1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1597 



noiinced in Mexico and the southwestern 

 parts of the United States. — Kd.] 



AN UNCAPPING-KNIFE HEATER. 



Regarding plans for heating a honey-knife 

 in hot water, I find a double lamp-chimney 

 made of tin answers 

 well and requires 

 very little oil. The 

 inside tube is 10 or 

 12 in. long, 2^ in 

 diameter at bottom 

 over the burner, 

 and 1^ at the top. 

 The outside tube is 

 3 inches in diame- 

 ter. A thin wood- 

 en or cloth ring is 

 required around the 

 top of the 3-inch 

 tube on the inside to 

 prevent dulling the 

 knife on the tin, or 

 the outside tube 

 may be made of 

 wood I inch thick, 

 and is safer to 

 handle. A small 

 blaze will keep the 

 water boiling, 

 which should be occasionally renewed. A 

 low medium-burner glass hand lamp is con- 

 venient to carry to outyards. 

 Little Britain, Ont. R. F. Whiteside. 



DANDELION HONEY. 



It gave me much pleasure to see the arti- 

 cles in favor of the dandelion in your issue 

 of June 15th. The dandelion is a very im- 

 portant honey-plant in this locality This 

 year ten hives gave me over 2U0 lbs of dan- 

 delion honey, about one half being comb. 

 For the last three years the dandelions have 

 given us surplus honey. The best hives ran 

 from 20 to 30 lbs. each. The honey is yel- 

 low, thick, and has a tine flavor. The only 

 objection is that the wax is always heavy. 

 This year I got an extractor and ran some 

 hives for extracted honey, as we prefer the 

 dandelion honey extracted on account of the 

 heavy comb. Bees are doing finely in this 

 locality this year. R. T. Hawley. 



Milltown, Wash. 



CLEANING SECTIONS; A REPORT FROM AN 

 1800-COLONY PRODUCER. 



Mr Hoot: — As I am not a writer, as are 

 Mr. Gill, Dr. Miller, and others, I will in- 

 troduce myself. I am a young man 54 years 

 of age; have taken Gleanings since it first 

 started as a quarterly, without missing a 

 number. I have about 1800 stands of bees 

 in three States (California, Utah, and Colo- 

 rado), all run for comb honey. The early 

 close of the honey season in California left 

 me free to ramble. I have been visiting Mr. 

 M. A. Gill, of Longmont, who is running 

 IGOO stands for comb honey. 



Some time ago I read of a certain doctor 



in California who was talking seriously of 

 changing from the section-holder super to 

 the T super on account of Miss Wilson's rec- 

 ord of cleaning honey from the T super. 

 While I was at Mr. Gill's their daughter. 

 Mrs. Marian Fuller, of Beloit, Wis., cleaned 

 and cased VZb cases from 7 to 5 o'clock with 

 half an hour for noon. She had the double- 

 tier case, 24 sections, 1^X4^. She had to 

 wipe the glass, place 8 strips of wood in po- 

 sition, and put paper in, and she had to car- 

 ry a good deal of it into the next room; also 

 had to wait for cases part of the time. I 

 think she could clean and case 150 in 10 

 hours with the single-tier case, and no waits 

 to make and no sticks to space. 

 Longmont, Col. F. J. Farr. 



honey from ALFALFA; SOUR HONEY IN A 



bee-tree. 



I have noticed the subject of alfalfa pro- 

 ducing honey in different localities. I watch- 

 ed this somewhat last summer; and when it 

 was extremely dry there were no bees on the 

 alfalfa; and as soon as we got a shower the 

 bees went to work (or very soon after) on 

 the same field. This was on bottom land, 

 when there were dews at night. 



What is the cause of soured honey in the 

 hive? I cut a tree last summer with about 

 100 lbs of honey, all soured. Would this be 

 good to feed back? I mixed it about ^ syrup, 

 \ honey, \ water. I could see no bad effects. 



Portis, Kas W. J.. Garrett. 



BLEACHING COMB HONEY; WILL THE USE OF 



SULPHUR BE A VIOLATION OF THE 



PURE-FOOD LAW? 



In Orange Judcl Farmer of Aug. 31 is an 

 article on sulphuring fruit. What effect will 

 that law have on sulphuring comb honey for 

 the purpose of bleaching and killing the wax- 

 molh? It seems to me that the effect of the 

 law would be the same on both. Let's have 

 your opinion. J. A. Ruff. 



Fort McKavett, Texas. 



[We are not prepared to give you any in- 

 formation on whether the sulphuring of hon- 

 ey-combs to bleach them would be a violation 

 of the pure-food laws or not. We hardly think 

 it would, as the amount of sulphur that would 

 be used to bleach a comb surface would nec- 

 essarily be very much less than that which 

 is used to bleach dried fruits. A delicate 

 white comb will not stand very much sulphur 

 without getting the surface covered with a 

 yellow deposit. We have seen the process 

 of bleaching fruit in California, and it is our 

 opinion that the amount of sulphur used is 

 excessive as compared with what would be 

 used to bleach comb honey. — Ed.] 



SUCCESS WITH THE DANZENBAKER HIVE. 



I had 23 colonies this spring, and now 

 have 27, having had but four swarms. 

 Swarming was held in check mainly by the 

 tiering-up plan. One-third of the colonies 



