1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



1^^ 



SOME EXPEKIMENTS. 



MORE ABOUT PREVENTING THE CRYSTALLIZATION 

 OF SUGAR SYRUP BY THE ADDITION OF HONEY. 



N page 13, friend Root sajs to J. D. Gehring, 

 " Very good, friend G. But if honey effectu- 

 ally prevents crystallization, what is the use 

 of going- to the trouble of boiling it? Just 

 pour boiling water on your sugar, put in the 

 iiuautity of honey mentioned, stir it thoroughly, 

 and there you have it, without taking it near the 

 stove at all." But the trouble is, " there you don't 

 have it," and that is often the ti-ouble with us when 

 we attempt to make theory take the place of prae- 

 itce, and scientific thought the place of fact. 



When making my difTerent experiments last fall, 

 to see if I could not get a syrup for feeding purpos- 

 es which would not crystallize, and thus bother the 

 bees, I also tried another, which was, to see what 

 quantity of sugar syrup must be added to honey to 

 keep it from granulating, as I had a few people who 

 desired honey fl.xed so it would remain a liquid for 

 an indefinite time, while all know that nearly all of 

 our honey will granulate in a few weeks after being 

 liquefied by heat. As in these experiments the hon- 

 ey must still hold the same flavor afterward that it 

 did before, of course I could not boil it, for by so 

 doing the flavor is always changed. So I made a 

 syrup of the consistency of honey, and let it cool 

 until it was no warmer than that I could hold my 

 hand on the outside of the vessel which contained 

 it. I now took six glass dishes, and in the first I put 

 all it would hold of the regular bee-feed, such as 1 

 told you of last fall. The second I filled with clear 

 syrup as it came from the vessel spoken of above. 

 For the third I took three parts of this syruj) and 

 one part of my best honey, which had not yet be- 

 gun to granulate. This honey was first carefully 

 mixed with the syrup, by putting both in a vessel 

 together, and stirring until thoroughly incorporated, 

 when it was poured where it was to stay. The fourth 

 contained a mixture of one-half honey and one halt 

 syrup, incorporated together as was the third. The 

 fifth glass contained a mixture of three i)arts honey 

 and one part syrup, while the sixth was filled with 

 clear honey. All were now carefully secured from 

 dust and moisture, and set away in a dark jilace in 

 my shop, where they have been left unmolested for 

 8'/2 months. The mercul-y has been as low as 1::° 

 below zero in this shop during this time, and as high 

 as 80° above. 



To-day I got out these dishes, and this is how I 

 find them: The first, or bee-syru|), remains exactly 

 as it was when placed there, thus showing that I 

 have a permanently good thing in the shape of 30 

 lbs. sugar, 1.5 lbs. of water, and 5 Its. of honey; the 

 water first being brought to a boil, then the sugar 

 poured in and stirred half a minute or so, when this 

 is allowed to boil. The honey is poured in, and the 

 whole mixed as soon as the vessel containing the 

 syrup is taken from the fire. I have given the pro- 

 cess in short again, thinking yoti might have some 

 new subscribers lor 1885 who would not see my 1884 

 article. 



The second, containing clear sugar syrifH has the 

 dish one-half full of clear, transparent, and whitish 

 crystals, while the liquid portion is nearly as thin as 

 water. 



The third {}.i honey, ^^_ syrup) has a few crystals 

 attached to the sides of the glass, while the bottom 

 is quite thickly covered with crystals, the syrup be- 

 ing a little thinner than when first made. 



In the fourth, which is 'i honey and 'j syrup, I 

 find little change, except here and there a little 

 speck of granulated honey the size of a pinhead 

 and smaller. I can not detect a'single crystal any- 

 where. Were it not that this takes ;» instead of 1-10 

 honej-, it might be equally valuable as a bee-feed. 



The fifth (i'^ honey and ^ syrup) is granulated in- 

 to a soft pliable candy, which would do quite well 

 for shippingqueens with.if it will not soften so as to 

 run in warm weather. It is very much whiter than 

 the sixth (clear honey), which is granulated very 

 hard and solid, except having a little moist look on 

 top. 



From the above it will be seen that it becomes 

 almost a necessity to boil our bee-feed, no matter 

 how much the " gude wife " may object, if we would 

 have a first-class feed in every respect. Those of 

 us who have steam-engines can boil it with steam, 

 and by the barrel, to which the " gude wife " will 

 not object; while those having an oil-stove will find 

 a convenient place in almost any unoccupied room 

 where they can prepare the feed. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. V., Jan. 26, 1885. 



Friend 1)., perhaps yoti did not mean to 



accuse me of attempting to make theory take 



the place of practice ; hut the close of your 



lirst iiaragraph looks a little tliat way. I 



think \vc have fed about as many tons of the 



sugar syrup as most of the lire'thren. and I 



believe our bees generally winter pretty well 



! too, and we have done it without boiling the 



! syrup either. J.,ately we have used a steaui- 



j pipe in a large tin can, because Ave can get 



! the sugar boiling quicker that wav than bv 



pouring boiling water on it. If ."() lbs. of 



sugar. I.> lbs. of water, and o lbs. of honey 



behaves itself right along as it has with you, 



I do not see what more we desire, and we 



owe you a vote of thanks for the experiments 



you have made. 



SEPARATORS FOR SECTIONS, AND 

 HONEY-BOARDS. 



ALSO SOMETHING AltOUT RECALLING THE DISCARD- 

 ED H(}NEY-BOAUD. 



DITOH GLKAN1NGS:-Many of us are sur- 

 prised at the evidence presented before the 

 N. W. Bee-keepers' Convention against their 

 use. But for the first time it is admitted by 

 Mr. Hutchinson that the whole case must be 

 taken ofi" at once, for to put in new ones beside 

 those partly filled would surely cause bulging. 



This was one of the points I made last summer in 

 my letter. A <.emedy for that was suggested, it is 

 true, by a number, that by crowding to one side 

 unfinished sections, and facing new ones by those 

 capped over— a vain remedy, for it only increases 

 the evil when those are done. What bee-keeper 

 would advise leaving snow-white capped sections in 

 till new ones alongside are completed? Wouldn't 

 they become soiled? 



1 know it is no light matter to question the evi- 

 dence of such producers as Messrs. Heddon and 

 Hutchinson; but repeated experiments in my 

 racks, and in wide frames, to get honey I could 

 crate has failed every time, even when using whole 

 starters. I would, therefore, advise beginners to go 

 slow. 



When honey is booming, in tiering up and some- 

 times transposing sections, is the way to help the 



