THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



75 



Extremely Cold in the South. 



I put into winter quarters dO colo- 

 nies of bees in good coiuiition. Since 

 January tlie weather has heeii very 

 cold (or tliis latitude, in fact the 

 coldest ever known ; tlie tlierniome- 

 ter reaching 'M)^ below zero on Jan. 5, 

 and this in -'Dixie's Land." Last 

 season the honey crop was short ; the 

 season previous, we had an immense 

 yield. I have no trouble to dispose 

 of my honey crop at home at l.'i cents 

 per p'ound for extracted. 



Lee Emrick. 



Lone Tree. Mo., Jan. IS, 1884. 



Honey Production in Northern Wis. 



We have a splendid location for 

 honey production — a good many un- 

 occupied fields for the coming bee- 

 keepers. The market is the best in 

 this country. We have not produced 

 honey enough to supply our local mar- 

 ket. We are within easy shipping 

 distance (60 miles) of St." Paul and 

 Minneapolis, and there the great 

 prairie wheat raising country com- 

 mences, and extends throughout 

 Minnesota and Dakota, in which bees 

 cannot be kept profitably. This re- 

 gion is becoming thickly settled with 

 many large and prosperous towns 

 that must draw their supplies of 

 honey from the above-named cities. 

 What is needed is a little capital, and 

 skilled bee-keepers to gather the tons 

 of white clover and basswood honey 

 that go to waste annually, with a mar- 

 ket tliat will take every pound that 

 can be produced for years to come. 

 We are making a speciality of honey 

 production, and are doing well. I 

 will cheerfully answer correspond- 

 ents among the readers of the Bee 

 Journal, who are in search of good 

 locations for bee-keeping, 



A, A. Decker. 



Boyceville, Wis., Jan. 17, 1884. 



Feeding Bees in Winter. 



We are having some cold weather, 

 36^ below zero on Jan, 4 and 5 ; 26° 

 this morning. Bees are generally 

 housed through this section, and are 

 all right, as far as heard from ; except 

 a few are reported light in stores, I 

 raised the quilts and gave my colo- 

 nies some sugar candy as directed in 

 the book, " Bees and Honey," They 

 take right hold of it, and I do not see 

 why they will not do well on it. They 

 all seem in prime condition, except 

 a little light in stores. I have the 

 brood nest contracted with division- 

 boards, which I tind a great help. The 

 temperature of my cellar has been 

 from 34^ to 4(P, but it is dry and pure 

 from this on. I shall try and keep it 

 from 40- to 450. I will report how my 

 candy feeding succeeds in the future. 

 I find the work. " Bees and Honey," a 

 library in itself, and very handy to 

 every bee-keeper. J.W.Sanders. 



Le Grand, Iowa, Jan. 24, 1884. 



Steady Cold Weather. 



I have ,S thermometers, and all 

 agree that the following were tlie de- 

 grees below zero, from Jan. 2 to 11, 

 inclusive: 15. 22, 31, 33, 34, 1.5, 27, 4, 

 6. 26, How is that for cold V 



C. W. Dayton. 



Bradford. Iowa, Jan, 15, 1884. 



Sweet Home Apiary. 



I commenced the season witli 27 

 colonies ; increased to 45, and 3 swarms 

 went to tlie woods or somewliere else, 

 I gave up the chase. My yield is 000 

 lbs. of comb honey in one' and two- 

 pound sections. I sold all my honey 

 at 20 cents per pound. This has been 

 a poor season here. Too much rain 

 in the spring, and in the latter part of 

 the summer and early fall, too cold 

 and dry. There was no fall honey for 

 the bee-keeper, and hardly enough for 

 the bees to keep them until spring, I 

 have been feeding some late swarms. 

 I use the Langstroth hive, winter on 

 the summer stands, and increase by 

 natural swarming, I get my bees all 

 ready for winter by Oct, 1 , pack them 

 over the frames with dry planer saw- 

 dust, and leave the entrances all open 

 during the winter. This is the way I 

 prepared them last winter, and I only 

 lost one, and that one where the en- 

 trance was frozen shut, and the bees 

 smothered. I now bore a H inch hole 

 over the entrance, so, in case the en- 

 trance freezes up, they may get air 

 through the J^ inch hole above, 



John Rey. 



East Saginaw, Mich,, Jan. 18, 1884. 



Cold in Alabama. 



