88 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



bees ?" Being assured that it was the 

 woA of the bees, lie made the state- 

 ment, that wliile visiting the Exposi- 

 tion m Chicago, this fall, he saw a 

 large exhibit of comb honey made by 

 Thuibers. of New York, that bees had 

 never seen or touched, the whole 

 being manufactured without their aid 

 or assistance. lie was positive in his 

 statement, and could not be convinced 

 to the contrary. This gentleman, as 

 before stated, "is head agent of the 

 Kingsford Starch Co., and resides in 

 Detroit. His name and address can 

 be obtained if desired. 



I promised Mr. S. to write you full 

 particulars as you resided in Chicago, 

 and probably would be cognizant 

 of that exhiiiition of honey. When 

 persons of such standing and business 

 capacity as is this gentleman, are so 

 grossly deceived and induced to be- 

 lieve such impossil)le statements, and 

 go repeating them in their travels 

 among grocerymen all over the coun- 

 try, how is their influence to be coun- 

 teracted and the contradiction as ex- 

 tensively told as the story has been 

 circulated V While the Bek Journal 

 and Bee-Keepers' Magazine have taken 

 firm and decided jiositions against 

 food adulterations of all kinds, and 

 especially that of honey, declaring 

 war to the knife against glucose and 

 grape sugar, I regret to say that one 

 bee periodical, with a large circula- 

 tion, tliough more passive on the sub- 

 ject, still recommends their use for 

 feeding purposes ; thus giving to the 

 outside public grave cause lor sus- 

 picion. Ilere comes the question for 

 serious consideration : Is it advisable 

 to buy grape sugar for feeding pur- 

 poses, when a suspicious public are 

 so closely watching the honey raisers' 

 every movement V 



After reading reports of raising (to 

 them) of almost fabulous amounts of 

 honey, are they not likely to have a 

 doubt about its purity when they have 

 seen boxes and barrels of this great 

 adulterant of all sweets unloaded at 

 the bee-keeper's door V Will it not 

 be better for honey raisers to entirely 

 discard the use of' this vile adulterant 

 that the product of their apiaries may 

 not have even the taint of suspicion. " 



Peoria, X. Y. 



[The Detroit man had been deceived 

 by Wiley's lie about the manufacture 

 of comb honey — which he excused as 

 a " scientific pleasantry,'" too absurd 

 for any one to believe. There was no 

 such exhibit at the Chicago Exposi- 

 tion. It is nothing but fiction, for we 

 personally examined the exhibition, 

 and there was no large exhibit of 

 comb honey there. — Ed.] 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Elgin.Ont., Bee-Keepers' Association. 



The bee-keepers of Elgin met at St. 

 Thomas on Tuesday last, when ^Mr. S. 

 T. Pettit, of Belmont, was appointed 

 President of the convention; Wm. H. 

 Hill, of St. Thomas, Vice-President, 

 and John Yoder, of Springfield, Sec- 

 retary-Treasurer. It was resolved 



that this association be known as the 

 Elgin, Ont., Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, after which suitable constitution 

 and by-laws were adopted, and that 

 this association believe that the 

 honey interest of Ontario demands 

 legislation to enable bee-keepers to 

 successfully contend with foul brood, 

 and that a director be appointed to 

 act with the executive committee of 

 the Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association 

 ill that behalf. Adjourned until the 

 29th inst. 



Fur the American Bee Journal. 



My Report for the Past Season. 



S. COKNEIL. 



Last spring we had 64 colonies alive 

 out of 65 put into tlie cellar in the 

 fall, one having starved. For about 

 seven or eight weeks the temperature 

 averaged about 8° lower than usual 

 for that season of the year. I sold 

 four, lost several queens, and united 

 weak colonies, so that on the 2d of 

 July, I had only 48 good, bad, and in- 

 different. We ran 43 of these for ex- 

 tracted honey, and resei'ved 5 of the 

 weakest to be used as circumstances 

 might require. We commenced to 

 extract on the 7th of July, and finished 

 on the 24th of August, with a yield of 

 8,.579 lbs., and an increase of .58 be- 

 sides 1.54 lbs. of comb honey. We 

 weighed the combs of each hive be- 

 fore and after extracting them. I 

 have never tried to determine accu- 

 rately how much the honey loses in 

 weight by remaining in the solar 

 evaporator a week or ten days, but I 

 have an opinion that the loss is con- 

 siderable. We have sold the last of 

 the crop, and have realized an average 

 price of 13 cents. 



