50 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 16, 



would be followed by a favorable win- 

 ter. But in this we have been doomed 

 to disappointment. October brought 

 cool weather. November cold. De- 

 cember colder. January coldest, and 

 now this 1st day of February, here in 

 North-western Pennsylvania, we are 

 fanned by the cool breezes of Greenland, 

 and winter is sifting her snows with a 

 lavish hand. My own apiaries I reduc- 

 ed from 180 to 117 colonies, and one of 

 that number has since gone where they'll 

 never hum any more. 



I winter in houses constructed for the 

 purpose, on the plan described on page 

 185 of American Bee Journal, vol. 

 8, (1873); but the one there described has 

 been replaced by a more substantial 

 structure. The great need of our bees 

 at present is a cleansing flight, but there 

 seems no prospect of that in the near 

 future, and should this stern old winter 

 hold earth in his icy grasp for 4 or 6 

 weeks longer, I apprehend the severest 

 thinning out of bees that the country 

 has had since the introduction of mova- 

 ble comb hives and Italian bees. Hence 

 my title "Riding the Billows," uncer- 

 tain of the past. 



In conclusion, allow me to say, that I 

 am more than pleased with the Weekly. 

 I did not like the idea of change of form, 

 making it of unsuitable size for making 

 a neat Dound book, but its frequent vis- 

 its give it a freshness if did not have as 

 a monthly. "Long may it wave" and 

 prosper. 



Yonngsville, Pa., Feb. 1, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal 



Pure Liquid Honey in Glass Jars, etc. 



CHAS. F. MOT'H. 



In an age like ours, where one inven- 

 tion follows another, and where chem- 

 istry has found even a substitute for 

 mother's milk and babies live on it, it 

 is surprising that a common swindle, as 

 practiced by New York and Chicago 

 honey dealers, of putting a piece of 

 comb honey in a glass jar and pouring 

 over it pure glucose, could last as long as 

 it did. I had a number of those beauti- 

 ful packages analyzed, and found that 

 it was not like Mr. Hoge states on page 

 37 American Bee Journal, present 

 volume, " that so much glucose had to 

 be used to keep it limpid," but it was 

 found that the comb was the only honey 

 in the jar, and that the liquid was pure 

 glucose which had partaken of the flavor 

 of the comb honey. Sucti is its danger- 

 ous character, that not having any fla- 

 vor of its own it partakes readily of the 

 flavor of a very small admixture. A 

 gallon of pure maple syrup is sufficient 

 to manufacture 10 gallons of choice ma- 

 ple syrup (V) Think of it! If I am 

 wrong, I will stand corrected. . 



The public in general was, some time 

 ago, although surprised at our large 

 honey harvests, well disposed towards 

 our product. " As sweet as honey," is 

 a significant proverb. But the public 

 has been " glucosed," and the interests 

 of bee-keepers considerably damaged 

 thereby. As honesty, as well as dishon- 

 esty is characteristic, it would be folly 

 to suppose that adulterators should be 

 our redeemers. On the contrary, it re- 

 quires the united efforts of honest bee- 

 keepers and fair dealers to make front 

 against every adulterator, and to expose 

 him. 



I have my serious doubts as to the in- 

 nocent qualities of glucose, as it is only 

 a few weeks since when I was informed 

 by a friend that he saw in one of his med- 

 ical periodicals that grape sugar was as- 

 signed as the cause of Blight's disease 

 of the kidneys in a patient. 



A druggist in our city who, I am sorry 

 to say, adulterates with glucose most of 

 the honey he retails, and with whom I 

 remonstrated in regard to the matter, 

 excused himself as follows : " I use pure 

 honey only when making up prescrip- 

 tions ; -but I can sell a larger quantity 

 of honey for a dime when adulterated." 