The weather for 8 days has been 

 cold here. It has been 4° below zero 

 800 or 900 feet below our apiary. We 

 have lost 15 colonies of bees m this 

 cold snap. The ice has been flowing 

 down the Tennessee river 3 or 4 days. 

 Bees are flying now, T, S, Hall, 



Kirby's Creek, Ala,, Jan. 14, 1888. 



Regular Blizzard. 



It was 22° below zero here on the 

 morning of the 6th, and it is 18° this 

 morning. We have had a blizzard for 

 a week. W. H. Shirley. 



Glenwood, Mich., Jan. 7, 1884. 



Packing Comb Honey for Shipment. 



Allow me to make another sugges- 

 tion with regard to packing sections 

 of comb honey in cases for shipment. 

 By placing a sheet of stiff manilla 

 paper between each row of sections, 

 so that if any comb should break 

 loose from the frame, it cannot fall 

 against the next comb nor get out of 

 place. I discovered this in overhaul- 

 ing cases, which, on arrival, showed 

 some broken combs, and I found by 

 straightening them up and placing 

 the paper between them, I was en- 

 abled to save a great many that other- 

 wise would have to be removed and 

 put in pails and sold as broken honey. 

 The adoption of this plan, and the 

 use of the paper pan in the bottom of 

 the case, together with the marking 

 of the cases," This side up with care," 



with large plain stencil, will insure 

 almost absolute safety in shipping. 

 My " Honey Depot " is becoming one 

 of the institutions of this city. 



Jerome Twichell. 

 Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 23, 1884. 



Olucose in Honey. 



Does not Prof. Preston get things a 

 little mixed in his contribution on 

 page 36, about detecting glucose in 

 honey V His method is tlie usual one 

 for testing glucose in cane sugar ; but 

 I agree with him exactly in his clos- 

 ing sentence, where he says " that 

 this test does not enable us to detect 

 the adulteration of honey by manu- 

 factured glucose. I would add that 

 tills last remark ought also to be ap- 

 plied to the tests given by Prof. Marsh 

 on page 377 of Vol. XIX. They might 

 answer for the glucose which he had 

 at that time, but the glucose offered 

 for sale in New York, as far as I can 

 find, and largely used for adulterating 

 honey, contains no free sulphuric acid 

 nor calcic sulphate. The grocers in 

 all the larger towns in tins region 

 keep the spurious honey, which the 

 polaroscope shows to be largely "man- 

 ufactured glucose," but yet they 

 would "yield no sign" "to Prof. 

 Marsh's tests. I believe the only 

 test availalile and useful to the public 

 generally, is the " candying " test. 

 Anything claiming to be honey, which 

 granulates, is, without much doubt, 

 pure ; and that which will not granu- 

 late, when exposed to cold and mois- 

 ture, is 99 times out of 100 adulterated. 

 J. Hasbrouck. 



Bound Brook, N. J. 



How I Prepare Bees for Winter. 



I began last season with lOS colo- 

 nies ; nicreased to 198 ; got 4,000 .lbs, 

 of section box honey and 9,000 lbs. of 

 extracted. So you can see I have not 

 been idle, to say nothing of my other 

 business. We had a splendid crop of 

 white clover, but it was very wet and 

 cold during the early part of the sea- 

 son ; very little fall honey gathered. 

 We have had very cold weather ; the 

 mercury dancing around zero, and 

 down to 28° below; 3° below this 

 morning. I have most of my bees 

 stored in the bee house. I am win- 

 tering 75 colonies on the summer 

 stands. They are in two-story hives ; 

 the upper story is full of empty combs. 

 I took off the enameled cloth "and laid 

 several thicknesses of newspapers 

 over the frames, then the cloth over 

 all, pressing down the cover so as to 

 cut off all upward ventilation. I win- 

 tered 20 colonies the same way last 

 wintes, and they came through in 

 good condition. 1 think it is as good, 

 if not better, than to fill the upper 

 story with chaff or other packing ; the 

 moisture that will rise from the clus- 

 ter will be absorbed by the paper, and 

 if frost should accumulate on the 

 paper at the top of the hive, it will be 

 away from the bees. In preparing 

 bees in this way, it is essential that 

 the bees are clustered in the lower 

 story, as they could not get down to 

 the stores in cold weather, I will re- 

 port the result, J, M. Valentine. 



Carlinville, 111., Jan. 24, 1884. 



