54 " EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



The President. — That would indicate that it had fermented 

 before it was extracted. 



Mr. Jeffries. — Yes, I had some that had fermented. 



Mr. Dadant. — Did it burst the caps of the cells? 



Mr. Jeffries. — No. 



Mr. King.^ — I live in that neighborhood and every once in a while 

 I find one certain colony in the yard, that the cells will look a peculiar 

 color; if you look in, it is all foam and fermented. I lay it to some kind 

 of weed that they had been working on. That honey does not ripen 

 right. It generally comes in white clover, I don't remember what time, 

 whether in the first part or latter part of it. 



The Secretary. — Might have been some candied honey in there. 



Mr. Dadant. — When I was around Syracuse, New York, we 

 went to visit Mr. Doolittle, and on the way back we visited a bee- 

 keeper whose name has escaped my memory just now. He told us 

 for three or four years all his honey had fermented in the cells after 

 it was sealed, and this 1^^ year he had resorted to very radical means. 

 He had changed all his combs, and put in comb foundation. He said 

 he had done away with it. That would suggest what our Secretary 

 said now, that perhaps it is due to some old honey in the cells, that 

 there are germs of fermentation in the cells and the honey ferments 

 and bursts the cap. When the cap looks a little odd, looks whitish, 

 then raise it and you Avill find that it is foaming under it. As a rule 

 that honey is thin. We have had honey do that, and I am under the 

 impression that the bees do not always know when honey is ripe enough 

 and if the crop is very thin and yery watery and the sun not very warm, 

 they may seal honey that is not very ripe. Ripe honey may be unsealed, 

 and unripe honey may be sealed. As a rule, ripe honey is sealed. But 

 we have to be careful of our honej'', and if there is any honey that 

 ferments at the time of extiation, I think the only way to do is to 

 follow Mr. Frances' method, heat it slowly right after extracting. 

 We thiis evaporate a lot of moisture and probably kill the germs of 

 fermentation. It is very difficult to do that and not destroy the essen- 

 tial oils that are in the honey and that flavor it. Those essential oils 

 are very easily evaporated and you spoil the taste of your honey, so 

 it would be a great deal better if we could keep our combs in such a 

 way that they will not have any old honey in them. This bee-keeper 

 whom I mentioned in the Bee Journal had practically all his honey 

 fermented; he was in a white clover region. 



The Secretary. — I had some honey one year that I was delayed 

 about extracting, and there came cold weather, and I had it mostly 

 doAvn cellar, where we have a furnace, and always kept fire down there, 

 so that I could extract any time during the winter, but last year I had 

 several hives that I did not get extracted until fire in the furnace was 

 out, and moisture enough came there so that it candied, and those three 

 or four hives, after the bees filled them this summer, I found several 

 of them that had a little candied honey in them and that honey fer- 

 mented. 



Mr. Kildow.^I have had honey in new sections ferment. How 

 do you account for that? 



