738 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 1 



October is a good month, and the bees 

 swarm considerably; but at this time we do 

 not make artificial swarms, as the white- 

 honey flow begins Nov. 1. We hive all the 

 bees on full combs so that they will be ready 

 for the crop. In November and December, 

 during the best flow, which is all white, we 

 extract each yard every seven days, and we 

 get from five to ten barrels, usually, a day. 

 Last year, during the last extracting, we cut 

 out combs, which, when melted up, amount- 

 ed to 600 lbs. of wax. 



On the first of November of this year I ex- 

 pect to change to comb honey in 4x5 plain 

 sections. I am making wide frames for the 

 same supers that are on the hives now, and 

 will replace the nine frames with seven 

 wide frames containing in all 28 sections. I 

 formerly used a T super holding 40 4x5 plain 

 sections; but I found that was entirely too 

 large for Cuba. About the first of Novem- 

 ber the queen begins to lay fewer eggs, so 

 that the hive has a smaller force of working 

 bees, and at best the gain is not more than 

 five to fifteen pounds of honey per week. 

 I use only white combs in the sections for 

 starters. My supers are at present full of 

 white comb. I cut this out of the frames and 

 divide it into squares to fill 25,000 sections. 

 I dip the square pieces of comb in hot wax 

 and stick them on the tops of the sections. 



In the manner above described I raised 

 70,000 lbs. of comb honey in two years. In 

 the United States this would not be practic- 

 able, as there is no white comb when the 

 crop begins. I look at all the supers each 

 week, and take out the finished sections, al- 

 ways keeping those that contain honey to- 

 gether near the center of the super, so that 

 when the season ends there will be but very 

 few unfinished sections. 



We use 24-section shipping-cases packed 

 eight to the carrier, with plenty of hay. Re- 

 ports show that my honey reaches the State 

 of Indiana in perfect condition; in fact, the 

 honey from Cuba is said to reach New York 

 in better condition than that shipped by rail. 



Cauto, Cuba. 



WEEPING" HONEY. 



A Serious Problem Confronting Some of 

 the Bee-keepers in the South; Comb 

 Honey that Becomes Water- soaked Aft- 

 er Standing. 



BY H. F. HART. 



Honey oozing through the cappings, as 

 mentioned on page 644, Oct. 15, has been a 

 "bete noir " with both comb-honey and ex- 

 tracted-honey producers these two last sea- 

 sons, and as yet we have been unable to get 

 any solution. Some of us have taken the 

 matter up with the Department at Washing- 

 ton, but so far as I can learn the officials 

 there have examined only extracted honey, 

 and not that in the comb. I wish to say dis- 

 tinctly that it is not old or frozen honey, but 

 perfectly new honey that weeps; and, what 

 makes it worse, is that it is almost impossi- 



ble to detect the sections that will weep 

 later. 



During this past season I have graded and 

 packed some very fine fancy wnite honey 

 that looked just perfect, and had it stored 

 under ideal conditions, only to find, a few 

 weeks later, that the whole lot had to be re- 

 packed, one-fourth or more weeping. 



There is no rule, either, in the weeping 

 section. I have had all the 8 outside sec- 

 tions weeping, and the other 28 perfect; then, 

 again, a patch on the top in some and in 

 others a patch on the bottom, or one side 

 perfect and the other weeping. I have re- 

 turned these sections to the nive, and the 

 bees clean them up, and late in the season 

 the only mark of their being imperfect is the 

 very convex appearance of the cappings. 

 Supers left for a long time on the hive are 

 apt to have a very considerable quantity of 

 wax daubed all over the cappings as if the 

 bees were trying to stop a leak. This is not 

 confined to the supers; but the same state of 

 affairs can be noticed in the brood-nest. 



The source that the honey was derived 

 from I am not able to determine; but sweet 

 clover, white clover, persimmon, and Trifolia 

 recumbens I know were blooming. I wrote, 

 offering to send the Department at Washing- 

 ton typical sections, but they preferred to 

 have samples of extracted, which I do not 

 think would throw the light on the matter 

 that the new honey in the comb would. 



There is one peculiarity with this weeping 

 honey when extracted: After whole or par- 

 tial granulation it increases from 15 to 20 per 

 cent in bulk, and the resulting mass granu- 

 lates in a very fine crystal; in fact, it is more 

 like butter, while our other honey granu- 

 lates in large grains, although from tne in- 

 crease in bulk one's first thought is fermen- 

 tation. 



There is no sourness resulting — in fact, 

 many prefer the butter honey to the large- 

 grain honey. I am much interested in hav- 

 ing this matter solved satisfactorily, and 

 hope that some of your scientific contribu- 

 tors will take the matter up. 



I wish to add to the list of flowers whose 

 pollen might be found in Mr. Baldwin's hon- 

 ey, p. 639, titi and the black tupelo, which 

 would both be blooming about the same 

 time as orange. Bees also gather consider- 

 able from the loquat, which blooms earlier 

 than either. Gallberry and sweet bay would 

 also bloom about the same time. 

 Allenville, Ala. 



[On page 644 we mentioned four condi- 

 tions that might account for "weeping" 

 honey; namely, age, freezing, rough han- 

 dling, and source. Apparently the last men- 

 tioned was the cause of the weeping refer- 

 red to on page 644. 



It is doubtless true that, in some seasons, 

 and especially from some sources, the honey 

 is not thoroughly ripened before it is sealed. 

 If that is the case it would have a tendency 

 to work and expand. 



Again, honey is deliquescent — that is, it 

 has a tendency to absorb moisture and be- 

 come thinner. Assuming that the cappings 



