1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



665 



SOMETHING ABOUT BEES AND BEE- 

 HIVES. 



SOMK IXTERESTIXG FACTS ANU HEM I M S( ENCES 

 FROM ONE OF OUK VETEHAX HEADEHS. 



T|p LTHOUGH not recoguizcd aiiiur.«- the iiioic 

 glfc; successful boo cultui-ists of the country, 



jRjp save and except father liaugstroth, I am, 

 ■*^^ perhaps, the oldest. I have been caring- for 

 and handling bees for at least tifty-two 

 jears. Ikfore I was out of my 'teens I had invent- 

 ed various "contraptions " for the more ready and 

 careful handling of bees, none of which are now 

 worthy of mention. I knew very little, however, 

 of what others had been doing with and for the 

 "little busy bee." I had read no books on the sub- 

 ject—knew of none— and had only my own and my 

 father's experience as my guide. It is strange 

 that it should be so; but it so happens in this world 

 tlmt one mans experience amounts to very little. 

 Evolution (development) is indeed the order of cre- 

 ation. I knew what a drone was, and //i.'< uses. I 

 knew what a (lueen was, and the part xlir played in 

 the cconomj- of the beehive. Then, however, she 

 was commonly known as I lie "king-liee." I5ul 1 

 now wonder that any one could have been so igno- 

 rant, and yet be a comparatively successful bee 

 culturist. About this time a little A II (" book on 

 the honey-bee, fell info my hands, which was in- 

 deed a revelation to me. I arose from the perusal 

 of this little volume, the title of which I have for- 

 gotten, delighted with what J had learned, l)ut 

 amazed that such knowledge should have been 

 kept from me so long. This book confirmed all ! 

 had ('\(M- learned, and told me of wonders far be- 

 y<ind any thing 1 had ever imagined as true of the 

 honey-bee. And it was .just at this point that father 

 Langstroth came upon the scene, and told us of the 

 wonders he and others had discovered in this line. 

 He came with book and hive, and said : " I am going 

 to tell you of mysteries more wonderous than any 

 tale ever told by Ai-abian Nights; 1 am going to 

 tell you of the mysteries of the lioney-bee." To say 

 that I read his book with profit, is tame and flat; 1 

 read it with the greatest pleasure, delighted witii 

 the knowledge it afforded, and thankful that my 

 eyes had been opened to the truth as it is. I at 

 once adopted the Langstroth hive, and for more 

 than twehe years I used no other. I followed it 

 through all its different forms, and imitated it in all 

 its different styes. However, after the war, having 

 got rid of all my old bees and hives, by a change of 

 location from the Valley of ^■irginia to tidewater 

 near Hichmond, 1 began to tinker with other styles 

 and make of hives; and the conseguence is, I have 

 now in use about IT different nuike of hives- .just Ifi 

 more than I ought to have. I have th« four differ- 

 ent styles of the late M. Quinby. I have the Sim- 

 plicity, the Gallup, the Triumph (in two diflci-ent 

 l)atternsi the American (in two different styles), 



the Maddox (In two different forms), and three oth- 

 er hives, the jiaternity of which is in obscurity. 

 One of these has 10 combs 20X17 inches. One has 

 12 combs, 12X14 in., and one 10 combs, 11X13 inches. 

 In addition, I have three kinds of my own getup. 

 So you will see I have had quite an experience with 

 hives. Pope said the best government was the one 

 best administered. I might say the same of bc-e- 

 hives— the best one is the one that is best handled; 

 and yet there is a diflference, under the same treat- 

 ment, worthy of consideration. Of course, I think 



j mine better than any other. I aimed to have it free 

 I from the oVijectionable features I had discovered 

 j in nearly all the others I have named. Without in- 

 tending it, the inside measurements of my hive are 

 j nearly precisely those of the Langstroth hive. I5ut 

 j I i-un my frames— 13 in number— crosswise to the 

 I opening. There is no special advantage in tliis, ex- 

 cept in the facility of handling them. I work cn- 

 1 tirely from the rear of the hive, and the bees in 

 front scarcely know what is going on till the honey 

 is all extracted. 

 I begin the honey season by placing all the brood- 

 '. combs in front, and the hive is frequently over- 

 flowing with bees before any brood is found beyond 

 the seventh comb, and the six rear combs will have 

 1 in them nearly all the lioney that is in the hive. 

 j This is a consideration in extracting, if in nothing 

 else. I am not bragging on my hive. I have no 

 I special vanity that way, but only write to say what 

 ; I do and why I do it. G. K. Gilmer. 



Jlarion Hill, Va., Sept. n, 1885. 



REFINING HONEY WITH ANIMAL 

 CHARCOAL. 



i.\ n liK IiiiNE IN xnE WAV WHITE SL'OAIl IS 

 KEFI.NEDy 



POX seeing imiuiries in Gleanings regai-ding 

 the iiossibility of bleaching dark honej- by 

 filtering it through bone-black as syrups arc 

 bleached before crystallization takes place, 

 I would say that, as I am considerably 

 j conversant with the sugar business, will reply 

 that, as the charcoal filters which are used in 

 our refineries are so very expensive, it would lie 

 entirely impractical)Ie for anyone in a small way 

 to ever retlne his fall honey, even if it could l)e 

 done. I think, from what I know of the manufac- 

 ( ture of sugar from our northern sugar-cane juices, 

 and of the nature of their juices as compared with 

 honey, that it would be very doubtful if any such 

 ( i)rocess would prove successful. In making sugar 

 I we treat the expressed juice, first to a lime bath, at 

 a temperature a little less than the boiling heat, 

 about 18^° Fahr. : then when it is reduced to a 

 semi syru|i it is run in on the top of the bone coal, 

 I which consists of Iiurnf animal bone, which is 

 ' ground nearly as fine as coarse blasting powder. 

 j These Alters are about 12 in number, generally, and 

 i are some 3 ft. iu diameter by 12 or 18 ft. high, made 

 of boiler iron riveted together as engine boilers are, 

 j in the same way. This saccharine liquid slowly 

 leaches through the filters, after which it is pump- 

 ed up into the vacuum pan, where it is reduced to 

 I the proper density for granulation, and it is then 

 j discharged. If honey were to be put through the 

 I char filter it would first have to be reduced in den- 

 sity to about the <-onsisteney which it comes in from 

 vaporated afterward, so as 

 again its proper density. 

 While going through the char, it loses much of its 

 coloring matter: and while there it casts off some 

 of its chai-acteristic flavor. It also takes on a bor- 

 rowed flavor from the bone black, which, to many. 

 is not pleasant. Now, were honey to be subjected 

 to even the leaching process, I think it would after- 

 ward hardly be recognized as Jumcy again. 



The crude sugars of commerce are not bleached 

 in this way. The sugars resulting from this pro- 

 cess make a common brown sugar. The brown, or 



1 siiy lo auoui iiie j-oiisisici 



the field, and then bo ev 



! to give to it again its proi 