 He is a good chemist, and about 3 or 4 

 years ago he offered me for $10 a recipe 

 to keep pure houey from granulating, 

 and showed me, as a proof, a bottle of 

 liquid honey he had kept exposed to the 

 cold all winter. " This is not adultera- 

 ting," he explained, "but merely adding 

 a little drug which imparts no flavor to 

 the honey, out is certain to keep it from 



granulating." My reply was that his 

 recipe was not worth to me a picayune, 

 because every sensible man expects pure 

 honey to granulate, and would be disap- 

 pointed at finding it otherwise ; while 

 those not yet acquainted with the nature 

 of pure honey will soon learn. It would 

 open a new field for adulterators which 

 granulated honey prevents. 



The present state of our honey market 

 shows plainly that granulated extracted 

 honey will take the market in the very 

 near future, and not the liquid honey, 

 while comb honey will remain what it 

 is — a fancy article only. 



I hear of great losses of bees in our 

 neighborhood. One lost 60 colonies, and 

 sold me his combs, and quite a number 

 of others have lost all they had, or 

 nearly so. We had a pleasant afternoon 

 last Sunday a week ago, when I made 

 use of the time by looking over my 

 bees, justifying myself by the verse, 

 " When an ox or an ass has fallen into 

 your well," etc. I examined 22 colonies, 

 they had consumed very much of their 

 stores, but were in splendid condition — 

 some with hatching brood, and others 

 with eggs and larva? in all stages. Cold 

 weather again ended a further exami- 

 nation. 



Cincinnati, O., Feb. 8, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Fertilizing Queens in Confinement. 



w. arms. 



I have tried the following course sev- 

 eral times with good satisfaction, and 

 wishing to have it thoroughly tested, 

 submit it to the public. I use a hive 

 similar to the Langstroth, entrance at 

 the end, and frames hung at right an- 

 gles to the entrance. Select a strong 

 colony, put on a thin honey-board, cov- 

 ering all but the three back frames, 

 which are covered with wire cloth. Fit 

 on the upper story, which has a3-frame 

 nucleus confined to the back end with a 

 division board, itself covered with a 

 honey-board ; all the front part of the 

 hives covered with glass, lined with 

 musqueto netting, and over this the cov- 

 er to the hive. The nucleus should con- 

 tain two full frames of hatching brood, 

 with all the young bees that adhere to 

 them, plenty of honey, a small piece of 

 drone brood ready to hatch, some young 

 drones, (not too many), and a queen-cell 

 not ready to hatch under 3 or 4 days ; 

 the two last named the finest to be had. 

 Watch the queen, and when she hatches 

 shove the slide in the division-board and 

 let all have a fly under the glass and re- 

 turn. When she is 3 days old remove 

 the lid from 11 till 3 o'clock and let in 

 the sun, but keep the queen shut up till 

 fertilized. 



Du Quoin. Perry Co., 111. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



All Heave-oh-Heave. 



W. T. STEWART. 



Brother bee-keepers, the time has 

 come when we must act in one com- 

 bined effort to stop the adulteration of 

 honey with glucose. Delay is danger- 

 ous. Glucose men are working and 

 amassing fortunes at our expense. A 

 firm in Chicago are now manufacturing 

 thousands of carrels of glucosed honey. 

 They are buying honey all over the 

 country— even comb honey and extract- 

 ing it, and mixing glucose with it at the 

 rate of four barrels of glucose to one of 

 honey, and shipping and selling it for 

 pure honey, at a reduced price, and 

 flooding the markets with it, and boast- 

 ing of it, and say that it takes a good 

 judge of honey to detect it. I get my 

 information from one of the employees 

 of said firm, and can prove it on them, 

 too. 



