To which I replied as follows:
Messrs. Guernsey & Co.—Gents: Your favor is at hand. I expect the return of my honey with all the charges deducted you feel disposed to make. I had supposed that there were some men in your city with enough sense to determine the difference between honey and glucose. My honey is strictly pure, and will pay you $100 if you will prove that I am wrong. Yours truly,
Chas. F. Muth.
Cincinnati, Ohio, March 21, 1881.
[We were shown quite recently a letter received by a prominent dealer in strictly pure honey in this city, from a correspondent in Virginia, who had ordered and received from him a keg of honey. They say: “The keg of honey came to hand on the 25th; you may imagine my chagrin on opening the package and finding the contents solid. In its present condition it is of no value to me.” Although a dealer, we suppose this was really the first package of strictly pure extracted honey he had ever seen, or he would have felt pleasure, instead of chagrin, to find it granulated solid. The truth is, the public have been so much deceived with a spurious article in liquid form, that many do not know the genuine when they see it. A bee-keeper or person perfectly familiar with honey in a northern or central latitude, would require something more convincing than the mere assertion of a respectable grocer that his honey was strictly pure, if not candied or granulated in cool weather.—Ed.]
For the American Bee Journal.
How to Separate Swarms.
BRAY & SEACORD.
An experience of 20 years with bees has taught me to wait upon them and not to have them wait upon me; in other words, always have your work ahead of time. Next, to have your bees in strong condition at the time of the first flow of honey. The great mistake of beginners is to aim at too large an increase, either by division or natural swarming. If the season is good, an increase of 3 from each colony is a plenty; if a medium season an increase of one from each colony is enough.
The brood chamber is the mainspring to work upon for a good yield of honey. We allow no queen to live over 3 years, and if not a prolific queen she only lives one year. We allow no brood comb to remain over 3 years in the centre of the hive; by this plan we get fine developed bees, and of longer life.
Our plan of separating swarms of 2 or more, when they come out and cluster together, may be of benefit to some. It is as follows: Make a box 3 feet long (or any size that will fit the frames of your hive), make one entrance to the box for the bees to pass in and out; make a tight cover to fit the box, with cleats on 2 sides, no end cleats; make 3 or 4 division boards; then the box is ready for hiving the bees.
Now take the box and hive the cluster of 2 or more swarms, and as soon as all the bees are in the box, put it in a shady place, and let it remain there until the next morning; then push the box cover lengthwise of the box and you will observe each queen with her colony clustered by themselves; now place the division board between each cluster, push the cover back again over the cluster and hive at pleasure.