6 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the fact that he gives his bees no top 

 veutihition, aiul the further fact that 

 his bee cellar will not likely average 

 above 45-' ; it certainly will not, if he 

 applies no artificial heat. 



If the most perfect hibernating 

 conditions exist at 41°, that is the 

 temperature which the bee-cellar 

 should have in early winter. When 

 breeding begins, then artificial means 

 of heating to 50^ or .55° will materially 

 aid the bees in their work, and, I am 

 thinking, may come to be an indis- 

 pensable measure with all progressive 

 apiarists. 



New Philadelphia, o+O. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Feeding Bees, tlie Honey Market, etc. 



G. W. DEM A REE. 



The questions, how to feed bees, 

 when, and how much to feed them, 

 have been thoroughly discussed in all 

 the bee-periodicals ; but there is mat- 

 ter of interest connected with this 

 subject that seems to have been over- 

 looked — in fact, neglected. In the 

 past, our fathers knew but little about 

 feeding bees even when they knew 

 that the bees were in a starving con- 

 dition. I can remember 40 or more 

 years ago, when my father was anx- 

 ious about his bees, one winter, and 

 feared that some of the " swarms " 

 would starve, and I remember that he 

 fed them loaves of corn bread. The 

 loaves or pones of bread were split in 

 the middle, and then the fresh bread 

 was saturated with sugar syrup, or 

 rather, with wet sugar. The tiees 

 pulled through the winter all right, if 

 my memory is not at fault ; of course 

 it was mostly the sugar that saved the 

 bees. 



It is a tact, that very few people 40 

 years ago knew that sugar would an- 

 swer as a substitute for honev, for 

 winter stores for bees. Those" bee- 

 keepers who are old enough to remem- 

 ber back through all the years of 

 progress in this science, will agree 

 with me when I say that apiarists at 

 the first fed their bees sugar as a sub- 

 stitute ior hojiey; in later years some 

 began to claim that sugar syrup was 

 fis qood as honey for winter stores. 

 This is as far as any of the works on 

 bee-culture have gone, so far as I have 

 examined them on this subject. But 

 now in the last few years, there are 

 some who seem to be interested in 

 sugar, or are carried away by some 

 hallucination beyond the comprehen- 

 sion of most people, who vehemently 

 insist that nothing but sugar syrup is 

 safe food for bees in winter. What 

 are the facts in the case ? I have only 

 to ask intelligent bee-keepers to ex- 

 amine the bee-papers for reports of 

 succes.=es and failures in wintering 

 bees during the past hard winter, and 

 form tlieir own judgment. I do not 

 fear the result. The (Jod-given food 

 for bees— pu?-e honey — lias no superior 

 as a food for bees — or man. 



Of course, I do not pretend to say 

 that inferior honey is necessarily 

 betterthan the pmest sugar. Though 

 we should admit that purefiugar is 



just as good, and as safe to winter our 

 bees on, there is no good reason why 

 bee-keepers should so forget their own ' 

 interest as to build up the sugar-trade 

 at the expense of the honey market, 

 and thus bring ruin on the bee-inter- 

 ests of the country. A certain supply- 

 dealer quotes sugar for feeding bees 

 at 7 to T14 cents per pound, and some- 

 where else quotes extracted honey as 

 low as 4 cents. Nothing could better 

 illustrate the downward tendency of 

 the honey interests. 



I contend that a good article of dark 

 extracted honey, such as is quoted at 

 4 to 5 cents per pound, is the cheapest 

 and best food for bees that can be had ; 

 and it is a suicidal policy to pay a 

 higher price for sugar and have so 

 much cheap honey hanging on the 

 market to drag down the price of the 

 white grades more desirable for table 

 use. I could not be influenced in this 

 matter by immediate personal interest. 

 I produce none but white honey and 

 can sell all I can produce at from 10 to 

 V2}4 cents per pound at my honey 

 store-rooms. I speak in behalf of the 

 honey-trade. 



Some years ago the glucose fraud 

 threatened the very life of bee-culture. 

 In the first place it appeared as a food 

 for bees. We all know what a deter- 

 mined effort was made to ruin the 

 honey-trade by thrusting glucose in 

 its different forms in the faces of bee- 

 keepers. It required years of per- 

 sistent exposure of the fraud, to rid 

 the bee-interest of this vile nuisance. 