■On the 10th of October we weighed 

 our bees and found it necessary to 

 feed 350 lbs. of loaf sugar. We weighed 

 them again on the 12th of November. 

 Those \vhich had not been fed lost 

 from 2 to 3 lbs. in that time. I sold 2 

 colonies, and my son purchased 11 on 

 his own account, making in all Ho. 

 Of these n4 are stowed away in a 

 small cellar, covered with quilts of 

 wool, but without bottom boards, 

 there being a clear open space of 

 from three to four inches under the 

 the frames of each hive. We are 

 wintering one outside in one of Jones' 

 double-walled hives. 



I have a strain of bees which I be- 

 lieve I might back against anything 

 on the Continent for gatherinjj honey, 

 and for getting into good condition in 

 the fall for winter. I bought a dollar- 

 queen from Mr. H. Alley in the sum- 

 mer of 1880. After a few weeks I 

 found she had either met with an ac- 

 cident or else she was superseded, be- 

 cause I found in her place a nice, 

 yellow undipped queen, not yet fer- 

 tile. For two years in succession I 

 found this colony was so much stronger 

 and had so much more stores than the 

 others, that I decided to leave it on 

 the summer stand. In the summer 

 of 1881, it was the best in the yard for 

 honey gathering. In 1882 we had 

 hardly any honey, but I divided and 

 subdivided this one so much for 



queen rearing that it was not strong 

 in the fall. Notwithstanding this it 

 had a queen-cell with an egg in it on 

 the 25th of May last. We did not al- 

 low it to swarm, but changed places 

 with a .3-frame nucleus. Six days 

 after, the nucleus threw off a natural 

 swarm on account of the crowd of 

 bees obtained from the strong one. 

 In July last the queen was superseded 

 leaving a nice lot of queen-cells. I 

 placed one in each eight combs, and 

 when they were nearly ready to hatch 

 I removed seven of these with sufli- 

 cieiit bees to form a nucleus, to new 

 stands. After all these drafts on the 

 old colony, it gave us .308 lbs., of ex- 

 tracted honey. The largest yield 

 from one colony was 343 lbs. It was 

 a Syrian colony crossed with Italian 

 blood. 



I never saw the honey so thick as it 

 was this season. I tested some taken 

 from combs which had been emptied 

 just 48 hours before, and found the 

 specific gravity was 1.400, the English 

 standard according to the British Bee 

 Journal being 1.261, and in Germany 

 from 1.414 to 1.4.55. Duncan, said to 

 be the latest and best authority, gives 

 it at 1.333, pure water at 60= being 1. 



Lindsay, Out., Dec. 17, 1883. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Experience in Wintering. 



J. V. CALDWELL. 



Now that our bees are in their win- 

 ter quarters, is a good time to discuss 

 the problem of the saving of our bees, 

 until the mild and sunny days of 

 spring and summer are with us again. 

 We read the experience of our breth- 

 ren in the business, and, turning from 

 the facinating pages of our favorite 

 bee periodicals, we can repair to our 

 winter repository, and see how our lit- 

 tle pets are prospering in their long 

 winter sleep. 



In this business, theory as against 

 practice makes but a poor showing. I 

 am willing men should theorize, and 

 am willing to read their theories ; but 

 this whole bee-business to some of us 

 at least, is getting to be one of the 

 most intense interest, inasmuch as 

 we are depending upon it for our daily 

 bread, and the support and education 

 of our families. 



But to the question in hand, Mr. 

 Ileddon takes very kindly to the pol- 

 len theory, and indeed, it maybe just- 

 ly called a theory, at least so far as he 

 has not proved hi raself to be a success- 

 ful winter bee-keeper. I am glad Mr. 

 Heddon is making experiments in this 

 line, as it may lead to good results. I 

 am glad to notice that he thinks that 

 a safe and cheap mode of wintering, 

 will lead to placing them in good cel- 

 lars. I am in favor of cellar wintering, 

 and always have been ; but granting 

 that the cellar is the only safe way in 

 this latitude, another important ques- 

 tion coraes up right here : 



Mr. A. puts tnem in early in the 

 winter, giving them plenty of both up- 

 ward and downward ventilation, while 

 Mr. B puts them in late, and wants 

 them thoroughly chilled, so they will 

 not breed until set upon their summer 



