82 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 11, 



" Price of Comb Honey vs. Extracted," for there is much there 

 which is of profit to all who read it, if they will only put their 

 best thought into the matter. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



^ 



Age at Which Youug Bees Work Outside. 



BY B. J. C. 



.During the summer of 1895 I made some e.xperiments, 

 to determine the earliest age at which the young honey-bee 

 can fly out and carry food or honey into the hive. My atten- 

 tion was called to the subject as follows : 



I had four very strong colonies of Italian bees, and one 

 morning at the commencement of the basswood honey-flow I 

 noticed that the ground in front of these hives was thickly 

 strewn with young bees, which, from their appearance, I sup- 

 posed to have been not more than 24 hours out of their cells. 

 They were jumping along in grasshopper fashion ; about the 

 third or fourth jump they would rise and fly away. This con- 

 tinued for three or four days. At first I thought this an un- 

 natural procedure, but when I saw those young bees return- 

 ing to the hive loaded almost to their utmost capacity with 

 food, I concluded that their procedure was both natural and 

 reasonable, for the season was bad for the bees, and honey 

 scarce. So they were determined to gather it "while the sun 

 shined." After a careful investigation, I was confirmed in 

 my conclusion. 



One of the above-mentioned hives has been, for almost 

 three years, on the window-sill in my room, near my writing 

 table, and when the sun shone through the window, and the 

 rays would fall directly into the hive, I frequently removed 

 the cover to make observations. As the rays of the sun kept 

 up the temperature of the hive, the cell-builders would con- 

 tinue their work for a short time, but as they appeared to get 

 the material from a cluster of bees on the inside top of the 

 cover, I would replace the cover as soon as I had observed the 

 kind of bees at work on the cells, which appeared to be all old 

 ones. I also observed that the old bees, in some cases, used 

 force to compel the young ones to fly out. 



As I could not determine the exact age of those young 

 field-workers, and what they effected, I continued my investi- 

 gations by weighing the hives. The four which displayed so 

 much energy tipt the scales at 100 and more pounds, while 

 the others did not weigh more than 30 or 40 pounds. 



To settle the other point in question, I sent to a queen- 

 breeder and procured six yellow queens, one of which I put 

 into a strong colony of blacks, Aug. IT, 1895, from which I 

 had removed the black queen the day previous. Twenty- 

 three days later the young yellow bees were out in front of 

 the hive. The next day I made about eight gallons of sugar 

 syrup and put it in the feed troughs ; as there was not much 

 abroad for them to get, they were soon at work on the home 

 supply, and the three and four days old yellow bees were doing 

 their share of the work — about two to one in favor of the 

 •blacks; but the following day I think the yellow ones had the 

 majority. 



The next day— the 26th after the yellow queen had been 

 put into the aforesaid hive — the last black bee had disap- 

 peared, except four or five dead ones in the portico, and the 

 young yellow bees were working as strongly as the bees in 

 the neighboring hives. 



I am certain, from the above experiments, that the young 

 honey-bee is capable of doing field-work on the 4th day after 

 issuing from the cell, and It is quite probable on the Brd day. 

 Also, that the yellow and black bees will not live long together 

 in the same hive, unless the hive Is large, and each kind has 

 its own queen. Whether the blacks were expelled by the 

 yellows, or whether they left on their own accord, I cannot 

 say. 



The case is difi'erent with the hives of Italian bees into 

 which I put yellow queens, as they have up to the present 

 continued to live in peace. 



The above observations may apply only to the bees of this 

 locality; for, if I mistake not, I read In some bee-papers that 

 the young bee remained in the hive 10 days after Issuing from 

 the cell, and died of old age 45 days from hatching, which, I 

 presume, applies only to the bees In the place In which the 

 writer resides, as I am positive that the bees of northern In- 

 diana have a longer lease of life, and do field-work at a much 

 earlier age; and, from experiments and observations I am 

 quite certain that not one in a hundred of the workers die of 

 old age, but, like soldiers In active service, are swept ofT by 

 sickness and violent deaths before their natural course is run. 



St. Joseph Co., Ind. 



California Bee-Keeping — Honey-Adulteration. 



BY L. T. HABPER. 



