602 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 19, 



ng is resorted to. No difficulty then io getting the bees to 

 work in the supers, for they'd have mnvhere else to work ! Or 

 must they have room to cluster, and that around the queen ? 

 But bees are always at work, day and night, in a good honey- 

 flow, are they not ? They get on witJi the comb-building, don't 

 they, o'nights, and have no time to lazy around or cluster ? 



5. At what rate would diminution of the colony be likely 

 to take place by dequeening ? Fifty per cent, in a month, 

 think you — or more ? 



6. There are several allusions to dequeening (just enough 

 to make one's mouth water for more decided informatiou on 

 the subject) in the American Bee Journal, but they really 

 teach us nothing. Refer, for instance, to the Bee Journal for 

 Jan. 31, 1895, page 78 (last article on page); March 7, 

 1895, page 15o (flrst column, Mr. Theilmann) ; April 25, 

 1895, page 272 (middle column, second paragraph) ; July 6, 

 1893, page 19 (left hand column). 



V. Can I unite two colonies by putting one on the other for 

 24 hours with simply a sheet of say newspaper between them ? 

 Must I first puncture it? S. A. D. 



Answers. — 1. I had a good deal of faith in doubling, but 

 did not fiud upon trial the results I anticipated. I could see 

 no added vim, and would hardly advise the doubling of fairly 

 strong colonies. Uniting weak colonies is a thing altogether 

 different. 



2. I am inclined to the opini^on that few practice doubling, 

 except with weak colonies. 



3. I don't believe you'll like the plan at all. You might 

 like the plan of an empty brood-chamber with a free queen, 

 for that would be much the same as a natural swarm, but 

 with the queen caged it would be too much like a queenless 

 colony, and you would find a disinclination to building comb 

 either in the brood-nest or sections. Whatever they should do 

 in the way of filling up combs with honey would be in the 

 brood-nest in preference to the sections, but if the queen is 

 free she will crowd at least some of the storing into the sec- 

 tions, so as to save room for her to lay. With a good laying 

 queen such a state of affairs as you picture should not exist, 

 for as soon as a young bee emerges from a cell the queen 

 ought to be ready to put an egg in it. A queen of little vigor 

 will, however, be crowded out to a good extent. I should be 

 glad if Experimenter Taylor would give us all the light he 

 can. 



4. I hardly know whether you mean that question in fun 

 or earnest. It might do still better to turn the queen loose 

 among the sections, in which case there would be more brood 

 but less pollen in the sections. 



5. The diminution might not be 50 per cent, during the 

 first month, but it might be a good deal more later, for during 

 the first three weeks there would be as many bees hatching 

 out as if the queen were free. 



6. Among the items you quote, you will see that the one 

 on page 272 contemplates the dissolution of the colony. To 

 give a direct answer to your question, I do not double strong 

 colonies, because upon trial I found no gain by it, but rather 

 a loss ; and I do not dequeen, because, after a large experi- 

 ence in that line, I found the loss overbalanced the gain. I 

 don't say your experience will be the same as mine, but my ad- 

 vice would be not to try it on so large a scale as I did until 

 you first succeed on a smaller scale. 



7. Better puncture the paper. They might be some time 

 in starting a hole, but once started they'll enlarge it fast 

 enough. 



Bees Mixing Different Honeys. 



Do bees mix different kinds of honey, or honey gathered 

 from different kinds of flowers ? 



Here is a fad bearing on the question : Two weeks ago I 

 put supers on two strong colonies. At that time the bees 

 were very busy, and gathering honey rapidly from epilobium. 

 They had also just fairly begun on golden-rod. 



To-day I removed the supers, and found one of them filled 

 with white epilobium honey, and the other with straw-colored 

 golden-rod. There was no mixture of the two kinds in either 

 super. This singular fact suggests the question asked above. 

 And upon reflection, I do not remember ever having seen 

 what was unquestionably mixed honey. D. C. L. 



Answer. — I'm sorry to say I've seen only too many cases 

 in which bees had mixed light and dark honey. A section 

 would have its upper and central part with beautiful, clear 

 honey, the outside cells filled with very dark honey, the inter- 

 mediate cells shading from light to dark, showing that the 

 two kinds of honey were put in the same cell. Different kinds 

 of pollen are also packed in the same cell. 



