524 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



now I believe I would be satisfied 

 with enough honey with which to 

 winter my bee9,and take my share next 

 time. I have 2.0(10 lbs. of old honey 

 which I can feed, if necessary. Early 

 in the spring I reported that bees 

 were wintering finely. The colonies 

 in two cellars wintered well, while 

 those in tlie otl)er two, with little or 

 no ventilation, lost about 90 per cent., 

 thus making my spring and winter 

 losses 129 colonies. Taking the whole 

 season tlirough (with me), it has been 

 the most discouraging one I ever saw; 

 nevertheless my boat is cut loose from 

 shore, and I intend, in the near future, 

 to land it well ladened with both bees 

 and honey. Wm. Lossing. 



Hokah, Mmn., Aug. 2, 1884. 



Large Crop of Basswood Honey. 



I notice in the last issue of the Bee 

 Journal, tliat basswood has been a 

 faihire in many localities; but here it 

 has yielded a large crop of excellent 

 honey. I am running two apiaries 

 for comb honey, and another one of 

 4-5 colonies entirely for extracted 

 honey ; and they have already yielded 

 over 100 pounds of white honey per 

 colony. Frank McNay. 



Mauston, Wis., Aug. 1, 1884. 



More Honey than for three years. 



With us the white clover and bass- 

 wood honey season is over. I have 

 not yet taken the honey from the 

 hives, but think that I will have more 

 this year than all of the honey of the 

 last three years put together. Recent 

 heavy showers gives the buckwheat 

 season a promising outlook at pres- 

 ent. Natural swarming was very 

 light — on an average only about one 

 swarm in 10 colonies. "H. S. See. 



Geneva, Pa., July 31, 1884. 



A Long Hive. 



On page 164, W. II. S. Grout, of 

 Kennedy, X. Y., says he has bad 13 

 years experience producing extracted 

 honey, and says he uses a 40-inch hive^ 

 etc. I wish he would detail his 

 method of managing such a long hive, 

 and state why he prefers it to' the 2- 

 story plan. Turner Buswell. 



Solon, Maine. 



Wintering Bees— A Question. 



It is a fact tliat an exceedingly 

 strong colony of bees will, in severely 

 cold weather,contract themselves into 

 a cluster of 7 inches or less in each 

 diameter. Such being the case, and I 

 know it to be so by actual tests, can 

 any one give me, or the fraternity at 

 large, a logical and scientific reason 

 why such a colony should winter with 

 greater safety on a set of frames from 

 12 to 15 inches deep, than on a set 

 which are only 93>^ inches deep V 

 Much discussion has been alreadv 

 made as to the relative safety of deep 

 and sliallow frames for wintering, but 

 in none of the arguments made, liave 

 I seen anything touching on this 

 point. It strikes me though, that the 

 point is a vital one, and one that 

 should be cleared up in a scientific 

 manner. In answer to the above, I 



do not care for theories, but I do de- 

 sire an answer based on the true re- 

 lations of heat and cold, and to the 

 keeping up of an equable temperature 

 artificially much higher than that 

 with which we are surrounded. 

 Foxboro, Mass. J. E. Pond, Jr. 



Authorship of the Pollen Theory. 



Mr. A. A. Fradenburg, who lives a 

 few miles from me, on the Tuscarawas 

 river, has been very unfortunate in 

 wintering, and theorized extensively 

 as to the cause. I was much surprised 

 to note his claim ot priority of author- 

 ship of the pollen theory in a recent 

 number of the Bee Journal. The 

 records will show, I think, that to 

 Mr. J. M. Shuck belongs the honor of 

 first conceiving tliat pbllen is a factor 

 in the causation of hee-diarrho?a. 

 (See Bee Journal, Vol. XVII, page 

 165.) His experiments go back to 

 1875. But to Mr. .James Ileddon be- 

 longs the honor of elucidating the 

 pollen theory, the full history of 

 which may be read in the latter num- 

 bers of tliat very valuable and first 

 edition of the Weekly Bee Journal 

 forlSSl. Mr. Ileddon also made the 

 first application of the theory. This 

 is cheerfully conceded; and I feel 

 certain that growing out of an amica- 

 ble discussion of his theory, we shall, 

 undoubtedly, come to the facts, ere 

 long, as to the causes of bee-diarrhcea, 

 and a complete solution of the prob- 

 lem of W'intering bees. 