My wife and self came to California in the spring of 1893 

 (for our health) from southeastern Dakota, and after conclud- 

 ing to make this State our future home, I began to look 

 around for a small investment, that would give me something 

 to do, and a reasonably fair prospect of some income every 

 year. I was told by a good many that had been in the bee- 

 business a number of years, that they had never had a total 

 failure of honey. I had had no experience with bees, except 

 a few that I had in box-hives, with Quinby's book for an in- 

 structor, in southern Minnesota, in the years of 1873 to 

 1875; sol sent for " A B C of Bee-Culture," and went to 

 studying up. 



In February, 1894, I bought out an apiary of 96 colonies 

 in good condition, with plenty of stores to carry them along 

 until the spring blossoms. The apiary being in the foothills, 

 12 miles from this place, we moved right up there, so as to be 

 able to give them all the attention they needed. We were told 

 we would probably need about 50 more double hives than 

 we already had, so we bought the lumber at a mill here 

 (" sugar pine " as they call it), and had it worked up in shape 

 to nail together ; and by April 10 I had them all made up 

 and ready for business. 



But the business did not come that year. My son, who 

 was to assist, staid until we saw there was not going to be 

 any extracting to do, then lookt up other work. I staid with 

 the bees until Aug. 1, not getting a pound of surplus honey, 

 and but one swarm, but the bees gathered enough to keep 

 them through until another season without feeding. 



In the spring of 1895 we started into the honey season 

 with 74 colonies, most of them in fairly good condition. I 

 was taken sick in March, and was able to do but very little 

 with the bees. My son did all the work (except a little help 

 from me in swarming-time, and about .518 worth of help in 

 extracting), without having any practical experience, except 

 the little he helpt me the spring before. The bees just about 

 doubled in numbers of colonies, and gave us about 9J^ tons 

 of extracted honey. 



The past year, 1896, you are aware Southern California 

 had practically no honey. Some thought, early, that we were 

 going to have something of a crop, and extracted almost all 

 there was in the upper story. But I think nearly, if not quite 

 all, had to feed that much back, and probably more, too. I 

 know of no bee-keeper around here that has not, or will not, 

 have to feed to carry his bees through. 



THE ADULTERATION OF HONEY. 



I have been very much interested in the discussion of 

 adulterated honey. The more so, as I had a little experience 

 a year or so ago in selling honey in South Dakota, Iowa and 

 Illinois. I found no pure honey put up and sold by the job- 

 bers ; nearly every one seems to know that extracted (or 

 " strained honey," as most of them call it) is being adulterated. 

 But very few really know whether it is or not, unless they 

 have the pure honey to make the comparison. To illustrate : 



I stopt over night in a little town in South Dakota. At 

 one table the next morning two traveling men and myself were 

 seated. The griddle cakes were brought on, and one of the 

 men took some of the contents of a tumbler that had a small 

 piece of comb honey submerged in it, and spread it on his 

 cakes. After tasting it, he remarkt that that was pretty fair 

 honey. So I took a little to see just how much honey there 

 was about it. I carried a small bottle for a sample in my 

 breast-pocket. I handed it to him, remarking that If he 

 called that good I would like to have him try mine. He poured 

 out a little on his plate, and, after tasting it, said that he did 

 not believe there was any honey in the glass except the little 

 piece of comb we could see. 



In Davenport, Iowa, I went into a grocery, and told the 

 lady behind the counter that I had some California extracted 

 honey that I would like to show her. She said she had some 

 honey she bought just a few days before. She had it in a 6- 

 quart tin pail, and a little taken out into glasses. I askt per- 

 mission to taste it ; then askt her to taste of the sample I 

 carried. After doing so she lookt at me (with rather a sad 

 countenance) and said: "I am afraid there is not much 

 honey about that I have." 



There are tons of bogus honey being disposed of in 

 another way that I have not seen mentioned in the Bee Jour- 

 nal or elsewhere. There were men all over Iowa last fall 

 operating as follows : They would go into a town and hunt 

 up board In a private family where they could have the 

 kitchen stove in the evening. They put 50 pounds of sugar 

 into a boiler, and water enough to make a good syrup; and 

 after it is well dissolved, they take four one-pound sections of 



