230 



Mar. 21, 1907 



Amarican ^ee Journal 



The education of the people to the 

 true nature of honej' is most essential 

 at the present time, and, hke charity, it 

 should begin at home. Every one who 

 is familiar with honey knows very well 

 that nearly all kinds of pure honey will 

 granulate sooner or later. No real bene- 

 fit can be derived from trying to de- 

 vise means to prevent it, while such 

 means only tends to keep alive the old 

 delusion that pure honey never granu- 

 lates. If every owner of bees in this 

 country would convert a few of the most 

 skeptically inclined among his acquaint- 

 ances, by practical demonstration in the 

 apiary during the season of 1907, and 

 send them out as eye-witnesses to the 

 methods employed in the production of 

 honest honey, there would soon be a re- 

 versal of public opinion in regard to 

 manufactured honey. 



There can be no substantial rise in 

 the price of honey so long as the con- 

 sumer believes it to be largely composed 

 of granulated sugar. He has access to 

 the same source, and granulated sugar 

 makes a fine syrup for table use. He 

 may be expected to exercise the same 

 business judgment in the purchase of 

 sweets as in other things, and the cheap- 

 er article will be substituted for daily 

 consumption, and honey only for 

 "state" occasions. 



Extracted honey has been regarded 

 with even blacker suspicions than comb 

 honey, for it granulates more readily, 

 and can be aduUerated more easily with 

 glucose. 



I think adulteration with sugar is 

 more often practiced in the production 

 of comb honey, for its identity is al- 

 most entirely lost when blended with 

 pure nectar by the bees while engaged 

 in the process of comb-building. Its 

 identity may be lost in sp far as ordin- 

 ary means of detection go. But a wrong 

 committed cannot be justified by art 

 in the practice of deception. Chemical 

 analysis, if it counts for anything, 

 should be able to tear away the gild- 

 ed mask and reveal the act in all its 

 ugliness. 



I cannot see tiie fairness in selling 

 comb honey by the piece, or by the 

 case, while extracted honey must be 

 sold by weight. Neither can I see why 

 the latter should be labeled according 

 tothe nature of the contents, vifhile any- 

 thing stored in honey-comb is not sub- 

 ject to the same rule or law. There 

 should be equity in all cases. The con- 

 sumer who buys comb honey is en- 

 titled to 16 ounces to the pound, just 

 the same as when he buys extracted. 

 Those who insist on the right to dis- 

 criminate when they have comb honey 

 to sell, should be willing to be governed 

 in like manner when purchasing their 

 own table supplies. But it seldom proves 

 that way. No cat-in-the-bag business 

 "goes" with them when the farmer 

 brings butter, or the grocery-man coffee 

 and sugar. It's a poor rule that won't 

 work both ways. 



Confidence in one's integity or verac- 

 ity is more potent than law in building 

 up a honey market. That which in- 

 stills confidence of the right sort is not 

 the legitimate fruit of civil law. The 

 people want better reasons for their 

 faith in humanity than laws of their 

 own making. There have been good 



laws on the statute books saying "Thou 

 shalt not," ever since our ablest men 

 were little boys, "and then some ;" yet 

 people lock their doors just the same, 

 and take no man's worti for anything 

 where money is involved. Law is all 

 right in a way, but the power that 

 causes one to do right for right's sake 

 emanates from a source beyond the 

 jurisdiction of civil law. The old, old 

 admonition to do unto others as we 

 would wish to be done by, is a mighty 

 safe rule to follow in all temporal af- 

 fairs, including the honey-business. But 

 we must advertise and let people know 

 who we are, and what we are. No pains 

 should be spared to enlighten the pur- 

 chaser in regard to the different colors 

 and flavors of honey, and, above all, its 

 tendency to granulate. If he is allowed 

 to go on his way with no word of ex- 

 planation, either verbal or by the print- 

 ed page, he is almost sure to gather 

 wrong impressions, and say damaging 

 things about honey. 



Legislation for the restoration of con- 

 fidence and better prices must in very 

 truth put a ban on sugar as well as 

 glucose. Here is hoping for pure honey 

 and a general toning up in the demand 

 for it. We don't need better prices, for 

 the consumer is already chafing under 

 the burden of high prices. What can 

 we hope for by pushing the price up 

 still higher? 



Wheelersburg, Ohio. 



Putting Bees Out of the 

 Cellar 



BY G. M. nOOLITTLE. 