 And now we are to be beset witli the 

 sugar-trade ! If the money that has 

 been spent for sugar with which to 

 feed bees, had been laid out for the 

 darker grades of honey, there would 

 have been a lively movement in the 

 honey market, and the lighter grades 

 of honey would have advanced in 

 price, and instead of a dead honey 

 market there would have been a more 

 hopeful feeling among bee-men gen- 

 erally. 



I know of but one remedy for our 

 ruined honey market, and that is to 

 stop the sugar business, and feed our 

 bees on their own products. Here- 

 after I shall buy honey to feed my 

 bees and leave the sugar market to 

 take care of itself. Much has been 

 said about co-operation— let us have a 

 little practical co-operation in tins 

 direction. The one hundred thousand 

 dollars or more paid for sugar — much 

 of it adulterated at that — the past 

 fall, would have helped out the draw- 

 ing honey market surprisingly. It is 

 to be hoped that the practical lessons 

 of the coming winter will be heeded. 

 If I was as sure that contemptible 

 selfishness will not eventually destroy 

 the bee-business, as I am that time 

 will prove that honey is the best food 

 in existence for bees, I would rest 

 content. 



REVERSIBLE FRAMES. 



I want to say a word about the 

 utility of reversible frames. This 

 idea is likely to be pushed as never 

 before— patent interests will push it 

 regardless of its real merits. Expe- 

 rience of years with a thorough knowl- 

 edge of practical mechanics may not 

 weigh much with some people, but my 

 advice to beginners is, don't be caught 



in the trap. Let me here prophesy 

 that when the great " blow " is over, 

 the thousands of reversible frames 

 that are now being pushed into use 

 will stand uiireversed. , 



Christiansburg, 5Ky. 



For the American Bee Joumat 



Pollen carried from Flower to Flower. 



17— G. M. DOOLITTLE, (40—95). 



In a paper pulilished a few years 

 ago, a copy of which I chanced to 

 pick up lately, I found these words : 

 " Pollen is borne from flower to flower 

 on the breeze as well as on the bodies 

 of insects ; in fact, that appears to be 

 nature's prime method of conveying 

 the fertilizing germs from the anthers 

 of the staminate to the pointals of the 

 pistillate blossoms." While in another 

 column of the same paper I find this : 

 '• Honey is a vegetable production, 

 appearing in greater or less quantities 

 in every flower that nods to the 

 breeze, or kisses the bright sunlight. 

 It is secreted in the flower for the 

 purpose of attracting insects, thus 

 securing the complete fertilization of 

 the female blossom." 



Now while both of the above are 

 true in the main, yet when applied to 

 certain plants and trees they are not 

 true; neither is it true that "every 

 flower that nods to the breeze " 

 secretes honey. There are some 

 points in this matter which either I 

 or other writers fail to understand, 

 and as it has a direct bearing on our 

 pursuit (bee-keeping), perhaps a short 

 article to draw others out at this time 

 of lawsuits against our industrious 

 little insects, may not be amiss. 



I understand that the first purpose 

 for which the honey-bee was created, 

 was for the fertilization of flowers, 

 while the storage of honey was only 

 for the preservation of the life of the 

 bee, so that the perpetuation of the 

 species might continue for this pur- 

 pose (fertilization of plants); that 

 man, after a period of time, found 

 that honey was good, and thus utilized 

 the product secreted by the flowers 

 and stored by the bee, to become his 

 food, while the bees perished from 

 such colonies as were robbed by man ; 

 that, as the years went by, man learned 

 that the bees would store more honey 

 than their wants required, so surplus 

 apartments were furnished the bees, 

 which were removed when fllled, thus 

 leaving enough in the hive or home 

 of the bee to supply all its needs ; and 

 that from this surplus came the honey 

 of commerce and our industry of bee- 

 keeping. 



It I am correct in the above (and I 

 believe I am), the people of the world 

 have the bee-keepers to thank for 

 bringing the bee from its primeval 

 home (the hollow tree, especially as 

 our forests are being thinned out),and 

 scattering it broadcast throughout the 

 land, to fertilize the millions of 

 flowers which otherwise would pro- 

 duce no fruit. 



But to return to the two paragraphs 

 quoted : While I believe that the 

 bees were created for the fertilization 



