June 15, 1911 



353 



stood. If there is any trash or rubbish, 

 strew it promiscuously around on tlie old 

 location for a few days. Try out the plan 

 and report. 



As already stated, we do not advise mov- 

 ing during a honey-flow nor immediately 

 following. The reason for this is obvious. 



J^ast fall we had some hives that were lo- 

 cated within six feet of some plowed ground. 

 We moved them in the manner described, 

 clear over to the other side of the yard. 

 There was scarcely a bee that returned, and 

 this spring we had no better colonies in the 

 apiary. Again, this spring we had one yard 

 that was located in a spot where the north 

 wind struck it a little fiercely. We decided 

 to move some of the hives to the center of a 

 large orchard about 200 yards away, and 

 that, too, on the other side of the road. We 

 have been putting a number of colonies in- 

 to new locations, and the bees seem to stay 

 without any difficulty. We expect to try a 

 few more colonies after the honey-flow, to 

 see what the effect will be. 



FACT AND FICTION. 



The following appears in a health-journal 

 entitled The Battle Creek Idea, published 

 at Battle Creek, Mich.: 



Q. Is bees" honey a healthful food? 



A. It is a splendid food for bees. It is not the best 

 food for human beings. It is not the best form of 

 sweet. It is better than cane sugar, however, be- 

 cause it contains all the properties of the sweet 

 juices of plants, whereas cane sugar does not. Cane 

 sugar is a crystalline sugar, and there is no lime 

 present. It also requires digestion, and is an irri- 

 tant to the stomach. The sugar of flowers is fruit 

 sugar, and the bees gather this fruit sugar and de- 

 posit it in little cells. If they did not do any thing 

 more it would be the most perfect of sugar; but, un- 

 fortunately, bees, like flies, are not altogether tidy. 

 The.y do not use the doormat before they come into 

 the house; and they gather up more or less dirt on 

 their feet, and get dust on their fuzzy bodies, and, 

 of course, some of this gets into the honey: also 

 some of the pollen and .some of the essential oils of 

 the plants; and if the plants happen to be poison- 

 ous, then some of these poisonous flavors are put 

 into the honey. Then there is another thing. The 

 bee has a poison-bag as well as a honey-bag. I re- 

 member that very well from an experience I had 

 when a boy. I was exploring a bee and I di.scover- 

 ed the poison-bag and thought it was the honey- 

 bag; and that little drop of nectar which I touched 

 to my tongue made me so sick I did not get over it 

 for a good many years, and was not able to take 

 honey without being made sick by it. This is for- 

 mic acid, which is a very irritating and poisonous 

 substance, and is a powerful disinfectant. The 

 chief use of the poison-hau is to secrete formic acid to 

 preserve the honey. The bee adulterates the honey 

 ivith antiseptics. The United States (jovernment pro- 

 hibits the use of antiseptics irithout putting a Ifdjel on 

 the packacje: hut the bee violates the pure-food law. 

 When he gets the little cell filled with honey he 

 puts a minute speck of formic acid out of his poi- 

 son-bag down into that cell so the honey will not 

 ferment. Some people are very susceptible to this 

 formic acid, and the small amount of it that the 

 honey contains is enough to make them ill, and to 

 cause a breaking-out of nettle rash — the same rash 

 that one gets when stung by the nettle, and that is 

 formic acid also. 



It is hard to conceive how more fact and 

 fiction could be put together in one con- 

 glomerate mass than in this. It is strange 

 how any one can draw on his imagination, 

 .lust think of it! a little dro]) of nectar or 

 bee-])oison made the writer of the above so 

 sick that he could not get over it for many 



years. Then he rehashes the old exploded 

 theory that bees sting honey; goes on to say 

 that the chief use of the jioison-sac is to se- 

 crete formic acid to preserve the honey; that 

 the bee adulterates with antiseptics, con- 

 trary to law (?), etc. \A'e should like to 

 know where the writer gets his scientific 

 authority for the statement that the bees 

 put bee-sting poison in honey so it will not 

 ferment. Then it is news that honey causes 

 a rash to break out all over the consumer 

 on account of the alleged presence of bee 

 poison in honey. This quotation is a vio- 

 lent case of where "a little learning is dan- 

 gerous." 



IN MEMORIAM OF W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



The sad news of the death of no less a per- 

 sonage than W. Z. Hutchinson, founder 

 and editor of the Bee-keepers^ Review, 

 Flint, Mich., reached us just as the last is- 

 sue was going to our readers. For some 

 months back I had been forced to the con- 

 viction that our old friend had not many 

 more months to live; but I was hardly pre- 

 pared to believe that his demise would come 

 so soon. He passed away at his home at 2 

 o'clock on the afternoon of May 30, at the 

 age of 60. 



I do not hesitate to say that Mr. Hutch- 

 inson was one of the ablest writers on bees 

 that this country ever had. Indeed, I doubt 

 if there is a man in all our ranks who was a 

 better bee-keeper or a more forcible writer. 

 Our senior editor, Mr. A. I. Root, " discover- 

 ed " him away back in 1878; and so pleased 

 was he with his work that he made him our 

 leading corres])ondent. For many years he 

 conducted in this journal a department en- 

 titled "Notes from the Banner Apiary." 

 This was discontinued in 1887. when the 

 Review was started. The launching of the 

 new bee journal was at a time when the field 

 was already full of bee-journals and compe- 

 tition of the severest kind. But the Review 

 grew in popularity and strength until to- 

 day it is recognized as one of the foremost 

 publications on bees in all the world. 



Mr. Hutchinson wrote numerous newspa- 

 per and magazine articles on bees, and he 

 was also the author of that superb work, 

 "Advanced Bee Culture," the new edition 

 of which, containing his very latest and best 

 thoughts, is just out. 



The death of Mr. Hutchinson will be a 

 distinct loss to the bee-keeping world, and 

 those of us who were fortunate enough to 

 know him best loved him as a brother. 

 While I was not unj^repared for the news, 

 yet it came as a severe shock. I can not 

 bring myself to believe yet that this quiet, 

 modest man, who rarely spoke at conven- 

 tions, but whose words will long live after 

 him through the ]irinted page, has gone. I 

 could never think of him as a competitor, 

 and when his j^aper grew I was sincerely 

 glad. 



In our next issue we shall have an extend- 

 ed sketch of his life. See page 23, advertis- 

 ing section. — E. R. Root. 



