1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



191 



SiniLERY AND BLiASTED HOPES. 



BOTH SIDES. 



fjRIEND ROOT:— I commenced three years ago 

 with two nuclei of Cyprians, and have now 40 

 colonies of hybrids, all strong and vigorous, 

 as their active house-cleaning, some days since, dem- 

 onstrated. Lost none. All well supplied with stores. 

 The cap is roof-shaped, thoroughly water-proof, 

 with a space above the frames, averaging 2'/2 in. fill- 

 ed with dry leaves. Two short sticks lie across the 

 frames, under the enameled cloth, so that the bees 

 can cross over. With the mercury for a long time 

 below zero, and at one time more than 30 degrees, 

 they remained all right. As they have an incompre- 

 hensible method of making wax out of honey, and of 

 reducing sweet water otherwise than by evaporation, 

 so, also, they have a process, unknown to man, by 

 which heat is generated, amply sufficient for all 

 emergencies. The study of their wonderful and In- 

 comprehensible performances is extremely enter- 

 taining, to say nothing about the fun of hiving, tak- 

 ing out sections, extracting, etc. 



The yield of honey last season was large, but alas! 

 I have still the most of it on hand, and this takes me 

 out of the " Smilery " over into the other place. The 

 honey market here is hopelessly glutted. My mer- 

 chant in Kahoka occasionally sells a few pounds for 

 me, and we occasionally sell a little at home. Price, 

 comb honey, 10 cts.; extracted, 6I4 cts. Hence the 

 outlook for profit is extremely gloomy, and I should 

 be in a sorry plight had I to rely exclusively upon 

 this business for a living. I would say to all who 

 contemplate making it a specialty, don't.. 



I thought for a time that, when honey ceased to be 

 a luxury, by reason of the reduction of the price, a 

 taste for it would be cultivated by the masses; but 

 in this I was mistaken. The more of it used, the less it 

 is desired. Its rank and pungent taste soon cloys 

 upon the palate. My family liked it much at first, 

 but it now remains upon the table, and is seldom 

 touched. Honey is used for many purposes, and 

 doubtless in the future will have a certain market, 

 but the figures will be low. Its actual value consists 

 in the saccharine matter it contains. Take a lot of 

 honey and analyze it. It contains so much grape su- 

 gar, 80 much manna, a certain amount of mucilage, 

 and also pollen, acid, and other substances and 

 juices. Now, the only thing about it of actual value 

 is the grape sugar, and that is so tangled up with 

 other things as, doubtless, to impair its value for 

 some purposes. As an article of diet, though the 

 manna itself may be " both a food and medicine," 

 and the pungent vegetable extracts may have "rare 

 virtues," yet it is useless to close our eyes to the 

 fact that the American people eat, not for health, 

 but for satisfaction. C. S. Callihan. 



Jem, Mo., Feb. 1~', 1884. 



Friend C, your article is certainly frank 

 and fair, yet 1 am inclined to think you rath- 

 er underrate the value of honey for food ; 

 and I believe your market can be worked up 

 to a better state than you represent it, if 

 your honey is of good quality. Last month I 

 spoke about the basswood honey in the comb 

 being better than our extracted honey. A 

 few days afterward, a bee-keeper offered me 

 about 1000 lbs. of nice basswood honey at 8 

 cts. per lb. He got a little discouraged in 

 trying to sell it, and so offered it low. A 

 sample of it was put on. the table in the 



lunch-room, and I asked how many would 

 take some of it at 10 cts. per lb. It was or- 

 dered rapidly, and for the past ten days we 

 have been doing the nicest retail trade in 

 honey I ever knew. I put an advertisement 

 in our two county papers, as follows : 



HONEY rOU ONLY 10 CENTS PER LB. 



Until further notice we will furnish our best qual- 

 ity of extracted honey, either white clover or bass- 

 wood for an even 10 cents. Bring on your pitchers 

 or pails and get them filled. Or we cau furnish you 

 neat and pretty packages of any size you wish, hold- 

 ing from '/2 to 100 lbs., at very reasonable prices. 

 Now is the time to lay in a supply, for good honey 

 will keep a hundred years, if you want to keep it so 

 long. Nice comb honey at Irom 15 to ao cts. per lb. 

 A. 1. KOOT, Medina, O. 



The very next morning, people came flock- 

 ing in with pitchers, tin pails, and all sorts 

 of utensils, and we have had a steady trade 

 ever since, and Mrs. Shane informed me that 

 the 1000 lbs. would soon be gone, at the rate 

 it was going. Two cents per pound prolit is 

 not much, it is true ; but as a great pai t of 

 it was sold in 10 to 25 lb. lots, it was a pretty 

 fair business after all. The secret of it is, 

 the honey was sweet and pure and well ripen- 

 ed ; it was never in barrels at all, and had 

 no taste of barrel- staves about it. With a 

 pitcher of milk, and some nice bread and 

 butter, I could eat it three times a day, and 

 feel happy too. Now, is your honey really 

 good, thick, and kept in tin, so it has no un- 

 pleasant flavor, and have you got a honey 

 market worked up on it V 1 want to see. you 

 not only smile when you work with the bees, 

 but when you hand the honey over to your 

 friends and neighbors during the winter, 

 friend C. 



-_ — - — ^ m ^ 



OUTDOOR ^VINTER1^G. 



POLLEN NOT NECESSARILY A CAUSE OF DYSENTERY. 



m S you well know, I have been for yeurs an ad- 

 ^^ vocate of outdoor wintering, and for the rea- 



' son that I have been invariably successful in 



wintering my bees on their summer stands. This 

 winter, that has been unusually severe, is no excep- 

 tion with me, as to-day I opened my hives and found 

 every colony in good shape, with a large amount of 

 brood, and very few dead bees. 



The winter, I said, had been unusually severe; and 

 when I inform you that for some eleven weeks the 

 thermometer went no higher than 2'i° above zero, 

 and for a number of days it ranged from (1° to 18 ' be- 

 low, you can well believe I assert nothing more than 

 the truth. My colonies are nearly all in Simplicity- 

 Langstroth hives, containing 7 andS frames of comb, 

 with division-boards on each side. I found the combs 

 all dry, and without a particle of mold, showing 

 that no moisture had condensed, and therefore there 

 was no chance for ice to form inside the hive. But 

 little honey had been consumed, owing, I suppose, to 

 the extreme cold, which caused the bees to assume 

 and keep in a semi-dormant state. Althouirh the 

 bees were flying freely, there was no spotting of 

 hives or the little snow upon the ground, and this 

 notwithstanding I left a large amount of pollen in 

 the frames for the purpose of testing the pollen 

 theory. I am more fully convinced than ever, that 

 pollen alone does not cause bee-diarrha>a, or dysen- 

 tery, so called (whether it is a factor in so doing in 

 connection with other things I know not), and that 

 we must look further still for the cause of that pe- 



