1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



47 



No condition or style of hive was proof against 

 it, for I feel very sure that the disease was in- 

 herent in the honey gathered from some unusual 

 source late in fall. As a proof of this, when over- 

 hauling my dead colonies in the spring, I found 

 quite a showing of uncapped honey in the combs, 

 both sour and bitter, which, when consumed by 

 the bees, would most assuredly produce disease 

 during a long cold winter like the last. 



The honey extractor, I have no doubt, would 

 have proved a remedy, if we only knew when 

 the conditions were upon us, by removing all 

 such honey and casting it to the clogs, and sup- 

 plying its place with coffee sugar-syrup, which, 

 by the way, is the most healthful and complete 

 artificial food I have ever used for bees. 



Athens, 0., July 4, 1872. J. W. Bayard. 



Bees not doing much. A three or four weeks' 

 drought dried up the white clover, our chief 

 source, but I am living in hopes of a good yield 

 from buckwheat. I have forty stocks, all in 

 Langstroth hives, and about half of them Ital- 

 ians, which have done much the best. 



J. L. WoLFENDER. 



Adams, Walworth Co., Wis., July 17, 1872. 



Bees in this section are making very little 

 honey. No new swarms. The drought is general 

 and very severe. H. L. Bush. 



Ottawa, Ills., July 16, 1872. 



Dear Bee Journal : — As I have not seen 

 anything from this section in regard to beekeep- 

 ing, I will drop you a line. There are no exten- 

 sive beekeepers in this vicinity. There are a 

 number of persons that have a few colonies in 

 box hives or round logs. Bees wintered well in 

 this section ; I wintered sixteen colonies out of 

 seventeen on their summer stands, without any 

 protection whatever. As a general thing, bees 

 have not swarmed much here this season ; I left 

 part of mine to swarm, and part I divided. All 

 that I divided are doing well ; I shall practice 

 dividing altogether next season, for I think it 

 much the best way, and saves so much attention 

 during swarming season. My bees are the com- 

 mon black bees; I have not tried the Italians 

 yet. Will close by saying : Success to the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal ! Wm. H. Ball. 



Saybrook, Ills., July 18, 1872. 



Editor op the American Bee Journal : — 

 So far this has been a bad season for bees with 

 me. From the middle of June until the 8th of 

 July, bees in this locality gathered nothing, and 

 before the 1st of July some stocks were so desti- 

 tute that they devoured all their brood to keep 

 themselves from starving. In two or three cases 

 I saw the bees all on the outside of the hive 

 (queen and all), and their owners "knew they 

 would swarm right off;" but you ought to see 

 their lip fall when I turned them over (the hives, 

 I mean) and showed them the inside ! People 

 are beginning around here to own up that the 

 Italians may be (a leetle) better than the blacks. 



J. E. Benjamin. 



Rockford, Iowa, July 17, 1872. 



Bees and Honey in France. 



Honey and wax are harvested twice a year in 

 France. The earlier occurs according to loca- 

 tion, from the latter part of May to the middle 

 of July. This is called the summer harvest, 

 and is usually better both in quantity and qual- 

 ity than the fall harvest. The honey is finer, 

 better flavored, more aromatic and more easily 

 drained from the wax. It is a pure nectar, col- 

 lected from a great variety of flowers, and is 

 little contaminated with pollen, particularly if 

 gathered in supers. 



At the beginning of July the honey harvest is 

 usually at an end in Gatinais, while it is then just 

 beginning in Picardy and at Troyes. In some 

 of the southern departments the harvest com- 

 mences a few weeks earlier than in the northern. 



In the departments of Eure and Loire, the 

 general estimate that the product of a good 

 stock of bees is five per cent, on the capital in- 

 vested. The yield of honey and wax in the four 

 departments, Gironde, Landes, Lot et Garonne, 

 and Dordogne, amounted to about two millions 

 of pounds in the year 1866. In 1867, the sum- 

 mer harvest of honey in Gatinais, amounted to 

 900,0001bs., which was regarded as a fair average 

 yield. 



The fall harvest begins about the 15th of 

 September, and continues till the end of De- 

 cember, according to the greater or less abun- 

 dance of the yield, and the state of the weather. 



At the summer harvest only a portion of the 

 honey and wax is taken, a sufficient supply 

 being always left in the hives to ensure the 

 safety of the colonies in the event of an un- 

 favorable season or a deficiency of pasturage. 

 The largest portion of the honey harvested in 

 the fall, is derived from buckwheat, heather and 

 late blossoming plants ; and is much inferior to 

 the summer honey in quality and flavor. It is 

 also darker in color, and very soon crystallizes. 

 It does not drain so readily from the wax, com- 

 monly requiring heat and pressure to effect a 

 separation, thus deteriorating the product. 



The honey is stored in large vessels or barrels, 

 and care is always taken that the place where it 

 is deposited is dry and warm. Watery honey 

 deposited in a damp place soon spoils, and even 

 the best honey will in time be injured, if exposed 

 to dampness. 



Let the harvest be good or bad, the beekeep- 

 ers always keep honey enough on hand to carry 

 their bees safely through the longest winter. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The July Number. 



Our much esteemed Journal for July is be- 

 fore us, and its contents have been pretty thor- 

 oughly digested. We think it would even as- 

 tonish " Novice" to see the way we "go " for 

 its contents. We find so many good things 

 therein, that we can only briefly notice the most 

 important. We read Mr. Langstroth' s article 

 upon the color of Italian queens, as when first 

 published, nine years ago. " Dronings " makes 



