464 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 31, 1906 



new place, so weakens the old colony that eggs and brood 

 are destroyed at a serious loss. Hence, the following, which 

 surely will meet favorable opinion from all experienced bee- 

 men : 



In this case all but the central frame has foundation, 

 as before. Here a frame of brood with the old queen, but 

 with no queen-cell or cup with egg or larva, which if present 

 must be destroyed. Set this on the old stand, put a queen- 

 excluding honey-board on it, and the old hive on top of this. 

 In 5 days examine the old hive for incipient queen-cells with 

 larvae, which, unless from a superior queen, destroy at once 

 and separate the hives. If no queen-cups with larvae are 

 found, leave the old hive 6 days longer, then separate, and 

 in 24 hours introduce a good queen. In this case no brood 

 is destroyed, no eggs are lost, and 2 good colonies are the 

 result. 



This method commends itself to my judgment, and I 

 question if a better method has ever been suggested. To 

 those who have studied bees so as to understand their habits, 

 I feel sure Mr. Alexander's plan will receive more than a 

 passing notice. The fact that it is the plan of one so able 

 and so successful is also much in its favor. 



COLOR OF HONEY. 



One of our ablest and most conservative writers on 

 apicultural topics feels sure that he has evidence that honey 

 from the same plant may vary in color, owing to season or 

 locality. I should say, "Interesting, if true." How can we 

 be sure in such case that no other honey is present? 



One year I noticed a decidedly red hue to our clover 

 honey. I wondered at it. I sought hard for the cause. I 

 found it in a smattering of juice from very ripe red rasp- 

 berries. As the bees got but little of this juice it was no in- 

 jury, except its tint. But it was deep red, and a little went 

 very far to affect the color of the other honey of the hive. 

 I believe we should look very thoroughly, then look again, 

 before we conclude that honey from flowers of a plant varies 

 in color. 



Offers for Proof of Machine-Made Comb 

 Honey 



BY DR. G. BOHRER. 



I received the following letter, to which I wish to reply 

 in the American Bee Journal : 



Dr. G. Bohrer: — I have been told that you made a stand- 

 ing offer of $500 for comb honey made by hand or machinery. 

 Is this offer yet before the public? and for what time will it 

 be held open by you? 



I would be pleased to have you specify particularly what 

 is covered by the bounds of your offer, in the way of the 

 number of combs, how made and appearance of same. If 

 this meets your pleasure, I would be glad to receive an early 

 reply. — W. A. Webb. 



Mr. Webb, in reply to your letter of inquiry as to the 

 conditions of my offer to pay $500 for two 4J4x4;4xlj4 sec- 

 tions of artificial comb honey (built or constructed bv human 

 hands with the aid of machinery, and entirely without the aid 

 of the honey-bee), the same to be filled with artificial honey, 

 so-called, and capped over in the cells of said combs without 

 the aid of bees, I will state that I did not make such an 

 offer, because I never expected to pay the same, for the rea- 

 son that I know that no such work has ever been done. 

 I only made the proposition to set the masses to thinking and 

 making the inquiry as to where and by whom artificial comb 

 honey had ever been constructed, if at all, and where a fac- 

 tory producing such comb, together with the machinery used, 

 could be found, which most certainly could, and would, have 

 been dune long before this if there were any, as the offer 

 I made is not a new one by any means, the same offer in 

 substance having been made years ago, but probably was not 

 so publicly and extensively advertised as my proposition. 



If the people, who have been led to believe that such a 

 feat as that of manufacturing comb honey by artificial means, 

 can be induced to search for such factory, they will soon put 

 the matter of having been deceived to rest permanently, and 

 for the betterment of themselves as well as the bee-keep- 

 ing public. For many people will not buy comb honey, owing 

 to the belief that much of it is produced by artificial means, 

 and wholly without the aid of bees, both comb and honey. 

