162 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 19, 1903. 



wouldn't say boil it, but when you melt honey somewhat 

 old and sour you will find a good deal of froth that comes 

 out from the honey. This sourness, I am of the opinion it 

 could be brought to a heat enough without boiling the honey 

 so it wouldn't be sour. 



Mr. Whitney— Did you try it ? 



Mr. Moore — I have melted a great deal of candied honey. 

 I have melted some lots that would pretty near fill this bill 

 of candied and sour honey, and I feel sure, in some cases, 

 the heating without boiling would pretty nearly sweeten it. 

 I am quite sure the boiling would sweeten it, and then you 

 can have it for summer food. 



Mr. Wilcox — I wish you were sure you are right about 

 that. I had a barrel returned to me once, and I had it 

 almost to a boiling heat. 



Mr. Moore — What proportion of it ? 



Mr. Wilcox — Very thin honey to candy, consequently it 

 doesn't become very solid, and I put in saleratus and boiled 

 it, skimmed it thoroughly, and then tried it on my own 

 table, and it was still sour. That experiment satisfied me. 



Mr. Moore — How thick was it after it was all done ? 



Mr. Wilcox — About as thick as ordinary honey. 



Mr. Moore — Did you try it on the bees ? 



Mr. Wilcox — I didn't go so far. I couldn't get them out, 

 and if any one can I would like to know how. 



Dr. Miller — Answering perhaps what is desired by the 

 questioner, that is, as to whether that honey can be right- 

 fully and profitably fed to the bees, I should say that in the 

 early part of the season it could be fed and turned into 

 brood very profitably. I believe the bees will take it and 

 use it nearly as well as straight honey. There is some- 

 thing, though heating honey that is a little bit sour will 

 improve it. Possibly it might be so sour that it could not 

 be improved. 



Mr. Purple— I am sorry to say that I haven't had quite 

 experience enough in this to go as far as I would like, but I 

 fed several pounds to some of my bees, black bees, this fall. 

 They had given me all they had stored, and I couldn't do 

 anything else except extract it and feed it back. I fed 

 back sour honey boiled, and boiled hard. It will froth over, 

 but if you boil it well it will stop, and just let it settle down, 

 and it wasn't sour. It looked like, say the consistency of 

 malt or boiled cider, but it was sweet, and wasn't sour. I 

 was looking at a colony last Sunday, that had nothing but 

 that to live on, and there were only half a dozen dead bees 

 in the hive. 



Dr. Miller— Wait until spring. 



Mr. Purple— That's what I want. I am sorry I can't 

 report more fully. These colonies didn't have a pound in 

 the hive. 



Mr. France— Are those bees in-doors or out-doors ? 



Mr. Purple — Indoors. 



Mr. Moore — I suppose you know the process of turning 

 sweet into vinegar. Every lady, when she makes bread, 

 raises it, knows that there is alcohol formed in there, and 

 that is largely gaseous— the generating of the sugar into 

 alcohol. Now, when it starts to ferment the sugar has been 

 turned into alcohol, then the alcohol turns into acid vinegar. 

 Now boil this and a froth is caused by the gaseous alcohol. 

 That's why boiling improves it, and whether it is cured 

 entirely or not depends on how far this turning of the 

 sugar into alcohol has progressed, and on certain chemical 

 changes. When- a chemical change has gone on, nothing 

 will bring it back to the orignal state. I should think it 

 would be perfectly safe for summer feeding, but for winter 

 feeding I think you would be taking the lives of the bees 

 into your own hands. 



Dr. Miller — The one general remark about feeding this 

 sort of honey, in no case would I ever allow it to be used for 

 winter stores. I should be very much surprised if Mr. Pur- 

 ple wouldn't settle down to the opinion that he never wants 

 to feed in the fall anything but good, sweet honey. In the 

 summer bees might work on boiled vinegar, and make some 

 use of it when they are flying every day, but in the fall I 

 wouldn't work over any honey. 



