1898 



GLE\NINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



767 



half syrup, they have a better product in the 

 hive, to my notion, than if we were to give them 

 syrup and water of the consistency of ripened 

 honey. 



When I visited Dr. Miller recently he did 

 not think it necessary even to dissolve the 

 sugar in the water. He simply poured cold 

 water on the sugar in the feeder. After stir- 

 ring it a Httle, perhaps, he lets it stand for the 

 bees to take up. U there is still sugar left in 

 the bottom of the feeder at the next round he 

 pours in more water. The point is right here: 

 If we give the bees thin syrup there will be 

 no danger of its granulating or crystallizing 

 in the combs after they have manipulated it, 

 and perhaps put in formic acid. If one does 

 not have an extractor, let him pour the ingre- 

 dients into a tub, and stir with a stick.— Ed.] 



ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE OI.D UNION. 



The enemies of the pursuit of bee-keeping 

 have again been defeated. It will be remem- 

 bered that, about one year ago, Mr. Frank S. 

 Buchheim, of Santa Ana, Cal., was arrested, 

 under Sec. 370 of the Penal Code of California, 

 for keeping 100 colonies of bees on his prem- 

 ises, charging him with keeping a nuisance in 

 the neighborhood, averring that the bees ate 

 up and destroyed the fruit belonging to the 

 neighbors, and interfered with laborers who 

 were engaged in caring for the fruit, etc. His 

 apiary and premises cover 7>^ acres. He built 

 a fence 6 feet high to inclose 24 x .'^2 feet, in 

 which he kept the hives of bees during the 

 fruit-drying season, thus controlling the bees 

 and preventing annoyance to the neighbors. 

 But they were not satisfied with these precau- 

 tions, and demanded that the bees be moved 

 out of that locality. Suit was brought against 

 Mr. Buchheim for maintaining a public nui- 

 sance, and he was fined $50.00 and costs. As 

 he was a poor man with a large family to sup- 

 port, he did not pay the fine, and was com- 

 mitted to jail for 25 days. After 10 days had 

 elapsed, an appeal was taken to the Supreme 

 Court and he was released, pending appeal. 

 In the Superior Court, Judge Ballard ruled on 

 the appeal that the complaint was insufficient 

 to constitute a public offense, and entered a 

 judgment discharging the defendant and ex- 

 onerating his bail. 



The enemies of bee-keeping, not being sat- 

 isfied with this, instituted another suit against 

 Mr. Buchheim, and, through the efforts of the 

 National Bee-keepers' Union assisting the 

 attorneys for Mr. Buchheim, and paying a por- 

 tion of the court fees necessary for the defense, 

 they have failed to obtain a verdict against 

 him, though the jury wrestled all night long 

 with the case. At first they stood seven for 

 acquittal and five for conviction, in a commu- 

 nity led by a justice of the peace, and organ- 

 ized to persecute Mr. Buchheim, because of 



his keeping bees successfully and profitably. 

 This is another victory for the National Bee- 

 keepers' Union, and bee-keepers all over the 

 continent will be delighted to learn the facts 

 in the case. Thos. G. Newman, 



General Manager N. B. K. U. 

 San Francisco, Cal. 



HONEY DEW FOR WINTER STORES. 



3Ir. E. R. Root: — In your editorial on hon- 

 ey dew, on p. 590, you advi>e bee-keepers to 

 leave it in their hives for winter stores. The 

 professional bee-keeper, having individual 

 ideas on the subject, will read your editorial, 

 assimilate what is useful, but will use his 

 judgment according to locality, nature of the 

 honey-dew, etc. The young bee-keeper, or 

 the man with few stands, however, uses less 

 judgment, or altogether lacks experience, and 

 is very apt to follow to the letter some light in 

 the bee-keeping world, without judgment as 

 applied to the individual case. 



In this locality our bees bring in at times, 

 during the summer, a honey -dew derived from 

 insects found on the box -elder. In flavor it 

 has a combination of tastes, none of which I 

 can describe except as having a distinctly sour 

 flavor. In one of my apiaries the bees gather a 

 good deal of this stuff ; and, when they have 

 no other honey to use, it has a distinctly inju- 

 rious effect on many of the colonies, although 

 depending upon it but a few weeks, and in the 

 summer season. 



F'our or five years ago more than half the 

 bees in this county died. The summer pre- 

 ceding had been poor, and the bees filled up 

 almost entirely on honey-dew. In Preston 

 and a few other localities the bees stored part- 

 ly with real honey, and came through fairly 

 well. As for my own bees, I extracted from 

 the body of the hives, and when September 

 came they were very light, and were fed up 

 almost entirely on sugar syrup, and I lost only 

 one hive of them. 



I bought quite a number of colonies that 

 fall. All of them had honey-dew stores, t 

 prepared them for winter in good condition,, 

 placed them in the same cellar with the oth- 

 ers, and only one lived. The bees died with- 

 out any mold or dampness in the hives, except 

 that the honey had fermented, and that caus- 

 ed dampness on the frames containing the 

 honey. The number of such dead colonies ex- 

 amined was about fifty. . 



Last year honey-dew in this locality had 

 about the appearance and taste of sorghum, 

 and it was gathered from poplars. It ferment- 

 ed quickly ; season of yield, June. The trees- 

 were free of insects. This year we have had 

 more or less honey-dew all through the sea- 

 son. Some of it is very dark ; some is lighter, 

 and very similar in taste to a very good quali- 

 ty of glucose syrup. M. V. Facey. 

 Preston, Fillmore Co., Minn. 



WHY THAT HONEY WAS DARKER. 



I give it as my opinion that the separators 

 had nothing to do with the color of Mr. Gold- 

 en's darker honey, unless, possibly, in this- 

 hive they were tin instead of wood, which 



