1888 



CJLEAMNGS IN liEE CULTUllE. 



505 



liquid is very inflammable, so it must not be ex- 

 posed, either the liquid or vapor, to the Are. 



Another way is to mix a little London purple 

 with thin syrup, and inclose it in a box with wire 

 gauze so that the ants can reach it, but not the 

 bees. I have thus poisoned ants in the upper 

 story of chaff hives in early spring. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., June 33, 1888. 



Friend Cook, I want to ask you about tlie 

 term ''mimicry.'' I presume you mean by 

 this that nature seems to delight in copying, 

 or making insects that very mucli resemble 

 others. Tlie remedy you give, in arranging 

 London purple with a feeder, covered with 

 wire cloth, so the ants can get at it, and not 

 the bees, is very ingenious. It would not 

 answer, however, to leave sucli things 1> iug 

 around loose, or we might have our bees 

 poisoned before we know it, through some 

 accidental injury caused to the poison-trap. 



HOW TO MAKE "GOOD "CANDY GOOD. 



J. D. FOOSHE TELLS US HOW HIS WIFE DOES IT. 



«MONG the queens wliich we have re- 

 ceived from the South in mailing- 

 cages, we observe the very noticeable 

 fact that those from J. D. Fooslie al- 

 ways came in the best condition by 

 far, and, with scarcely an exception, the 

 bees and queen were just as lively as wlien 

 taken directly from the hive. Believing 

 that this diiference was entirely due to 

 candy and feeding too, that our candy was 

 inferior to Fooshe's, we wrote him request- 

 ing him to tell us brietly how he made his. 

 His letter is as follows : 



Friend Root :— My wife has always done that; and 

 when she read your letter we got your price list and 

 compared your way of making with ours; and we 

 find this difference: You say, " Take thick honey 

 and stir in pulverized sugar till it makes good stiff 

 dough, and then let it stand until it is hard enough 

 not to run. Instead of sti rring sugar iu thick honey 

 we take good thick honey and warm it thoroughly 

 so as to become very thin, and stir pulverized su- 

 gar in it until it becomes a stiff dough; and after we 

 have stirred in all the sugar the honey will absorb, 

 we take our hands and work it well; for in working 

 it with the hands the honey will absorb more sugar; 

 and when sufficiently worked we roll out in sticks 

 and lay them separate. It is then ready for imme- 

 diate use. My wife adopted the plan of heating the 

 honey, because it makes it work easier; and since 

 you have called attention to the difference between 

 my candy and others, I suppose therein lies the 

 secret, if any there be in It. When you stir pulver- 

 ized sugar in thick honey it is hard to tell when you 

 have got it to a proper consistency for warm 

 weather or for damp weather. If the weather is 

 very warm, and the heat of bees together will 

 cause candy made with thick honey to rvui (in damp 

 weather it is very much inclined to run) the bees 

 often get daubed with the honey; but if you will 

 think of it, if you heat the honey until it is very 

 thin (without boiling), and let it take in all the su- 

 gar you can work in it, neither damp weather nor 

 heat will cause it to run so as to daub the bees. I 

 think your plan all right for making candy to lay 

 over clusters of bees to feed them; but for provi- 



sioning cages to ship queens in, we ought to be care- 

 ful that it be of a proper consistency. The finer the 

 sugar, the better the candy. J. D. Fooshe. 



Coronaca, Abbeville Co , S. C, June 25, 1888. 



Friend F., we are very much obliged in- 

 deed for a description of your method of 

 making candy. When our honey is candied 

 we always melt it, and I believe our wom- 

 en-folks usually heat it before adding the 

 sugar. Very likely they do not heat it as 

 much as you do. No doubt many of our 

 readers will be glad to profit by the instruc- 

 tions you give. 



ITEMS OF EXPERIENCE FROM MRS. 

 AXTEIiL. 



MKS. AXTELL S HEE-BONNET, ETC. 



fKlEND KOOT:— I am very sorry that my bee- 

 bonnet has given so much trouble. I had no 

 thought of any thing but a hint that might be 

 a help to some middle-aged lady who might, 

 like myself, find a hat a burden to wear. I 

 had no thought that our brother and sister bee- 

 keepers were so inconsiderate that a mere mention 

 of a thing was going to cause them to rush for it 

 whether it was best for them to have it or not. 



The loose piece in front of the bonnet should not 

 have been sewed down Hat over the forehead, but 

 to the front of the hat, so as to project forward, 

 and thus shade the face from the sun. 



THE SEASON. 



We are having very cool weather for the month 

 of June— rainy, cool, and cloudy. The consequence 

 is, bees are getting but very little honey. Weak 

 colonies get just enough to keep up brood-rearing, 

 and strong colonies are keeping their combs well 

 filled with brood, which is not always the case in a 

 heavy honey-flow, so that, if it does come off warm 

 by and by, we may yet have a honey-How and some 

 swarming. 



DARK HONEY. 



The honey they have been getting thus far is 

 very dark. I took off six finished sections a few 

 days since, of the darkest honey I ever saw, of a 

 whole section. I have before seen a few cells of 

 dark honey, but not a whole section. (>ur honey is 

 always vei-y white, from white clover, in the month 

 of June; but as it has been so rainy for a few days 

 past it is being taken out of sections to the brood- 

 nest. We hope soon to have better weather for 

 honey-gathering, as these protracted rains have 

 caused the white clover, that was so badly killed 

 out, to come on vigorously. 



I think bee-keepers who hold on and keep their 

 colonies strong, will, before the close of the season, 

 be rewarded for their toil. We have found bee- 

 keeping to pay well, taking one year with another, 

 and we can not always tell just when the honey- 

 How will come, so that, if we wish to catch the flow, 

 we must keep our bees strong all the time, for it 

 takes a longtime to build up a weak colony, and it 

 does not cost a bee-keeper any more to keep strong 

 colonies than it does to keep weak ones. Strong 

 ones will find honey where weak ones will starve. 



We often get our largest crop of honey in the fall, 

 from the middle of August to last of September. 



FEEDING CITT-LOAF SUGAR NOT A SUCCESS. 



Last fall we thought we would lengthen out our 

 honey store to the bees by feeding cut-loaf sugar, 



