1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



457 



it cannot be extracted. This is often the case 

 with heather honey. Watery honey usually 

 loses 25 or more per cent of its water during 

 the first 24 hours, if the weather is warm and 

 the colony powerful. The bees evaporate it by 

 forcing a strong current of air through the hive. 

 It often takes several days to ripen honey to 

 proper consistency. 



5. They sell instruments, which are called 

 "hygrometers" to test the density of liquids, 

 whether they are heavier than water, as is 

 honey, or lighter than water, as is alcohol. 

 These hygrometers may be bought from drug- 

 gists in cities. 



6. Honey is ripened considerably in tanks 

 in hot, dry weather. But it is better not to 

 extract it till it is fairly well ripened. This is 

 a matter of locality What may be done in a 

 warm country, like California or Texas, may 

 not do at all in Canada. At any rate, it is al- 

 ways well to keep honey in a warm, dry room, 

 so it may evaporate. Damp places are bad, t)e- 

 cause instead of evaporating, it gets more 

 moisture and ferments. 



7 Honey may be kept from granulating or 

 may be melted when granulated, by heating it 

 over water "au bain-marie." It should not be 

 heated to over 165 degrees. It always loses 

 some of the volatile essential oils which give 

 the fine flavor and which are distilled by the 

 flowers in the fields. 



Bees and Grapes 



A beekeeper and horticulturist in this com- 

 munity are having trouble. The beekeeper has 

 60 colonies of bees on another man's farm. 

 One of the neighbors of this man has an or- 

 chard and vineyard. The bees went into this 

 vineyard and sucked the juice ut of his grapes. 

 He expected to obtain four tons of grapes, but 

 claims that the bees destroyed two tons, having 

 punctured the grapes, bursted them, etc. He 

 claims damages. 



1. Do bees puncture grapes? Give evidence 

 from beekeepers and horticulturists if you can. 



2. Do birds injure grapes by picking them? 

 If so, what is the shape of the puncture that 

 the bird makes in the grape? 



3. Has this question of damages been settled 

 in the higher courts of the country? 



4. Does the bee do more injury to the horti- 

 culturist than good? 



5. Can the horticulturist claim damages le- 

 gally or morally from the beekeeper? 



6. If the horticulturist notifies the beekeeper 

 after the claimed depredation is almost com- 

 plete, and the beekeeper agrees to furnish 

 pickers the very next day, free of charge, and 

 the horticulturist does not accept the proposi- 

 tion, what would be justice according to law to- 

 wards both parties? 



7. Do bees ever store away fruit juices in 

 the hives? If so, does it injure the bees .n 

 winter, whether in the cellar or oul-of-doors? 



The conditions in this community, it might 

 be well to say, so far as weather conditions 

 are concerned, were as follows: 



The summer was hot and dry until about 

 three weeks before grapes were being picked; 

 then came the rainy season; the grapes matur- 

 ing much earlier than usual in this section, were 

 over ripe, all of which the beekeeper claims 

 caused them to burst on the vines. What can 

 you say as to the bursting of grapes under 

 such conditions? The frost in the spring 

 destroyed most of the grapes in this vicinity, 

 so that the crop is far from normal. This hor- 

 ticulturist*s crop of grapes last year was aoout 

 eleven tons, and his four tons for this sea- 

 son's crop is only an estimate on his part. 



MICHIGAN. 



Answers. — 1. Bees do not, cannot, puncture 

 sound grapes. Any one may try this by in- 

 serting a bunch of ripe grapes into a bee hive 

 and removing it in 24 to 48 hours. Puncture 

 one or two berries first, as a test. 



2. Yes. birds pick at grapes. When very 

 hungry they will almost destroy the berry, but 

 when their maw is full they often pick at the 

 bunches for pleasure. Then they usually make 

 two holes in each berry, one above the other, 

 with the two points of the beak. 



3. No, no one, to our knowledge ever sued a 

 beekeeper. If they did it they would be sure 

 to lose. 



4. The bee does more good than injury to 

 horticulture, for there would be no fruit if the 

 insects like the bees did not visit the flowers. 

 This, also, may be tested easily, by enclosing 

 apple buds under a gauze. 



5. Not if the judge or jury takes evidence of 

 sufficient extent. 



6. Let that be decided by the courts, if it is 

 worth trying. 



7. Yes; bees store fermenting fruit juices in 

 the hives when they are short of good honey, 

 and those juices make them sick. We know 

 that by our own experience. 



If you wish additional statements concerning 

 the question of bees arid fruits, we refer you 

 to the September number of the American Bee 

 Journal, "Question and Answers," page 368; 

 also to "The Hive & Honey Bee," paragraphs 

 871 to 878, inclusive. This matter has been 

 often debated and the answers are just as plain 

 as the fact that the earth moves around the sun 

 and not the sun around the earth. 



