262 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



apiary, and find it only a pleasant recrea- 

 tion. 



I see by the Gleanings that Mr. A. I. 

 Root, of Medina, 20 miles from here, has 

 built a House Apiary. And although he 

 has not yet given the circumstances that 

 led him to build it, I am quite sure he 

 intends to do so, in justice to Mr. Coe, 

 from whom he procured all the necessary 

 instructions for building it. 



M. J. Stibbs. 



Wayne Co., O., Sept. 10, 1875. 



Prevention of Swarming. 



I had a little experience in trying to 

 prevent swarming by clipping the queen's 

 wings, as Mr. Laugstroth suggests in a re- 

 cent article. The queen would come out 

 and try to travel to the swarm ; but never 

 tried to crawl back into the hive. Part of 

 the swarm would find and cluster round 

 her on the grass, after clustering on an 

 apple tree. I returned her to the hive 

 every day for about a week when one 

 morning I found her dead. The whole 

 swarm hung round the hive, all this time, 

 and got so used to hanging round that 

 they continued to do so until the young 

 queen had hatched. Wlien the honey 

 season yviis over they had less honey than 

 they would have had if the swarm had 

 been hived at first. J. L. Hubbakd. 



W. Chesterfield, IST. H. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 Instinct of the Bee. 



In building combs, bees make them a 

 certain distance apart, and they should be 

 kept frame to frame, just as the bees con- 

 struct them. If artificial combs are mis- 

 matched, and not kept a uniform distance 

 apart, such colonies will not do as well. 

 For instance, if we take out one frame, 

 and move the rest to make equal distances, 

 they will be about three-eighths of an inch 

 wider apart than the bees would naturally 

 build, and the bees and queen could not 

 readily pass from comb to comb. Bees 

 go by instinct, and hence we should mark 

 each frame, and place it back just as ar- 

 ranged by the bees. Aaron Benedict. 



Bennington, Ohio. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Adnlteration.— Mr. C. F. Mutli. 



On page 180, June number, Mr. C. F. 

 Mutii says: "I was astonished some time 

 ago by one of our prominent (?) breliiren, 

 wlio maintained tliat sugar syrup, after 't 

 had i)assed through the honey sac of the 

 bee, was as good honey as any." Can Mr. 

 Muth, or any one else, tell us certainly 

 what lioney isV Is it not simply sac- 

 charine matter to which are added certain 

 substances whose flavor indicates the 



source from which it is derived, as also its 

 having passed through the bee's sac, and 

 its having remained some time in the 

 hive'? If the securing of these three con- 

 ditious makes saccharine matter into 

 honey, why not regard syrup," in which 

 they are found, as honey ? AVill not such 

 syrup produce like eflects on the person 

 using it? Mr. Muth talks, in the same 

 article, of the " acid " as wanting in adul- 

 terated honey ; and this want seems to him 

 to constitute the chief diff"erence between 

 the pure and the adulterated — an opinion 

 which appears to me probable. This 

 " acid " is supposed to be formic, from 

 microscopic glands in the sac, and is 

 very powerful even in the smallest quan- 

 tities, if the testimony of my wife's stom- 

 ach be as true as it is emphatic. There 

 are many persons who are very badly up- 

 set by eating a little honey, who are not 

 injured by eating syrup. 



John Fotheringham. 

 Woodham, Ont., Aug., 1875. 



Michigan Bee-Keepers' Association. 



The eighth Annual Meeting of the 

 Michigan Bee-Keepers' Association will 

 be held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Decem- 

 ber 1st and 2d, 1875. The first session will 

 convene at one o'clock, p. m., Wednesday. 

 Papers of scientific -and practical value 

 have been promised by many of our ablest 

 and most experienced apicuUurists; while 

 the discussions are expected to be even 

 more valuable than those of the previous 

 annual meetings. The reputation of tliis 

 Society as being one of the oldest and 

 ablest of the kind in the country, together 

 with the proverbial hospitality of the 

 people of Kalamazoo, should be ample 

 inducement for all who take an interest in 

 scientific bee-culture. We scarcely need 

 to add that a cordial invitation is ex- 

 tended to all, that every eflbrt will be 

 made to make the coming session a grand 

 success. Herbkkt A. Burch, Sec'y. 



South Haven, Mich. 



As bees breed no poison, though they 

 extract the deadliest juices, so the noble 

 mind, thougli forced to drink the cup of 

 misery, can yield but generous thoughts 

 and noble deeds. 



The Los Angeles (Cal. ) Herald saj^s that 

 at the [)resent rale of increase it is esti- 

 mated tlial there will be in four years one 

 million stands of bees in Los Angeles, 

 Santa Barbara and San Bernardino coun- 

 ties, which will produce annually one 

 hundred million pounds of honev, worth 

 $2U,UU0,UU0, which is more than the value 

 of the sugar and molas.ses crop of Louisi- 

 ana, Texas and Florida combined. 



