(Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn Street. 



GEOKGK W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL., SEPTEMBER 27, 1906 



Vol, XLVI— No. 39 



and Comments 





Feeding Glucose to Bees 



We have received the following, in reply to 

 a request made recentlv in these columns in 

 regard to feeding glucose to bees: 



Mr. Ernest W. Reid. on page 701, wants to 

 know if any one has succeeded in getting 

 bees to eat glucose. I fed some to my bees 

 in July, and they ate it all right. I bought 

 the stuff for 1 cent per pouDd, with which to 

 experiment. It was during a very dry spell 

 that I fed about 50 pounds. I made a syrup 

 and fed in the open air about 200 yards from 

 the hives. It was at a time when there was 

 nothing to get from the flowers. The syrup 

 was made by adding water and heating it 

 until it was all dissolved. I did not feed 

 enough for the bees to store any in the supers. 

 I do not think they would 6tore any of it, 

 for I tried to get them to eat glucose at a 

 time when there was nectar in the flowers, but 

 they would not touch it. Missouri. 



As bees do not take enough glucose to store 

 in the supers for surplus, there is really no 

 excuse for talking about the matter. If they 

 will eat only enough to keep them alive, the 

 feeding of glucose has no bearing at all on 

 the question of honey for market. 



Chicago has at present a Chief Food In- 

 spector who is stirring up things considerably 

 in the lin> of adulterated food products. In 

 a recent issue of the Chicago Record-Herald 

 he gave a list of such articles as he had dis- 

 covered were adulterated, among them being 

 the following: 



•' Honey in comb— 80 percent glucose. Glu- 

 cose is fed to the bees and they put it in the 

 comb and seal it up." 



We at once wrote to Mr. Murray, the in- 

 spector, asking him for the authority for the 

 statement concerning comb honey. Up to 

 this time we have received no reply from him. 

 If his statements regarding other supposed 

 adulterated food articles have no more foun- 

 dation than the one about comb honey being 



SO percent glucose, he is not to be depended 

 upon at all. If bees can not be induced to 

 use more than enough glucose to keep them 

 alive, how foolish it is to talk about 80 percent 

 glucose in comb honey. 



Some years ago, Mr. France, the General 

 Manager of the National Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, made some experiments in feeling 

 glucose to bees, and utterly failed in getting 

 them to take enough worth mentioning. 



There are a lot of foolish folks in this 

 world that talk nonsense, just because they 

 know nothing about the subject on which 

 they attempt to speak. More harm is done 

 by such utterances than can ever be undone. 

 It is much like saying that comb honey wa6 

 once manufactured, because a little deep-cell 

 comb foundation was made. Deep-cell comb 

 foundation is not honey at all, although it 

 may appear to be something like empty 

 honey-comb. There is a world of difference 

 between hoitey-cumb and comb honey. And 

 yet, recently, when the matter of deep-cell 

 comb foundation was referred to, it was men- 

 tioned as if it were perfect comb honey, made 

 by machinery. And while the thing wa6 ex- 

 ceedingly misleading, the worst of it all was 

 that it was written by a small bee-keeper who 

 imagined he was doing a great thing in the 

 interest of truth ! Fortunately the statement 

 appeared in a somewhat obscure publication. 

 But it may be dug up some time and quoted 

 with great gusto as being indisputable evi- 

 dence that comb honey was really manufac- 

 tured by machinery, when it never has been, 

 and very likely never will be so produced. 

 Comb honey is the product of bees only. 



please give, in the American Bee Journal, the 

 classification of freight-rates on comb and ex- 

 tracted honey. I have been told by the agent 

 here that comb honey is 1}. 2 times 1st Class, 

 and extracted in cans is double 1st Class. Is 

 this right?" 



On receipt of Mr. Little's letter we requested 

 the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co. to 

 furnish us with the information desired. In 

 response they sent us a leaf of their freight- 

 rate book, from which we copy this: 

 Honey. 



In pails, and in cans N. O. S 1' I 



In cans, boxed 4 



In flat-top jacketed cans, completely en- 

 closed in wood f 



In cans, crated 



In glass jars, boxed 2 



In glass tumblers, boxed • 2 



In kegs 



In barrels or casks * 



In boxes, N. O. 8 1 



In boxes, with glass fronts exposed \)4 



Granulated, in pails, boxed 2 



In the foregoing, it will be seen that comb 

 honey in glass-front shipping-cases is l 1 ., 

 times the 1st Class; extracted honey in cans, 

 boxed, is 4th Class, and in pails and cans, N. 

 O. S. ("Not Otherwise Specified"), double 

 1st Class. This seems entirely inconsistent, 

 for if the glass fronts are exposed the con- 

 tents can be seen, and thus cause the freight- 

 handlers to use more care than if the comb 

 was entirely out of sight. Of course, bee- 

 keepers do not make the freight classifica- 

 tions and rates, so they have to abide by the 

 rulings of the railroads. 



Freight-Rates on Honey 



Mr. D. G. Little, of Iowa, asks concerning 

 freight-rates on honey as follows : " Will you 



Limiting Drones of Poor Stock 



Trouble again in the editorial family of the 

 American Bee Journal. Dr. Miller writes: 



Mr. Hasty, referring to my advice on page 

 489, to keep all drone-comb out of black colo- 

 nies, says on page 639: "Practically, you 

 can't keep a rousing colony of bees from rear- 

 ing some drones if they want 'em." How 

 much charjee is there for drones if you cut 

 out every cell of drone-comb and put in its 

 place patches of worker-comb > You can use 

 old worker-comb for patches, and I have 

 never known bees to change old worker-comb 

 to drone-comb, no matter how badly they 

 wanted drones. Or, if you slice the heads off 

 sealed drone-brood every 3 weeks, what 

 chance is there for drones J But not every one 

 would be likely to take the trouble, and if 

 that's what he means when he puts in that 