ODDS AND ENDS 



Colorado Short Courses 



Colorado is to have two short 

 courses in beekeeping conducted by 

 the College of Agriculture in co- 

 operation with the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture. The first of 

 these is to be held at Foi't Collins, dur- 

 ing the week of November 21-27, and 

 the other at Grand Junction, on the 

 following week. Although the pro- 

 gram is not quite completed, the in- 

 structors scheduled for these two 

 schools are: Dr. E. F. Phillips, Api- 

 culturist, U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture; Geo. S. Demuth, editor of 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture; Dr. C. P. 

 Gillette, Colorado Agi-icultural Col- 

 lege; E. W. Atkins, of the G. B. Lewis 

 Company, Watertown, Wis. ; C. H. 

 Wolfe, Vice President of the Colorado 

 Honey Producers' Association; New- 

 ton Boggs, State Apiary Inspector; 

 Dr. W. R. Calkins, Cortez, and J. D. 

 Caldwell, Rifle, Colo. 



Newton Boggs, 

 Deputy Bee Inspector. 



Big Crops From Big Hives 



I make this observation on the 

 year's work. Every Dadant hive run 

 for surplus gave me upwards of 140 

 pounds, except one which swarmed 

 and one which was an unfilled nucleus 

 when clover came on. Out of four 

 Langstroth hives run for surplus, the 

 best I got was 82 pounds, and down 

 to 56. My Dadants were 228, 196 and 

 148 pounds. I lay this to the fact 

 that with so much more honey in sight 

 in the big hives, early breeding went 

 right along, while with less reserve in 

 the Langstroth hives probably held 

 back early breeding. 



Elmer T. Beach. 



of surplus in the brood chamber. This 

 was taken from 16 colonies, spring 

 count, and an increase of 100 per 

 cent. 



Two of my best colonies made each 

 176 sections, the next best were 8 

 colonies with 168 sections each. I 

 am certain that they would have pro- 

 duced more if I had only put on more 

 sections. The fall flow was never so 

 good. Frank Langohr. 



Honey Bees and Honey Plants 



The average United States yield of 

 surplus honey per colony to Septem- 

 ber 1, this year, is estimated at 40.5 

 pounds, which is about the average 

 yield to that date, but only 78 per 

 cent of the yield at the same date last 

 year. The number of colonies is 

 greater than last year, however, being 

 estimated at 107.4 per cent, so that 

 the indicated total production of 

 honey to September 1, this year, is 

 about 84 per cent as great as last 

 year's yield. H. C. Taylor, 



Chief of Bureau of Crop Estimates. 



Honey Imports for 12 Months 



The total honey imports from for- 

 eign countries to the United States 

 for the year ending June 30 were 

 452,983 gallons, or over five million 

 pounds. No wonder we have been af- 

 fected by the influx of honey. This 

 does not include, either, the large 

 amount of honey coming in 'from Por- 

 to Rico and Hawaii. 



Countries sending us th'? most are 

 as follows: 

 Dominican Republic__107,i')01 gallons 



Cuba 99,845 gallons 



England 69,217 gallons 



Mexico 3o,295 gallons 



Chile--- -- 34,678 gallons 



These figures are taken from the 

 Report No. 80 of the Bureau of Mar- 

 kets. 



England and many other countries 

 listed as exporters of honey, do not 

 likely produce any of this honey them- 

 selves, but act as merchants as be- 

 tween the point of production and the 

 l-nited States. 



Texas Gets Wet 



Texas has the reputation of doing 

 things right, but in the matter of 

 water they have recently overdone it 

 somewhat. Our readers will be glad 

 to note that the Texas Honey Produc- 

 ers' Association emerged fro:n the re- 

 cent flood at San Antonio with but a 

 small loss to their goods. There was 

 four feet of water in the warehouse 

 where their honey and bee supplies 

 were stored and it lequired a large 

 amount of labor to get all the "water 

 out of their stock." Since tons of 

 honey were under water every can 

 had to be examined to make sure it 

 had not leaked, and the wooden goods 

 required moving to a place w'nere it 

 could be promptly dried out. 



A Good Report From Indiana 



I got 2,440 sections of nice clover 

 honey and the bees are all in good 

 shape for winter from buckwheat and 

 goldenrod honey. All have 50 pounds 



Government Honey Report 



The Monthly Crop Reporter for 

 •September 1 shows the average honey 

 crop of the United States as 40.5 

 pounds per colony as against 51.9 last 



