166 



THE AMERICA]^ BEE JOURNAL. 



wintered well out-of-doors, packed in 

 straw, chaff, or whatever it may be, 

 and yet dwindled and died witli bodies 

 distended V" The bees were exposed 

 to changes of weather ; had to move 

 their stores at times into the brood- 

 nest. But, you may say, " They did 

 not rear brood until spring."' But the 

 handling of cold honey has the effect 

 to wear out the nervous system ; the 

 load of food to keep up the required 

 warmth while thus engaged, and the 

 extra labor of preparing food for the 

 larvae, and before it matures, the 

 parental bee has succumbed to the 

 plague. "We often find brood in all 

 stages, or. perhaps, three or more 

 combs, and the hive depopulated. 



But some say, it was old bees ; yes, 

 but how was it with A. C. Balch's 

 bees, of Kalamazoo, Mich. V They 

 were put into an underground reposi- 

 tory 10 days after it was finished, it 

 being laid up with stone mortar ; 10x16 

 feet, and 60 or 70 hives of bees in it, 

 the entrances to the hives contracted 

 to Jsx4 inches ; the cellar with only 

 upward ventilation, and small at that; 

 the ceiling over-head dripping with 

 water, given off from the newly made 

 walls ! These bees were placed there 

 in Xovember. and taken out in April, 

 in good condition, while his neigh- 

 bor's bees were in very bad condition ! 

 His hives had no upward ventilation, 

 and but little below ; his cellar was 

 small with no lower ventilation ; there 

 was no draft : the walls, being new, 

 not only gave oft moisture, )jut heat ; 

 the humidity of the atmosphere of 

 this bee repository " acting like the 

 clouds of a cold December night," al- 

 though the thermometer may indicate 

 freezing, or even colder, without their 

 presence, yet let them cover the hori- 

 zon and how soon the mercuiy rises, 

 although they are three miles above 

 our heads V This enabled the bees to 

 spread over their winter stores, to 

 keep them warm and dry during their 

 winter continement. Being warm 

 they consumed less honey, and were 

 quieter ; neither their digestive organs 

 nor their nervous system having been 

 over-taxed, what could we expect but 

 health ? See Bee Journal tor 18S4, 

 page 6. 



Hear what one of our best bee men 

 says on page 11 : " From June 3 to 

 June 28, 1.56 swarms issued from 150 

 colonies, all that was in the yard. 

 Will any one say that they were not 

 well wintered V And yet hiuidreds of 

 bee-keepers will raise ' their hands in 

 horror when told that this lot of bees 

 were wintered in a temperature from 

 65° to 90- of heat." Further on he 

 says : " I do not agree with Mr. Iled- 

 don in regard to pollen and dysentery. 

 Keep the bees warm, and they can eat 

 all the pollen they care to, and luiless 

 some of them get to breeding, you 

 will see no signs of dysentery, and 

 then it will be on the outside of the 

 hive, and does no harm." 



I will give but one of the many in- 

 stances that have come under my own 

 notice : During the summer of" 1S75, 

 4 second swarms persisted in coming 

 out after they were put back into tlie 

 old colony from whence they came ; 

 w-ell knowing it would be doubtful 

 about comb honey if they were separ- 



ated from the old colony, and persist 

 in setting up for themselves, I thought 

 I would experiment with them. So I 

 partially tilled a full set of honey- 

 boxes with comb and placed them on 

 the top of the empty frames of a 

 Langstroth hive, and then hived them. 

 Thebees filled the boxes and com- 

 menced to work in them first ; when 

 the honey season closed the boxes 

 were tilled, but tlie hives had but little 

 comb and but little honey, and that 

 mostly unsealed. I took oil the boxes 

 of hoiiey and placed the hives in a 

 warm repository. All came through 

 in fair condition. 



These experiments with many 

 others show me conclusively that if 

 bees are kept in a warm condition, 

 without excitement, so that they will 

 not wear themselves out with over- 

 eating or worry, it matters not so 

 much about polien or honey : there- 

 fore, whenever we decide to winter, 

 be sure that they are not only warm 

 themselves, liut that their stores are 

 warm also. This is the reason that 

 bees, placed on solid frames of honey, 

 with their hives reduced to the size 

 of the colony with division-boards, 

 and the hives well-packed by some 

 warm material, winter better than 

 those without protection on the sum- 

 mer stands. 



Oran, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



My Management and Honey Crop. 



CHARLES MITCHELL. 



