1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



343 



marked queens and good workers, they are usually sold as 

 select tested, and generally for breeders. 



It takes time, and time is money, to do all of this, so that 

 if buyers of queens want these kinds of queens they must ex- 

 pect to pay a higher price for them. 



As to the profit of a good queen over a poor one, there is 

 no comparison, as a poor queen may be kept for one or two 

 seasons and her bees produce no surplus at all, where a good 

 queen would by her bees produce a surplus; and even if as 

 much as 25 pounds of honey is obtained with a good queen 

 over a poor one, this would more than make up the difference 

 in the first cost of the two queens. 



I do not wish to make an excuse at all for a queen-breeder 

 that will sell poor queens when he knows them to be such, but 

 as long as there is a demand for queens at a low price they 

 will be furnished, but the buyer must take his chances of get- 

 ting good queens from these, as he has to test them, and these 

 low-priced queens may produce some of the very best, pro- 

 vided, of course, good stock is used to start from ; and even if 

 some prove to be poor, at the price, others may be obtained, 

 and in the long run may not cost any more than good queens. 



Mexico, Mo. 



Houey-Dew — Wiuteritig in Utah. 



Br E. S. LOVESY. 



Much has been written and many questions have been 

 asked of late in regard to this so-called honey-dew. I fail to 

 see any reason, or cause, why it ever was, or should be called 

 by the name " honey-dew." The idea that our friends, the 

 Stanleys, advance (page 130) that it falls as a dew from 

 the heavens cannot be supported or sustained. In regard to 

 the question that has been many times asked, as to what 

 honey-dew honey is made of, I have waited long for an an- 

 swer from some of our prominent bee-keepers. I presume the 

 cause that produces it is pretty much the same in all localities ; 

 if so, it should be called "bug-juice." This is the name given 

 to it here by some of our horticulturists. It is produced here 

 by very small insects, generally known as the aphis family. 

 The grade can be defined to some extent by the particular 

 kind of aphis that secrete it. There are several species of 

 green and light colored aphis that produce a compound which 

 when mixed with a better grade of honey can be passed as 

 honey. There are the brown, black and other aphis whose 

 secretions can hardly be called honey. The very best grade 

 of it is not first-class honey. I have not noticed the bees 

 working on it more than once in several years, and as the 

 bees always gather the best, it is proof that they find some- 

 thing better than the so-called honey-dew. 



The insect sucks the sap from the leaf, and as it passes 

 over the leaf a portion of this honey-dew is left sticking on 

 the leaf. If we place them under a microscope we find that 

 their bodies are largely composed of this honey-dew. 



It has been asserted that ants herd these insects on the 

 trees, and thus obtain a supply of food for themselves, but I 

 do not vouch for this statement. 



WINTERING BEES IN UTAH. 



Winter has come and gone, and the bees here, as a rule, 

 have pulled through in good condition. While we have had 

 a moderately mild winter in this Rocky Mountain region, the 

 mercury went down to zero about the beginning of the new 

 year. The success that I have had the past winter convinces 

 me more than ever that I do not want any more sealed covers. 

 Our bees invariably die in winter from one of two causes — 

 they either smother or starve. In zero weather they will 

 starve to death with the hive nearly full of honey, unless the 

 honey is located immediately above the cluster ; hence they 

 should be protected so as to absorb all moisture, and keep 

 them warm and dry. Under these conditions, if they are 

 strong, with plenty of honey near and over them, they will 

 come through the winter all right. 



Salt Lake City, Utah, April 2.3. 



"Sap-Houey" Instead of Honey-Dew. 



BY JOHN HANDEL. 



Now, after Stanley & Son have broken the ice in defense 

 of honey-dew honey (see page 130), its friends will creep out 

 from under cover by the score, ready to sacrifice time, paper, 

 etc., in defending that much-abused colored substitute. So I 

 won't be surprised if this gets crowded out of the American 

 Bee Journal. But our colored friend has been kicked so hard, 

 and long, that we got into the habit of " going around to the 



back door" when we offered it to the public — and, therefore, 

 feel reluctant about coming out. Some may wait for an invi- 

 tation from the editor before they "talk back." Those hav- 

 ing no " ax to grind," need some encouragement, in order to 

 make them come out boldly and advocate principles and ideas 

 which are antagonistic to those expressed by the paid writers. 



