1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



801 



more or less, but we can do this: We can 

 take the hot liquid off the stove, set it out in 

 the cold, and let it remain perfectly still un- 

 til it is cold. It will then probably not crys- 

 tallize. We prefer, however, to feed the 

 syrup warm. May be this is one reason why 

 we have trouble witli crystallization one time 

 and not another. The lots that were crys- 

 tallized so badly were perhaps poured into 

 the feeder while hot. It seems to me, liow- 

 ever, that friend Doolittle's plan of putting 

 in a little honey is the cheapest and best 

 way. The honey contains sufficient grape 

 sugar (I hope none of the friends will be 

 frightened) to prevent crystallizing, the same 

 way that the addition of a small quantity of 

 commercial grape sugar did. There seems 

 to be a s )rt of vegetable gum in honey, that 

 stands in tlie way of the formation of crys- 

 tals ; therefore honey may candy, but it 

 never crystallizes in dry solid forms, as su- 

 gar does. Queer, is it not. that candied hon- 

 ey, and dry gratuilated . sugar, when melted 

 together, will never get hard again'? and al- 

 so that they may be kneaded np together as 

 we do it in the Good candy, and remain a 

 pasty solid for years V When they are once 

 melted there is no more candying nor crys- 

 tallizing either. 



HONEY-DEW FALLING FROM THE AT- 

 MOSPHERE. 



A POSITIVE DECLARATION THAT IT DOE.S SO FALL. 



fKIEND ROOT:-In your issue of the 1st inst. 

 you deny that honey-dew tails from the at- 

 mosphere. You surely are in error. I have 

 learned much from Gleanings and from 

 your A B C book, and usually consider you 

 very g-ood authority. In the month of Aug-ust, 1883, 

 we had honey-dew fall from the atmosphere in such 

 liberal quantities that about sunset we could not 

 only see it descending- in the air, but could catch it 

 in our hands lilie drops of water. This was upon 

 the high prairie, and miles from any grove, except 

 such trees as had been planted since lf:"60, for shade 

 and for ornament. 



Again, I am afraid you are prejudiced against 

 this honey, as you appear determined to call it 

 " bug juice." My honey-dew honey of 1883 was 

 equal in all respects to any I ever saw; was white, 

 nice, etc., and gave universal satisfaction to my 

 customers, who are even yet not done inquiring 

 for that same kind. The present season we had 

 another kind. I think it must have come up out of 

 the ground instead of down from above. It is dark 

 of color, with a rank strong taste, ajid extracted 

 will sometimes work or ferment. If honey-dew 

 does never fall from the atmosphere, how does it 

 get out hei-e on the prairie? and how did that upon 

 which the children of Israel subsisted get to the des^ 

 ert? Please do not condemn it all. What was good 

 enough for old Moses and his people should be 

 plenty good enough for any modern epicure. 



BEES ON KEU CLOVER. 



I shall have to own up in tho matter of bees work, 

 iug on the red clover. I found mine doing so for 

 the first time in my life last October. The first and 

 best workers were, as usual, my "Americans," with 

 no bright bands to brag of. The fellows wearing 

 the " belt and the sash " appeared to stand around 

 find look on. I?imnJonoofthemsay toan Ani^rigan, 



" Good ! you can dew it, we've seen j'ou dew it, but 

 we'uns can't dew it." 



The Holy-Land queen you sent me came all right, 

 and at once commenced laying. 



I have now an A No. 1 swarm of very few bees 

 left of the old kind; nearly every one appears to be 

 a Holy-Land. 



When I last wrote j-ou, bees were just booming 

 after several weeks of enforced idleness, and we 

 were jubilant— the bees and I; but our hopes were 

 suddenly cut short. The boom quite proved a fizzle 

 after three or four days. Many bees are short of 

 stores. Some are star\ed out already. Some show 

 a disposition to swarm out. A fine swarm only a day 

 or two since clustered on a fence-post near town. 

 Occasionally a swarm had a fair surplus. I do not use 

 the extractor, and I winter on the summer stands. 

 Bees have been flying finely, and pretending to be 

 busy at work until to-day a " norther " keeps them 

 indooi-s. Thej' were an intolerable nuisance around 

 the cider-press, and I tried to buy them off with sor- 

 ghum molasses, but they would not touch it. If ray- 

 bees go through the winter all right, I think I shall 

 claim that cider is good for them. J. H. Wing. 



Malvern, la., Nov. 16, 1884. 



Friend AV., I am very glad of the evidence 

 yon bring forward, yet I scanned your letter 

 closely to see if you anywhere declared the 

 substance which fell in the air was sweet to 

 the taste when you licked it directly from 

 your hands. If this is so, I suppose we shall 

 have to give it up ; but I have never heard 

 of anybody who caught it directly upon his 

 hands, and tasted it and found it sweet. No 

 doubt it was sweet after it fell on the grass, 

 leaves, etc., because the sweet substance 

 was there already, incrusted on the leaf, and 

 needed only the foggy morning you mention 

 to dissolve it, so as to make honey-rffw. 

 Now, will you please tell us in regard to this 

 one point? I can not tell you how the sweet 

 substance became dried down on the leaves 

 so as to be invisible until moistened, but our 

 back numbers have pointed out several ways 

 by which this might have happened. 



A KANSAS LADY'S REPORT. 



CYPKIANS, HYBRIDS, CLIPPED QUEENS, ETC., ETC. 



RIEND ROOT:— This has been the poorest sea- 

 son ever known in this locality. There was 

 plenty of bloom clear through the season. 

 By giving our bees every attention we man- 

 aged to increase them from 3.5 to 53 colonies 

 by natural swarming. We bridged nearly all the 

 bad places by feeding. We worked 15 of the 35 col- 

 onies for increase, and the rest we kept down in- 

 crease by taking away brood and giving to after- 

 swarras. We let the colonies swarm all they would, 

 and 13 of the 15 swarmed; 3 colonies swarmed once 

 apiece; 5 colonies swarmed twice apiece; 3 colonies 

 swarmed 3 times apiece, and the Cyprians swarmed 

 4 times. The fli'st swarm of Cyprians superseded 

 their queen, and swarmed twice again. Total, 38 

 swarms. None were lost by absconding. Only one 

 young queen got lost on her wedding-tour. Her 

 place was filled immediately by a virgin Cyprian 

 queen. We had no laying workers in the apiary 

 this season. 



We have all our bees in fair condition for winter, 

 but are doubtful as to the quality of honej-, as it is 

 not the same as we have had other seasons. If it 

 were heart's-ease we should have no fear of the re- 

 8ult. The latter failed us entirely-. AVe have some 



