1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLRNAic 



275 



hours the young queen that comes with it, strong and vigor- 

 ous as she is, t^iug the oldest of the new queens, readily over- 

 powers the remaining one, and at once begins her regular 

 duties. This throws the condition of the colony back Into the 

 normal state, and honey-gathering is no longer interrupted 

 unless a protracted honey crop of great proportions, or the 

 neglect of the apiarist to give room should cause another spell 

 of feverish excitement later. Such conditions are of unusnal 

 occurrence in this part of the United States. 



When hiving a second swarm with the purpose of return- 

 ing it to the hive, it may be temporarily put into any kind of 

 a box, a nail-keg, or in fact any vessel that will hold them for 

 the short time they are expected to remain. As a matter of 

 course it is well to look to the comfort of the bees otherwise 

 to give them plenty of room and plenty of air and shade. 



Another method to prevent after-swarms consists in re- 

 moving the hive from its stand at the issue of the first swarm, 

 and place the swarm in its stead. This removes all the old 

 bees, and throws the entire working-force on the first swarm, 

 which then becomes the main colony, and may be lookt to for 

 the largest yield of honey. Hancock Co., 111. 



Producing Only the Very Best Honey. 



BY W. W. M'NEAL. 



The first honey I ever ate, that I remember distinctly, 

 was taken from a " cap " worn by one of the old box-hives. I 

 tell you I thought that honey tasted good; and I believe to 

 this day it wiis good. I have many times since eaten of honey 

 that lookt better, but somehow the real delightfulness of my 

 first experience has never been repeated. When a colony of 

 bees in a great big box-hive climbs up into the hollow cap and 

 builds comb and stores honey there, it is of a kind that " tastes 

 like more." The comb is the real product of the bee, and the 

 honey the real juice of the flower; and when left on the hive 

 all summer — say, " haint " it then " real honey ?'' 



If all the honey sold were so treated there would not be 

 so much talk of a weakened demand for honey. When the 

 bees are urged to hasten the completion of their work by the 

 giving of full sheets of foundation or ready-drawn comb, the 

 honey is not retained in the honey-sac of the younger bees as 

 long as it should be, but is stored in the comb and capt pre- 

 maturely. Such honey, if removed from the hive Immediately, 

 is almost sure to deteriorate unless special care is bestowed 

 upon it. Comb honey should be so thick and ripe that when 

 cut it is waxy, stringy-like. A single pound of it, even, is 

 almost sure then to bring your customer back for more. 

 When honey is mentioned in his presence he is almost sure to 

 say the right word at the right time, and so a demand for 

 honey is created. But if through carelessness on the part of 

 the producer the honey failed to give satisfaction, how differ- 

 ent the result. Not only is the customer himself lost, but 

 everywhere he goes he hinders the sale of honey. 



This state of things is more easly brought about with ex- 

 tracted honey, which is seldom left on the hive till it is really 

 fit to eat. The thin, semi-ripened honey soon takes on a sour, 

 rancid smell, which of itself is enough to drive any one to an 

 utter dislike for honey. A poor grade of extracted honey is 

 not so good as newly-made sorghum molasses that sells for a 

 quarter a gallon. 



But the trouble in the honey market is not wholly due to 

 faulty methods in the production of honey. The unceasing 

 cry of bee-keepers to use cane-sugar in the apiary has mani- 

 fested its withering power. There is a boldness in this direc- 

 tion that bids destruction to the honey-business. Glucose, with 

 all its contaminating hatefulness, has done no more to hedge 

 in the sales of pure honey than has the use of cane-sugar. It 

 is a fact that those who are unacquainted with honey believe 

 pure honey ought always to remain a liquid. If the agricul- 

 tural journals were read only by honey-prod u,;ers the trouble 

 would not be nearly so great; but honey consumers note the 

 fact that sugar is fed to bees, and so when they are presented 

 with a few pounds of the genuine article of honey, and the 

 same sugars on their hands — which it is sure to do — there is 

 then need of a right, real gilt-edged piece of logic to convince 

 them that it is not of the sugar-honey kind they read about. 

 No one who feeds sugar to his bees can long hold the confi- 

 dence of those about him." The people know of but one pur- 

 pose for which sugar is fed to bees, and that is to be " made " 

 into pure honey. They naturally hesitate to pay living or 

 honey prices for honey itself, so the home trade suffers, and 

 the honey is thrown upon a distant market. 



If it is wrong to use glucose it is also wrong to use cane- 

 sugar ; and it is surely a mistake to sound it through the 

 length and breadth of the land that either is used with honey. 

