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44 



SEVENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



Mr. Wilcox: My opinion is entirely 

 with what has been said. My opinions 

 are based upon experience. Fall honey 

 is not injurious because it is fall honey. 

 It is injurious for other reasons. Bone- 

 set honey is bad. Honeydew is always 

 undesirable. That is, the honeydew 

 from aphides. The cause of fermenta- 

 tion does not depend upon the fact that 

 it is gathered late in the season, but 

 upon the conditions when it is stored 

 in the hive. Left in the hive and the 

 colony becoming weak, the honey 

 would absorb moisture from the air 

 and become very poor honey. If the 

 bees keep it covered it is all right. 

 The combs absorb moisture and the 

 honey becomes thin and unfit for food. 



Mr. "Wheeler: I have a little exper- 

 ience that proved to me very definitely 

 that honeydew was not detrimental to 

 bees. A friend of mine, where I keep 

 the bees in the summer time, at La 

 Grange, 111., suggested to me when I 

 moved my bees up to the sweet clover 

 in July, that I let his stand there. There 

 were 11 colonies. They went to work 

 right away and worked all through Au- 

 gust and September and filled the 

 hives. I was talking to Mr. Burnett 

 about it. We thought' now was the 

 time to find out whether or not honey- 

 dew is fatal to bees. Under the same 

 conditions as my bees were, his bees 

 came through in tip-top shape. I don't 

 believe there was an ounce of honey 

 but was gathered from the aphids. But 

 they wintered well on it. 



Dr. Bohrer: Fall honey is good win- 

 ter food. As good a winter food as my 

 bees ever had is heartsease. My bees 

 load the hives with it and they always 

 winter well on it. It is a very dark 

 honey. 



Color of Honey. 

 Dr. Miller: Dr. Bohrer says that 

 heartsease honey is dark. I have al- 

 ways supposed that to be the case. A 

 few years ago I had some extra white 

 honey late in the season. I had no idea 

 what it was. I didn't know for years 

 afterward. I don't know whether I 

 know now. But last year and this year 

 I have had some very light honey. I 

 have serious doubts whether I had any- 

 thing from white clover. But after the 

 time for white clover I got some white 

 honey, and a good deal of it. I don't 

 know what it could be unless hearts- 

 ease, for the bees were working very 

 busily on heartsease. Has anybody 

 else had light honey from heartsease? 



It is decidedly whiter than white 

 clover. 



Pres. York: How many have had 

 light honey from heartsease? 



Mr. Wheeler: Not this year. 



Dr. Miller: Is it sometimes light 

 and sometimes dark? 



Mr. Wheeler: I believe that quite a 

 lot of that honey was white clover 

 honey. 



Dr. Miller: I don't think so. 



Mr. Wheeler: In some seasons they 

 work on both white clover and hearts- 

 ease. 



Mr. Baldridge: I live in the same lo- 

 cality as Dr. Miller. When he got light 

 honey we didn't. We had immense 

 quantities of asters, and if we had had 

 good weather we would have had a 

 great deal of light honey from asters. 

 The woods were filled with asters. 



Dr. Miller: We have plenty of as- 

 ters, but the bees did not work on as- 

 ters or goldenrod. 



Mr. Dadant: I don't care if every- 

 body here said that heartsease honey 

 was dark. I have my own eyes. I have 

 had 25 barrels of heartsease honey, and 

 it was not as white as clover. It was 

 a sort of pinkish yellow — very much 

 lighter than all other fall honey. 

 Heartsease doesn't blossom at the same 

 time as asters. The petals remain, but 

 the seed is ripe. It still looks like a 

 bloom. Heartsease blooms from the 

 beginning of August until the asters 

 come. Aster honey is just as white as 

 white clover. We had four or five bar- 

 rels of aster honey. I said to the men 

 at the end of the season, "We have 

 made a big crop, but the end is here. I 

 don't think we will get anything out of 

 asters." But we had a great deal of 

 honey, and it could not come from any- 

 thing else than asters. Heartsease 

 honey is not dark, and is the nicest 

 selling honey that you can find. It is 

 not dark nor is it a bright yellow. 



Mr. Baldridge: In my locality we 

 have no heartsease to mention. The 

 honey I had at the time asters were in 

 bloom was very white. I believe it was 

 gathered from asters. 



Dr. Miller: Another reason that 

 makes me think it was heartsease 

 honey, besides the fact that we didn't 

 see the bees working on asters, was 

 the fact that the pollen carried in was 

 ■ exactly like the pollen that I saw them 

 gather from heartsease. Mr. Dadant 

 says that heartsease honey is light. 

 Others say it is dark. He is so pos- 

 itive about it. (I don't want to put 



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