 Artificial honey, so-called, has been manufactured and sold in 



nicely ornamented receptacles for years, and is an old fraud; 

 but artificial comb honey has not been produced up to 1906, 

 and probably never will be; yet I am not sufficiently egotis- 

 tical to declare flatly that it will not be produced. I believe, 

 however, that if a perfect imitation of honey is ever manufac- 

 tured by artificial means, and put on exhibition at any of our 

 National bee-keepers' conventions, the bee-keepers would glad- 

 ly make up and pay to the producer the sum I have offered. 

 I will pay my share of it at any time, should it occur while 

 I still live. And I hope, Mr. Webb, that you will persevere 

 in your fforts to find such a sample of artificial comb honey 

 as I have described, until you fully convince yourself that 

 nothing of the kind now exists, and publish the results of 

 your search to the world in order that many may become 

 convinced that they have been deceived by a straight-out 

 falsehood. 



And after all this, if you still entertain the belief that such 

 comb honey can be produced, use your utmost endeavors in 

 trying to produce it, and I have no doubt that at the end of 

 your efforts you at least will be wiser than you are now. 



Lyons, Kans. 



12— Dadant Methods of Honey-Production 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



IF the reader has followed me, in previous articles, he is 

 aware that we use from 1 to 2, and sometimes 4 supers. 



We aim to have enough for 2 to each colony. This may 

 seem a small number to those who are accustomed to the 454 

 super for 8-frame hives, but they must bear in mind that their 

 super will hold a scant 24 pounds of comb honey, while my 

 large super will average about 40 pounds, net, of liquid 

 honey. In an extraordinary season, I weighed an extra- 

 well-filled super and found it to weigh 68 pounds gross. 

 We usually figure on a net yield of 40 pounds of liquid 

 honey from each super. 



In an ordinary season we put the supers on at the open- 

 ing of white clover. We are not in a very favored loca- 

 tion as far as honey-yield is concerned. A friend of mine 

 said to me once, "Illinois is the best State in the Union, 

 and we are in the best part of Illinois." Even if this were 

 literally true, the crops of this most excellent productive 

 country are corn, oats, wheat and timothy. There is not 

 much honey in any of these. So we do not expect much 

 outside of our pasture-lands. The orchard blossoms are not 

 numerous enough, and, if they were more numerous, the bees 

 are hardly numerous enough during the very short apple and 

 peach bloom to secure surplus. So the bees hardly ever 

 whiten their combs until the clover crop is on, and we find 

 it unadvisable to wait, as some of our bee-friends do, until 

 the combs are being whitened at the top before putting on 

 the supers. 



If the colonies are as they should be, strong in numbers, 

 they will need watching and attention until the very eve 

 of the crop, for they may be short in food just before the 

 beginning of a strong flow, especially if a few rainy days 

 should come. The more powerful the colonies, the more 

 brood they rear, and the more important is their need of 

 sustenance. Yet it is at this very time that we put on the 

 supers. If perchance a good fruit-bloom should cause them 

 to whiten the combs in May, we at once put on the supers. 

 I have seen this only twice in all my experience. 



It is of very great importance to get the supers on before 

 there is any crowding in the brood-chamber. We must pre- 

 vent our bees from wanting to swarm, for if they once want 

 to swarm, it is not likely that we will take this notion out of 

 their heads. Occasionally, our bees get ahead of us, either 

 because we are deceived as to the appearances of the crop 

 and it comes more promptly than we anticipate, or because 

 after it has begun we delay too long in adding supers. In 

 such cases we have quite a number of swarms, but the quan- 

 tity has never exceeded 25 to 30 percent. If we keep ahead 

 of the bees, the number of swarms that issue is not worth 

 considering. 



If the colonies are very strong, and the prospect good, 

 we often put on 2 supers at once. If we are short of built 

 combs, we usually put a few sheets of foundation in empty 

 frames mixed in among the already built combs, but we never 

 give a super with foundation only, for two reasons : In 

 the first place, the bees will occupy a super much less will- 

 ingly if it does not contain any already built combs. On 

 the other hand, it is not advisable to let them load the 

 foundation down, for they may break it loose with their 



