150 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



It was too bad to over start such a 

 subject in any periodical, to advise bee- 

 keepers to feed sugar for such a fraudu- 

 lent purpose, because it v^ould be noth- 

 ing but fraud to sell such for honey. I 

 do not mean to say that these men that 

 pushed the sugar comb honey so to the 

 front would even try to push anything 

 that they did not believe to be strictly 

 honest ; these men that gave that advice 

 did it with the very best of intentions to 

 help bee-keepers in poor seasons, believ- 

 ing that bees make honey out of sugar, 

 which I positively declare they cannot. 



Woodburn, Ont., Jan. 16, 1893. 



[We are glad that ourCanadian friends 

 are moving in this matter. Let every 

 bee-keeper, as well as all bee-conven- 

 tions, condemn the very suggestion of 

 such a thing as feeding sugar for the 

 production of honey, whether comb or 

 extracted. 



Nothing, it seems to us, could more 

 completely and speedily wipe out the 

 business of honest honey production, 

 than sugar-honey making. Because 

 those who proposed the scheme were 

 sincere in their desire to aid bee-keepers, 

 it does not lessen the stupendous damage 

 bound to result from what has been so 

 unwisely published and advised upon the 

 subject. We have heard of a man who 

 couldn't open his mouth without putting 

 his foot into it; in this case it seems 

 that the champions of the sugar-honey 

 scheme, opened their mouths and then 

 l)ut in both feet. It will be a long time 

 before they get over the effects of that 

 mouthful ! 



You can count on the old Amebican 

 Bee Journal, as dead against all such 

 schemes, every day in the week. — Ed.] 



A Good Reason Why Bees Don't 

 Pay Sometimes. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY CHARLES E. FALKNER. 



The past season was a total failure as 

 regards surplus honey. From 34 colo- 

 nies I obtained no surplus honey to 

 speak of. The spring of the year was 

 very wet, and all during 'fruit-bloom 

 and up until white clover commenced to 



bloom ; so much so that the bees scarcely 

 made a living. 



White clover and basBwood furnished 

 a sufficient nectar for the bees to fill 

 their brood-chambers, providing they 

 did not swarm. I kept mine from swarm- 

 ing, and consequently they went into 

 winter quarters in splendid condition. 



I always see that my bees have 

 ^plenty of stores to take them through 

 the winter safely before I ever attempt 

 to take a single pound of their faithful 

 labor, which, I think, is right and just. 

 I know of plenty of so-called bee-keepers 

 that in the fall of the year take the last 

 pound of surplus, and often rob the 

 brood-chamber by extracting the well- 

 filled outside combs, and never attempt 

 to feed the bees ; and those are the ones 

 who expect to receive the largest returns 

 from their bees the coming summer ! If 

 they fail, they are ready to say that it 

 don't pay everybody to bother with bees 

 at all. Well, I don't wonder much why 

 it don't pay in their haphazard ways of 

 management ; but I do wonder why they 

 are so hasty in saying that it don't pay 

 anybody to keep bees at all, just because 

 they failed in their poor way of doing 

 business. 



I don't wish to be understood that I 

 think it would pay a farmer to adopt 

 farming and take up bee-keeping en- 

 tirely, nor would I advise anybody to do 

 so, for the reason that past experience 

 has taught us that we cannot always de- 

 pend upon a honey-flow each year in 

 succession ; neither would a farmer dare 

 to depend upon raising wheat or corn, 

 and nothing else on the farm, as I fear 

 he would be "left" fully as often, and 

 if not more so, then the bee-keeper 

 would. 



Now I would say to those that think 

 it doesn't pay to bother with bees, to 

 purchase one or two good, strong colo- 

 nies of Italians, and send $1.00 for the 

 Amercan Bee Journal, and by the 

 time they have 20 or 25 good colonies 

 of bees, they will have a pretty good 

 idea of the business, and will more than 

 doubly be repaid for their time and 

 capital invested. They will also dismiss 

 the false idea that it doesn't pay any- 

 body to keep bees at all. 



Twenty or 25 colonies can be success- 

 fully managed by a man who is farming 

 but 30 or lo acres of land, and they 

 will pay him well for the little extra 

 bother. 



TO RID HIVES OF ANTS. 



I noticed on page 828 that Mr. Kauff- 

 man, of Brickersville, Pa., says he Is 

 bothered with little ants around the bee- 



