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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 3. 



sorry that I did not look for eg(?s about them. I counted 23 

 bee-moths, and 2 of those little wee ones described in Prof. 

 Cook's Manual. 



Now, I'd like to know where so many moths came from all 

 at once, for I had not seen auy around my bees for a long 

 time before this. There was surely many more Chat ate of 

 the sweets that did not get stuck fast. lam quite sure that 

 they were not all reared around my bees, for everything that 

 would induce the moth is kept snugly out of their reach. I 

 am aware that we can trap quantities of moths with sweets in 

 the summer time, but I never saw them in such numbers as 

 late at October, when we supposed they were nearly all dead 

 or asleep. 



The little, wee moth does sometimes considerable mis- 

 chief with comb or section honey. Some 15 years ago I had 

 about 6,000 pounds of very fine, delicate lindeo houey in my 

 honey-house for about four weeks. I had to close it tightly as 

 the bees began getting in and robbing. The room got warm 

 and very damp. I sold 4,000 pounds of it to a Minneapolis 

 firm, not noticing anything wrong about the honey when shipt, 

 neither did the receivers of the honey. About four weeks 

 after, I saw part of this honey stored in a large airy room on 

 the second floor, when one of the firm told me that my honey 

 was wormy. I lookt and found little perfectly round holes 

 (the size a common needle would make) over much of the 

 cappings of the honey, and some little webs and mealy stuff, 

 and here and there a little worm in the corners and edges of 

 the combs, but there was not quite enough to spoil the sale of 

 the honey. 



Three years ago I bought 500 pounds of white honey 

 from a neighbor bee-keeper, who kept the honey for about 

 two months in a tight, close room under the roof of his house, 

 and whenJffe delivered the honey aboutone-half of it was unfit 

 for market. On some combs there were small patches where 

 the little holes joined and left the honey almost bare of cap- 

 pings. 



These are the only instances of this moth which came 

 under my observation. It seems that they live mostly on the 

 cappings of the combs, and probably some honey, for it is a 

 rare thing that I have any pollen in my section honey that 

 they could feed on. I believe when honey is kept in a warm, 

 airy room, that this moth will do but little harm to the bee- 

 keeper, neither will the bee-moth if the bee-keeper under- 

 stands the business. 



I have never seen the wee " winged " moth that I could be 

 sure of. The two in the barrel above-mentioned compared 

 well with the picture in Prof. Cook's Manual, so it is probably 

 a night-caterpillar, lu that respect like the bee-moth. 



I cannot agree with Prof. Cook when he says : " I do not 

 think the bee-moth ever lays her eggs in the poUeu in the 

 flowers ; we never see her about the flowers as we certainly 

 should if her nits were there." 



Does not the flower furnish all the elements the moth ex- 

 ists on ? Why should she not visit them, when they contain 

 her very life ? Does not every critter like to be and live in its 

 elements, or is the moth an exception? By no means do I 

 think that every flower is stockt with moth-eggs ; we may ex- 

 amine thousands and not find an ege, but every indication of 

 my experiments leads me to believe that many eggs are stored 

 in the combs with the pollen. That we never see the eggs on 

 the pollen is no prqof that the moth will not lay them there, 

 at distances away where they cannot find a better chance to 

 do so. No one would claim that we have no north pole be- 

 cnuse no one ever saw it. Wabasha Co., Minn. 



Ripening Honey— Sweet Clover Eaten by Stock. 



BY J A. BEAKDEN. 



I see Mr. E. B. Tyrrell, on page Tol (1S9T), Is in favor 

 of everybody who reads the Bee Journal giving their opinion 

 as to the ripening of extracted honey, but as he does not say 

 whether he wants it ripened naturally or artificially, but 

 leaves us to infer that he meant naturally or as the bees 

 ripen it, I will give my opinion be it ever so light. 



The subject is a very important one, as it means good or 

 bad honey according as the bee-keeper wills, altho the honey 

 may be from a good source ; for of all kinds of honey, that 

 which is extracted from the combs in a watery stage is the 

 worst yet; still, it can be left on the hives too long. 



For Instance, a friend of mine had a fine lot of aster honey 

 in his hives in the fall of 1896, but as he had no extractor he 

 got me to take out the honey after there had been a few cool 

 nights, and as aster honey becomes candied very quickly after 

 it is gathered, this lot was about one-sixth candied in the 

 combs, and of course it would not throw out of the combs. 



altho I run my extractor very fast. So you see one kind of 

 honey at least must not be too severely ripened. 



