274 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 29, 1906 



fortune in living- so near the Mississippi River, where the 

 bottom-lands always supplied enough pasture to provide the 

 bees with sufficient stores; now I know how to sympathize 

 with the sugar feeders ; especially with those having no 

 regular feeders, but who have to go around and hunt up all 

 sorts of kettles and pans, and borrow them of the neighbors 

 and farmers, and then have to lug them back ! For, un- 

 fortunately, I have no horse ; I use the train to take me to 

 and from my out-yard. 



I prepared something over 185 colonies for winter. I 

 work for comb honey during the white honey season, and 

 then put on an extra brood-chamber, which I leave on until 

 the beginning of the white honey-flow, when I put on the 

 supers with sections. The past season, however, I worked 

 quite a few colonies for extracted honey, but I do not like it 

 as well as working for comb honey, and if I could manage 

 a team better I'd get some horses to haul the comb honey 

 home, and work almost wholly for comb honey. 



The extracted honey I leave at the out-yard, and ship it 

 to market from there. 



I want to wish you success in your wintering and a 

 good honey season, you and Dr. Miller. I suppose you are 

 nearly through with your winter work and almost ready for 

 spring. Cordially yours, 



Cassville, Wis., Feb. IS. Mathilde Candler. 



We are exceedingly obliged to you, Miss Candler, for so 

 good a letter, even if it is so largely occupied with recording 

 failures. We all have " ups and downs," but it is ever so 

 much pleasanter to tell of the " ups." You have now given 

 us the "downs ;" we shall hope for the " ups " from your 

 pen in the near future. 



Bees In Pine Condition 



We have 8 colonies of bees in fine condition. We had 

 10 colonies last summer, but one died from being queenless, 

 and one the Hallowe'en sports stole and emptied the bees 

 out on the road. They got about 25 pounds of honey. Last 

 year was the worst for honey since we have been keeping 

 bees. I have been intending to write to the Sisters' depart- 

 ment for a long time, but have neglected to do so. I always 

 turn to that page first. Mrs. Otto C. Hotze. 



Fleener, Ind., March 12. 



A Sister's Greeting and Clippings 



Dear Miss Wilson :— Thank you very much for get- 

 ting in my chat with the Sister's in such nice shape. Also, 

 for sending us all so lovely a New Year greeting. As the 

 day happens to be my birthday, I intend to appropriate an 

 extra share of the good wishes. 



I enclose a couple of clippings that may be of interest 

 to you. 



With kindliest appreciation of your efforts on behalf of 

 " we sisters," and assuring you of very hearty co-operation 

 on my part, and affectionate greeting for the New Year, 

 which I trust will be blessed to us all— those who win and 

 those who fail— and particularly thanking you for " Sister 

 Ruth's " beautiful poem, I am, 



Cordially your friend, 



Frances E. Wheeler. 



The clippings sent by Miss Wheeler are as follows, both 

 taken from the Stock Farmer : 



Bees Seize and Hold a Village. 



A great 6warm of bees attacked, seized and held until late in the 

 afternoon the village of Weston-on-Trent, England. An attempt to 

 occupy some tenanted hives having failed, the defeated party made 

 matters lively throughout the remainder of the day. The villagers 

 were compelled to close their doors and windows, as the bees went for 

 everything within reach. Six fowls were stung to death. 



Died Several Years After Being Stung. 



Mrs. George Danner, wife of a prominent pump manufacturer of 

 Allentown, Pa., and a bee-culturist, died suddenly at Hecktown, of 

 blood-poisioniDg last week. Several years ago she went to the yard 

 to pick some flowers, when a bee stung her on the wrist. Shortly 

 afterward her hand and arm swelled to enormous proportions, and she 

 suffered great agony. Her case attracted the attention of medical ex- 

 perts from all over the country ; but in spite of every recognized treat- 

 ment, the swelling wa6 only occasionally partially reduced, and finally 

 the poison reached the heart, and death resulted. She was 53 years 

 old, and one of her sons, Norman, was a soldier in the Philippines 

 where he was seriously wounded. 



