534 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



ble the smoke penetrates the skin, and goes 

 down into the nerves with the circulation of 

 the blood, where the pain isV— Prof. Cook's 

 article in the A. B. J. for Oct. 4, seems to 

 pretty nearly exhaust the subject of dry 

 faeces, and, much to my surprise, he decides 

 that it is all a mistake. I confess to being 

 very much puzzled at present in the matter, 

 and I really don't know who is right and who 

 is wrong. — Even if the Good candy has vir- 

 tually, as it would seem, superseded all 

 others, it is a sort of satisfaction to talk 

 about the other kind, after all. Friend M., 

 why not moisten your mashed-up candy with 

 honey, and then it won't dry up as it does 

 with water? 



CAPiDIED HONEY. 



HEDDON'S " CANDID " VIEWS. 



^y^iVER since I have been raising honey, I have 

 Jlyji been retailing and jobbing it on to the market 



more or less in all sorts of receptacles, from 



^ to 25 lbs., and so on up to kegs and barrels. Dur- 

 ing all these years a majority of my customers have 

 " preferred candied honey." " Loved it best of all," 

 but at the same time not one in twenty would buy it 

 after it had reached that state. Notwithstanding 

 that, I have faith that — 



Truth will conquer at the last, 



As round and round we run, 

 And the right will ever come uppermost, 



And justice will be done. 



Now, the best way to handle extracted honey, both 

 for producer and consumer, is in the candied state. 

 In that condition honey does not leak, and the dan- 

 gers in transportation are cut down to almost noth- 

 ing. If the vessels containing it are small, they can 

 then be made of some use after the honey is remov- 

 ed. My opinion is, that the Dadants are on the right 

 track, and much ahead of any of us in their prac- 

 tice as laid down in their little book on the sale of 

 extracted honey. He who buys his honey candied 

 can have a choice of consuming it that way, or 

 clear. 



In my opinion, there is at present no suitable re- 

 ceptacle discovered, in which to retail extracted 

 honey. When it is found, it should not cost to ex- 

 ceed 1 cent per lb. for one-pound packages. 



During the third year of my bee-keeping I began 

 using the extractor, and then found out that the 

 thinner my honey was (if not ttiin enough to sour), 

 the quicker it would candy. I have bottled much 

 honey in air-tight vessels, put op hot and put up 

 cold, and I do not believe, as yet, that exclusion 

 from air or light has any tendency to keep it liquid. 

 I do know that evaporating has just that effect; but 

 Mr. White would, in my judgment, have experienced 

 the same results had he, after heating his honey, al- 

 lowed it to get cold before he sealed it. My experi- 

 ence has forced me to believe, that cold is the only 

 cause of honey candying; and that honey which is 

 the most thoroughly evaporated (no matter how 

 done), is the firmest to hold out against "old Jack." 



Here are two views that I entertain: First, there is 

 no place in which to preserve the fine exquisite fla- 

 vor of choice, well-ripened honey, equal to wax cells. 

 Second, there is no place to ripen honey that can do 

 It as well or as cheaply as in a strong colony of bees. 

 If there is, we have none of us yet found it out and re- 

 ported. I believe that Dadant's plan of using supers 

 enough to keep the honey ripening over the colony 



all through the season, and to then extract it, just 

 as it will at once meet its cause of candying, cold, is 

 the best course. In fact, I know it is, as I have 

 tried it. Dadant sells thousands of pounds of this 

 choice, well-preserved honey in these useful, mova- 

 able-covered regular dinner-pails (just such as are 

 sold daily out of hardware stores) every year, and 

 tells us that the " plot thickens " all the time. I am 

 in favor of a vessel so cheap that the consumer can 

 afford to throw it away; but as we have not got such 

 a one yet, I favor the most useful receptacles, until 

 we have. 



QUEENS, HOW TO lUEST. 



Your remarks, Mr. Editor, in your foot-notes after 

 Mr. White's article on page 481, last Gi.eanings, 

 seem strange enough when you say, " Your remarks 

 are more to the point than any thing I have seen yet 

 in print." "They are simply to test them (the 

 queens and their workers) for honey." Goodness 

 gracious! Hav€>i't I be.:n saying for five years, that 

 the word "testing" has but empty sound, unless 

 one means testing for qualities, and these are main- 

 ly honey-making and good nature? 



I tell you, friend Root, we all demand honey-gath- 

 erers, but he who sells bees of pacific nature along 

 with excellent honey-making qualities will "carry 

 off the palm" of trade, notwithstanding the world is 

 so full of bravos. I can bear as many stings as any 

 one; but I don't like to, neither do they. If I can't 

 have bees that possess to a good degree the traits of 

 comb-building and filling, and good nature, I will 

 quit the business. Any one who knows how to rear 

 queens according to correct physiological laws can 

 have just such bees at the end of five years' atten- 

 tion to it, and do their other apicultural duties at 

 the same time. All hail the day when we breed for 

 business instead of bands 1 when "handsome is that 

 handsome does." James Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Oct., 1883. 



Friend II., I fear I shall have to tell my 

 old story over again. A few years ago an 

 old gentleman near us used to bring honey 

 to the groceries every winter in 1-lb. Muth 

 jars (with the corks put in dipped in melted 

 wax) that never candied. Year after year 

 this honey remained as clear as crystal, 

 while all that which other bee - keepers 

 brought was candied solid. I set bottles of 

 it out in the sq^w at a zero temperature, but 

 it never candied a particle. He put it up 

 while hot, and it was heated by simply set- 

 ting the bottles in water, on the stove. Now, 

 I am not surprised that one lot should have 

 thus remained liquid, but I am surprised 

 that he did the same thing year after year. 

 In talking with friends Jones and Muth 

 about it they declared the process could not 

 be relied on, for sometimes it will candy and 

 sometimes it will not. Now, can it be that 

 this man's localitv gave him clover honey 

 any different, in this respect, season after 

 season?— About the queens: Do you, friend 

 H., advise using hybrid queens, if, after 

 testing whole apiaries for honey, the liybrids 

 should " pan out " best V I don't quite dare 

 do it, but I have sometimes thought to my- 

 self that hybrids are not such a great mis- 

 fortune, after all. We are now many of us 

 getting the blacks so much out of the way 

 that we shall soon have an opportunity to 

 see how we fare without any taint of black 

 blood. 



