THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



153 



serious a fault as to extract green honey 

 or nectar. 



I have read with interest the articles 

 written by G. C. Greiner, E. W. Alexan- 

 der, and others, on extracting often dur- 

 ing the season, and their methods of arti- 

 ficial ripening. At the same time 1 have 

 considered what constitutes honey, and 

 would refer my hearers to the bulletin 

 published by the Agricultural Department 

 at Washington, D. C entitled. " The 

 Chemical Analysis and Composition of 

 Honey." In this we find the following: 



" In the modification of the nectar by 

 the bees several changes in the composi- 

 tion are produced. Among the most im- 

 portant of these is evaporation of the nec- 

 tar to a water content of about 20 per 

 cent. This is effected in the hive by the 

 bees exposing the nectar in thin layers to 

 the action of a current of air .produced by 

 the fanning of the wings. This evapora- 

 tion is further hastened, according to 

 some, by a process of regurgitation, the 

 nectar being continually thrown out from 

 the honey-sac on the partly doubled 

 tongue, and then drawn in again until, by 

 the movement of the heat and air of the 

 hive, the nectar is sufficiently reduced to 

 be deposited in the cells of the comb. 



"Another change of considerable im- 

 portance which takes place while the 

 honey is in the honey-sac of the bee, and 

 also probably during evaporation and 

 storage in the comb, is the inversion of a 

 considerable part of the sucrose in the 

 nectar through the action of the inverting 

 enzym secreted by the bees. 



"Another modification produced in the 

 nectar by the bees is the introduction of a 

 minute quantity of formic acid. This acid 

 is wanting in the pollen and nectar of the 

 flowers, and is supposed to be introduced 

 into the honey by the bees just before the 

 capping of the cells. The formic acid 

 thus introduced by the bees is supposed to 

 act as a preservative, and prevent the 

 honey from fermenting," 



1 am a great admirer of E, W, Alexan- 

 der, and have his writings that I have 

 studied carefully. 



As far as 1 have tried his methods 1 

 find them well suited to the conditions in 

 this locality, with one exception, and that 

 is his method of extracting the nectar 

 from the combs before it is sealed, or 

 even well evaporated. 



In Mr. Alexander's locality, and with 

 his equipment and methods, this process 

 may work out; but in this locality, and 

 with the equipment that the average or 

 even extensive bee keeper has. I believe 

 the plan is worse than a failure— it is a 

 damage to the honey market. 1 am of 



the opinion that no producer of extracted 

 honey should try it unless he wants to 

 enter quite extensively into the manufac- 

 ture of honey-vinegar; and 1 doubt if the 

 nectar would make as good vinegar as 

 ripe honey would. 



Some bee keepers favor the frequent 

 extracting of the green honey on account 

 of the apparent economy, believing that 

 it will save them something in the way of 

 investment for fixtures, such as extra 

 supers, frames, foundation, etc. But from 

 the economical standpoint alone, to say 

 nothing of the quality of the honey, I find 

 that it is easy to prove that having the 

 extra fixtures and allowing the honey to 

 stay on the hive until the end of the sea- 

 son, and then making a business of ex- 

 tracting it at one time, rather than to be 

 dabbling in it at intervals during the sea- 

 son. IS the cheaper method, for much 

 more time is sure to be wasted at each 

 small extracting than would be wasted if 

 the work was left to be done all at once. 



Some argue that frequent extracting of 

 honey from the combs stimulates the bees 

 to greater effort to gather more honey to 

 replenish their scanty store. On this 

 question Mr. Dadant thinks that the more 

 stores the bees accumulate, the more 

 they will continue to gather, provided 

 they have the combs to store it in; that 

 is, they are not unlike human beings in 

 that they work the hardest when they are 

 prosperous; but if their hard earnings are 

 taken away continually they become dis- 

 couraged, and are more likely to give up 

 trying to get ahead 



The all-important question with the 

 consumer is the flavor of the honey that 

 he is eating; and if we want him to eat 

 more honey, we must give him the thick, 

 delicious honey with the bouquet of the 

 flowers in it; and we can not get this 

 from nectar, nor can man ripen the nectar 

 so that it will be equal to the honey that 

 the bees have finished. There is a fair 

 demand for good honey, and I predict 

 that the consumption of honey will not in- 

 crease until a good article is put on the 

 market universally. 



Four years ago I extracted a lot of 

 choice clover honey which I supposed was 

 ripe enough, and I wanted to get it out of 

 the hives before it should become mixed 

 with the dark fall honey. This honey was 

 put into cans and pails very soon after it 

 was extracted, and sold. Later in the 

 fall I was trying to sell some honey to a 

 man to whom I had sold some of this 

 choice early honey, and he objected very 

 strongly, saying that the other honey tiat 

 I had recommended to him so highly, had 

 fermented, so that he had to throw it out. 



