THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



297 



There is still another method, viz : 

 that given by Dr. Miller in his book : 

 Pile up the cases of sections out-of- 

 doors, or in some place accessible to 

 the bees, then adjust the cover in 

 such a manner that only one or two 

 bees can pass in or out at once, and 

 the combs will be cleaned up with no 

 further trouble. 



THE CAPPINGS OVER HONEY. 



It seems to me that Mr. Dadant, on 

 page 2(i7, offers to yield the palm upon 

 peculiar grounds ; viz., if lean suc- 

 ceed in evaporating honey to one-half 

 its former bulk, he will admit that 

 the cappiugs over honey are not im- 

 pervious. I fail to see how this v.'ould 

 be satisfactory proof . I presume that 

 the ground. that Mr. Dadant desires 

 to take is this : If honey cannot be 

 evaporated one-half, then the "dis- 

 tinguished apiarists " were mistaken. 

 It is quite probable that they did not 

 take the trouble to measure the 

 amount of evaporation ; they probably 

 saw that the honey occupied consid- 

 erably less space, and used the ex- 

 pression " one-half " without intend- 

 ing to be exact. Such expressions are 

 often used, colloquially, in this man- 

 ner. I believe, though, that Mr. Pop- 

 pleton did not say " one-half " — he 

 simply said : " The honey in the dry 

 atmosphere will become thicker and 

 occupy less space." 



So far as the question under dis- 

 cussion is concerned, it is immaterial 

 whether the honey evaporated to one- 

 half or only nine-tenths of its former 

 bulk. 



Eogersville,c5 Mich. 



For tbe Amencan Bee JoumaL 



How to Market Hoiiey, 



W. A. PRTAL. 



The following article I wrote for 

 the San Francisco Chronicle last Aug- 

 ust, and thinking that it might be of 

 interest to the readers of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, as the subject of 

 marketing our honey crop is now 

 being discussed, I send it as my con- 

 tribution on this interesting and im- 

 portant matter. The article is sub- 

 stantially as follows : 



"Every year, no matter whether 

 the season has been favorable for a 

 heavy production of honey or not, the 

 same complaint is heard from the 

 bee-keepers— that the prices netted 

 for their product are not sufficient to 

 more than pay expenses. For years 

 the price has been steadily going 

 downward, especially for the ex- 

 tracted article, until it seems now to 

 have reached a point beyond which it 

 is impossible to sink. One desperate 

 apiarist in southern California, who 

 has been netting 2J^ cents or less per 



Eound for tine white-sage extracted 

 oney, says that he will ship no more, 

 but has commenced feeding the honey 

 to his hogs, conhdent that they will 

 fatten readily upon it, and that he 

 can convert them into a choice article 

 of honey-fed bacon. This seems to 

 be the first instance on record where 

 it has been found more profitable to 



dispose of so delicious an article in 

 such a manner. The same man is 

 also experimenting by mixing ex- 

 tracted lioney in the feed of his cows, 

 and thinks tliat good results are 

 bound to accrue from such a source. 



" It is a great pity that bee-keepers 

 should not receive a fairly remunera- 

 tive price for their honey, and the 

 whole trouble lies in the fact that 

 people in large cities, like San Fran- 

 cisco, are not educated to its use, and 

 do not have it brought to their atten- 

 tion in such a manner as to lead 

 them to make it a regular portion of 

 their daily diet. It is not necessary 

 here to go into a dissertation upon 

 the subject of the healthfulness of 

 honey as a regular concomitant of the 

 table. From time immemorial this 

 fact has been recognized by writers 

 and physicians. 



" Honey enters largely into the 

 preparation of many excellent reme- 

 dies, particularly those which are 

 adapted to the cure of throat and 

 lung troubles, and many who have 

 cured such affections in their own 

 persons, can testify to the marvelous 

 healing-powers of honey when freely 

 consumed. What is needed is to 

 have the honey— both extracted and 

 comb— brought directly to the atten- 

 tion of house-keepers, especially of 

 the middle and poorer classes, in such 

 shape and at such a price that it will 

 be within the reach of the most lim- 

 ited purse. Even at the low prices 

 complained of by the producers, it is 

 a fact that by the time the honey is 

 offered at retail, the rate asked is 

 such that it is regarded as a luxury, 

 instead of, as should be the case, a 

 common article of diet. 



