THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



507 



No White Honey. 



Central New Voik has no wliite 

 honey to speak of. We got a fair 

 vield from apple bloom, and a little 

 "from I'lover. Raspberries produced 

 (luite a uiee How, but not enough to 

 store in the boxes. Only I4 of the 

 basswo(Hl bloomed, and nearly U' of 

 that was killed by the May frost, 

 which froze ice as thick as a window- 

 pane. The wind blew from the west 

 very hard all the time basswood was 

 in bloom, and with cool nights the 

 bees did not whiten the combs a 

 particle with wax. The two places, 

 Groton and Lansing, produced over 

 20,000 pounds of white honey last 

 year— this year not 100 pounds. There 

 have been but very few natural 

 swarms. The outlook is splendid for 

 buckwheat, which is just coming into 

 bloom. If it fails as it did last year, 

 we will have to feed our bees from 

 this time on. W. L. Coggshall. 



"West Groton, N. Y.. .July 28, 1884. 



Bee-Keeping in the Mountains. 



■\Ve have liad a splended honey flow 

 for two months past. We are now 18 

 miles from the sea, at an altitude of 

 about 2,000 feet above the sea level, 

 and in the mountains between the 

 Sauantone and the Nasemeento rivers, 

 thus having the advantage of the 

 valley bloom as well as that of the 

 mountains. The higher up the moun- 

 tains, each variety of flowers bloom. 

 A most deliglitful climate to live in, 

 and many varieties of fruit do well in 

 this mountainous region. Apple, 

 Ijear, peach, apricot, nectarine, cherry, 

 tigs, Japanese persimmon, olive, 

 almond, and English walnut do well 

 here ; and we still have some Govern- 

 ment land yet for the actual settler. 

 I have recently purchased 3 Italian 

 queen-bees from Georgia, which are 

 the finest, and produce the best work- 

 ers of any queens I ever bought ; and 

 in that long distance, almost from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, they came 

 through with a loss of but 7 of the 

 workers. Jos. Sayleu. 



Pleito, Cal., July 22, 1884. 



The Use of Foundation in Sections. 



It is a well known fact, that several 

 manufacturers of comb foundation 

 make it so thin that it cannot be 

 detected if used in the production of 

 comb honey. Now what objections 

 can there be to the using of such foun- 

 dation in sections ? Because it is 

 adulterating honey V Is it adulterat- 

 ing honey, or the cells in which honey 

 is stored? and is that adulteration? 

 No ; if we use pure beeswax, it is not 

 adulteration. If we should take two 

 barrels of pure sugar, both alike, and 

 mix them, would that be adulterating 

 sugar? When we use pure beeswax 

 in the manufacture of comb founda- 

 tion, it cannot be adulteration, as all 

 honey-comb is made of wax. Were 

 paraliine used for foundation, it would 

 then be adulteration. 



This extra- thin foundation cannot 

 be called "lish-bone," as it is as thin 

 as natural comb ; and if any bee- 

 keepers are so careless as to use thick 

 foundation in their sections, they 



should be paid only about half-price 

 for their honey. Some say that thin 

 foundation is too expensive ; but it is 

 really cheaper at :?! per lb. than the 

 thick foundation, at 50 cents per lb. 



:Mr. Doolittle says on page 4.w, that 

 choice comb honey, if really nice, will 

 all melt awav in' the mouth while 

 being eaten. ' That is a fact ; but that 

 the wax will melt away, I cannot 

 believe. I have tested honey with 

 and without foundation, and cannot 

 see or taste the sliglitest difference. 

 By filling a section one-third full of 

 fo'undation, and letting the bees build 

 the remainder of natural comb, we 

 will have an excellent opportunity of 

 testing the two theories. Let us all 

 test it. H. W. Simon. 



Youngstown, O., July 24, 1884. 



But Little Honey. 



The yield of white clover and bass- 

 wood honey, in this section, is very 

 light, and unless the fall honey harvest 

 is better, we will have very little 

 honey this season. D. D. Updyke. 



Bible Grove. Mo., July IS, 1884. 



Gloomy Prospects. 



We are in ihe back-ground with our 

 bees and honey this season. It is 

 with gloomy prospects for honey that 

 I enter my bee-yards to work. Bass- 

 wood is nearly gone, and there is no 

 honey stored yet— no, not a pound to 

 sell from this section, unless we have 

 a good How from buckwheat. We are 

 overstocked with bees in this vicinity, 

 and the frost killed the basswood 

 buds. It has been very cold and 

 lowery, so that the bees could not 

 work. I hope that there will be honey 

 gathered in other sections of the 

 country. D. II. Coggshall, Jr. 



