MARCH 15, 1913 



be found in honey entirely finished and 

 sealed by the bees. 



Also quoting- from the paper by Dr. E. 

 F. Phillips, on " The Care of Extracted 

 Honey," read at the Harrisburg convention, 

 " It is the policy of most beekeepers to al- 

 low this ripening to take place in the hive 

 by waiting until the honey is almost all 

 or entirely capped, and this is undoubtedly 

 the preferable method. It is a matter of 

 common observation that honey which re- 

 mains in the hive for a long time has a 

 better " body," and has more of the charac- 

 teristic honey aroma. By ripening in the 

 hive, honey gets its characteristic flavor to 

 a greater extent than is possible in evapo- 

 ration outside the hive. The thoi'ough rip- 

 ening of honey can not be too strongly rec- 

 ommended. Honey attracts moisture, and 

 there is always a tendency for a very thin 

 layer to form on top of the honey in which 

 the water content is very high. In such a 

 film the amount of sugar is low ; the acetic- 

 aoid-forming bacteria can grow rapidly, 

 and the honey becomes sour. In thoroughly 

 ripened honey it is very probable that a 

 film of thinner honey is always present; 

 but in such a ease the sugar content is so 

 high that the bacteria can not grow " (ital- 

 ics all mine). 



Thus it is shown that, for very weighty 

 i-easons, many of the foremost beekeepers 

 and distributors of honey in the United 

 States and Canada are unalterably opposed 

 to any method of ripening honey outside 

 the hive; and that, when there was an op- 

 poi'tunity to advocate or defend such meth- 

 od, as at the conventions before mention- 

 ed, Mr. Alexander was the only open advo- 

 cate, and he received no support except the 

 slightly favorable remarks by the president, 

 Mr. Aspinwall. 



Mr. Hopkins has shown, from the report 

 of Dr. Phillips upon samples of his honey 

 submitted, that it was of superior quality 

 in reference to water content and inversion ; 

 but it is noticeable that the doctor is silent 

 on the points of flavor and aroma, which 

 rre all-important in making up the value of 

 honey. Take away the element of flavor 

 from honey, and there would be no occupa- 

 tion of apiculture. And if honey ripened 

 outside the hive is so skillfully treated as to 

 make it come well within the legal chemical 

 standard as to water content and inversion, 

 and has a good flavor, be assured that, if 

 the same honey had been rijoened within 

 the hive by the bees in the natural way, it 

 would have had the best flavor. 



With his process, requiring special at- 

 tention to ventilation and the use of arti- 

 ficial heat, the use of the thermometer and 



179 



hydrometer, the repeated testings of honey 

 at the top and bottom of the tank, and the 

 mixing, Mr. Hopkins is undoubtedly able 

 to get the best there is out of ripening 

 honey outside the hive ; but " how many 

 Hopkins are there?" 



The process of securing ripe honey in 

 the natural way is extremely simple. Just 

 leave it on the hive, with the bees, until 

 after the close of the flow, or until per- 

 fectly capped; then remove, uncap, extract, 

 strain into tank, allow time for foi'eigTi 

 particles to collect on the surface of the 

 honey, and then draw off the sparkling 

 liquid into suitable containers. 



If all honey were allowed to riiDen in the 

 hives by the bees, unripe and ruined honey 

 on our markets would be a curiosity ; but as 

 long as man assumes tliis undertaking, 

 wherein, for him, perfection is impossible, 

 there will be many fold more failures than 

 doubtful or partial successes , and the high- 

 est attainments in the science of apiculture 

 will not be reached. The beekeeper is wise 

 if he goes not out of his way in resorting 

 to extra care and equipment, to secure hon- 

 ey that necessarilj^ falls short of perfection, 

 and more often proves to be a failure when 

 the best is so easily obtained. 



It is no reflection on man to say that the 

 bee knows the most about making honey; 

 for the Creator has endowed her with a 

 superior and inimitable piocess of ripening- 

 it and preserving its flavor, and has with- 

 held this art from man. But in his wisdom 

 he has given us dominion over the bee, and 

 thus it is ours to have perfectly ripened 

 and flavored honey if we will. 



Kenmore, N. Y., Jan. 6. 



[Our correspondent has done well in gath- 

 ering- together the bibliogi'aphy against rip- 

 ening honey artificiall}'. As a matter of 

 fact, we could gather enough more state- 

 ments, made at different times against the 

 practice, that would fill up one or more 

 journals. The trend of opinion on the part 

 of experts, both producers and honey-buy- 

 ers, is emphatically against it. In saying 

 this we do not mean to imply that uncapped 

 honey is necessarily unripe. The usual rule 

 is to extract when two-thirds of the cells 

 are caj^ped over. The remaining third of 

 the cells, uncapped, contain honey that is 

 nearly if not quite ripe, and only awaiting 

 the action of the bees to seal it up. 



In this connection we may state further 

 that Mr. E. W. Alexander was one of the 

 most valued correspondents we ever had. 

 Perhaps no one writer we ever had has been 

 quoted more than he; and yet, after he had 

 put out the doctrine of extracting before 

 the combs Avere sealed and ripening in open 



