498 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



My opinions as to extracted honey are 

 still the same as were expressed in the 

 American Bp;k Journal for July, 1889, 

 viz. : That honey for table use should 

 remain in the combs sealed up until we 

 are ready to take it to marl^et. If liquid 

 honey deserves a price that is twice or 

 one-half more than the same grade of 

 sugar, there must be some characteristic 

 beside its siveet taste, which the con- 

 sumer pays his money for. The mere 

 fact that honey is honey, or, was gath- 

 ered by the bees, counts for nothing. A 

 pound is no more than 16 ounces. Take 

 the flavor away from maple sugar, 

 which sells here at 12 to 2,0 cents a 

 pound, and I would as soon take com- 

 mon brown sugar, which could be had a 

 year ago at 22 pounds for a dollar. 

 Now, the question seems to be, shall we 

 sell honey for what it "is," or for some- 

 thing else ? Color of the combs, for in- 

 stance. 



From the foregoing illustrations, there 

 appears to be two classes o^ consumers 

 of honey — one paying particular and 

 just regard to the tnste of the honey, 

 and the other class, the trade of the 

 dealers (and who, with the aid of the 

 dealers, are blindly leading the whole 

 bee-keeping fraternity in the case of 

 comb honey, and are about to kick ex- 

 tracted honey out altogether), buying 

 the whitest colored combs with little or 

 no regard for taste ; and, while we are 

 producing honey by the carload, and de- 

 vising plans whereby the quantity may 

 be increased, which shall we be gov- 

 erned by, the consumer who buys a 

 stingy little section, takes it home to be 

 placed on a high dish away over in the 

 center of the table lo be nibbled at in a 

 mousified way for two weeks, or, the 

 consumer who buys five pounds to turn 

 loose in a family who attack and devour 

 It in two days ? This latter class are 

 engaged in the gee-haw business, spike- 

 driving, pushing the plane, shoving 

 the brush, etc., while the former are as 

 extensively engaged in fondling poodle- 

 dogs, chewing tutti-frutti, dreaming over 

 dime novels, shifting spectacles, and at- 

 tending the theatre. Honey being on(> 

 of the concentrated and heavier classes 

 of food it is not so well suited to their 

 appetites or digestion as pearl oats, 

 tapioca and angel food. 



Pasadena, Calif. 



OMo-Cenf l*4»Ntsig-« ^itaiiipM we 



prefer whenever it is necessary to send 

 stamps for fractions of a dollar. By re- 

 ineuibering tliis, yon will greatly oblige us. 

 as we use many liiore one-cent stamps than 

 tiie two-cent kind. 



Ifoiiiig; Bees a Factor in Success- 

 ful Winterins. 



Written for the Americmi Bee Journal 

 BY L. W. RICH. 



I think that Mr. H. F. Coleman, on 

 page 2-17, is about right on the bee- 

 wintering question. With a hive well- 

 filled with young bees and plenty of 

 honey, it seems to me that a colony is in 

 a better condition to winter than one in 

 the same condition with old bees. 



In 1891 the honey-flow (what there 

 was of it) was early, followed by a 

 drouth that dried up everything so that 

 the bees got scarcely anything after- 

 wards, and the following winter there 

 was the greatest loss of bees that I 

 have known. I saw a statement that 

 fully 75 per cent, of the bees in Iowa 

 died. 



Last year, 1892, it was very wet in 

 the forepart of the season, and we got 

 but little honey until the latter part of 

 August and through September. The 

 wet weather in the spring prevented 

 farmers from putting in their regular 

 croDS, so they sowed a good deal of 

 buckwheat; the result was that we got 

 an abundant crop of buckwheat honey, 

 besides the heart's-ease, golden-rod, and 

 all the late flowers, had more than an 

 average growth, so that the bees worked 

 on them all through September and 

 into October, storing some surplus. The 

 consequence was that less than 10 per 

 cent, of the bees died during the winter. 



Now, in the winter of 1891-92 I 

 think the great loss is due to scanty 

 stores, and the bees being old when they 

 went into winter ([uarters. There being 

 no honey in the fall, the bees reared no 

 brood, except where they were fed, and 

 of course the bees were old, and hence 

 the loss; wherein the winter of 1892- 

 93, the hives were full of honey and 

 young bees, and they came through the 

 winter "just booming." 



Again, one of my neighbors, Chas 

 BlacUburn, fed his bees up well in the 

 fall of 1891, and he lost only one col- 

 ony ; where another left his bees to take 

 care of themselves, and lost all, and 

 there was quite a little honey in most of 

 the hives where the bees were dead. 



In the fall of 1892 one man gave his 

 bees no attention, and he did not lose a 

 colony. I know of a dozen instances 

 just like these. 



The winter question is the greatest 

 bee-problem in Iowa, and as I have suf- 

 fered a good deal by winter losses, I 

 have given the matter considerable at- 



