123 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Fkb. If,. 



storing mine tlius. I never tried exactly that 

 expedient: but some yeai-s ago I filled some 

 waxed kegs with honey, bunged them closely, 

 and left them on the ground for awhile— how 

 long I do not now remembei'. At anothei' time 

 I had a stone jar full, into which I think a little 

 water leaked: if not that, it was not sufficiently 

 rip(Mied when it was extracted. In both cases 

 the honey became fiat in flavor from a loss of 

 its I'ichness, and at the same time acquii'ed a 

 sharp, acid taste. To allow honey to absorb a 

 little foreign dami)ness, especially if it is after- 

 ward exposed to even a moderate summer tem- 

 perature, or to exti'act it while yet I'ank and 

 watery, will always have that effect upon it. 

 Hence honey can not be safely kept in a cellar 

 — I doubt whether even in a cemented one. un- 

 less it is so sealed as to be proof against air and 

 moisture. But if it is stored in a warm dry 

 room it will steadily improve in body and 

 richness. This second or third rate honey may 

 do for use in curing tol^acco. but not generally 

 for table use; and it is very easy and natural for 

 the consumer, ignorant of the nature and differ- 

 ent qualities of honey, to conclude that such is 

 adulterated. I once sampled some honey in a 

 store, nicely granulated, that I would not give 

 one cent a pound for. 



Now. I submit, is there not a great deal of ig- 

 norance or carelessness on tlie part of large 

 producers in caring for honey, or even down- 

 right dishonesty on the part of some in putting 

 such honey on the market? And is not the 

 abundance of such an inferior article, to a con- 

 siderable extent, the ground of the prevalent 

 belief that honey is largely a bogus commodity? 

 I incline to think, from the evidence I have ob- 

 tained, that bee-keepers are themselves to a 

 gi'eat extent responsible for the state of things 

 which they so much deplore. 



PARTNERS IN THE II0NP:Y-HUSINESS. 



I saw in Mr. B.'s store some beautiful white 

 honey in one-pound sections, put vip in nice 

 pasteboard cartons, bearing the name and ad- 

 dress of some Smitli. from somewhere in Ver- 

 mont. He got it from a house in Indianapolis, 

 and. freight charges included, it cost him a 

 little over 15 cts. per pound. I wonder if it did 

 not go through a commission house in New 

 York, or some place else. I thought. " How 

 many people made a little money out of that 

 little lot of honey— a part of their living, if you 

 please! " Of course, the gi'ocer gets a little him- 

 self. Then the lailroads between Indianapolis 

 and Springfield got a little: the firm at the 

 former city got a little: the railroads from Ver- 

 mont got a little, the maker and printer of the 

 cartons got a little, the manufacturer of the 

 sections got a little, the foundation-maker got 

 a little, and it may be a firm in New York and 

 another railroad got a little. What a stir a 

 little honey or a little hog can make in the 

 business world ! A wonderful fabric, this coun- 

 try — this world of ours! Query: How much 

 did Smith get? Geo. F. Robbins. 



Mechanicsburg. 111., Jan. 25. 



BICYCLE OR TEAM. 



E. FHANfR S.\YS A lUCYC'LE WOUI-DN'T DO FOR 

 HIM. 



Ernest R. Root tries to make us think that the 

 bicycle is the cheapest thing to be used, in vis- 

 iting out-apiaries. Well, for him perhaps it is. 

 It depends altogether on why you are going to 

 make the visit. If you have local help at the 

 apiary to do most of the work, and yon are 

 just going to call to see how things are running, 

 or are going to get a few ([ueens to take home 



to fill orders, or .something of that kind, then 

 the bicycle is all right. But I can not see how 

 it would do for me, or any of our large bee- 

 keepers. We always have too much to take 

 along. We usually make our first trips around 

 the last of March or first of Api-il — an inspection 

 visit: then we carry a keg of liouey, l.V) lbs., 

 and fifty 3-lb. feeders. I don't know that we 

 shall want to feed, but we want the feed and 

 feeders along, and must take the team. After 

 this first trip around we make two or three 

 more trips, before the extracting season com- 

 mences, to see that all is right, clip queens, etc.. 

 and always take our keg of feed along. When 

 white clover blossoms enough so the betis are 

 making a living, then we take along the ex- 

 tractor and some help, so we can take out every 

 drop of honey there is in the hives so it will not 

 be mixed with the white honey. We must have 

 a team. Then when honey-gathering is in full 

 blast, and we expect to take out 2000 lbs. of 

 honey per day. we have to go with two teams — 

 one team to haul the honey, and the other one 

 to haul the help. etc. We have two horses of 

 our own. and hire two more at the livery. Dur- 

 ing the extracting season we have all the wag- 

 ons we want of our own. We are also working 

 a little farm of twenty acres, and have to have 

 one team. 



DO THE BEES OF THE LARGE BEE-KEEPERS 

 USE UP THE BEES OF THE SMALLER ONES? 



The small bee-keepers are apt to think that 

 their bees stand a poor chance when there is a 

 large apiary near them. When I first began to 

 keep bees around about Platteville there were a 

 great many farmers who had each a few colo- 

 nies of bees, and some of them as many as 100 

 stands. Now there are but few wiio try to keep 

 bees at all. How often I hear complaints about 

 my bees like this I They say. " France's bees 

 have robbed all my bees — stole all the honey, 

 and killed all the bees. I can not keep bees 

 any more. France gets them all." We have 

 had poor seasons, and bees not properly cared 

 for have starved out. But the blame all 

 falls on my bees. In one sense, peihaps my 

 bees have done some of the nu'schief, inas- 

 much as they have picked up the honey pretty 

 close. Rut did not their few stand just as good 

 a chance as my many? Of course, they did. 

 Well, what is the nnitttM' then? It is all in 

 knowing how to take care of the bees. Can 

 we expect a man to prosper in any busine.ss 

 unless he knows how to run that business? A 

 great deal depends upon small details— little 

 things that appear to be of no consequence. 

 It is a small thing to look into a hive and see 

 whether there is feed to last through the win- 

 ter. ■' Why." h(! says. "I simply took off the 

 honey that was stored on top in the boxes, and 

 the bees have all the hive full below:" when, if 

 he had looked carefully thiough the iiive, he 

 would have found that he had taken off' about 

 all the honey they had in those boxes; then the 

 bees die for want of feed. Then he blames an- 

 other man's bees for his loss, when it was his 

 own ignorance. 



In wintering our bees outdoors, what shall we 

 put over them — a cushion or a honey-board 

 sealed down tight? This is a question that I 

 am asked to answer through Gleanings. I 

 suppose that you are aware that we winter all 

 of our bees out of doors — at present between .500 

 and <)(X) colonies. We have wintered outdoors 

 most of the time for thirty years, and have had 

 very good success. We have tried a great many 

 plans to insui'(^ the safety of the bees. We now 

 use a hou(>y-board over the bees — that is, a board 

 made of %-iiieh pine, cleated at both ends to 

 prevent warping, and large enough to cover the 

 colony tight and let the bees seal it down with 



