694 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JULV 15 



A FEARFUL MORTALITY OF BEES IN UTAH. 



In the department of "Bee-keeping^ among 

 the Rockies " a letter is published from Mr. 

 B. P. Critchlow, describing a very serious 

 malady that is destroying hundreds and 

 perhaps thousands of colonies in Utah. 

 We have had reports of like trouble in oth- 

 er localities. From the symptoms given I 

 should hardly say it was bee- paralysis. 

 Still, it may be a peculiar forin of it. 



Some eight or ten years ago, after a 

 heavy houe3'-flow I saw that there were 

 hundreds and perhaps thousands of bees 

 crawling around in the grass, unable to 

 fly. They seemed to be in a hurry, and 

 somewhat distressed; they would crawl up 

 spears of grass, and drop down and repeat 

 th; operation until exhausted. At the time, 

 I thought it was the superannuated or worn- 

 out bees that had borne the brunt of the toil 

 of the season just then closing, and that 

 they were the six- weeks fellows that had 

 run out the term of their allotted days. 

 But the fact that there were so many of 

 them, and especially so at th^t particular 

 season, and che further fact that we have 

 never seen an3' thinij like it since, would 

 go to show it was something else. 



If any of our correspondents or friends 

 are able to offer any solution that will 

 help our western friends we sh-iU be glad 

 to have them communicate with us at once 

 or with the parties direct. 



that there is no such thing as manufactured 

 comb honej'. It is hard to get the general 

 press to publish items refuting these lies; 

 but they are always glad to get the work 

 of conventions, and in connection with the 

 report of our convention they would certain- 

 ly publish the truth about comb honey. 



THE WIDE-SPREAD bELIEF IN MANUFAC- 

 TITKED COMB HONEY. 



Thk average bee-keeper, perhaps, does 

 not realize that the gr.;at m ijurity of people 

 outside of beedom b.-ii^ve thnt comb honey 

 is actually manufacture 1, filled with glu- 

 cose, and cipptd over with mnchinerj'. 

 Modern civil z ition has developed so many 

 wonderful things that the public is reafy 

 to believe any thinj;. So persistently have 

 the stories about manufrCtund c mb honey 

 been circulated, even iu journals of good 

 reputation, that the average man or woman 

 who does not know any thing about the 

 business thoroughly believes them. He eats 

 comb honey, but is pretty well satisfied 

 that it is manufactured. Traveling men 

 who have come to our place of business can 

 scarcely believe us when we tell them that 

 comb honey is not manufactured, and that 

 we will pay $1000 for a single sample of it. 

 These same men (and they know pretty 

 well what is the common impression) tell 

 rs that everybody believes that the beauti- 

 ful combs they see in section boxes are en- 

 tirely the work of man. I fear that the 

 bee-keeping world does not realize the fear- 

 ful and awful damage that this heresy is 

 doing to their business. 



I wonder if the National Bee- keepers' As- 

 sociation could not take up this matier, and 

 discuss the best way to overcome the effect 

 of these canards. If the matter comes up 

 for discussion, the newspapers of St. Louis, 

 I am sure, will be glad to give the gist of 

 that discussion, which will show, of course. 



AN EXPERT YOUNG BEE-KEEPER; HOFF- 

 MAN FRAMES IN THE HANDS OF 

 EXTENSIVE USERS. 



We are having with us here Mr. F. B. 

 Hooper, son of F. A. Hooper, of Hooper 

 Brothers, of Kingston, Jamaica. He is a 

 young man (only twenty years of age), but 

 was anxious to see something of the great 

 wide world besides the island on which he 

 was born and reared; 'ind this wish has 

 now been gratified by a lour through the 

 United States and Canada. He has been 

 sojourning here at Medina for a few weeks, 

 helping our men in our bee-yards. I took 

 him cut to one of our outyards to "diag- 

 nose the bees " as I call it. It is my hab- 

 it, early in the season, to take a hasty 

 glance through some of the colonies for the 

 purpose of getting a birdseye view, as it 

 were, of the condition of the bees. After I 

 had opened a few hives I had him help me 

 close them up, and I could not help noting 

 that before me was an expert bee-keeper. 

 There was a certain something in the way 

 in which he picked up the frames, handled 

 the smoker, and opened and closed the 

 hives, that showed unmistakably he had 

 been born and reared among the bees, and 

 knew just how to handle them. I dare say 

 that, for a man of his age, he has extract- 

 ed and helped to extract more honey than 

 most 3'oung men in this or any country, 

 in fact. He has been familiar with aver- 

 ages of over 200 lbs. per colony. He knows 

 what it is to handle immense crops of 

 honey; and 1 fancy that, if he were to be 

 here long enough, he would be able to show 

 us some new tricks of the trade. 



By the waj', Hoop< r Bros, use nothing 

 but Huffman frames for extracting. Indeed, 

 they consider them far superior to any oth- 

 er style. It is a mistaken notion that such 

 frames are not adapted for hot countries, 

 or wide spacing to get fat combs for ex- 

 tracting. The fact that some of the largest 

 producers in the world use them shows 

 that they are not so difficult to handle as 

 those who have not used them extensively 

 suppose. 



Mr. Hooper remarked, after he had been 

 here a few days, that he was suffering the 

 awful pangs of homesickness He asked 

 me, in a plaintive sort of way, if I knew 

 what that was. I said I had never had 

 that awful feeling, but I had seen those 

 who had. Well, Mr. Hooper has seen 

 enough of the world, and, I should judge, 

 feels that there is co place like home; and, 

 indeed, his home or his country is some- 

 thing to be proud of — a climate that is 

 ideally perfect — one that is, perhaps, the 

 greatest paradise for bees, unless it is some 

 portions of Cuba, in the whole world. 



