770 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 15 



REVER'S SOLAR LIQUEFIER. 



The upper view shows the glass front removed from the box 



yeartoyear unchanged, and, under favorable 

 conditions, will remain indefinitely without 

 granulating. If, for any reason, the honey 

 is not thoroughly treated, it may sooner or 

 later show a tendency to crystyllize. 



In this connection I would say that I have 

 found full sunshine absolutely essential to 

 perfect sterilization. Unfortunately, this is 

 a feature which we can not control. In the 

 sunny South I know of no reason why a so- 

 lar sterilizer of honey should not be eminent- 

 ly successful, and, to some extent, be utiliz- 

 ed in putting up bulk comb honey. 



BULK COMB HONEY. 



With comb and extracted honey together, 

 my experience has been quite limited; but 

 for the benefit of our bee-keeping friends in 

 the South, who put up and deal in this class 

 of honey, I will report briefly some of my 

 experiments. I used two-quart wide mouih 



flass jars altogether. On several occasions 

 put choice comb honey in several of these 

 iars and then filled them up with sterilized 

 liquid honey. The honey which leaked from 

 the comb invariably caused more or less 

 patchy granulation, but the jars went through 

 the winter without granulating solid. I 



would carry these experiments 

 further if there were a demand 

 in my locality for honey put up 

 in this form. Comb honey, of 

 course, can not be sterilized 

 without melting the comb. 



THE STERILIZER I USE. 



My old solar wax-extractor I 

 placed in an upright position, 

 and it became after this a solar 

 honey -sterilizer exclusively. I 

 use almost entirely the two- 

 quart jars, such as we use for the 

 Boardman feeder, not because 

 they are the best, but because I 

 have a large supply of them on 

 hand, and because I can use 

 them economically, both for 

 storage and for my own home 

 market. Smaller packages give 

 better results. When usmg the 

 large jars my sterilizer has a ca- 

 pacity of about 200 lbs. This has 

 sometimes proved to be too 

 small, especially when the weath- 

 er was unfavorable. I supple- 

 mented the work by placing 

 some cans on the sunny side of 



1a wall on benches to keep the 

 honey from granulating until I 

 could more thoroughly treat it in 

 the sterilizer later. 

 AN IDEAL STERILIZER. 

 I have under consideration an 

 improvement in my bee-house 

 to make this sterilizing feature 

 more permanent. The south 

 _ end of the building will be made 

 into a mammoth sterilizer, closed 

 like a conservatory, and having 

 an adjustable shutter from the 

 inside. I will have two or more 

 compartments independent of 

 each other, and these will also be used as 

 windows to light the room, which is to be 

 used for storing honey as well as a woik- 

 room. In this room the extracted honey can 

 be stored and treated in the sterihzer at will 

 without going outside. 

 Collins, Ohio. 



[It appears that the article by Mr. Rood 

 called forth still another response, and that 

 was by Mr. C. W. Rever; but apparently 

 the latter did not associate with the method 

 the chemical effect of the sun, for he states 

 that it might woik very well with the 60-lb. 

 tin cans; but it would appear from the ex- 

 periments of Mr Boardman and Mr. Rood 

 that the sun's rays do something else than 

 really heat the honey. If old Sol can bleach 

 some objects and darken others through 

 what is known as the actinic rays; if he also 

 has the power of destroying certain deadly 

 germs and making other forms of life propa- 

 gate, we may reasonably presume that he 

 might have some effect apart from the heat 

 that it may impart. We are glad to place 

 before our i-eaders the article ^y Mr. Rever. 

 —Ed.] 