CONDUCTED BV 



Rev. Emerson T. Abbott, St. Joseph, AIo. 



Ripening: Honey. — "Many bee-keepers have gone 

 to considerable trouble to provide solar evaporating-tanks and 

 other means to ripen their honey, and while it may be neces- 

 sary in certain localities, and with some kinds of honey, the 

 average bee-keeper will find that if he will provide plenty of 

 combs the bees will ripen and seal the honey under the cheap- 

 est and best possible conditions, and if extracted and run into 

 vessels that can be covered tightly so that it cannot absorb 

 moisture from the atmosphere, it will retain the flavor and 

 aroma that is so highly prized in comb honey. Honey pro- 

 cured under these conditions will create a market for itself, 

 if properly put up and brought to the notice of the consumer." 

 — Prom an essay read at the convention of the Ontario Bee- 

 Keepers' Association. 



Here is the entire secret of success in the production of 

 extracted honey, put in a few words. I have long felt that 

 all artificial methods of ripening extracted honey secured 

 quantity at the sacrifice of quality. In my opinion this is a 

 mistake. If we want the use of liquid honey to become a mat- 

 ter of daily occurrence in the majority of homes in the land, 

 we must see to it that all such honey put on the market for 

 family use is of the very best quality. I have sometimes 

 thought that the mere mention of artificial methods for ripen- 

 ing honey resulted in an injury, for, while some with long ex- 

 perience, who have at their command first-class facilities for 

 doing this work, may be fairly successful, there are multitudes 

 of small bee-keepers all over the land who have a mania for 

 trying all sorts of new things, who are sure to fail, and the 

 result is that a lot of poorly-ripened honey is put upon the 

 market. 



While I am on this subject, I want to say that it is my 

 candid opinion that experimenting with " new traps " by be- 

 ginners does as much to injure the honey-business as any 

 other one thing. During the summer there is hardly a day 

 goes by but some one with a few colonies of bees asks me if 

 he does not need a " self-hiver," a " swarm-catcher," or some- 

 thing of that kind. I invariably tell him no ; that all he 

 needs is the bees, some good hive, sections for the supers, a 

 smoker, a veil for the face, and a screw-driver: that he may 

 need some other things later, but there is no use to be in a 

 hurry about it. Of course it is well for such to have one good 

 bee-book, and take one good bee-paper, but I am sure they do 

 not need two of either, as that would only confuse matters. 



There are one or two other points iu this quotation to 

 which I wish to call attention before I leave it. "So it can 

 be covered tightly and not absorb moisture from the atmos- 

 phere," is a very important point. I would add, put it in a 

 warm room where there is the least possible chance for mois- 

 ture, and no chance for bad odors to taint it. I am quite 

 sure that a large amount of honey is practically spoiled for 

 table use after it is taken from the hives. It would seem that 

 after all that has been said about honey absorbing moisture, 

 tainting from bad odors, etc., all people who have anything to 

 do with honey would have learned how to take proper care of 

 it. They have not, however, for only a few days ago a man 

 who has had a good deal of experience with honey took me 

 into a large, damp cellar to look at some fine alfalfa comb 

 honey which he had just purchased. It was lucky for him 

 that he asked me to examine it, for, if he had not, it would 

 have been left in the cellar until it was used up, and the re- 

 sult would have teen very disastrous to the owner. 



" Honey created under these conditions will create a mar- 

 ket for itself," seems like another truism, yet many do not 

 seem to be aware of this fact. I have said, time and again, 

 that what this age needs is first-class goods, and I expect to 

 go on repeating this saying in one form or another as long as 

 I write for any paper. If the reader of this article does not 

 realize how hard it is to purchase strictly first-class goods in 

 any large city market, let him go out and try it. Goods look 

 well on top, but seldom continue so all the way through. The 

 apples are either small or rotten as soon as you leave the top, 

 and the further down you go the poorer they seem to get. 

 This is true of potatoes, tomatoes, or anything which is sold 

 by the box or measure. The butter is rancid, poorly made, 

 cream too old, or something of the kind. The eggs are stale, 

 if not rotten, and sometimes one buys both eggs and chickens. 

 I asked a friend to bring me some eggs to put down for win- 

 ter, saying I would pay him more for strictly fresh eggs. The 

 first five dozen had nine eggs among them just ready to hatch. 



