1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



343 



has for some time been a question how best 

 to separate honey perfectly from cappings. 



It may not generally be known that wax 

 will melt at a temperature of 150 to 155°, 

 while most honey will remain unharmed at 

 a temperature of 160. Indeed, you can raise 

 the temperature of clover honey to 170 for a 

 little while without harm. A year ago we 

 bought many hundreds of pounds of honey 

 from a large dealer that had been broken or 

 granulated. By placing it in a large tank 

 with water-jacket the temperature rose to 

 160°, when the wax came to the top, and, 

 after cooling, was easily separated from the 

 honey. We have had occasion to buy more 

 the past autumn, and treat in the same way, 

 with equal success. Of course, the honey 

 and wax must be stirred often so as to keep 

 the temperature even through the mass. 



The past summer at one of my yards, dur- 

 ing my absence, quite an amount of honey 

 and cappings came off together, which I 

 found separated easily by means of the dou- 

 ble boiler. Where a large amount of feed- 

 ing is required in the fall I have found that 

 a very good method is to take cappings after 

 letting what honey drain out that will read- 

 ily, keep them till we are ready to feed, then 

 soak them out in water and use the rinsings 

 for melting sugar in. Some use these rins- 

 ings for vinegar, but I prefer to use them 

 for feeding. 



5EE KELPING 



IN THE 30UTHVEST 



Prospects in Texas are good. 



The Southwest has enjoyed a mild winter. 



An average of three frames with brood in 

 January, and bees were in splendid condi- 

 tion. 



The way we throw hives around, handling 

 hundreds of colonies, nails to hold hive, tags 

 will be driven into the wall of the hive-bodies 

 in time. With the bent staples there is no 

 trouble. See p. 139, Feb. 1. 



Little cubes of honey, in paraflSne wrap- 

 pers, etc., to be served in hotels and dining- 

 cars, is a good idea. It seems that the North 

 will some time enter into the production of 

 "chunk" honey yet. 



Honey is a luxury for those who use it 

 only occasionally and keep it in the house to 

 place on the table just when visitors call. 

 For those who know the true value of honey 

 especially its heathfulness as a food, and who 

 use It on the table regularly, it is not a luxu- 

 ry but a necessity. 



The tendency with too many bee-keepers 

 is to let a great many things go to waste and 

 continually buy anew, which costs money. 

 More economy and less extravagance is what 

 the American bee-keeper needs. 



Contrary to the arguments of some of our 

 authorities, I believe that hives well painted 

 will last very much longer, keep in shape 

 better, and look nicer than unpainted ones. 

 These three points in favor of painted hives 

 are enough to make me put a new coat of 

 paint on all of my hives, supers, bottoms, 

 covers, and all other supplies and implements 

 this spring before the honey-flow. 



NARROW VS. WIDE BOTTOM-BARS. 



Wide bottom-bars with only J-inch space 

 between them would retard communication 

 between stories very much. It is already det- 

 rimental with wide top-bars, leaving only \- 

 inch space between them. That's why my 

 top-bars are I inch wide and \ inch thick; 

 and there are no more brace-combs than with 

 wider ones in the same hive. The bottom- 

 bars are only | inch. It is easy to look up 

 between the combs; and a great advantage 

 is that all the queen-cells will be built right 

 past these narrow bars from the lower edge 

 of the combs of the upper story of the divis- 

 ible brood-chamber. I say all; for those that 

 will not be built there, if the combs are all 

 solid slabs, are too few to mention. Where 

 would the cells be with wide bottom- bars? 

 and what would be the advantage of such 

 width? 



GLUCOSE OR "CORN SYRUP." 



We have tried some of the stuff known as 

 "corn syrup," hence are in position to side 

 with those who are making such a vigorous 

 protest against calling a thing such, which it is 

 not. Glucose should be the name for it, for 

 the people would then know what they buy. 

 Of course, the bee-keepers will favor this. 

 Now for my experiment: Taking a tumbler 

 of honey and a similar one of "corn syrup " 

 it will be found that it takes twice as much 

 of the latter on bread "to get a taste," and 

 then it does not give as much of a taste as 

 half the amount of honey would. The syrup 

 costs ''only 50 cents for a ten-pound bucket, 

 while honey is $1.00;" but the consumer does 

 not know that he must use more than two 

 buckets of it to one of honey; and instead of 

 getting tha good that he would from honey 

 he eats thrice the quantity of the injurious 

 glucose stuff. 



at 



HOT AIR FOR LIQUEFYING HONEY. 



It seems that the time will come when 

 hot air will be used more for heating and 

 reliquefying honey than the old method of 

 placing the vessels in hot water. I stumbled 

 across this idea quite a while ago. A 60-lb. 

 can of granulated extracted honey was set 

 on the brick wall surrounding a large boiler 

 that was kept going night and day. On the 

 following day all the honey had melted and 

 was as tnin as water. The can was at least 



