October, 1909. 



[Morican Bee Journajj 



the coccid honey-dew [that from scale-lice], 

 on the other hand, is dark and of ill-flavor, 

 and its presence in hones', or as iioney. is 

 ereatly injurious, and it can never be sold 

 for the table. I have sold it by the barrel 

 for manufacturing. This was used to make 

 cookies, and was said to be all right by the 

 manufacturer." 



As winter food for bees, if in quan- 

 tity, honey-dew is dangerous, produc- 

 ing diarrliea, and perhaps death. Root's 

 "ABC and X Y Z of Bee-Culture," 

 says : 



"We occasionally have it scattered in lit- 

 tle patches in our combs; but In late years 

 w"e have let our bees have all such combs, 

 and no bad results have followed: but if 

 there is very much honey-dew in the combs 

 we extract it and put in its place granulated 

 sugar syrup." 



Mr. Dadant says, page 300 : 



"I have never seen any production of 

 honey-dew at other times than June." 



If this be true in general, there ought 

 to be little difficulty in getting it out of 

 the hives in good season, replacing 

 with sugar syrup if a later flow does 

 not make this unnecessary. 



Bad as honey-dew is, it is possible 

 that its presence should not generally 

 be deplored. When it comes so as to 

 flavor and color otherwise white honey, 

 its presence is deplorable. But bees 

 are dainty in their tastes, and it may be 

 doubted whether they store honey-dew 

 when anything better is to be had. The 

 great prevalence of honey-dew this 

 year may not be so much that honey- 

 dew is plenty, but that floral nectar is 

 scarce, the bees being in a sense forced 

 to gatlier what in other years they neg- 

 lect. Instead of having the bees en- 

 tirely idle, it may be better to have 

 them gathering honey-dew. It will at 

 least keep up breeding, and it is all 

 right to sell it for what it really is. 



Propoli.s in Supei'.s 



Wesley Foster, in Gleanings, says 

 that if sections are to be kept spotlessly 

 white, propolis must be scraped clean 

 from hives and frames, and the scrap- 

 ings must be kept out of the reach of 

 the bees. " Leaving the scrapings be- 

 side or in front of the hive is almost as 

 bad as leaving them in the hive, for the 

 bees will be found working on those 

 little bits, carrying them back into the 

 hives." 



Producing Honey— A Critic Criti- 

 cised 



In Leslie's Weekly appears an article 

 written by H. G. Hertel, the general 

 trend of which will be understood by 

 reading the opening paragraph, as fol- 

 lows : 



Editor of Leslie's Weekly: — On the 

 editorial page of a recent issueof your paper 

 appears the question. " Do bees make bad 

 honey?" Whereas there are so many silly 

 notions current, and so many erroneous 

 ideas entertained by the public concerning 

 bees and honey. I feel it incumbent upon 

 me. for the sake of disseminating the truth. 

 to answer this question, and have therefore 

 resolved to write you. 



As the dissemination of truth is the 

 thing Mr. Hertel is after, he will not 

 take it unkindly if some things in his 

 article are pointed out which will be 

 likely to lead the readers into error. 



He starts out by saying, " let us re- 

 member that bees do not make honey, 

 but collect it." But in the very next 



paragraph he says that when only in- 

 ferior nectar can lie had, the bee has no 

 choice in the matter ; " he simply gathers 

 it, and, of course, makes bad honey." 

 " Let us remember that bees do not 

 make honey," and in the next breath, 

 " he * * * makes bad honey." 

 Which is the reader to believe? 



Mr. Hertel says that bees " must 

 gather the nectar the flower offers." 

 They cannot gather honey from the 

 flower, for there is no honey there — 

 only nectar. As that nectar, after being 

 put through a certain process by the 

 bees becomes honey, it appears to the 

 common mind quite plain that bees do 

 make honey. 



When Mr. Hertel says, " he simply 

 gathers it," he misleads the general 

 reader into believing that the male bee 

 does the work. The male bee, or drone, 

 does no work; the worker-bee does 

 all. The worker is a female ; not fully 

 developed, to be sure, but certainly not 

 a male. 



Mr. Hertel says, " It is a well authen- 

 ticated fact that plant-lice produce a 

 sweet excretion known as honey-dew." 

 That is a libel on honey-dew, some of 

 which is good to eat, and all of it un- 

 objectionable on the score of cleanli- 

 ness. Honey-dew is not an excretion 

 but a secretion, tliere being a wide dif- 

 ference between the two. We cheer- 

 fully accept the secretion of the cow in 

 the form of milk, but would seriously 

 object to a diet of her excretion in the 

 form of cowdung. 