Sudden death from blood-poisoning, caused by a bee- 

 sting received several years previously, seems rather far- 



fetched. Query : Was there any real connection between 

 the sting and the death ? 



IT 



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 4-33eebom-f 



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Conducted by Morlet Pettit, Villa Nova, Ont. 



More About Mr. Lowey's Winter Bee-Repository 



J> 



Friend Pettit : — I have had no experience in cellar 

 wintering. I built my repository in 1885 (I think it was), 

 and put about 6 colonies in — all I had then. It was damp, 

 as it was late, and the sawdust was wet. They did not do 

 very well. I then built the lean-to, and put a stove in, with 

 some fire in very cold weather, and raised the temperature. 

 But I soon increased to a hundred or more colonies. The 

 sawdust became perfectly dry, and has remained so since. 

 I did not need any artificial heat, so I tore down the chim- 

 ney and let the 8-inch pipe through the end near the roof of 

 the lean-to, out and down with two elbows, for a dark ven- 

 tilator. The main part has a box about a foot square up 

 through the ceiling, with a cover on top. On the underside 

 of the cover is a notched stick hinged on, by which it can 

 be raised or lowered. The doors between the two parts are 

 open most of the time in mild weather, so by raising the 

 cover on the ventilator there is fresh air coming in. In very 

 cold weather I shut down the cover, and put something over 

 the stovepipe, outside and inside. 



You ask if I have wintered bees many winters in this. 

 Yes, about 20, with, I think, good success. I lose a few 

 bees every year, but I don't think it is the fault of the re- 

 pository. I often have put in some that I did not expect to 

 come out all right — neglected in the fall to see that they all 

 had queens, etc. I found in the spring they had been queen- 

 less. I am going to do better. If I have more than I want 

 to winter, I will double them up ; look after them early in 

 the fall, etc. 



Now, as to the two methods : Having never wintered 

 bees in the cellar I can not say which is the better. I have 

 always thought I would like underground best, on account 

 of controlling the temperature in the spring. I have had 

 bees hang out so the clusters on two hives would meet, and 

 yet they seem to come out all right — usually about April 10. 



One thing about it, it is dry. The space under the floor 

 is about one foot, with a poor wall which lets in fresh air. 

 However, I wouldn't want that different. Before putting 

 bees in, I put a thin layer of sawdust on the floor. After 

 the bees are put out I sweep up, and all is clean. (I have 

 put very wet sawdust in sometimes, but it soon dries out.) 

 Up till the latter part of March, usually, I can keep the tem- 

 perature at 45 to 50 degrees, Fahr. 



I put the bees in last fall on Monday after the conven- 

 tion at Toronto ; the temperature went up to 50 degrees in 

 24 hours, and remained so until the warm weather in Jan- 

 uary. The bees were very quiet ; they then woke up and 

 got very noisy. The temperature was 60 degrees. I then 

 opened the outside door until it went down so the bees were 

 quiet. I left the door open all night on two nights so far 

 this season. Of course, I shut the door at daybreak. I don't 

 believe in keeping bees in a temperature in winter quarters 

 that they stay in hives in the light. 



I will be glad when I get the bees outside again. I am 

 a little uneasy about them. I suppose the weather is much 

 the same with you as it is here — very changeable. The 

 prospects are poor for clover. It was muddy to-day, and 

 freezing pretty sharp to-night. R. Lowey. 



Cherry Valley, Ont., Feb. 5. 



^ i » 



Detecting Glucose in Honey 



In the January number of the Ladies' Home Journal 

 appears an article in which A. W. Woodman describes 

 methods of detecting adulterants in various food stuffs. 

 Referring to honey and other sweets, he says : 



A common adulterant of honey, table syrups, molasses, jellies and 

 jams is commercial glucose, made on a very large scale by treating 

 corn-starch with acid. It may be detected quite easily by the peculiar 

 precipitate it gives with alcohol. For this test it will be necessary to 



