THE AMERICAN BEE JOUR^AL. 



137 



All the weights and ineiisurcs, iu all the 

 parts of France, are also iuspeeteJ twiee 

 every year. 



Such protection, against frauds, would 

 be beneficial to this country ; even if 

 copied from rt7i))ioral France. 



I want to ask Dr. Bush if he intends to 

 apply this word immoral to me or to my 

 native country. If to me, I will beg him 

 to cite an instance of my business or oth- 

 er immorality. If to my country, I find 

 that the ojiportunity of accusing France 

 of i minora lit 1/ was very ill chosen, by 

 him, since we were after a means of pre- 

 venting the American dealers from aelult- 

 erating honey ; the laws of moral Ameri- 

 ca being void against such frauds. 



I think it is unnecessary for me to tell 

 from what the auger of Dr. Bush came 

 against me. He had a receipt, to prevent 

 honey from candying, for sale, (see A. B. 

 J. 1874, 280) and I have hindered its 

 sale. 



I persist iu saying, with the most of 

 the bee-keepers present to the N. E. 

 Bee-Keepers' Convention, that the best 

 test of pure honey is its candying, glucose 

 is not honey, neither iu appearance or in 

 taste. 



I will add something to the great learn- 

 ing of Dr. Bush: glucose is not made with 

 grape juice. French people drink or sell 

 their grape juice and maufacture glucose 

 with potatoes. C. H. Dadant. 



How My Bees Wintered. 



I put in my bee-house 80 swarms, 23 

 nucleuses or small swarms, containing 

 pure queens, and put a small quantity of 

 bees that I wished to try the experiment 

 ■of wintering and build them up in spring, 

 and two hives containing pure drones 

 without a queen and with scarcely any 

 worker bees. The way I got my two 

 hives filled with drones exclusively, was 

 by inserting drone comb iu strong, pure 

 stocks, get them tilled with eggs and brood 

 and then place them iu the queenless 

 stock, continuing iu that way uutil I had 

 two strong swarms of drones. That is 

 the way to Italianize iu the fall after all 

 black drones are destroyed. By this pro- 

 cess, you can keep all your stocks pure, 

 ■even though you are surrounded by black 

 bees. 



The two hives of drones died before 

 spring, I suppose with old age, and al- 

 so one of the nucleus that I made 

 a few days before I put the bees into 

 winter quarters. It being cold at the 

 •time, I suppose they failed to cluster 

 properly, and there not being a piut of 

 jbees, I do not expect they saved them, 



thus leaving nu? 102 swarms to put out in 

 good condition. I got eight persons to 

 help me put them out on their summer 

 stands. AVe did it iu about twenty 

 minutes on March lil, it being a very 

 warm day, and they opened the entrances 

 larger than needed. Four nucleuses 

 swarmed in the excitement, and went to 

 other hives, leaving me 9S. Now I would 

 advise not to set all out at once, if they 

 have a large number, put out every second 

 or third hive ; then jilace others between 

 after the lirst have had their tly, keeping 

 them at least six feet apart. Mine flew 

 so thick that some of the bees got lost, 

 and went to the wrong hives, so some 

 hives got more than- they should have had 

 while others were left weak, thus necessi- 

 ating changing hives and equalizing a 

 number and then not having them as 

 equal as when set out. All appeared to 

 have the same smell and no quarreling 

 ensued. For a few days my bees seemed 

 satisfied with any queen or any place they 

 were put, after I got them equalized, my 

 next work was to adjust the division 

 board, giving them only as many combs 

 as they could cover, breeding went on 

 faster wlien the cpieeu got the combs 

 well filled with brood and eggs. You 

 can repeat the operation every few days 

 uutil the hive is full, but be careful to 

 select combs containing pollen, as broods 

 cannot be raised without it, in early 

 spring plenty of pollen is of more value 

 than hone}'. 



After giving them space in proportion 

 to their strength, I then cover the quilt 

 with old newspapers ; thej^ keep in the 

 heat, and breeding goes on more rapidly. 



Keeping them warm is very important, 

 also keeping the entrance so small that 

 ouly one or two bees can get out at a time. 

 When I put them in the bee-house I re- 

 moved the covers, leaving only the quilt 

 on the frames, close the entrance to half 

 an inch, then all the old and sickly bees 

 have their time to die, it being much bet- 

 ter to have them on the floor of the bee- 

 house than iu the hive. After removing 

 all the hives, I swept up all the bees that 

 died during winter, and they weighed 12 

 pounds. It takes 7,000 dead bees to make 

 a pound. So 84,000 bees, in all, died du- 

 ring winter, which is 800 bees to each 

 stock. But when we remember that two 

 swarms of drones died, and were includ- 

 ed, I suppose the average was not much 

 over five hundred bees per stock, which, 

 I think was ciuite replaced by breeding 

 while in winter quarters. 



The average consumption of honey per 

 stock, was about 5 pounds, and they 

 were over 4^ months iu winter ciuarters. 

 Some stocks with natural stores, showed 



