb as a comb, 

 for a comb is a physical not a chemical fact. He has nothing 

 to do with flowers, nor with nectar of flowers, nor with sweet- 

 leaf excretions, nor with plant-lice excretions, nor with a bee's 

 manner of collecting nor manner of storing its food. These 

 things are all in the biologists sphere of labor. The natur- 

 alists—the students of bee-life— deal with these matters. He, 

 as a chemist, deals only with substances. Of course, the facts 

 he discovers are very valuable, and aid our practical conduct 

 of life, but this practical application of his knowledge is not 

 to be confused with his laboratory analyses. 



On page 13, are four definitions of honey. The first three, 

 " Honey," " Comb Honey," " Extracted Honey," are all defi- 

 nitions with which a chemist as a chemist has no connection 

 whatever. The naturalist, bee-keeper, honey dealer and con- 

 sumer are the only persons with authority to define these 

 three things. The fourth definition, entitled "Standard 

 Honey," is apparently not honey as a whole, but only a cer- 

 tain kind of honey. Honey would be honey, and be " pure 

 honey," even though it were or were not " standard honey." 

 For their own laboratory use chemists can make as many dif- 

 ferent standards or chemical statements of differing grades of 

 pure honey as their convenience may demand, and bee-keep- 

 ers, nor honey consumers, nor naturalists, would be concerned 

 in the least. But the first three definitions can not be allowed 

 for one moment to be within the province of any analytical 

 chemist. Therefore, are we to assail chemists for these defi- 

 nitions — errors? Is it not more likely that the first three 

 definitions were given the Government Chemists, and they 

 deduced therefrom the fourth statement, which is not a defini- 

 tion, and does not profess to be, but is merely a chemical 

 description of a certain grade of honey ? 



The avicultural bureau, or the customs officials, or the 

 food commissioners, must have made the original definitions 

 of honey, and it is to these authorities rather than the Gov- 

 ernment Chemists, that criticism of errors should be made. 

 Who gave the Bureau of Chemistry the definitions which they 

 sent out? Let us learn this, then we will know to whom to 

 write. A chemist, as a chemist, has no knowledge whatever 

 of the fact that bees gather nectar from flowers. That fact 

 is outside his scientific province, and he would have no au- 

 thority whatever to use that fact in any statement as printed 

 below the three definitions given. 



As to the three definitions of honey, the third, which 

 defines extracted honey, is the nearest to accuracy, but could 

 be made to include more than its originator probably intended, 

 or bee-keepers would allow under the term. The second, 

 which defines comb honey, would include section honey, bulk 

 honey, extracting-frame honey, and brood-frame honey, 

 though usually only section honey is meant when the term 

 "comb honey " is used. But the' first definition of honey in 

 general, which is supposed to include everything entitled to 

 be called honey, is undoubtedly incorrect from the standpoint 

 of the biological scientist, the honey consumer, the honey- 

 dealer, or anybody else. 



It is i)opularly understood, and has been from prehistoric 

 times to the present day, that lioney is the stored natural 

 food of adult bees, whether its llavor were sweet or spoiled, 

 whether it was wholesome or poi-^onous, whether it was white 

 or yellow, or purple. It has always been understood that 

 there were various grades of luany, good, fair, and bad. P)Ut 

 so long as it was a natural product uninterfered with by man 

 or other disturbing factor; soiling as it was j\ist as the 

 bees stored it, it was pure honey oven though ouly fit to be 

 made into honey-vinegar. Milk is pure milk no matter ifiin 