 Just so long as bee-keepers continue to do this ; just so long 



as they continue to put up and offer for sale unripe honey, 

 will honey go begging a buyer. 



Large hives or brood-chambers are the surest and best way 

 of driving the sugar-barrel from the apiary, and the cutting 

 down of expenses in general. There is no more trouble for 

 me to get a strong colony of bees into the supers over a large 

 and deep frame than It is to get a weaker one there over the 

 small and shallow frame. The colonies in small hives are 

 never, it seems, able to care for themselves, but always re- 

 quire a lot of coddling, which to me has few charms. 



In retailing extracted honey I prefer the common tin 

 pails, such as are used in almost every home. I do not ap- 

 prove of selling in very large quantities to new customers, for 

 they are very apt to put the honey in some place where it will 

 spoil before used up. Of course they then lose their taste for 

 it, besides refusing to buy a fresh lot so long as there is any of 

 the old left. 



I find the poor, the children of the poor, to be excellent 

 consumers of honey when given a chance to eat it. Bread 

 and molasses forms a large part of their bill of fare, so they 

 well know how to sop. But if the poor are to be made the 

 receivers of the honey crop, they should be given the very best 

 for their hard-earned money. I do not see how comb honey 

 can be brought down to a price within their reach without 

 selling it at a certain loss to the producer. Then if extracted 

 honey only enters this broad field in competition with the 

 many kinds of cheap table-syrups, how necessary it is that 

 every means known to the fraternity for sustaining the repu- 

 tation of liquid honey be called into service. 



Unfortunately the recent leaflet by our good friend Dr. C. 

 C. Miller, is telling a good many people (page ti, near the 

 bottom) "it is a comfort to know that, when one buys comb 

 honey, he may know without question he is getting the gen- 

 uine article." The canker .sftouid receive prompt and vigorous 

 attention, but I cannot see that the public ought to be told we 

 have it to deal with. 



Let all those who produce honey and have the love of the 

 pursuit at heart, see to it that none but the very choicest of 

 honey leaves their apiary for any market, and a good deal of 

 the suspicion and prejudice now existing will dwindle away. 



Those who believe there is or can be an overproduction of 

 honey, need only to visit the homes of the poor and there see 

 the hungry-looking little tots who would almost give their toes 

 for all the good honey they could eat, to relieve their minds of 

 any such delusion. The question with them, then, I think, 

 would be, is it possible for there to be an overproduction of 

 Itoney ' Scioto Co., Ohio. 



Again a Defense of the Bee-Space. 



BY W. C. GATHRIGHT. 



I would not have offered my criticism on the article by 

 the "Common-Sense Bee-Keeper " had he not made these 

 claims, i. c, that no bee-keeper uses the bee-space for any 

 other reason than that it is handy ; and that the bee-space is 

 the cause of all bee-diseases. 



By the way, let me say that an attack is generally replied 

 to with the same spirit in which it is given. Mr. "Common- 

 Sense Bee-Keeper" made a voluntary attack on the bee- 

 space in a very aggressive style, and should not complain if 

 replies are in somewhat the same spirit. 



On page 98, Mr. "Common-Sense Bee- Keeper" thinks 

 that I am much mistaken in saying that the bee-space was 

 Mr. Langstroth's most important part of the movable-frame 

 system. The bee-space was not only a convenience but a 

 necessity. I saw frames in a bee-hive long before I ever saw 

 or heard of a Langstroth hive, but the frames I saw were 

 worthless on account of not having the bee-space. The bees 

 had fastened them securely to the sides of the hive, and the 

 owner had to tear them to pieces to get them out. 



I made the assertion that it was a good thing for the air 

 to escape from the cluster to the adjoining spaces, for it 

 allows pure air to take its place. To this my friend takes 

 exception and says: "If this be true, then wire-screen in the 

 place of the regular cover and bottom would be better." This 

 is in exact accord with the idea that if a spoonful of medicine 

 is good for the patient, a cupful would be better. He is simply 

 going to the other extreme from his non-bee-space idea. 



Bees need pure air to breathe, but it does not require a 

 strong draft of air through the hive to supply them. Our 

 friend must certainly know that air once breathed is poison. 

 There should be a gradual displacement of the warm air 

 which they have breathed. The bee-space allows this dis- 

 placement to take place just exactly as it should. 



In support of the above theory, I call attention to Dr. E. 

 Gallup's article, on page 4. He tells of a hive that was crackt 



