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(Entered at the Post-office :it Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter.) 

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GEORGK AV. YORK, Kditor 



CHICAGO, ILL., OCTOBER 11, 1906 



Vol. XLVI— No, 41 



editorial ^fofe 

 and Comments 



Dark Brood-Chamber Honey or Sugar 

 Syrup in the Sections 



On this subject there appears in the Cana- 

 dian Bee Journal the following words of 

 caution: 



A late issue of the American Bee Journal 

 advises bee-keepers to make their hives heavy 

 for winter by leaving plenty of sealed combs 

 of dark honey, arguing that the dark honey 

 thus placed will really be equal next season, 

 pound for pound, with light honey. Com- 

 menting on this, Editor Hutchinson, in the 

 Review, a6ks bee-keepers to see how much of 

 this dark honey will go into the sections, in- 

 timating, of course, that there is not much 

 likelihood of dark honey, or sugar syrup 

 either, going into the supers. Seems to me 

 that Mr. Hutchinson is treading on danger- 

 ous ground, for surely any practical apiarist 

 knows that, if a brood-nest is full of any kind 

 of honey or syrup, provided the colony has a 

 proline queen and swarming does not take 

 place, quite a large percentage of this honey 

 or syrup will And its way into the surplus 

 apartments. This is something that any one 

 can test for himself, and if the novice has 

 colonies that go into the clover-flow with the 

 brood-chamber full of buckwheat honey, he 

 may decide that while experience is a good 

 teacher, it is sometimes a little expensive. 



If we take the broadest view of the ques- 

 tion: "Is dark honey carried from the 

 brood-chamber into the sections?" the an- 

 swer must undoubtedly be in the affirmative. 

 Not only some, but all honey, light or dark, 

 that is put into sections, is carried there from 

 the brood-chamber. For so good an authority 

 as G. M. Doolittle tells us that when a fielder 

 brings in a load of nectar she does not go 

 with it to the super, but deposits it in 6ome 

 cell of the brood-chamber, whence it is after- 

 ward carried into the surplus apartment. 



In the present case, however, the question 

 is not to be taken in this unlimited sense, it 

 being rather whether honey stored in the 

 brood-chamber in the fall, or given in the 



form of sealed combs in the spring, is likely 

 to be carried into the super. If there be in 

 the brood-chamber so much honey that there 

 is not room for the queen to lay, will not the 

 bees empty some of the cells? and what can 

 they do with the honey but to carry it into 

 the super? 



It must be remembered, however, that the 

 time when the brood-nest is expanding — in 

 other words, the time when additional room 

 will be needed— is before the harvest, when 

 very little honey is coming, and a large 

 amount of honey is daily consumed in the 

 rearing of brood. When a frame of sealed 

 honey is given in the spring, it does not take 

 the place of a comb having any brood in it, 

 but of one without brood, and with little or 

 no honey. Will not the honey in it be needed 

 for the increasingly large amount of brood as 

 fast as it is necessary to empty such honey 

 out of the cells? Certainly the danger seems 

 rather remote, under ordinary circumstances. 

 But, after all, the matter is one not of theory, 

 but of plain fact. 



In buckwheat regions it ought not to be an 

 uncommon thing for much buckwheat honey 

 to be found in the brood-nests, and also for 

 sealed combs of such honey to be given in 

 the spring, and it ought to be easy for bee- 

 keepers, under such circumstances, to say 

 whether they have found buckwheat honey 

 in sections during the clover flow. If they 

 have, then it is important to know about how 

 much the brood-chamber must be crowded 

 with honey before the danger-line is reached. 



The question is not one of supreme impor- 

 tance so long as only honey is involved, but 

 it is one of first moment when it comes to the 

 danger of having sugar syrup carried into the 

 sections. Better never feed sugar than to 

 run any such risk, if risk there is. 



Bees Can't Puncture drapes 



We have received the following from Mr. 

 C. P. Dadant, President of the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, concerning the belief 

 in some places that bees destroy grapes : 



Mr. Editor:— Referring to the article on 

 page 757, by Mr. John Kennedy, I wish tore- 

 assure him in favor of the bee. The bees <■<"< 

 not puncture grapes. This may be tested 

 thoroughly by inserting a few bunches in- 

 side of the hives. Such grapes as may have 

 been already punctured or damaged by the 

 handling will be cleaned out by them; the 

 others will wilt in the hive and will often be 

 found glued fast by the bees, that aim to 

 cover them with propolis, as they do with 

 anything which they can not remove. 



In addition to birds and other insects 

 than the bee, there is great loss caused by 

 the fruit bursting from overfulness. I would 

 suggest that this may have been the trouble 

 in the case mentioned, for when the fruit 

 ripens, it often swells with juice to 6uch an 

 extent that the skin can not contain it, and 

 the result is a bursting, which always begins 

 at the 6tem-end, as mentioned by Mr. Ken- 

 nedy. If the bees are short of food they dis- 

 cover this at once, and begin sucking at the 

 ruptured spot, so that they might well be 

 suspected of Ciusing the damage If the 

 bunch is picked off, the sap quits running, 

 and the berry is much less likely to burst. So 

 when you insert a bunch of grapes in a hive 

 of bees, there is but little chance of that sort 

 of damage happening. To me, the most posi- 

 tive evidence that the bees can not puncture 

 grapes is that they suck everything clean in 

 damaged grapes, and leave the unpunctured 

 ones. I have actually seen bees starve on 

 sound grapes. 



In addition to these evidences there is a 

 physiological fact. The bees' mandibles are 

 not sharp, but rounding, much like 6poons, 

 and they can no more puncture a smooth-skin 

 berry than you or I could bite into a smooth 

 plaster wall. The evidences in favor of the 

 bee need a little demonstration, but they are 

 just as palpable as the fact that the earth re- 

 volves around the sun, and not the sun around 

 the earth, as we might be led to believe, and 

 as our ancestors believed because of having 

 only the testimony of their eyes. 



It is lucky for us that our little friends, the 

 beeB, are unable to do damage of the kind 

 mentioned, for there is no doubt that if they 

 had the ability to puncture fruit they would 

 often be guilty of it. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Mr. Dadant is a careful observer, and is also 

 an extensive vineyardist. The poor bees are 

 often accused wrongfully, and especially 

 when some people find their grapes suffering 

 from an uncertain cause. The fact that bees 