West Groton. N. Y"., July 2.5. 1884. 



Bees have done Swarming. 



Bees generally have done swarming. 

 I have had only 8-5 natural swarms 

 from 128 colonies, spring count. I 

 kent swarming back as much as pos- 

 sible with the extractor. The flow 

 from clover is abundant, but short on 

 account of dry weather. The bass- 

 wood bloom is good, but bees are un- 

 able to secure the honey on account 

 of cold, raw winds during its contin- 

 uance. Sweet clover is coming into 

 bloom, and bees are storing quite 

 freely. The weather is good at this 

 date.' On tlie whole, it has been a 

 very fair season. Most of the colo- 

 nies run tor comb honey have 

 filled one case of sections, and a por- 

 tion of the second set. All the hives 

 used for extracted honey are two- 

 story ; from the upper story I ex- 

 tracted once, and a portion the second 

 time ; all will be ready for the ex- 

 tractor next week. It will be a busy 

 week with me, if the weather is such 

 that I can open the hives, brush the 

 bees, and handle the combs. My 163 

 colonies are all supplied with laying 

 queens, with a fair prospect for gold- 

 enrod, and no extracting from the 

 lower stories. I think I shall be able 

 to put my bees into winter quarters 

 in good condition on natural stores ; 

 although I constantly keep putting in 



my honey-house a barrel of the best 

 granulated sugar, and my feeding-can 

 filled with good syrup made from the 

 same ; yet 1 believe that natural 

 stores are as good as any, if not bet- 

 ter, and 1 shall not give myself the 

 trouble and expense to remove good, 

 natural stores— either pollen or lioney 

 — to substitute something else, Iled- 

 don's and others' theory to the con- 

 trary notwithstanding. 

 Fredonia, N. Y. U. E. Dodge. 



Milk- Weed and Honey-Dew. 



Eiu'losed Hud part of a plant with 

 its flowers. Bees work on it lively all 

 day, and seem to get a good deal of 

 hoiiey. Owing to the deep red color 

 of the flower, I do not think the honey 

 can be anything extra. Please give 

 name of this plant, and if it is a good 

 honey-producing plant. We are both- 

 ered "a great deal this yearwith honey- 

 dew, bees will not work on anything 

 else, and the honey seems unfit for 

 use, being dark and havinga very bad 

 taste. All that we can do with it will 

 be to feed to weak colonies next 

 spring. The honey crop with us, so 

 far, is rather light. White clover did 

 not yield mucli. We will have to 

 depend upon fall honey. Spanish- 

 needle looks promising. 



High Hill, Mo. E. Nebel. 



[It is milk-weed {Asdepias), rich in 

 nectar, and well-known to bee-keep- 

 ers. Sometimes the bees get the 

 pollen masses from this weed, so 

 abundantly adhering to their legs as 

 to cause niuch trouble. The honey- 

 dew honey will, we fear, be very in- 

 jurious to the bees, if we do not have 

 an abundant fall honey crop.— Ed.] 



Good Work. 



My number of colonies increased 

 from 47 to 82, during the month of 

 .lune. I had only 2 second swarms. 

 All of my new colonies filled the 

 brood-chamber with comb before they 

 went into the sections. Basswood 

 bloom lasted only 9 days, and the bees 

 filled 30 crates with honey ; but they 

 did not cap I4 of it, on accoimt of the 

 cessation of the honey flow. I ex- 

 tracted 1,100 pounds of honey, and 

 the brood-chamber is yet full. One 

 hive weighed 122 pounds before ex- 

 tracting the lioney which it contained, 

 and all of my honey is No. 1 in every 

 respect. I do not rear queens for 

 sale ; but I do rear bees, and produce 

 honey too, when there is any in the 

 flowers. Fayette Lee. 



Cokato, Minn., July 30, 1884. 



t^ The bee-keepers of Decatur 

 and surroiniding counties are cordial- 

 ly invited to meet on Saturday, 

 August 16, 1 o'clock p. m., at the res- 

 idence of R. R. Cobb, one mile east of 

 Greensburg, Ind., for the purpose of 

 organizing a bee-keepers' society. 

 Henry Carter. 



^^ The KentuckyBee-Keepers'Con- 

 veution meets in Louisville, Ky., dur- 

 ing the opening of the Exposition (day 

 not fixed). N. P. Allen, Sec. 