G. L. Tinker, M. D. 



New Philadelphia, Ohio. 



tEItat and gloiu. 



ANSWERS BT 



James Heddon, Dowagiac, Mich. 



Rules for this Department. 



1. Give your name and post-offlee adilress. 



2. Be brief, and to the point. 



3. Send no simple (luestions, such as are 

 answered in the hee-books. 



4. Ask only such questions as are of 

 g-eneral interest. 



.5. This department is not intended for 

 advertising any one's wares — therefore 

 questions concerning the manufacture of 

 goods for sale :\re not appropriate. 

 6. Direct all questions to the editor — 

 THOS. G. NETVM.llV, 

 925 West Madison St., CHICAGO, ILL. 



__^y 



Removing Surplus Honey. 



Will Mr. Ileddon please answer the 

 following question : 



When do you remove the surplus 

 honey from the cases ? As soon as it 

 is capped, or do you leave all the 

 cases on until the end of the season ? 



Myersville, Md. W. R. Young. 



Answer. — Always remove a case 

 as soon as it is finished. If in that 

 part of the season when the work is 

 going on slowly, we often remove a 

 case when some of the sections are 

 still unfinished, and from 6 or 8 cases 

 make up one of all unfinished combs 

 and return it at once to the bees to be 

 finished. 



Weight of Extracted Honey. 



On page 470, ilr. B. F. Carroll says, 

 " The honey taken is very fine, weigh- 

 ing 121^ pounds per gallon V Which 

 leads me to ask : 



1. What is the weight, per gallon, 

 of extracted honey V 



2. Suppose I have a lot of thin ex- 

 tracted honey, to what weight, per 

 gallon, should it be evaporated before 

 it will be safe or fit to run into con- 

 tainers for sale V 



3. How light weight, per gallon, 

 will keep safely in sealed pails or 

 fruit jars ? 



4. How heavy, per gallon, ought it 

 to be when properly cured for market? 



5. What do dealers in honey con- 

 sider the proper weight, per gallon, of 

 extracted honey V 



6. Can you not give, in some article, 

 the best" method of curing unripe 

 extracted honey on large and small 

 scales, so as to suit the wants of all 

 classes ? Turner Buswell. 



Solon, Maine. 



Answers. — 1. A very good article 

 of extracted honey, that is, very well 

 ripened, will weigh 12 pounds per 

 gallon. Mr. Carroll's honey, which 

 weighed 12J| pounds, was, no doubt, 

 very thick. 



2. Not much short of 12 pounds per 

 gallon. 



3. That depends upon what is meant 

 by " safely." Honey of any consis- 

 tency rarely keeps its flavor as nicely 

 in any other place as in the comb. 

 Even at 12 pounds per gallon, honey 

 will usually go far enough toward 

 fermentation to take on a twang not 

 often found with comb honey. If 

 you wish your honey to remain of the 

 smooth, oily Havorit contained when 

 extracted from sealed combs, it should 

 not fall short of 12 pounds per gallon, 

 and \'1% is preferable. 



4. I consider 12 pounds per gallon 

 marketable honey for sauce purposes. 



o. Dealers in honey, as a class, do 

 not know as much about weights per 

 gallon as producers do. Many of them 

 buy honey for mechanical and cooking 

 purposes. 



6. In few words I will say that I 

 consider leaving the honey in the 

 combs until it is ripened, as the best 

 way to get it in that condition, for 

 those who produce it on a small scale. 

 For those who produce it on a large 

 scale, I think the laws of nature af- 

 ford a cheaper method ; but, as yet, I 

 know of none sufticiently formulated 

 that it is in use by bee-keepers in gen- 

 eral. Our California bee-keepers are 

 best posted regarding this matter. 



Convention Notices. 



i^° The Northwestern Illinois and 

 Southwestern AVisconsin Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association will hold its next 

 meeting on the third Tuesday in Au- 

 gust, at Leroy Ilighbarger's, near 

 Adaline, Ogle County, 111. 



J. "Stewart, Sec. 



^" The Kentucky Bee-Keepers'Con- 

 vention meets in Louisville, Ky., dur- 

 ing the opening of the Exposition (day 

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



