TMrn rnvmrnmi^MM. mmm jojj^mmmi^. 



357 



Honey Xransforniatioii.— Mr. D. 



Stoler, of Saxton, Pa., sends us the follow- 

 ine (or explaDation. It is takeu from the 

 Grocers' and Caiiuers' Gazette. Please no- 

 tice that the last word in the second line 

 stamps the article as pure honey. All the 

 "transformation that occurred was the ordi- 

 nary grannlation consequent upon its being 

 exposed to tlie air after a part of it had been 

 eaten. The article reads thus : 



Some weeks since it was our fortune to 

 come into possession of a pound-box of pure 

 honey, with which we had an experience 

 such as to warrant reference to it here. For 

 sevt-ral days we ate the honey with our 

 lunch until there remained but a thin layer 

 on the bottom about }4 to 3.< of an inch in 

 thickness. This we left untouched in the 

 drawer of our desk for some two w^ks, 

 whi'ii, upon examining, we found a peculiar 

 translormation had taken place. All sem- 

 blance of the honey structure had disap- 

 peared, and in place thereof we discovered 

 a white substance that closely resembled in 

 appi'arance the crust upon cooled lard, be- 

 neath which was a white semi-fluid of 

 about the consistency of condensed milk. 

 It was sweet and palatable, yet no one 

 would judge that it could have been honey. 

 To make inquiries relative to the matter, 

 we called upon a iirm which handles a 

 large part or the honey that comes to this 

 market, and from them received a courteous 

 explanation of the phenomenon. Said tfle 

 one interviewed : "It was what we call 

 ' winter-fed ' honey ; that is, during the 

 months of winter the bees were fed by a 

 mixture of honey, much sugar and some- 

 thing else the nature of which is kept a 

 secret. From this artificial feed the oees 

 made the honey of which you speak, and 

 which, in its nature, is that of a natural, 

 artificial product. 



The explanation given by the honey- 

 dealers simply show their Ignorance and 

 stupidity. They ought to have known that 

 bees never make honey ! They gather it 

 from the flowers, hut never make it. In 

 order to cover up their ignorance, they in- 

 vented the silly story of "winter-fed honey," 

 a mixture of sugar and a mysterious " some- 

 thing else !" These fellows had not the 

 ordinary intelligence, or even cheek of the 

 vlllifier of honey, or they would have said 

 that it was glucose. They simply made an 

 exhibition of their ignorance by saying that 

 it was a " mixture of honey, much sugar, 

 and something ?lse, the nature of which is 

 kept a secret." Bah ! Such bare-faced lying 

 is deplorable ! 



Eiate Springr.— Thos. Stokes, Mines- 

 ing, Ont., on May 18, 1888, writes : 



We are having a cold, windy, late spring. 

 The growth is very slow. -The native red 

 plums are not open yet. It snowed enough 

 to make the ground white on May 1-5, when 

 the mercury went down to 30°. Bees have 

 only gathered honey one day, from golden 

 willow, and not many days were fit for pol- 

 len. They are breeding fairly well ; those 

 having a good supply of stores have come 

 out strongly. Fully 50 per cent, of the bees 

 in this locality have been lost in the past 

 winter and spring. The honey harvest will 

 be late this year ; the sward of clover is 

 splendid. 



Bees are now making up for lost time. 

 The wet and cold weather of the past .S or 4 

 weeks has passed away, and beautiful 

 sunny weather has come— we hope to stay. 



'■■^-.^'.■~.--^'.^-^^' 



Uroiieiii Flyiiig- Early— JJIailins' 

 <liieens.— Ira N. Lyman, St. Peter, Nebr., 

 on May 19, 1888, writes : 



I had only 3 colonies of hybrid-Italian 

 bees wintered in a cellar, and all came out 

 strong, save one that lost its queen, but 

 reared another. Drones were flying from 

 all my hives on April 15. I think that it is 

 the earliest that 1 ever have seen drones 

 flying in this country from all the hives. 

 The spring has been very backward, there 

 being only an occasional day when bees 

 can fly ; but they are all doing first-rate, 

 considering the time they have had to fly. 

 Some in this neighborhood have lost a part 

 of their colonies, from being short of food, 

 I think, and bad weather. They were all 

 wintered nut-doors. I like wintering bees 

 in a dry cellar the best. The bees have an 

 abundance to work on now, if only the 

 weather was good. Plum blossoms, goose- 

 berries and otlier plants are in bloom now. 

 Please answer the following : 



1. Can an Italian queen be sent by mail 

 safely, and be three days on the way to its 

 destination ? 2. If a queen should die on the 

 way, would the sender be likely to send 

 another, or would it not be reasonable to 

 expect one ? 3. Would candied honey be 

 sufficient feed to put into the cage to send a 

 queen on a long trip by mail, say three 

 days ? 4. Please give a good description of 

 the Albino bees ? •'>. Where can I get thor- 

 ough-bred queens and bees, described as 

 thoroughbreds, and what is their cost ? 