The science of our pursuit is suffering because so few are 

 allowed to do the thinking, or are encouraged to express their 

 thoughts. Pew care to criticise the fine-spun theories of the 

 paid writers, and unless our bee-papers are not only willing, 

 but offer some reward, to those who are able to " talk back," 

 the truth will be smothered by the selfish interests of the few. 



If those who have done so much towards prejudicing the 

 people against the use of this double-refined sap-honey (what 

 is the matter with that name?) had taken that time in inves- 

 tigating the so-called "stuff," they might have found a great 

 deal of good, and really nothing so very nasty in it. I see no 

 reason why people should be prejudiced against eating this 

 natural product, unless it is detrimental to their health. The 

 fact that it is a secretion, should not deter milk-using people 

 from adding this honey to their diet ; and if it is all in the 

 name, of the first manipulators of this product, then let us 

 change their name, and allow the people to eat it, if they 

 like It. 



I have sold hundreds of pounds of this sap-honey in my 

 home market, and have never heard any complaint of what I 

 sold. (But a few tell me what the other fellow sold them was 

 " nasty.") I always sell it 3 or 4 cents loss per pound than 

 the best white honey, and find plenty of people who buy it, 

 that don't buy white honey. They buy it because they like it, 

 and probably like it because it is cheap. I tell them" how to 

 take care of it, for so many people have an idea that honey 

 should be kept cool, and therefore put it down cellar or in the 

 buttery, where it soon absorbs moisture, and if pollen or other 

 foreign matter is present, fermentation sets in. This is the 

 reason so much sap-honey is not fit to eat ; and I think the 

 only reason why it is not fit for winter food for the bees is be- 

 cause, whether on the summer stand or in the cellar, sufficient 

 moisture forms and is absorbed even through the cappings to 

 spoil and sour it. 



Sap-honey, when first gathered, has a disagreeable smell, 

 especially that from oak leaves, but if kept in a well-venti- 

 lated and dry room for a few months, this odor will pass off. 

 The smell, probably, has caused more people to despise sap- 

 honey than either its looks or taste. Savanna, HI. 



Large vs. Small Hives — An Experience. 



BY G. W. M'GUIKE. 



I have read the discussions regarding large and small 

 hives with no little interest. Having been a close student of 

 bees and their habits for seven years, and having made the 

 production of honey a success, I will endeavor to give a bit of 

 my experience along this line. 



I have used brood-chambers from 600 up to 2,100 square 

 inches, and if the reader were here now (March 29) to witness 

 the vim and bustle of those massive hives compared with the 

 small ones, you would not hestitate a moment in saying the 

 large one was worth three of the small. 



One year a neighbor of mine ordered a queen from an 

 Ohio breeder, and introduced her to a colony with 1,136 

 square inches of comb surface. After a trial of two seasons, 

 this colony gathered no surplus. As they were fine Ital- 

 ians, I decided to buy them. Accordingly they were bought 

 for $5. I saw at once they had been cramped for room. I 

 gave them a brood-chamber of 2,172 square inches of comb 

 surface, and fed them until they had a big surplus. 



This colony had usually swarmed early, but now the 

 queen remains quiet, filling this massive chamber with brood 

 and honey. At the opening of basswood it swarmed. I hived 

 the swarm in a 10-frame Simplicity. The flow lasted just 16 

 days, and in this time they had filled this hive and a surplus 

 of 63 one-pound sections. 



The next spring I bought colonies in four small hives, 

 from a man who never made them pay. I was too busy to 

 transfer them to larger quarters. Now these four did little 

 but swarm, while the massive colony gave 110 pounds of sur- 

 plus honey. I have another colony with 1,800 square inches, 

 which always pulls through booming. 



Who has said bees refuse to enter sections from these 

 capacious brood-chambers ? In my observation it is just the 

 opposite. I have never been able to get bees into the sections 

 from my small hives by 5 or 10 days as soon as the large ones. 



When you hive a swarm in one of the large hives, don't 



