THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



699 



For the American lice Jtiurnal. 



Does Honey Agree with Everybody ? 



^\^yl. V. CLAUKK. 



The above question rather than " Is 

 Honey Poisonous V" is the one Mr. A. 

 Osbom should have placed at the 

 head of his article on page til:> of the 

 Bee Jouknal. This is the question 

 he really discusses, and the only one 

 on which there is room for discussion, 

 it having been settled long ago by the 

 best authorities that honey isamost 

 wholesome article of food for the 

 generality of people. But it is an old 

 and true proverb that " what is one 

 man's meat, is another man's poison." 



Mr. Osborn, in the article now re; 

 ferred to, while virtually admitting 

 the principle embodied in" the proverb 

 just quoted, asserts that pure honey 

 will not disagree with any human 

 stomach. He claims that wlienever a 

 person tinds that eating honey in- 

 duces " cramping or colicky pains," 

 the reason is tliat the bees have been 

 disturbed a great deal, and have 

 dropped poison from their stings on 

 the comb, which has dried there, and 

 inoculated the honey with an injurious 

 quality. Mr. Osborn advises all thus 

 affected to eat pure extracted honey. 



He appears to be ignorant of the 

 fact that there are those who have 

 tried again and again only to find 

 that the purest of honey does not 

 agree with them. I am "one of that 

 number, and regretfully own that I 

 am obliged to forego the luxury of 

 eating this luscious sweet, precisely 

 as dyspeptics are compelled to deny 

 themselves the use of many articles 

 of food supposed to be wholesome tor 

 the million. I am not a dyspeptic, 

 my digestion is good, and there are 

 few articles of food fit for human use 

 that disagree with me, but honey, un- 

 fortunately, is one of them. 



Mr. Osborn virtually takes the 

 ground that poison agrees with most 

 people ; for, while well aware that tlie 

 majority can eat comb honey with 

 impunity, he ascribes the inability of 

 some to use it without painful results, 

 to a peculiarity of their stomachs. 

 No doubt some human stomachs are 

 tougher, and can withstand poison 

 better than others, but Mr. Osborn's 

 explanation, while applicable to an 

 article of food, is hardly admissible 

 to an article, more or less poisonous, 

 as he asserts comb honey to be. 



But I take issue with ^Mr. O. in re- 

 gard to his assertion that bees bedaub 

 comb honey with more or less of 

 poison dribbling from their sting 

 ends. If this is so, alas for the pro- 

 ducers of comb honey ! Mr. O. af- 

 firms that " all who eat comb honey, 

 eat more or less of bee-poison." I do 

 not believe this. I venture boldly to 

 deny it, and throw down the gauntlet 

 to Mr. Osborn, on behalf alike of pro- 

 ducers and consumers of comb honey. 

 Let us have the proof of this damag- 

 ing assertion, if there be any. With- 

 out the most convincing proof, a bee- 

 keeper should certainlv abstain from 

 asserting that all comb honey is be- 

 smeared with poison, and calculated 

 to injure all except those whose 

 stomachs are of the strongest. 



Bees do not stiuirt their virus like 

 skunks, but first provide for its re- 

 ception in a living body by punctur- 

 ing a cell or receptacle for it. If the 

 poison drop were not conveyed by a 

 hollow tube at the rear of the sting 

 with unfailing accuracy, bees would 

 be less formidable antagonists than 

 they are. .V little poison spray- on the 

 surface of the person would be a very 

 trivial affair. I am confident that Mr. 

 O. is both wrong as to what he re- 

 ports as a fact, and the inference he 

 draws from it, and if so, he ought to 

 be set right, in order that the interests 

 of bee-keeping may not suffer from 

 his mistakes. 



Speedside, Ont. 



Tor tlie American Bee JoumaL 



The Results of the Present Year. 



.TAMES HEDDON.Xi 



To illustrate the extreme sensitive- 

 ness of flowers, and how they will 

 first withhold tlieir nectar upon the 

 slightest neglect by the weather, I 

 desire to call attention to the fact 

 that we liave correct reports of aver- 

 age yields within 25 to 40 miles from 

 where they have almost total failures 

 under equally good management. 

 How uncertain is our business ! I 

 have not received over one-fourth of 

 an average yield. I think that bass- 

 wood, our greatest of all yielders of 

 nectar, gave us, for the first time 

 since I have been in the business, not 

 an ounce of surplus. 



