GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



than a failure; it is a damage to the honey 

 market; that no honey-producer should at- 

 tempt it unless he wants to enter quite 

 extensively into the manufacture of honey 

 vinegar, and doubts if the nectar would 

 make as good vinegar as ripe honey would ; 

 that the all-important question to the con- 

 sumer is, the flavor of the honey he is eat- 

 ing ; and if we want him to eat more honey 

 we must give him the thick delicious honey 

 with the bouquet of the flowers in it; and 

 we can not get this from nectar, nor can 

 man ripen the nectar so that it will be equal 

 to the honey that the bees have finished. 



Mr. Southworth's views were sustained in 

 the discussion that followed the reading of 

 the paper, and neither Mr. L. C. Root nor 

 any other member spoke in favor of ripen- 

 ing honey outside the hive. 



At the Harrisburg convention of the 

 National Beekeepers' Association, 1907, 

 there was a question by H. Ballon, " Can 

 you get more honey per colony by frequent 

 extracting of the combs during a honey- 

 flow than by tiering up supers with full 

 combs?" 



Answered by E. W. Alexander : " Yes, 1 

 think we can get nearly twice the amount; 

 but you will require some large tanks for 

 ripening it thoroughly before it is barreled. 

 We make it a point to extract just when 

 the bees commence to cap it. We seldom 

 have any surplus except buckwheat and 

 goldenrod, and occasionally some basswood. 

 AVe find it a great improvement on the honey 

 from these flowers to keep it in the tanks 

 about two weeks so it will lose a part of 

 the strong odor and unpleasant flavor it has 

 when first extracted. It gives much better 

 satisfaction, and sells far more readily, 

 than if it were barreled up as soon as ex- 

 tracted. I know that any honey that has a 

 strong disagi'eeable odor and taste is much 

 improved by being exposed to the air a 

 short time." 



In the further discussion of this question 

 the writer expressed admiration for nearly 

 all of Mr. Alexander's doctrines; but as to 

 this one of teaching the advisability of ex- 

 tracting honey before it is capped he en- 

 tered a protest. He pointed out that it 

 might be all right for Mr. Alexander, but 

 that he was answering a question that goes 

 to the beekeeping world; that if we teach 

 beekeepers that honey can be extracted and 

 ripened afterward we shall have about nine- 

 lenths of them not ripening it afterward. 

 The gain in quantity would not be sufficient 

 to compensate for the loss in quality. The 

 va-iter stated that he himself was interested 

 in producing honey that was as good as the 

 bees covild make it. 



The president, Mr. Aspinwall, seemed to 

 have a little preference in favor of ripening 

 outside the hive, especially for so skillful a 

 beekeeper as Mr. Alexander, expressing the 

 belief that the gain in quantity was greater 

 than the loss, but said it was right to "warn 

 jjeople against promiscuously doing that 

 sort of thing." Upon inquiry by the Pres- 

 ident, if there were any artificial processes 

 given in the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Cul- 

 ture, Mr. E, R. Root answered, " These are 

 all out." It may be remarked here that this 

 answer is very significant as showing that 

 it is considered unwise to teach or in any 

 way encourage the ripening of honey out- 

 side the hive. 



Mr. Selser, a very extensive producer and 

 distributor of honey, and a widely known 

 expert analyst and judge of honeys, having 

 performed extensive and numerous services 

 for the United States government, in that 

 line, said, " I should like to have it go out 

 from tlais convention before the United 

 States that we do wi'ong in evaporating 

 honey in tanks instead of letting the bees 

 do it in the ordinary and natural way." 



Mr. Holtermann, one of Canada's larger 

 IDroducers and best authorities, expressed 

 admiration for many of Mr. Alexander's 

 wi-itings, but thought him entirely wrong 

 ujoon this question of taking out honey in 

 the condition in which he speaks of; that 

 he can't do it, and manage the way he says 

 he does ; for a man who has a stock of bees 

 with the large worker force he speaks of, 

 and has one extracting-super on the hive, 

 can't extract before the honey is capped, 

 and have that honey all in the condition 

 where it is just ready to seal. In a good 

 buckwheat flow we all know that a stock 

 like that can, in one week's time, fill a 

 twelve-frame super. Mr. Holtermann con- 

 sidered Mr. Alexander's mistake in using 

 only one extracting-super. If he would use 

 two or three he would not be able to say 

 that he could get nearly twice the amount 

 of honey by extracting before it is capped. 



Finally it was moved by the writer " that 

 il is the sense of this convention that the 

 throwing of unripe honey upon the market, 

 or taking off honey before it is capped — 

 in other words, curing it artificially — is a 

 detriment to the beekeepers of this coun- 

 try." This motion was duly seconded and 

 carried. Of course, it is understood that, 

 at the sudden termination of a honey-flow, 

 there will necessarily be considerable un- 

 capped honey in the suj^ers where an abun- 

 dance of room is given, and that this will 

 ripen in the natural course, even though 

 not capped; but somehow it seems to lack 

 a little in attaining to that perfect flavor to 