"The fixing of a standard of honey 

 by Dr. Wiley," says Mr. Hertel, "ap- 

 peals to one familiar with bee-culture 

 and the production of honey as being 

 decidedly ridiculous." That standard 

 was fixed by Dr. Wiley in consultation 

 with practical bee-keepers, men " famil- 

 iar with bee-culture and the production 

 of honey." and heretofore there has 

 probably been no voice raised in the 

 entire ranks of bee-keepers to pro- 

 nounce it ridiculous. At any rate, it is 

 now embodied in the pure food law, 

 and Mr. Hertel may find himself in 

 trouble if he attempts to sell as honey 

 anything that does not come up to that 

 standard. 



Mr. Hertel says, " Bees can gather 1.5 

 pounds of honey while they produce 

 one of wax." This is something new. 

 Bee-keepers will be under lasting obli- 

 gations if Mr. Hertel will tell just how 

 long it takes to gather a pound of 

 honey or to produce a pound of wax, 

 and just how he determined the length 

 of time. Possibly he has confused this 

 statement with another, that bees con- 

 sume 15 pounds of honey (some think 

 much less) in producing a pound of 

 wax. 



Misunderstanding upon any or all of 

 these points is not likely to lead to 

 serious results. The same cannot be 

 said of Mr. Hertel's last point. He 

 says : 



Most people think that honey in the comb 

 escapes adulteration. It does; but the adul- 

 teration of comb honey is still an easy mat- 

 ter—the adulteration takes place prior to 

 the product's being placed in the comb and 

 sealed by the bee. There is nothing physical 

 which will prevent a bee-keeper from feed- 

 ing his bees with cheap synui and letting 

 them deposit it in the comb and cap it 

 nicely. To the unsuspecting, such a comb, 

 capped by the bee himself, is a guarantee of 

 purity; yet the customer might be buying 

 ingeniously sealed glucose. 



Plainly, that will leave on the minds 

 of many of the thousands of readers of 

 Leslie's the impression that when one 

 buys on the open market a section of 

 comb honey there is no small chance 

 that it may be glucose. What ground 

 has he for his assertion that "the cus- 

 tomer might be buying ingeniously 

 sealed glucose?" Has he ever seen 

 anything of the kind? Has he ever 

 heard of it? True, there is the canard 

 that went the rounds of the press of 

 artificial comb filled with glucose and 

 sealed with a hot iron without ever 

 having been near a bee-hive, but if Mr. 

 Hertel is informed he must know that 

 for years there has been a standing 

 offer of $1000 for a single pound of 

 comb honey made without the aid of 

 bees — an offer that has never been 

 taken. But has he any reliable infor- 

 mation of a single pound of glucose 

 that has ever been sold under the guise 

 of comb honey? Some who have tried 

 it report that bees cannot be induced 

 to store and seal the stuff. Has Mr. 

 Hertel been any more successful? 



If Mr. Hertel is at all "familiar with 

 bee-culture and the production of 

 honey," he ought to " feel it incumbent 

 upon him, for the sake of disseminating 

 the truth," to hasten to say that the 

 customer who buys a section of honey 

 is just as sure to find honey and not 

 glucose within the cell as he is to find 

 apple-pulp and not sawdust within the 

 skin of an apple. 



Foiil Brood Treatment 



A. W. Smyth, M. D., says in the Irish 

 Bee Journal, that in America foul- 

 broody bees are thrown on starters, 

 and again on new foundation after 48 

 hours. Not 48, Doctor, but 96 hours, 

 or 4 davs. 



Weather to Put Bees Out of Cel- 

 lars 



It is generally agreed that it is best 

 tliat the weather should be such that 

 bees can fly immediately after being 

 taken out. It is well, however, to know 

 that one may do otherwise without dis- 

 aster. Morley Pettit reports, in the 

 Bee-Keepers' Review, that he uncellared 

 38 colonies March 24, moved them at 

 once }i of a mile, when it turned cold 

 and rained with no flight for a week. 

 They did well. But lie says, "The bees 

 were in good condition ; there was no 

 extreme cold, and the day of flight was 

 calm, bright, and warm." 



Position of Bait-Sections 



The Bee-Keepers' Review, endorsing 

 E. D. Townsend, says : 



Bees are inclined to begin work first in the 

 center of the super, hence the sections in 

 the center are finished first. Now. if you 

 will place the "baits " in the corners it will 

 induce the bees to begin there first, and 

 they will very soon spread out to the center 

 much more readily than from the center 

 outwards, hence the sections are finished 

 up very evenly all over the case. Put the 

 " baits " in the corner, every time. 



It is understood, of course, that no 

 baits are given in any super except the 

 first, the object being to get the bees 

 to start work in the super sooner than 

 they would without any bait. As Edi- 

 tor Huthinson savs, " bees are inclined 