I commenced the honey season with 

 39 colonies, 3 being very weak. and. in 

 consequence, they gave very little 

 honey ; but I think it bad policy to in- 

 jure good, strong colonies by "taking 

 brood from them to build iip weak 

 ones, so I left them as they were. I 

 applied all my labor and skill to my 

 bees, so as to have them all producers 

 instead of consumers of honey. 



From the condition of my bees in 

 the spring, I expected to take 4.00U 

 lbs. of extracted honey, and find now 

 I made a mistake, but this time on'the 

 right side of the ledger. For a few 

 weeks I got all the physical exercise, 

 and a little more than was conducive 

 to sound sleep. After everything was 

 full, I had to get barrel after barrel, 

 and work, after night, scalding and 

 waxing them, and putting foundation 

 into frames. I do not recommend 

 bee-keeping as an occupation for lazy 

 reople, or those incapacitated for hard 

 work, when requested. I had 6,500 

 lbs. of honey, and an increase of 42, 

 but I was still behind with my work. 

 I could have taken 1,000 lbs" more, 

 many of the hives weighing from .58 

 to 80 lbs. I wish to know the largest 

 yield from one colony, left just as it 

 came out in spring, no feeding, doubl- 

 ing or strengthening by brood from 

 other colonies. 



My best colony swarmed on June 12, 

 and this threw off another in August. 

 1 hived this last swarm on old combs, 

 and in two days it gathered 57 lbs. ; 

 no guesswork about it. The honey 

 was weighed, and there is plenty o"f 

 proof, if it is required. From the" old 



colony and these two sw'arms, I ex- 

 tracted 612 lbs., leaving the upper 

 stories still to be extracted, and these 

 would have run it up to 700 pounds. 

 Reckoning the honey at 15 cts. per lb., 

 and the two swarms at SO.OO each, 

 the net proceeds from one colony was 

 S103.80. That colony has always 

 proved to be extra good for honey- 

 gathering. If it winters well, I shall 

 make good use of its queens next year. 

 The income from my 39 colonies is 

 SI. 21-5.00. Of course this looks well 

 on paper, but beginners had better go 

 slow, for it takes good muscle and 

 keen intellect to compete in bee-keep- 

 ing. 

 Molesworth, Ont. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Creating a Market for Honey- 



H. D. EDWARDS. 



The question of the most impor- 

 ance to the practical bee-keeper of to- 

 day is, " How and where can I find 

 ready sale for my honey at remunej'a- 

 tive prices." This question, it seems 

 to me, should interest bee keepers 

 more than—" Which is the best race 

 of bees V" " The best hive," " How to 

 winter successfuUy V" and many other 

 questions of like nature, which are all 

 proper questions, and need discussion; 

 but the disposition and sale of our 

 honey after we have produced it, it 

 seem"s to me, is a question that takes 

 precedence of any of the others men- 

 tioned. For, what will it avail us if 

 after we get the best bees, the best 

 hive, and have learned to winter suc- 

 cessfully, if we are unable to dispose 

 of our honey at prices that will justify 

 us in producing it. 



What we want now is a greater 

 consumption of honey. Where one 

 family uses it now we want ten ; and 

 where ten families use glucose now 

 we want only one. When we can 

 bring about such a state of affairs we 

 will find a ready sale for our honey. 

 I have been observing, for sometime, 

 the consumption of glucose by the 

 people in the shape of synips. They 

 come into the stores and buy it by the 

 jug fidl, and by the five and ten gal- 

 lons at a time ;" and seem to eat it with 

 a relish, and claim they think it not 

 unhealthy. Sometimes we find a man 

 that says he does not use glucose, but 

 takes liis in >'ew Orleans molasses, 

 forgetting, or rather not knowing that 

 all New Orleans syrups are largely 

 adulterated with glucose. 



Some three years ago we were en- 

 gaged in the "grocery business, and 

 sent by a friend, wliowas going South 

 with stock, for several barrels of pure 

 Xew Orleans molasses. The gentle- 

 man we sent by traveled among the 

 sugar plantations selling stock. After 

 being there some time he wrote us he 

 was unable to find a piu-e article, 

 either in Xew Orleans or in the coun- 

 try. He said the planters bought the 

 ghicose and hauled it out on their 

 plantations and mixed it with their 

 molasses ; and he said the merchants 

 told him that if a lot of pure molasses 

 came into the city it was adulterated 

 before it was sent out. He said the 