Now, I propose that we stop talking 

 about what ought to be done, and go to 

 work to stop it at once. My plan is this, 

 let Dr. N. P. Allen, the presidentof the 

 National Association of Bee-Keepers 

 draw up a petition to be presented to 

 Congress, with the resolutions so framed 

 together and guarded at every point 

 against the adulteration or safe of 

 adulterated honey, that it will be im- 

 possible to dodge the penalty, and make 

 the penalty so severe that swindlers will 



fear it ; then let Dr. Allen send a copy 

 of the petition to each of the bee-papers 

 to be published, authorizing each editor 

 to receive the signatures and sign them ; 

 then let every bee-keeper in America 

 send in his signature to some one of the 

 editors, authorizing him to sign your 

 name to it ; then at a stated time let all 

 the copies of the petition be sent to one 

 party to be presented to Congress, pray- 

 ing for and urging their immediate 

 action. Thus it can be done quick, and 

 done well. Now is the time to work, 

 before our business is ruined by the vile 

 trash, glucose. Now let every man put 

 his shoulder to the wheel and give one 

 mighty heave, and we will be out of the 

 mire again and look to a bright future. 

 Eminence, Ky., Feb. 2, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Our Bees. 



JOHN CRAYCRAFT. 



Our bees are about all gone, dysentery 

 has taken about all of them ; out of 46 

 colonies that I put away the last of Oc- 

 tober, I have but 3 left to tell the sad 

 fate of their comrades. About 3 weeks 

 ago they were apparently all right and 

 alive, but were very restless and uneasy, 

 but could not get out the weather being 

 so cold and stormy, until last Sunday, 

 Jan. 30, being warm and pleasant so 

 that bees were out, and had a good 

 cleansing flight — that is, what were alive. 

 In examining the hives, I find them all 

 dead and covered with their excrement, 

 in one stinking mass among the combs 

 and on the bottom of the hive. They 

 had consumed but very little of their 

 stores since I put them away, about the 

 last of October, there being frames of 

 sealed stores in nearly all the hives. I 

 can attribute their loss to no other cause 

 but there being so much of the juice of 

 peaches and apples stored late in the 

 fall, which with what fall honey was 

 gathered formed a thick jelly-like forma- 

 tion containing acid and an alcoholic 

 substance, and with the long confine- 

 ment from about Nov. 10th to Jan, 30th, 

 with only a few hours during all that 

 time when they could get out, and then 

 only to fall on the frozen ground and 

 perish. 



Out of near 1,000 colonies in this 

 county reported last October, I think I 

 can safely say that there will not be 50 

 colonies left, from the reports I have 

 gathered the past few days. In some 

 localities in this county there is not a 

 colony left, especially is" this the case 

 where the most peach orchards are, and 

 where there were no peach orchards near 

 there are a greater number of colonies 

 alive. 



This is not a very flattering prospect 

 for keeping bees here this year ; but we 

 are not without hopes, for I am making 

 preparations to get bees from the South. 

 1 think we have as good location in this 

 county for producing honey as there is 

 in the State. Success to the American 

 Bee Journal. 



Salem, Ind., Feb. 2, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



One-Piece vs. Dovetailed Sections. 



