Nov 15, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE J0URNA1„ 



727 



on the market. If it is white honey it is just as good as 

 comb honey, only it is out of the comb. Let us help the 

 extracted-honey trade as well as the comb-honey trade, and 

 we can do this by putting a good article, and nothing but a 

 good article, on the market. 



Mr. Bishop — People will eat extracted honey if they 

 know enough to know when they do get a good article. 

 There is an objection to eating comb because some people 

 feel that wax is not a digestible article, that it is an injuri- 

 ous, indigestible article ; but extracted honey is used by 

 many people in the place of butter. It is spread on bread, 

 is good for many uses, and taken among the German peo- 

 ple they think as much of good extracted honey as they do 

 of the very best food they have ; they believe it is useful for 

 children ; they think it cures the croup, and they think it is 

 good for all the family from the least to the greatest. 



Mr. Moore — There is no question but what this ex- 

 tracted-honey question is a burning question. From an ex- 

 perience of upwards of 15 years in family trade, I would say 

 I have no doubt but what 95 percent of the honey consumed 

 in this country is extracted honey, and the question of put- 

 ting it on the market ripened, is this : If they ever get any 

 unripe honey they will never buy any more of you if you 

 sold it to them, or never buy any more of me if I sold it to 

 them. Is it practical to " doctor " up thin honey ? We read 

 in the journals of the practice in California of exposing 

 honey in large tanks to the air. Another way is by putting 

 it in a water bath and bringing it up to about ISO degrees, 

 and throwing out the germs of fermentation. I would like 

 to hear from any one who has had experience in artiticial 

 ripening of thin honey. 



Mr. Hatch — The honey in California, as a rule, does not 

 need any ripening. It is very sweet and nice when it is ex- 

 tracted, that is, if proper precautions are taken by letting 

 at least one-third of the comb become sealed before it is 

 taken out. It is then put in immense tanks that will hold 

 from four to as high as eight tons. The apiaries I workt 

 in had two tanks holding eight tons each. They made a 

 cone-shaped strip up from each side of the man-hole about 

 18 inches across ; after the tank is full, it is covered with a 

 cap something like a tight paper cover. It stands at a 

 proper angle to get all the heat of the sun — it gets very 

 hot ; if there be any thin honey the thin part of the honey 

 will rise to the top, where it gets the most heat. You must 

 remember that when one of these tanks is full — five feet 

 deep of honey — it takes a great deal of heat to get to the 

 bottom. This layer of thin honey, if there be one, is right 

 at the top, and exposed to the hottest rays, and all evapor- 

 ates and becomes thick and nice; you don't often see any 

 thin honey come from California or Arizona. In Arizona 

 they have a different method — they tie cheese-cloth over the 

 top of the tank. They also store it in the tanks holding 

 about 1.000 to 1,500 pounds ; they tie a large cheese-cloth 

 over the top, which catches all the insects, and let it stand 

 for at least a week, as a rule, and then skim, and put it into 

 cans. 



Mr. Kretchmer — I find California isn't the only State 

 using evaporating-tanks for honey. We have made scores 

 of tanks for people this side of the Rocky Mountains two 

 feet deep and eight feet across ; the top is covered with 

 cheese-cloth, and it is exposed to the sun to evaporate the 

 moisture out of the honey. 



Mr. Burnett — As to honey being ripened before it is put 

 on the market is the most serious question in the whole ex- 

 tracted-honey business ; you don't know, to save two pounds 

 of honey, how much you injure the consumption of honey 

 by putting on the market unripe honey ; there isn't any- 

 thing that has limited my sales to the extent of unripe ex- 

 tracted honey. 



Mr. France — I would like to ask Mr. Hatch if he has 

 observed, in their artificial ripening, any effect on the flavor 

 of the honey. Is it retained as it is where the bees have 

 ripened it ? I have noticed that honey ripened artificially 

 in Wisconsin does not have the same flavor as that ripened 

 in the hive. 



