1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



191 



That was a nice predicament, and to 

 dispose of that pocket full of bees was 

 somewhat of a puzzle. To dislodge 

 them would have been an easy matter 

 by shaking the garments upside down, 

 if I had not been in them, but I could 

 not very well shake myself with my 

 feet in the air. After considering and 

 debating the situation most thoroughly 

 I finally decided to go back to the 

 honey house where I could separate 

 myself from any or all of my garments 

 unmolested. This accomplished, it was 

 comparatively easy, standing at the 

 open door, to shake the bees outdoors, 

 although scantily attired as I was, the 

 situation was none too enjoyable; at 

 times a little more protection to my 

 anatomy would have been more ac- 

 ceptable. 



A solution to the strange behavior 

 of the bees in this case is not difficult 

 to find. Undoubtedly the queen was 

 in that super when it was taken from 

 the hive, and when the bees were 

 swept from the sections she, too, had 

 to take wing. Accidentally she lit on 

 my body near the hip-pocket, and its 

 bee scent (I always carry my hive-tool 

 in that pocket) attracted her in that 

 direction to look for a hiding place. 

 Having once entered the pocket it was 

 only a natural consequence that the 

 bees followed her. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



Second Hand Cans 



BY A. F. BONNEY. 



A YEAR ago I conceived the 

 bright idea that I could so fix 

 my tin containers that they 

 would not rust, and thereby save them. 

 Honey, I argued .with myself, is always 

 slightly acid, enough so that it will 

 redden blue litmus paper at a tempera- 

 ture of 70 degrees in far less than one 

 minute. It is this acid which attacking 

 the tin, rusts it, far sooner, at any rate, 

 than moisture will. 



The cans we use are but thinly coated 

 with tin, just enough of the metal to 

 protect the steel a reasonable time, and 

 when drained will soon eat out, expos- 

 ing the steel to the action of air and 

 moisture. 



I took a new can, put into it a lump 

 of paraffin, enough, I thought, to cover 

 the bottom and an inch of the sides, 

 melted it over a hot fire, rolled the can 

 about and set down to cool. I next put 

 in some honey and poured it out. I 

 recently dissected this can, and the 

 protected parts were as clean and 

 bright as when new. At the same time 

 I took a second-hand can, washed it, 

 dried it well over a good heat, and 

 coating it as was the first one, treated 

 it the same. The result was the same. 



I see no reason why we cannot coat 

 the whole inside of the tin containers, 

 ?nd thus make them available for sec- 

 ond and even third use. The expense 

 would not exceed, for wax and time, 

 two cents per can, but if ten cents it 

 would still be a good investment. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



[The experience of Mr. Pellett at 

 Chicago, where he found that honey in 

 second-hand cans sold for 2 cents less 

 per pound than that in new cans, would 

 indicate that unless we can make our 

 cans look new on the outside as well, 

 it is a loss of money to use second- 

 hand cans. But they can probably be 

 used for other purposes, and Dr. Bon- 

 ney's idea may help save them. — Editor. ] 



Fermenting Honey 



BY W. U. NULL. 



MR. EDITOR, I notice in your 

 write-up in the April number, 

 your visit to Mr. Kenyon, that 

 he has trouble with "ferment in the 

 cells." Is he sure it is a ferment ? Do 

 all gases come from fermentation ? 

 That is a very live question in this sec- 

 tion, and has been since we have pro- 

 duced honey crops here. It shows here 

 every year, some years worse than 

 others. We have thought it came from 

 a plant, and for a long time blamed it 

 to cotton honey and also to several 

 other plants. We also put the blame 

 on the weather, but had to abandon 

 that idea also. 



We simply do not know where to put 

 the blame. It costs this section thou- 

 sands of dollars. That it is not a fer- 

 ment I am sure, as we extracted sam- 

 ples and sent to the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington to examine. 

 We sorted out all the extracting combs 

 in one part of one yard that showed the 

 " blow out," as the boys call it, and ex- 

 tracted a 600-pound tank of it. After 

 letting it stand some weeks, we sent 

 one 2-pound sample from the top of 

 the tank and another from the bottom 

 and asked Dr. Phillips to have the 

 chemists find out what was the trouble. 

 They sent back an analysis of both 

 samples and pronounced it of good 



quality and nothing wrong with it, and 

 yet the foam rose several inches on top 

 of that tank. The honey was good, but 

 it spoils the appearance of sections, as 

 it blows out thecappings and leaks out. 

 I have known a 13-ounce section to 

 leak out to 4 ounces. 



When it is extracted and used liquid, 

 it seems all right. But when it granu- 

 lates, it generates enough gas to blow 

 out the lids of friction-top cans. When 

 it is liquefied it is all right again until 

 it commences to granulate again. It 

 granulates very quickly. 



It seems to me this is a chance for 

 the Department of Agriculture to put 

 some investigator to work to the ad- 

 vantage of a big section of country. 

 We have so many plants here that are 

 common in New York and so many 

 that are not, that by checking one 

 locality against the other the guilty 

 plant may be found out and the trouble 

 may possibly be overcome. There are 

 many plants upon which our bees work 

 that are not identified in the crop and 

 may yet have an influence on the re- 

 sults. 



Mr. Harte, who had charge of the 

 AUenville yards, where he produced 

 one year 19 tons of honey from 500 col- 

 onies, lost heavily from the " blow out" 

 that year. He spent a great deal of 

 time for six years trying to find the 

 cause, but he died as ignorant of it as 

 the rest of us. 



Demopolis, Ala. 



DR. FRANCOIS DADANT, FATHER OF CHARLES DADANT. 



