THE AMERICAII BEE JOURNAL. 



329 



the number of larviB which had been 

 fed was 3.j8. It is the honey consumed 

 by these that must now be arrived at. 



According to the investigations 

 made by Berlepsch, 47 grammes of 

 honey and pollen would have sufficed to 

 feed these 358 larvaj uutil they closed 

 themselves up in their cell. Other 

 experiments, made by myself, show 

 that to feed their brood bees use 

 about as much honey as pollen, con- 

 sequently 25 grammes will be the 

 maximuin quantity of honey used up 

 by my bees in the partial feeding of 

 this brood, of which only a few cells 

 were sealed over. 



We And, therefore, that the differ- 

 ence in the quantity of honey gath- 

 ered was one kilo and 202 grammes. 

 That of wax produced 191 grammes. 

 My bees had, therefore, used 6 gram- 

 mes, 3 of honey in order to produce 

 one gramme of wax. 



In previous experiments my bees 

 had started comb-building on eight 

 frames, and as the honey yield was an 

 indifferent one, with the exception of 

 the first day, they built almost worker 

 comb throughout — I say almost, or 

 nearly so, because in a corner of the 

 largest comb there were to be found a 

 few drone-cells ; the latter had been 

 built the first day, when the honey 

 yield was greatest, almost two kilos 

 having been brought in. 



It will be seen, therefore, that in 

 practice it is possible to get bees to 

 build worker-combs rather economi- 

 cally bv feeding them with a cheaper 

 kind of honey, say some of the foreign 

 kind, to be had on the Havre market 

 at from .50 to 60 francs the kilos. But, 

 to obtain this result, three things are 

 essential, viz : 



1 . A rather poor yield of honey. 



2. The removal of all the brood- 

 combs of a hive, to be replaced by 

 empty frames, the latter to be placed 

 between the full ones. The brood- 

 combs removed, will be given to a 

 weaker colony. 



3. Never to induce comb-buil'ding 

 unless when the temperature is high. 



A Plea for Better Bee-Keening. 



C. H. DIBISEKN. 



While I am free to admit that much 

 has been accomplished in the past 

 twenty years to place this industry on 

 a higher plane, yet we cannot shut our 

 eyes to the fact that very much still 

 remains to be done. 



Perhaps the best way to get an idea 

 of the present condition of bee-keep- 

 ing, is to visit some of our large 

 towns, and inspect the honey offered 

 for sale by dealers. I made such a 

 visit recently, and this is about how I 

 found things : 



Calling at a large grocery house I 

 inquired if they had any comb honey. 

 I was assured that they had some that 

 was very nice, and followed the clerk 

 in the back room, was shown some 

 boxes apparently made from old fence 

 boards, without planing. The honey 

 was of good quality, bat in sections 

 about 7 inches square, and made of 

 material varying from hi to J^ of an 



inch thick. They had not been 

 scraped of propolis, and some of them 

 had evidently been used a number of 

 years. It was easy to see that no 

 separators had been used to compel 

 the bees to build straight combs, as 

 it was very much bulged, and in 

 handling and shipping some of the 

 combs had got jammed together, or 

 the cappings were scraped oS in try- 

 ing to get the sections out, and the 

 cases were leaking all over the floor. 

 When I objected to the honey on the 

 above grounds, I was told that it 

 could not be helped, that the honey 

 was all right and clean, and that the 

 people did not eat the boxes, anyway. 



The next place I visited, I found 

 some California honey in Harbison 

 sections. This was nice and white, 

 but it had evidently been roughly 

 handled. A dozen crates were piled 

 upside down in a tub, and were leak- 

 ing a good deal, as the 2 or 3 inches of 

 honey {and flies) in the bottom of the 

 tub testified. I objected to this as 

 not being what I wanted, and they 

 then told me they were disgusted with 

 the honey-trade and thought of giving 

 it up. 



Next I tried the much-abused com- 

 mission man, and, seeing a large pile 

 of nice, new crates with some very 

 fine honey showing through the glass, 

 I thought, "now I had found honey 

 that I would find it hard to find fault 

 with." Getting into conversation 

 with the man in charge, he kindly 

 showed me around, and on my request 

 looked into several shipments. The 

 first lot was of one-pound sections, in 

 nice, new cases. Opening a case, the 

 honey was nice and straight in white- 

 wood sections, cleaned of every parti- 

 cle of propolis, and the sections rest- 

 ing on little strips of wood, placed 

 inside of little paper pans in the bot- 

 tom of the case, to catch any dripping 

 honey ,but there did not seem to be any. 



