1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



139 



by the A. B. K. A. against the next man they 

 take to court for selling adulterated honey. 

 F. Mansfield. 

 Dorchester, Mass., Jan. 14. 



SOLD IMPURE HONEY ; SANDS FINED 825. 



Elijah M. Sands, clerk for Haskell, Adams & Co., 

 wholesale grocers of 84 Commerce Street, Boston, was 

 in the Somerville court to-day, charged with selling 

 honey below the standard. The complainant was In- 

 spector McCaffery, of the State Board of Health. 



Inspector McCaffery said that he went to the grocery 

 of Z. H. Gilgoff, on Washington Street, Somerville, 

 and took away a tumbler labeled " white-clover hon- 

 ey." He brought it to Herman I,ythgoe, analysist for 

 the State Board of Health, who discovered it was far 

 below the standard. Analysist Lythgoe testified that 

 he had made an analysis of the "honey," and found 

 that it contained 82 per cent of glucose. 



Sands denied that he had any intention of selling an 

 inferior article, and that he had no means of know- 

 ing when it was of the required st.indard. Judge 

 Story fined him 8^25. 



GI^UCOSE AS A BEE-FOOD ; SEEING GI.UCOS- 

 ED HONEY. 



We have an apiary here, and have been 

 thinking of feeding glucose. Is it a whole- 

 some food for bees — that is, would bees keep 

 healthy feeding it during the sumtner months ? 

 How would you advise us to feed ii ? What is 

 the law, if any, on selling this boney ? Do 

 you think it pays to feed bees when they are 

 not getting anything outside ? In feeding glu- 

 cose, would you advise feeding it pure, or 

 would you mix in something else ? 



Ohio, Jan. 23. Inquirer. 



[Feeding glucose, and selling the same for 

 honej' ! Why, my dear sir, what are you 

 thinking about ? That would be a violation 

 of the laws of the State of Ohio, and would 

 subject you to fine and imprisonment. In the 

 first place, it is not possible to feed glucose to 

 bees, even if you can get them to take it. It 

 would have to be considerably diluted in wa- 

 ter, and then they might store it in the combs; 

 for the pure stuff, as it comes from the factory, 

 the bees will not touch. If you know when 

 you are well off, you will let glucose entirely 

 alone. Several parties of late have been ar- 

 rested for selling glucosed honey in Ohio and 

 elsewhere — see above. Glucose as a food 

 for bees is pretty poor stuff. They will almost 

 starve on it, even if diluted with water, as its 

 real sweetening power is very low. — Ed.] 



HOW TO GET rid of I,ARGE RED ANTS. 



Can you give a remedy to protect the bee 

 from these large red ants ? These are at least 

 y^ inch long. While the bees kill a great 

 many, it seems to get away with a large num- 

 ber of bees. They cut the wings so as to dis- 

 able the bee, and possibly sting the bee as well. 

 I have insulated them by means of 4 small dish- 

 es of water, one at each corner of the hive for 

 the present. This seems to be a new trouble, 

 much worse than the millers, as the latter can 

 be wiped out for the present, but the ant holds 

 on better. Jay S. Brown. 



Starke, Fla., Jan. 12. 



[I am not able to give advice for the South 

 on a matter of this kind ; but if possible I 

 would find the nest. With a crowbar I would 

 make a hole an inch or so in diameter down 



through the center of the nest. Into this pour 

 eight or ten ounces of bisulphide of carbon, 

 which can be bought at any drug-store. Shut 

 the hole tight with a plug of earth, and that 

 will be the end of that nest of ants ; for the gas 

 generated by the liquid will permeate all the 

 galleries in it, destroying every living organ- 

 ism therein. As a temporary expedient, set- 

 ting hives on legs, and the legs in pans of wa- 

 ter, is about as good as any thing that can be 

 done. Putting a little carbolic acid in the wa- 

 ter will make it much more offensive to the 

 ants. Sometimes painting the legs of the hive, 

 if legs it has, with common tar, will keep the 

 ants off. But the best thing to be done in any 

 case is to find the nest of the ants, if possible, 

 and treat them by the plan described. — Ed.] 



candied COMB honey ; what to do with 



IT. 

 To what good use can candied comb honey 

 be put? Why does mine seem to candy so 

 easily ? Some of it candies before it is a month 

 old. Perhaps it was not properly ripened. 



W. E. Head. 

 Paris Station, N. Y., Dec. 15. 



[I would put all such in the solar wax-ex- 

 tractor next summer. The wax can be re- 

 rendered into nice clean cakes, and the honey 

 fed to bees for stimulative purposes, or sold to 

 bakers as a second-grade honey. Where wax 

 and honey are melted together, the latter is 

 apt to be off in color and flavor. — Ed.] 



AIKIN'S law of COMB BUILDING. 



If the argument of R. C. Aikin in favor of 

 the tall section, that "In comb-building the 

 downward progress exceeds the sidewise in the 

 proportion of about 3 to 2 " (which seems to 

 be the natural way), why would not a brood- 

 frame of the same proportion, say 12 by 8, or 

 15 by 10, be better? J. Ulrich Gibbs. 



Whittier, N. C, Jan. 20. 



[The same law holds true whether the comb 

 is built in a section or brood-frame ; and that 

 has been one of the objections to the Lang- 

 stroth frame, and why some prefer a deep or 

 square frame. But the mere matter of comb- 

 building in brood-frames is of small conse- 

 quence as compared with that in a section hon- 

 ey-box, because the former may last anywhere 

 from 10 to 25 years, while the other is used 

 only once. — Ed.] 



SECTIONS 4t4X^Xiy& vs. 4X5X1?^. 



Why not adopt 4>(X5Xl^ sections for 

 standard? Tests prove that 4x5 are better 

 filled than 4}4X4:J4, amd more of them ; but 

 they average only about 14 oz. I will try 1000 

 4^X5X1^ this year. 



Hale, Mo., Jan. 20. GEO. W. Shrader. 



[When well filled these will hold almost an 

 even pound ; but as a rule they will run a little 

 short. The 4^X5X1^ would possibly run a 

 little over a pound if well filled. The 4X5X 

 l}i holds 27.5 cubic inches, and the 4XX5X 

 lys holds 29.22 cubic inches.— Ed.] 



