FOREWORD 
need of causing any pain to the bees, much less of killing any by its use. See 
“Stings” and “Smoke and Smokers.” 
The use of the bee-smoker and bee-veil to protect the face, and sometimes 
gloves for the hands of the more timid, has made it also possible for the owner 
to play with bees as he might with kittens; to rob them of their honey when¬ 
ever he sees fit; to invade their homes; to take away their queen; to take every¬ 
thing they have, if he is so minded, without a protest and without a sting. 
In this connection it would be unfair to imply that the modern beekeeper 
never receives any stings. He certainly does; but when he knows the modern 
methods that are taught in this work or any other standard book on bees, the 
bugaboo of stings fades away. 
As a matter of fact the beekeeper receives comparatively few stings, and 
what he does get leave no after-effect in swelling, because his system soon 
becomes immune to the poison, and, beyond the sharp prick of pain which lasts 
for a full minute, there is no local, fever nor swelling. 
Honey is being used as a food as it never was before. (See “Honey,” 
“Honey as a Food,” “Extracted Honey,” and “Comb Honey.”) Honey is now 
found in the best hotels and res'taurants, on dining-cars of the great trunk line 
railroads, and in all leading groceries. It is now being put up attractively 
in comb and liquid form. Traveling men are out buying and selling it as a 
regular commodity. Sometimes they will contract for ten or even twenty car¬ 
loads at a time. It is then repacked, put up in small paokages, and sold to the 
consuming trade, either direct or at the large wholesale or retail groceries. See 
“Bottling Honey.” 
Some of the darker and stronger-flavored honeys are being used by the 
large baking concerns in making their cakes and cookies. Honey is an 
invert sugar, and as such it keeps the cakes, cookies, and jumbles soft and moist 
for months at a time. The cakes that contain the most honey are known as 
“honey jumbles,” some- of which have kept for a period of twelve years, and 
were found to be still as good, almost, as the day they were made. See “Honey 
as a Food.” 
As a food, honey merits a rather unique position. In the first place, it is 
the only concentrated sweet found as such in Nature. Perhaps this very fact 
would lead one to expect that which dietitians tell us to be true: that honey 
does not burden the digestion like ordinary sugar. Altho honey is chiefly in¬ 
vert sugar, it differs from the commercial product in several important re¬ 
spects. Among these might be mentioned the occurrence in honey of a variety 
of mineral elements, all of which are essential in proper nutrition. The amounts 
in which these elements are present are not negligible, as some have assumed. 
On the contrary, they are of considerable importance, especially when it is con¬ 
sidered that no other commercial invert contains any available minerals worth 
mentioning. 
It has also been determined that comb honey, at least, and probably ex¬ 
tracted honey, contain vitamines so necessary to life. It is not known at this 
writing just how much extracted honey may contain; but Prof. Phillip B. 
Hawk, of the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, the great food specialist 
and a contributor to scientific and popular journals on foods, shows that comb 
honey, at least, contains “distinct amounts of fat or soluble A” vitamines, and 
that a small amount may be present in extracted honey. For further particu¬ 
lars on vitamines in honey see “Vitamines in Honey,” in the body of the work. 
The question might be raised at this point whether there are not too many 
beekeepers already. The fact is, more nectar goes to waste than is gathered. 
It has been estimated that 75 per cent of it is lost simply because there are no 
bees in the vicinity to gather it. Dr. Phillips, Apicultural Expert of the De- 