S. D. RIEGEL. 



The article on "Hive and Section 

 Making." by James Heddon, in the 

 American Bee Journal of Feb. 2, 

 contains very much that I can heartily 

 endorse, in fact expresses very nearly 

 my own views, especially that portion of 

 the article relating to hives ; Wt when 

 it comes to sections I feel like putting 

 in a strong protest. I quote as follows 

 from the article : "I object to the all-in- 

 one-piece section, and do not use them 

 because of that naughty little sharp cor- 

 ner, that is always catching and causing 

 the next section to leak, when raised up 

 and pushed down into the case ; also, 

 because they are too liable to break, 

 both at the time and after bending, and 

 are not so true and solid as good dove- 

 tailed work." Now I do not know what 

 kind of all-in-one-piece sections friend 

 Heddon has tried, but I do know that 

 in all that I have tried or used I have 

 never observed "that naughty little cor- 

 ner" to which he refers, in fact, I do 

 not know what sort of a corner he can 



mean. I have noticed no difference as 

 to corners between the all-in-one-piece 

 or dovetailed sections. Again, "they 

 are too liable to break, both at the time 

 and after bending, and are not so true 

 and solid as good dovetailed work." I 

 feel so confident that friend Heddon is 

 mistaken in these last assertions that I 

 would be willing to have a practical test 

 made of the matter by each of us fur- 

 nishing 500 sections to be placed in the 

 hands of ten experienced bee-keepers, 

 giving each of the ten 50 sections of the 

 dovetailed and 50 of the all-in-one-piece 

 sections, and with the agreement that 

 the Editor of the A. B. J. select the ten 

 bee-keepers from those who are not in- 

 terested in the manufacture or sale of 

 sections, they to report at the National 

 Bee Convention next fall, and if the de- 

 cision is not in favor of the all-in-one- 

 piece section; two to one, a premium of 

 $10 to be paid by the National Bee 

 Association — if they are willing to con- 

 tribute it — shall be paid to friend Hed- 

 don, but if two-thirds or more of the 10 

 bee-keepers decide in favor of the all- 

 in-one-piece sections, then the $10 shall 

 be paid to me. The. decision to be bas- 

 ed on strength, solidity and triteness of 

 the sections, I make this offer, not for 

 the $10, but that bee-keepers may 

 know the facts in the case. If dove- 

 tailed sections are better than the all-in- 

 one-piece, we should use them, if not, 

 we should discard them, as they are 

 more expensive to make and are not so 

 handsome asthe others. Whatsayyou, 

 friend Iladdon ? Don't you think we 

 had better have this matter decided as 

 proposed above and let the bee frater- 

 nity be benefitted by the decision 'i 

 Adelphi, O. 



[The suggestion of a test in the mat- 

 ter of sections is a very good one ; but 

 inasmuch as both Mr. Riegel and Mr. 

 Heddon are interested in the sale of 

 the sections preferred, we can hardly 

 see the justice of the proposition that 

 the National Convention contribute $10 

 for advertising special wares. Rather 

 would we see the contribution of $10 go 

 to the National Convention by the for- 

 tunate contestant, who could well afford 

 to do so, considering the notoriety he 

 would gain thereby. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee JournaL 



My Experiments Wintering Bees. 



C. TIIEILMANN. 



I have for the past 10 years been ex- 

 perimenting in wintering bees, both in 

 and out doors, but as yet nave not found 

 an infallible way, in all cases and cir- 

 cumstances against some losses, in win- 

 tering my bees ; but find the out door 

 wintering, packed in chaff on summer 

 stand, less trouble and loss, as cellar or 

 prepared bee-house, for this climate; it 

 is quite a job to carry 140 to 150 colonies 

 (from and to a hill-side) at least once or 

 twice in and out of cellar or bee-house, 

 to give them a cleansing flight when the 

 weather is warm enough, and if they are 

 left in doors 'i x i to 4 months, they will 

 get very uneasy on account of getting 

 so heavily loaded with feces, and to my 

 experiments, perish, or get the so-called 

 dysentery, before they can be set out on 

 their summer stand, in the spring ; 

 therefore I have quit wintering in-doors 

 entirely ; I have packed my 147 colonies 

 with chaff, on summer stand, in Lang- 

 stroth hives, again, this winter, and as 

 another experiment, I have partly 

 covered them with snow, over the pack- 

 ing, with an open space in front from 

 the entrance, 1 inch high by 6 inches 

 wide ; they are all alive yet and seem to 

 do well, With the exception of a few, in 

 whose entrance ice threatened to close 

 the passage of air, which I melted away 

 with a hot iron, but I roused up the bees 

 badly, in doing so. Some of those colo- 

 nies have been uneasy since. It has not 

 been warm enough here for bees to have 

 a cleansing flight (and the few which 

 try to fly drop on the snow never to rise) 

 ever since the latter part of October; it 

 has been steady cold weather, and a few 

 times 35° below ; for the past week it 

 has been nearlyconstantlysnowing, and 

 blowing. The snow now is nearly 3 feet 

 deep on the level. 