Mr. Wilcox— Is that equivalent to admitting that the 

 bees do not make the change, and make sweet honey of it ? 



Mr. France— Right along this line I agree with Dr. 

 Miller. I find, especially in our State, that bees that have 

 been wintered indoors, and have been fed this sour honey, 

 although reboiled, it is dangerous ; but where they are out- 

 doors you have more chance of their sweetening it up ; but 

 a good, wholesome honey is by far the best. 



Pres. York— I want to introduce Emerson T. Abbott, of 

 Missouri. They had a wreck on the road he came on, and 

 he was delayed in getting here. 



Mr. Abbott — I wasn't in the wreck, but the other fellow 



was. and we had the pleasure of sitting for GK hours wait- 

 ing to know whether we would ever get out of it or not. If 

 you have ever sat that way you can imagine how we felt. 

 We were thinking about you. I am glad to see you all, 

 glad to be with you, and hope to have something to say 

 later. 



(Continued next week. ) 



I Contributed Articles. 



A " National Honey Exchange " Outlined. 



BY G. B. DUDLEY. 



A THERE should be a great central organization which 

 I we will name " The National Honey-Producers' Ex- 

 ' change," with a General Manager to keep in touch 

 with the State and local associations in order to send their 

 honey to the various markets of the country, thus avoiding 

 glutting the central markets as is now the case. 



2. The National Exchange shouldemploy as f/ieira,^en/s 

 the Citrus Fruit Exchange, at the lowest possible rate ob- 

 tainable, to gather in the honey from all sections of the 

 country not easily reached by the National Exchange, and 

 sell the same in the best markets nearest to where it is pro- 

 duced ; also, to handle such other honey as the Manager of 

 the National Exchange might turn in to it if it should be- 

 come necessary for him to do so. 



3. State and local associations should be formed to 

 grade the honey and ship it according to the rules and in- 

 structions of the National Exchange, or those of the Citrus 

 Fruit Exchange, where it is more easy to deal with the lat- 

 ter. These State and local associations should, of course, 

 choose local managers who should look out for home inter- 

 ests, and keep in touch with the General Manager of the 

 National Exchange. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Each association shall have its stamp or seal to be used 

 where the National association has no proper representative. 

 Also each case of honey shall bear the number of its pro- 

 ducer, so that poor honey can be traced back to the packer. 

 When local associations can sell their honey at prices equal 

 to or higher than they could get by selling through the Na- 

 tional association, f/iey should be expected to do so. 



The Citrus Fruit Exchange having agents and build- 

 ings in nearly every city of the country, the National, by 

 employing them as their agents, would be able to cover the 

 whole country from the start, thus giving sections too re- 

 mote from the National organization a chance to sell their 

 honey through a proper channel. 



When the National Association grows to cover the 

 whole country themselves, they could drop the Citrus Fruit 

 Exchange. 



The National would establish agencies wherever desir- 

 able. 



It seems reasonable that the new California National 

 Honey-Producers' Association could make a proper bargain 

 with the Citrus Fruit Exchange, and get in a vporking basis 

 for this season. Let them harness the successful Citrus 

 Fruit Exchange into their work, as their agents, and they 

 will be a success from the start. 



Will not the California National carry out this pro- 

 gram ? Arapahoe Co., Colo. 



Extra-Large Hives and Long- Lived Queens. 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



NOW, Yon Yonson, let me have a whack at you. You 

 say, why not rear a queen in a barn, and then you 

 could have one big enough for a pony to ride on. Well, 

 you see that would not work. On the same daj- we took the 

 honey out of the house, spoken of in another article, my 

 son had the ofi^er of a colony on the roof of a tank-house, 

 providing we gave the man the honey. So my son brought 

 the colony home on the wheelbarrow. They were in quite 

 a large box. We transferred comb and brood enough to 

 partly fill 3 frames. 



Now, Yon, you can readily see they were in a barn, to 