But I don't think there is any need to be in a hurry about 

 extracting most kiuds of honey, for I have my first lot to taste 

 that was taken out before it was capt, that was as good as 

 that which was thoroughly capt over before it was extracted. 



I have a rule which acts well f or ??ic, to determine when 

 honey is ripe enough to extract. It is this: When a honey- 

 flow is on, you can hear the bees making a very loud hum- 

 ming, at night especially ; this is the bees' automatic evapora- 

 tor at work on the newly-stored honey, and as soon as this 

 night humming has almost ceast, your honey is all right and 

 ready to extract. But of course you will not get as much 

 honey as if you had extracted twice or more times during the 

 flow ; but your honey will be of heavy body and better taste 

 than that taken off too soon. 



If a man (or woman) has a good reputation for producing 

 a fine grade of honey, he or she can ruiu that reputation very 

 easily by selling a few lots of thin, foamy or half-soured honey, 

 for such will be the case if the honey is from basswood, not 

 thoroughly capt or ripened. 



Mr. 0. O. Poppleton, on page 690 (1897), says he has 

 never had basswood honey so thin as to drip from the combs 

 as Mr. C. P. Dadant has ; still, such is the case with me, if it 

 should happen to be very damp, rainy weather at the time of 

 gathering, but if very dry weather is on hand at gathering 

 time the honey is of course very much thicker, but not thick 

 enough. 



HOGS, SHEEP AND COWS AFTER SWEET CLOVER. 



I have been trying to get some sweet clover to grow on 

 some waste lauds about me, but, pshaw ! the hogs just hunt it 

 up and dig for the roots as long as they can smell one. And 

 sheep and cows just look it up and eat the last sprig that they 

 can find, for 'lis so much earlier than common red clover. 



Lincoln Co., Tenn. 



Comments on the " Golden " Management for 

 Producing Comb Honey. 



BV W. VV. M'NEAL. 



On page 742 (1897), Mr. Golden asks for comments. All 

 right, Mr. Golden. 



How do you manage to keep pollen out of this double 

 super during the first five days after the swarm is hived ? Just 

 why the bees should fill these sections with such choice honey 

 and leave no pollen is decidedly a wrinkle I fail to see. My 

 experience is that bees are inclined to place themselves and 

 their brood between the entrance and the stores. Now, pollen 

 being something that cannot be so easily carried away, is 

 often given a place close to the entrance. This is more notice- 

 able in early spring, and especially so if the frames run 

 parallel with the entrance. The runways provided at the 

 sides of the super may have something to do with it ; but why 

 the field-bees, upon their return to the hive, would run up 

 through these to the brood-combs above, and there leave the 

 pollen, returning to the sections below with the honey, is the 

 query with me. 



Of the two evils, honey stored ii: comb built the previous 

 season, and that which is stored in comb built the present 

 season, but contaiuing more or less pollen, I would choose the 

 former for two reasons : 1st, The average consumer of honey 

 would hardly detect the harshness of the comb at all if the 

 precaution had been taken to break away the varnisht face of 

 the combs before giving them to the bees. 2nd, But they 

 would detect pollen were it there, and so would the little wax 

 weevil ! It is a rare thing to find pollen in sections placed 

 over the brood-combs, save in hives where such room is limited ; 

 and when a case of partly-filled sections has been given to a 

 swarm newly hived on frames witii onlystarters in them. 



I have tried to get a swarm to build comb under nearly 

 the same conditions that Mr. Golden outlines, but failed in 

 every instance. My hives were prepared thus : If a colony 

 run for extracted honey cast a swarm, I took Its surplus cases 

 and placed them over an empty brood-chamber — with starters 

 — with a queen-excluder between the two apartments. Now 

 if there chanced to be any uncapt brood in these upper cases 

 the bees would sulk until they could cap over some kind of a 

 cell and call it a queen, when the swarm would then abscond. 

 Should there be nothing but honey in the combs, they will 

 continue to sulk until something happens. The queen being 

 caged, and the excluder removed, may cause the bees to be- 

 have in a vastly different manner, tbo like a great many other 

 things it does look that way. 



Still, I cannot see why a colony that does not swarm 