" These ten cases," said the man, 

 " are all we have left of a hundred 

 cases that came in yesterday morning, 

 and it has all been sold at 15 cents per 

 pound." I remarked to him that it 

 seemed to be a fancy price, that the 

 papers only quoted white clover honey 

 at 10 and 11 cents. "That is very 

 true," said he, ■" but this is what we 

 call a fancy article, and the name of 

 the producer is on every case, and he 

 is a man that we can depend on, 

 every time. Here is a lot that has 

 been here for a month from a neigh- 

 bor of his that appears to be just as 

 good, but please open a case and see." 

 I did so, and found the honey nice, 

 only on the outside next the glass. 

 Back of this were a lot of dirty look- 

 ing sections, filled with all kinds of 

 honey from white clover to " honey- 

 dew." The combs were bulged, and 

 had the cappings more or less dam- 

 aged by slapping together in shipping. 



" These 17 cases are what remain of 

 20 we received a month ago. We have 

 tried hard to sell it, too, but if we sell 

 5 cases we generally get back 4 of 

 them. We are now offering it at 8 

 cents, and I am sure when our ac- 

 count sales of this lot is rendered, we 

 will be roundly denounced as 

 scoundrels." 



Who is the scoundrel V 



Just now we hear much about the 

 depression and low prices of honey. 

 Many are discouraged, and talk of « 

 tryina; something else. Well, perhaps 

 the sooner the careless or the dis- 

 honest leave the pursuit the better. 

 Talk about establishing a uniform 

 price for honey ! how can it be done 

 when there is so much difference in 

 quality, style of packing and 

 '• konesty " of grading. I myself could 

 have sold, during the past season, 

 thousands of pounds of choice honey 

 for other bee-keepers, could I have 

 depended on getting such honey as 

 would fill my orders. 



Now, bee-keepers, as another sea- 

 son is just commencing, let us all 

 form new resolutions. Let us deter- 

 mine to have only the best. We want 

 the most convenient hives, both for 

 us and the bees. We want nice, 

 handy cases on the hives. We want 

 to throw away all old, soiled sections 

 —it will not pay to use them when we 

 can buy new ones so cheap. We must 

 use separators of some kind to secure 

 nice straight combs ; in fact we must 

 determine to have everything the 

 very best, and then there will be no 

 trouble to sell the honey. 



Milan, K) Ills. 



Langnap of Bees— Old Testimony. 



REV. JOHN THORLEY. 



As to the time of second swarms, 

 we generally fix it to a day or two, and 

 know when to expect them, by means 

 of those distinct, peculiar, and musi- 

 cal notes, which are always heard two 

 or three days before they rise. 



Bees certainly have a language 

 among themselves, which they cer- 

 tainly understand, though we do not, 

 or at best, very imperfectly. Eight 

 or nine days after the prime swarm is 

 departed, one of the young princesses, 

 addressing herself in a very humble 

 and submissive manner to the queen- 

 mother, petitions for leave to with- 

 draw, and erect a new empire, with a 

 select body of the populace. 



The regent for a time seems silent, 

 and for a day or night there is no an- 

 swer, nor any grant given ; however, 

 the young princess, bent on crown 

 and kingdom, continues her suit, and 

 at last succeeds. The second night 

 you may hear the queen, with a very 

 audible voice (being an eighth) giving 

 her royal grant, and proclaiming it 

 (as by sound of a trumpet) through 

 the whole kingdom. Her voice is a 

 grant, her silence a denial. And the 

 day following, the weather being 

 tolerable, you may expect the swarm. 

 It is delightful to attend to those 

 peculiar sounds or notes, being an 

 eighth chord, which is truly harmoni- 

 ous. Dr. Butler has taken pains to 

 show us the compass the song con- 

 tains in the gamut, or scale of music ; 

 the queen composing her part, or 

 bass, within the four lower clefCs ; 

 and the princess hers, a treble, in the 

 four upper cleffs. The swarm ready 

 to come fourth, the notes are louder, 

 quicker, and more constant. AVhen 

 the greater part of the swarm is out, 

 the music is at an end, and we hear 