1. Tes ; it may be in transit for three 

 days or thirty, it sufficiently protected and 

 provisioned. 



2. Yes ; have the post-master certify to its 

 being received dead, and send it back to the 

 breeder, cage and all, just as it was re- 

 ceived, and he will send another. That is 

 what "Safe arrival guaranteed" means. 



3. No ; do not use candied honey, but 

 make " candy " of sugar and honey, so that 

 it may not soil the mails in transit. 



4. Albino bees have white bands. 



5. Consult the advertising columns of this 

 paper. 



Uniting Colonies, etc.— Henry H. 

 Arnold, Ionia, Mich., on May 15, 1888, writes: 



I have 5 colonies of bees in good condi- 

 tion, wintered on the summer stands. I lost 

 2 small colonies in the cellar, but it became 

 too cold for them. I obtained no surplus 

 honey from my bees last year. 



Please answer the following : 1. How do 

 you unite bees or double up colonies ? 

 When is the best time to do it ? 2. Can we 

 take frames of bees and brood from differ- 

 ent hives and place them together, and not 

 have them fight ? 



1. The best time to unite, weak colonies 

 is upon the eve of the honey harvest. 

 Sprinkle both colonies with sweetened 

 water scented with the essence of pepper- 

 mint ; smoke well, and put them all together 

 in one hive. If you do not wish to select 

 the poorest queen and kill it, leave that 

 matter to the bees to settle. Feed any col- 

 ony that is short of stores, or unite it with 

 one that has plenty. 



2. If they show any signs of fighting, 

 smoke them thoroughly, and that will prob- 

 ably take the " light " out of them. 



ma lliey IIiI>ornat«- ?— Mr. Malone, 

 Newbern, Iowa, asks for information about 

 a damaged colony of bees which lived in a 

 clamp when all the others died : 



In the fall of 1885, on Oct. 15, and when 

 the mercury was at 60° at sundown, I put 10 

 late colonies of bees into a clamp, each of 

 which did not have to exceed 4 pounds of 

 honey. When putting the last one in, the 

 little boy let his end of the hive drop ; but I 

 got them in, and after thev were covered 12 

 inches deep, I could hear them roaring. On 

 March 1, 1886, 1 took them out, and all were 

 dead except the one before mentioned, and 

 it it had eaten any honey, I could not de- 

 tect it. 



We may speculate as much as we like, 

 but there are many questions that no one 

 can answer ; and it is among the latter to 

 ascertain why the poor damaged colony 

 lived when the others not damaged died ; 

 and as to what these bees lived on, we may 

 guess, but could not determine with cer- 

 tainty. They may have gotten some honey 

 from the other hives where the bees had 

 died. 



Qiieenlcss Colonies — Uniting, 



etc.— J. W. Smith, Moscow, Vt., on May 

 21, 1888, writes thus : 



I had 6 colonies of bees which came out 

 queenless this spring. I had no queens to 

 give them. I asked an old bee-man what I 

 had better do with them, and he said he 

 would advise me to give them to weak colo- 

 nies that had queens. I did so, smoking 

 them several times, and in a week's time I 

 had lost my 6 colonies, and the ones I gave 

 them to are weaker to-day than they were 

 in the first place. The combs I have taken 

 out of the hives and put them away for 

 future use. I have fumigated them with 

 sulphur. Will tliat be objectionable to the 

 bees if hived on those combs in swarming 

 time ? 



If you had no extra queens, and could 

 not get them, the best thing to do was to 

 unite them with weak colonies. Combs 

 fumigated with sulphur will not be objec- 

 tionable to the bees. 



I>eath ot I>r. Jiidson.— From Mr. 

 John C. Swaner, Salt Lake City, Utah, we 

 have the intelligence that the most noted 

 bee-keeper in Utah, has just passed over to 

 the "silent majority," and Mr. Swaner re- 

 marks as follows concerning him : 



Dr. Benjaman Judson died on May 14, 

 1888. He was interested in bees in Eng- 

 land when he was a mere boy, and was, you 

 may say, the first man in Utah who under- 

 stood the management of bees. He owned, 

 at the time of his death, about 100 colonies. 

 His age was b9. His death resulted from 

 inflamation, caused by hernia— the painful 

 strangulated kind. 



Xliey all Say tlie Same.— Messrs. 

 Charles Dadant & Son, of Hamilton, Ills., 

 who advertise all the time in all the bee- 

 papers, desires to record their experience in 

 these words : 



We will say the same as Mr. Hutchinson. 

 Since you asked your readers to say where 

 they saw our advertisement, we get more 

 mentions of the American Bee Journal 

 than of any other paper. 