I see by the bee-papers that bee-keep- 

 ers have trouble with their bees mixing 

 when setting them from the cellar in 

 early spring. And this is not confined 

 to the novice alone, for I see some of 

 our oldest and most practical apiarists 

 report that through an east wind or hot 

 weather when setting the bees out, some 

 of the colonies become strong beyond 

 measure, and others correspondingly 

 weak, through the bees "drifting" over 

 certain parts of the apiary, or congre- 

 gating more thickly in certain places 

 than others, until half of the hives are 

 far too populous tor the best welfare 

 of both the bees and their keeper; while 

 other colonies become so weak from 

 this loss of bees, that they are unprofit- 

 able entirely, unless there is a late flow 

 of honey from fall flowers. 



To overcome such mixing of bees on 

 their first flight in spring, various plans 

 have been proposed, such as setting the 

 bees out at night, putting each colony 

 on the stand it occupied before, etc. 

 The putting-out-at-night plan is ex- 

 tremely risky, for we cannot tell with 

 any assurance but what the weather 

 may become so cold by morning that 

 the bees can not fly, and should it con- 

 tinue so for any length of time, as fre- 

 quently happens, the bees suffer much 

 more than they would had they not 

 been disturbed. And as to putting each 

 colony on the same stand it occupied 

 the preceding season, we more often 

 than otherwise do not want to do it. 

 Those who are familiar with bees know 

 that the young bees, when it comes out 



of the hive for the first time, marks its^ 

 location by turning its head toward the 

 hive upon taking wing, when it com- 

 mences flying in front of the hive in 

 circles, each circle growing larger as it 

 goes further from the hive, until it is 

 lost from sight. In this way the exact 

 spot of "home" is located, after which 

 no more precaution needs be taken, 

 for it seems to remember ever after 

 where home is. For this reason it leaves 

 its hive on all subsequent times in a 

 direct line of flight, never looking at the 

 hive at all, so that if the hive is after- 

 ward carried to a new location the 

 older bees do not seem to know it (un- 

 less carried two or more miles away), 

 but sally forth only to return to the 

 exact spot where they first marked their 

 home, there to die a homeless wan- 

 derer, unless there are other hives near 

 at hand which will admit their entrance. 



Now, while as a rule, this is true, no- 

 matter whether the hive is moved at 

 night or in the day time, yet I find that 

 there are two exceptions, one of which 

 is in case of a swarm, and the other is 

 the first flight in spring. While the 

 bees always seem to know where their 

 old location was, so that the swarm, 

 or bees in the spring, can return if 

 they so desire, still a swarm does not 

 so desire except from loss of the queen, 

 nor do bees in spring, if set out in 

 the following manner : 



As soon as the hive is brought out- 

 side of the cellar door, close the en- 

 trance with a wet cotton-cloth, one suf- 

 ficiently large so it will tuck snugly alt 

 about so as to leave no holes through 

 which the bees can see the light. In 

 this way the bees are securely shut iri 

 the hive, for there is nothing that a bee 

 dislikes to crowd by more than a cloth 

 saturated with cold water. By having a 

 lighted smoker both at the cellar door, 

 and at the stand we wish the colony to 

 occupy, we are ready to advance our 

 aims further. As soon as the wet cloth 

 is snugly over the entrance, turn back 

 one corner of the wet cloth and blow m 

 smoke till a loud hum greets your ears, 

 when you are ready to carry the hive to 

 its stand. Now put a clean, sweet 

 bottom-board on the stand the colony 

 is to occupy during the season, when 

 you will turn back a corner of the wet 

 cloth again and blow in about the same 

 amount of smoke that you did at the 

 entrance of the cellar, tucking back the 

 wet cloth again, when you will pro- 

 ceed to loosen the bottom-board from 

 the hive by prying out the crate-sta- 

 ples, or whatever fastened it to the hive, 

 when the hive is set on the clean bot- 

 tom-board and the entrance adjusted to 

 the amount you wish for early spring. 



The bottom-board the hive was on all 

 winter is now cleaned and placed on 

 the next stand, when you are ready to 

 get and treat the ne.xt colony and all 

 future colonies brought from the cellar 

 in the same way. By this plan the hees 

 do not rush out pell-mell, as they are 

 likely to do in the usual way of setting 

 out, but come out more slowly, as do 

 those of a swarm in marking their lo- 

 cation, or as do the bees from a colony 

 which has been wintered out doors, 

 when they take their first flight in 

 spring. 



Who ever heard of colonies mixing 



