320 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUliE. 



June 



jiml4 4 %vam, 



From Different Fields. 



TEXAS, ETC. 



ijpjI^UK winter has been unusually cold. Our 20 

 WM colonies stood out all winter with no more 

 protection than in the summer; lost one 

 weak colony. The first pollen brought in which we 

 noticed was Jan. 27. We have 7 new swarms to date; 

 first swarm came out Mar. 29th. We have CO single 

 Simplicity hives painted red, green, and yellow. We 

 ordered 50 from P. L. Viallon, of Louisiana, being 

 nearer home, and less freight. Our bees are making 

 honey now rapidly. B'lth orders for goods from you 

 came promptly, and all light. Thanks for metal- 

 cornered frame. It is good, and we \Till order after 

 a while. Carnes & Falkner. 



Gonzales, Tex., Apr. 18, 1883. 



IS GRANULATED HONEY ALWAYS PURE? 



Are not Geo. Grimm, yourself, and, in fact, we 

 bee-men in general, a little fast in stating to the pub- 

 lic, as on page 202, that granulated, or "candied" 

 honey is certainly pure? It is my humble opinion 

 that a large per cent of the adulterated honey of 

 the market to-day is granulated hard. The way I 

 came to know so much about adulterating honey is 

 this: Three years ago this spring my bees and pock- 

 et were very light in stores, so I sent to Davenport 

 for 50 lbs. of grape sugar; cooked it up with ex- 

 tracted honey, I think about equal parts of each. 

 In about two or three days it was as nice looking 

 candy as I ever saw to feed. I will say here, that I 

 have never had any g'-ape sugar since, and never 

 want anj', as I don't think it pays, even to feed ip. 

 spring. But all that candy wanted to make it deli- 

 cious (?) honey was a little more water. Honey has 

 been shipped to our market, and sold at an insig- 

 nificant figure, that looked and tasted (to me) very 

 suspicious. I had our chemical professor of Cornell 

 College inquire what would be the cost of a chemi- 

 cal analysis of a sample of honey. The reply was, 

 " $25.00." As I understand that pure honey contains 

 a per cent of grape sugar, and some grades more 

 than others, I presume that adulteration of this 

 kind would be very hard to prove. What we want 

 is either a simple and reliable test, or else a responsible 

 chemist who will analyze samples at a reasonable 

 price. Can not Prof. Cook, or some one, give us 

 more light? 



" BEE-TR.\PS." 



To those who have trouble in getting bees out of a 

 box, hive, or room, without letting others in. Make 

 a "funnel" of wire cloth. Have the small end just 

 about large enough for a bee to pass, and tack the 

 large end over the exit-hole, and I don't believe 

 there is a bee in the United States that will learn to 

 get in. I have one near the top of each window in 

 my honey-room. I often carry in combs with bees 

 on them, which pass out of the windows without 

 further attention on my part. Oliver Foster. 



Mt. Vernon, Linn Co., Iowa. 



this fall, but you will not. With those 15 colonies I 

 am going to make 30, and no more, for which I have 

 made 30 L. hives; with those 30 I am going to take 

 off 2C0 lbs. each. Do you hear me? This is the best 

 honey country in Illinois. White clover is spread 

 over the face of the earth here like the mantles 

 of snow in the winter; lots of fine timber for 

 honey. Well, you will hear from our " shanty " 

 this fall. We are going to gtt rich in a year or two* 

 then we will go to Europe and find out how the bees 

 carry the Qgg from the worker-cell to the new-made 

 queen-cell, and how many bees are employed in the 

 construction of the new cell. Gas is out. 

 Alto, 111., April 20, 1883. A. M. Clark. 



electric light and queen-rearing. 



It seems that the problem of controlling the queens 

 mated by the drones becomes solved by the aid of 

 electric light. A German newspaper says: "Acer- 

 tain Mr. Gravenhorst, of Brunswick, a prominent 

 bee-keeper, brought his colonies with virgin queens 

 into large, sufliciently warm rooms, which were 

 lighted with electric light. The bees flew around 

 with perfect ease; they did not fly against windows 

 or walls, and so get killed, as no light from outside 

 shone into the room. He raised, in that waj', purely 

 mated queens on a Email scale." 



Rev. Samuel Kuesthardt. 



Fair Haven, Mich., March 8, 1883. 



I rather think it is a newspaper " yarn," 

 friend K.; but 1 may be mistaken. Friend 

 Gravenhorst is the best of authority, if there 

 is no mistake about it. 



bright anticipation. 

 I am starting in the bee enterprise this year for 

 the first time, with 15 colonies, all hybrids, and very 

 lively, with both ends too. They began gathering 

 pollen the 12th and a little honey on the 18th. Per- 

 haps you think you will have me in Blasted Hopes 



CALIFORNIA, AND HONTV IN CALIFORNIA. 



I spent the winter in Calitornia, but not in a sec- 

 tion where many bees are kept, for I was told that 

 bees near the coast, or around the bay of San Fran- 

 cisco, do not thrive well. I saw but one lot of 30 

 hives; and as I did not see the owner, I got no in- 

 formation about them. My stopping-place was the 

 city of Oakland, and bees could be seen working on 

 the flowering shrubs until the first of January; aft- 

 er that it was chilly till March 1st. 



I visited the establishment of Messrs. Stearns & 

 Smith, honey dealers, of San Francisco. They are 

 gentlemen, and gave me all the information asked 

 for. 1 saw several grades of honey, both comb and 

 extracted. The sage honey looks very nearly like 

 our white clover, except it has a reddish cast; but 

 the flavor is not, to my taste, equal to the clover. 

 The dark, or fall honey, is very dark, and not very 

 good. 



CALIFORNIA SECTIONS. 



The sections used here, or all that I saw, were of 

 one size, about 5 inches square, IJ4 inches wide, all 

 nailed: lumber not even planed. The bottom- 

 piece of each section was half-inch square, and nailed 

 in diamond shape, even with the bottom of end- 

 pieces, and, in my humble judgment, are very much 

 behind the times. 



Stearns & Smith told me the honey crop for several 

 years had been a small one. Overstocking, he 

 thought, was the principal cause, in connection with 

 sheep-grazing, as they will destroy much of the 

 sage. 



Honey at the retail shops sold for 20c. for a well- 

 filled section. The people here will not buy candied 

 honey, and they think it a manufactured article. 

 Stearns & Smith had a large lot of it, and would be 

 glad to sell for 5 c. The canning factories purchase 

 it, melt and can it, and ship it to the Old World. 



