1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



485 



improvement. We shall be glad to hear 

 from you further concerning it. Yes. we 

 should be very glad to make you a call at 

 some time. Possibly we may get around to 

 do so. 



■WHICH IS THE CHEAPEST WAY TO 

 RIPEN QKBBN HONEY ? 



APHIDES, SWARMING, ETC. 



On page 413 Mr. Robbins tells of getting about 

 "the thickest, richest honey" he had by putting 

 very thin and rank honey, just extracted from un- 

 sealed combs, in lard-cans, and stone jars covered 

 with cloth, and setting where the " sun would pour 

 in on it through a window," and leaving it there to 

 cook. How long he left it cooking, he does not say. 

 Doolittle says in the appendix to the ABC (48), that 

 90* is the requisite temperature, and three weeks 

 the necessary time in which to thoroughly ripen 

 honey. Now, the point I am aiming at is this: 

 If one has no honey-houge, and possibly no conven- 

 ient room at the time in which to set his open cans, 

 why will not the sun do this work for him outdoors, 

 just as well as in a dark room, as Boolittle advises, 

 or through the window, as above recommended? 

 Does the sunshine ever become too hot, so that the 

 color or flavor would be injured, or is it because 

 moving back and forth would be too troublesome, 

 that this method has never been mentioned in the 

 journals? Situated as I am, it would be my cheap- 

 est plan to ripen honey, unless our temperature in 

 this latitude Indoors in summer is sufficiently high 

 to ripen it any way, say placed in any closed room 

 or out-house. At this writing we have a hot dry 

 spell, with the mercury at 88° in the shade, with 

 free-air circulation. In a shut-up room, where the 

 sun falls upon the roof and walls, it is fully 95°. So 

 far I have had success. My honey is always thick 

 and fine by fall, and it is ripened both these ways; 

 that is to say, when the sun shines I usually set the 

 cans (five and ten gallon tin cans), where the sun 

 will pour on them all day in the yard, keeping them 

 in a closed room at night and during bad weather. 



This spring our April and May flow was ruined 

 by the March freeze, and honey has been coming in 

 only about enough to enable brood-rearing to go on. 

 Wishing to take some off two weeks since, I extract- 

 ed five gallons of this unsealed honey that would 

 " spill out " when combs were inverted. Some of it 

 was put into Mason quart jars, with cloth tied on; 

 the rest in a flve-gallon tin can. That in the Mason 

 jars is now thick and rich, while the larger quantity 

 in the larger vessel is thickening much more slow- 

 ly. A solar outdoor heat, considerably above a 

 hundred degrees, fell on it two weeks. Would the 

 same result have occurred if it had been kept in- 

 doors in the dark at 90° or 88° ? Will not our aver- 

 age temperature in this latitude in summer ripen 

 honey any way, if kept In open cans in a closed room? 



Losing our spring crop entirely, it looked as if no 

 surplus would come till fall; but the late drouth 

 has brought honey-dew. Black-jack oaks are cov- 

 ered with it, and bees are storing a light-colored 

 honey of good body, which they seal at once. They 

 are just " roaring " all day, and hives grow heavier 

 daily. This honey, some 75 lbs. of which I have 

 just taken, seems to need no artificial ripening, 

 that not sealed not shaking out when the comb is 

 jarred. It evidently comes from aphides ; is rather 

 tasteless, but of better color and body than such 



honey is described as having. Though they have 

 given no surplus during the spring season, I never 

 knew bees to multiply so rapidly. Swarming has 

 been rampant all of May, and continues yet to some 

 extent. In this connection 1 find that no number 

 of crates of sections will stop swarming. " More 

 room" of this kind will not answer. Invariably, al- 

 so, "doubling up" and putting to-day's swarm 

 where yesterday's came from, only delays matters 

 long enough to enable cells to be gotten under 

 way. Upper stories of empty corabs or foundation 

 will check and often stop swarming, with me. 

 During this phenomenal year every thing has " gone 

 by contraries," and the busybodies have caught the 

 infection; they have clustered higher, swarmed 

 oftener, made less honey, and "played more 

 pranks " than I ever knew they were capable of. 

 Pontotoc, Miss., June 5. C. P. Coffin. 



Friend C, your plan of ripening thin hon- 

 ey I think is a rational one — letting the sun 

 do it. The problem has been to exclude 

 dust and rain, and at the same time get all 

 the heat possible from the sun. I feel pret- 

 ty certain that some ventilation through 

 this, under the hotter part of the roof, 

 would also hasten the ripening. 



DO THE BEES MAKE HONEY, OR DO 

 THEY ONLY GATHER IT ? 



IN OTHER WORDS, DO THEY ADD TO, TAKE FROM, 



OR CHANGE OVER NECTAR AS THEY GET IT 



FROM THE FLOWERS ? 



Dear Sir:— la there any chemical change made in 

 "sweet" from the time it is gathered by the bee 

 until deposited in the cell? 



A minister here claims that there is a change 

 made by the bee; but as each kind of flower pro- 

 duces its peculiar kind of honey, when gathered by 

 the bees, it seems strange to me that the bee in her 

 " chemical manipulations" should countenance any 

 such difference. D. A. Kothrock. 



Brighton, 111., June 17. 



Friend R., I think we may safely say 

 that there is practically no difference or no 

 change. There are some scientists and pro- 

 fessors who insist that the bees do change 

 the nectar in carrying it from the flowers to 

 the hives, enough so it can be detected by 

 the chemist. In order to get unfinished sec- 

 tions filled up at the end of the season we 

 have fed to the bees different kinds of hon- 

 ey ; but after being sealed up in the comb, 

 it was exactly the same honey to all appear- 

 ances. By accident we scorched one lot a 

 little, and hoped that the bees in their 

 manipulation might remove the slightly 

 burnt taste. They did not, however, change 

 it a particle.— Again, we once had a lot of 

 honey that candied so readily we could 

 scarcely keep it in liquid form at all. We 

 melted it, added some water, and fed it to 

 the bees. They evaporated out the water 

 added, placed it in their combs and sealed it 

 up, but it candied after being sealed up in 

 the combs just as it did before we fed it to 

 them, and I have never been able to detect 

 that they improved poor honey in any way, 

 neither have I been able to detect that any 

 injury was done ; or, in fact, that any 

 change perceptible to any of our senses was 

 wrought by any of their manipulations. 