" Extracted honey is the purest and 

 cheapest sweet that is known. It 

 should displace molasses in every 

 houseliold, and may be made to take 

 the place largely of sugar. There are 

 many bee-keepers in this State who 

 do not consume a pound of sugar 

 from one year's end to the other. The 

 better grades of white honey are used 

 in all culinary operations, and even 

 for sweetening coffee and tea, and one 

 cannot detect the difference between 

 food so prepared and that into whose 

 composition the best grades of sugar 

 have entered. 



" Many Eastern bee-keepers have 

 solved the problem of a profitable 

 market for their honey by fitting up 

 wagons and making regular trips 

 from door to door in tlie towns and 

 cities, and as soon as the excellence 

 of their products becomes known, 

 they have no difliculty in disposing of 

 all they can produce at good prices. 

 Tliere is any opening, or rather any 

 number of them, in any large city for 

 such an enterprise. "The extracted 

 honey should be carried in a tank, 

 from which it may be drawn in any 

 desired quantity, and the purchaser 

 not be obliged to pay a high price for 

 the glass or tin vessel in which, as is 

 now the case, extracted honey is sold. 

 The comb should be in sections with- 

 out glass, so that when a person buys 

 honey he gets as little of anything 

 else as possible with it. By offering 

 the honey at such moderate prices as 

 may now be done, and still save a 



profit, a great many tons of the arti- 

 cle might unquestionably be disposed 

 of in any city at a good profit, and a 

 steady demand thereby created where 

 now not a hundred pounds finds sale 

 in a twelve- month." 

 North Temescal,*o Calif. 



*'or the American Bee JournaL 



Reports on Wintering Bees, 



O. W. DEMAREE. 



Mr. Gilliland's statements on page 

 249, places the question of the natural 

 condition of bees in winter quarters 

 beyond all philosophical argument. 

 Were I to attempt to reply to his 

 '' facts," it would be a dead-set case 

 of " 'tis and 'taint." 



The case which he cites, however, 

 of a hive-cover being blown off, must 

 be ruled out, as that was a case of 

 disturbance, not a natural condition. 

 But it happens that I, in the same 

 winter {1885), wintered a large colony 

 without any protection over the tops 

 of the frames, only what a 10-inch 

 super with a flat hive-cover on top of 

 it might be supposed to afford. That 

 colony endured a swoop of 20° below 

 zero in the month of January, 1885, 

 the coldest weather "here of which we 

 have any record. When the hive- 

 cover was raised to peep in, the bees 

 could be seen sandwiched between 

 the combs, silent as the dead. They 

 never "roared" until spring-time, 

 and until the proper conditions were 

 present. 



My love for the honey-bee has 

 bordered on infatuation for over 40 

 years, and in all these years when I 

 have kept bees, I have missed the 

 gentle hum of the bees in the winter 

 months. But when spring-time would 

 come, with sunshine and flowers, and 

 the bees would begin to breed up, a 

 joyous " roar " would begin to be 

 heard in the apiary after the day's 

 toil. Every apiarist knows how this 

 state of things gladdens the heart, 

 touched by the spring resurrection. 

 But now Mr. Gilliland reverses the 

 whole thing, and has the bees " roar- 

 ing " in zero weather, and silent when 

 the "sun warms things up." This 

 difference in matters susceptible of 

 proof, must be settled, if at all, by 

 the preponderance of the evidence, 

 and I propose, the Editor concurring, 

 that this question in bee-science be 

 settled in that way. I will suggest 

 that all bee-keepers who feel inclined 

 to do so, write on a postal card, ad- 

 dressed to the American Beb Jour- 

 nal, in substance like the following, 

 according to the facts and their ex- 

 perience : 



BLOOMPIELD, Ind.. April, 1887. 

 I wintered ray bees on the summer stands, pro- 

 tet'led and unprotected. At a temperature of 

 zero and lower the bees "roar" until they can be 

 heard "10 feet from a hive."— John C. Gilli- 

 land. 



CBRISTIANSBURO, Ky.. April, 1887. 



I wintered ray bees on sinele-walled liives, on 

 the summer stands. When the temperature ap- 

 proaches zero, or noes below, no sound issues from 

 the hives, if the bees are in good health.— G. W. 



DKMAHEE. 



If a great number of such reports 

 should be sent in, they could be con- 



