220 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



Mar. 1 



out in the spring. But say, doctor, why do 

 bees need moisture in candy when the pre- 

 cipitation from their breath is sufficient to 

 supply them with all they need ? Why is not 

 a good rock candy, half honey and half sugar, 

 more economical, and better than any other 

 artificial substitute for combs of sealed 

 stores?— Ed.] 



Replying to Straw, page 11, asking "what 

 number of bees must be reached before they 

 will stop freezing and begin to starve ? ' ' the 

 Modern Farmer says: "A normal colony, 

 doctor, such a colony as one would expect to 

 come safely through the winter in a cellar." 

 Then a colony weak enough does freeze, does 

 it? And if a little stronger, wouldn't it freeze 

 with cold a little longer and stronger ? And 

 wouldn't any colony freeze with cold long 

 enough and strong enough? After all, does 

 it make any difference which way you call 

 it ? Have colonies strong, and with plenty of 

 food within reach, and they'll neither starve 

 nor freeze. 



A RUBEROID ROOF now covers my shop. 

 Has anyone tried it for hive-covers ? [This 

 material has been recommended in our col- 

 umns, but we have never tried it. If there 

 is really rubber in its composition it will be 

 short lived, I am afraid. We are using with 

 much satisfaction here Carey's magnesia 

 roofing on our barns and out-buildings. Ne- 

 ponset paper on our hive-covers has been on 

 now the third season, and is still doine ex- 

 cellent service. I see no reason why it 

 should not continue to do so year after year. 

 One correspondent said he had had it in use 

 for nine years, and sent us a nine-year-old 

 cover in proof. The boards were somewhat 

 rotted, but the paper was in a fine state of 

 preservation. — Ed. ] 



Two WOMEN not a thousand miles from 

 here are indignant at the statement, page 

 173, that the small man who has taken 

 boarding at the residence of the junior edit- 

 or has been allowed to struggle through 

 five days of the late cold spell with never a 

 sign of a name. They say if his folks are 

 too poor or too stingy to^ afford him a name 

 let them ship him to Marengo, and they'll 

 furnish him two or three names of the most 

 approved style, together with a full assort- 

 ment of snugglings. [We have about a 

 dozen names we have been considering. We 

 were going to give him the initials of A. I. 

 R., call him Amos Irving, but grandpa ob- 

 jects. We might name him after the sage 

 of Marengo, but "Charles " is too common, 

 his mother says. I call him, at present. 

 "Bub" in spite of wife's protest. No, we'll 

 board and lodge him here.— Ed.] 



As usual at this time of the year we are 

 flooded with copy— good printible matter. I 

 do not say this because we wish our friends 

 to stop writing, but because it explains why 

 some matter necessarily has to be delayed. 

 We can not always publish in the order of 

 receipt of manuscript, as some subjects re- 

 quire immediate attention. 







BEE KEErtNfi AMiWG f HE RiMJliiK 



WHAT IS HONEY? 



The definition of honey that is adopted by 

 the chemists and law-makers is a matter of 

 most serious concern to bee-keepers. If a 

 definition is adopted that would declare hon- 

 ey that has a mixture of honey-dew impure 

 or adulterated, there is not a bee-keeper in 

 the land who might not at some time be 

 brought before a court of justice on the 

 charge of selling adulterated honey. The 

 sources of honey-dew are so many and vari- 

 ous that there is probably no locality where 

 it may not at some time be produced. The 

 fact that none has ever been noticed in a 

 given locality is no safeguard. Next year 

 it may be there in quantity. It may be bad 

 or it may be good in quality. It may come 

 at a time when nectar from the flowers is 

 scarce, so that the bees will gather all they 

 can of it, or it may come when the flowers 

 are yielding so plentifully that the bees will 

 gather little or none of it. 



I believe that honey-dew is much more 

 common than is generally supposed, and 

 that many times it is gathered and stored 

 by bees whose owners know nothing of the 

 source from which it comes, though they 

 believe it to be from flowers. Twice in my 

 experience (once in Illinois and once in Col- 

 orado) my bees have stored considerable 

 quantities of honey-dew, and many times I 

 have found them working on it when it did 

 not make much of a show in the hives. Some 

 of this honey-dew was of very poor quality, 

 while other kinds were very palatable, al- 

 though usually rather dark in color. The 

 point is that, in many localities at least, it is 

 practically impossible to keep honey-dew out 

 of the honey crop. No doubt, too, there are 

 places where fruit-juices and perhaps other 

 substances are liable to find their way into 

 the honey. To say that such honey may be 

 classed as adulterated would be to make 

 bee-keeping a much more precarious busi- 

 ness than it already is. 



Colorado has a pure-honey law in which it 

 is stated that ' ' For the purposes of this act 

 the word ' honey ' shall be held to be the 

 nectar of flowers gathered and stored by 

 honey-bees; and it shall be held to have 

 been adulterated when glucose, cane sugar, 

 grape sugar, or any other substance or com- 

 pound has been been mixed with or added to 

 it or fed to bees." Now, if we are to go by 

 the first part of this sentence many in this 

 locality in 1902 sold as honey what would 

 not under this act be legally entitled to that 

 name. Yet in the latter part, and else- 

 where in the act, it would seem that adul- 

 teration requires some overt act on the part 

 of man in the way of mixing or feeding. 