I have to report the smallest honey 

 crop and increase in my experience, 

 except my first year, wlien much of 

 the failure was the result of ray mis- 

 takes in management. In round 

 numbers I began with 400 colonies (in 

 two apiaries), and closed the season 

 with only 400, and about 6,000 pounds 

 of comb and 1,000 pounds of extracted 

 honey. Extreme cold and drought 

 were the cause. With the usual heat 

 and moisture, our fall crop alone 

 (which was a total failure) would have 

 reached beyond the above figures. 



As usual we have been making 

 many experiments on quite an ex- 

 tended scale, and as these experi- 

 ments were placed entirely in the 

 hands of my foreman and class of 

 student-apprentices, I herewith quote 

 their decisions which are unanimous : 



Separators.— We recommend the 

 use of separators to those who can- 

 not get nice, straight, cratable combs 

 without them. 



Comb Foundation.— After several 

 careful trials we prefer the Given 

 foundation for use both in the brood- 

 chamber and surplus boxes. 



Hives.- We prefer a light, small, 

 readily-movable hive. 



Surplusage.— Have it always ex- 

 clusively on top, and manipulated 

 upon the tiering-up plan. 



Honey-Boards. — After careful ex- 

 perimenting, we are positive that the 

 skeleton-sink honey-board used with 

 slats and double spaces, has no ten- 

 dency to retard the immediate en- 

 trance of the bees to the sections as 

 soon as the honey begins to flow, and 



we deem it an indispensable conven- 

 ience and comfort. 

 Queen-Excluding Honey-Board. 

 —We see no need of them when run- 

 ning for comb honey, but for extracted 

 honey we are not yet ready to decide. 



One-Half Pound Sectr)NS.— We 

 get just as many pounds of honey 

 stored in that size as in any other re- 

 ceptacle, in the same length of time. 



Old vs. New Foundation.— We 

 prefer the new. 



Race of Bees. — Germans for comb 

 honey, and Italians for extracted 

 honey. For general purposes, for 

 most localities, we favor the cross be- 

 tween the brown-German and leather- 

 colored Italian, and we find them 

 good-natured. (I will here say that 

 these two races and their crosses are 

 all we have used, and nearly all the 

 German colonies had a little Italian 

 blood in them.) 



SwAiiMiNG.— We prefer natural 

 swarming to increase by division, and 

 can get as much or more surplus 

 honey with as without any increase. 



Reversible Frames.— We favor 

 their use. 



Wired Frames.— We prefer them 

 whether used with full sheets of 

 foundation or the merest comb- 

 guides. 



Depth of Hive. — While we do not 

 advise any change from the standard 

 Langstroth frame, if such a change 

 were made, we would favor a shal- 

 lower frame. 



The above is the unanimous de- 

 cision of my class of 1884— who were 

 selected from many times the num- 

 ber of applicants. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



Indiana Farmer. 



Bees in the Fall and Winter. 



F. L. DOUGHERTY. 



The drouth of the present fall has 

 been severe and wide-spread, and will 

 leave many colonies of bees in bad 

 condition, and unless they are given 

 assistance, the disasters of the com- 

 ing winter will be equally as far- 

 reaching in their fatality. Many col- 

 onies may be saved with very little 

 feeding. Others may pass the winter 

 safely by putting two or three to- 

 gether, giving all the stores to one. 



As to what is best to feed, we be- 

 lieve syrup made from good coffee 

 sugar is cheapest and best— best be- 

 cause it contains less impurities, 

 cheapest because it requires less in 

 amount and weight per colony. And 

 though nearly all of our colonies have 

 stores enough to carry them through, 

 we shall equalize the stores and feed 

 each colony one quart of syrup. 



The combs contain much of what 

 appears to be unripe honey from 

 pomace, spoiled fruit or plant-lice, 

 and past experience teaches us this 

 extra food is cheapest and best. 

 Feeding should be done inside the 

 hives. We not unfreqtiently -simply 

 drop the rear end of our hives the 

 lowest and pour the feed directly in 

 the hive. Before frost breaks the 

 propolis the hives are generally suffi- 

 ciently light to hold the syrup. 



Indianapolis, Ind. 