Mr. Hatch — You will have to take this second-hand, for 

 I was a stranger in that country, only one year in each 

 place — one in Arizona and one in California — and I made 

 inquiry of the bee-keepers there as to the flavor of the sun- 

 evaporated honey. They found if the honey was left in the 

 hive until one-third of the comb was sealed over, and then 

 put into these tanks, and let it remain a week, the flavor 

 was still perfect and all right ; but I would like to empha- 

 size what Mr. Burnett has said, that the greatest enemy to 

 extracted honey is poor, thin stuff ; let it get ripe, and then 

 you have something that the adulterators can not imitate. 

 cz: Mr. Moore — Here is one point that I want to bring out. 



am satisfied that this ripening in tanks will only work in 



he West where they have red-hot air; here in the East, 



where any metals will be covered with rust, I don't believe 



there is any way of ripening our honey, but to leave it in 



the hive long enough. 



H. W. Funk— I was just going to say what Mr. Moore 

 has said. Our air here is not dry enough. I had a couple 

 hundred pounds of unripe honey last winter. I placed it on 

 top of the furnace in the basement. After being exposed 

 two weeks it did very nicely. I think honey, if exposed to 

 the air longer, will deteriorate in flavor. I think it advis- 

 able for us to try some method by which we could thicken 

 our honey by artificial heat ; when frost comes it will get 

 thinner instead of thicker, no matter how long you leave it 

 in the hives. 



Dr. Mason — We hear considerable about this matter in 

 bee-papers, saying it is advisable to keep honey closed up 

 tight, so it will keep its aroma. Last week I wanted to pre- 

 pare some things to bring here to exhibit. I went to work 

 opening honey I had bottled up nine years ago ; there was 

 nice flavor and nice aroma when I bottled it, but it did not 

 retain its aroma, altho it was kept sealed as tight as bees- 

 wax and corks could seal it. I have other honey that has 

 stood in open cans for the past three years, and it is nice 

 yet. There is a difference in localities, we know that. 



Mr. Green — Some have feared that evaporation by hot 

 air would injure the flavor of honey. I keep my honey in a 

 very warm room, heat it up to 100 degrees, or thereabouts ; 

 I save the honey which drips from the bottom comb, and 

 when it is exposed to this hot, dry air, 100 degrees or more, 

 sometimes it is improved in flavor. When it gets so thick 

 that you can not pour it or make it drop from a knife, it is 

 the finest honey I ever tasted. 



At this point the convention adjourned to have pictures 

 taken, and to meet again at 7:30 p.m. 



(Continued next week.) 



Contributed Articles. 



Wintering Bees, tpward Ventilation, Etc. 



BY F. GREINKR. 



IT would be difficult to bring out anything new in an arti- 

 cle on wintering bees. I don't attempt it. However, I 

 have learned that cast-iron rules can not be laid down 

 any more for wintering than for the production of honey. 

 The climate, the location, and many other factors, play an 

 important part, and will have to be taken into consideration. 

 In this latitude and elevation a good cellar insures fair 

 results, but outdoor wintering gives, on the whole, less 

 trouble in several ways, and stronger colonies early. 



In a very dry climate perhaps upward ventilation is not 

 essential, but here, with the amount of snow, rain and fog, 

 etc., I consider it very desirable — yes, most important. In 

 a damp cellar upward ventilation will prove a benefit to the 

 bees and combs. 



A colony wintering well will show but very few dead 

 bees on the bottom-board at any time, whether wintered in- 

 doors or on the summer stands. If the vitality of a colony 

 is at a low state, and the mortality is greater than it should 

 be, dead bees will accumulate under the frames, and, when 

 damp, become moldy, and sometimes a by no means odor- 

 less, but a rather disagreeable, mess. A deep, empty space 

 below the frames, and upward ventilation thru a warm 

 quilt or some packing, will be beneficial. For cellar winter- 

 ing this space below the frames should never be omitted. 

 To provide such I prefer to slip a low rim between the body 

 of the hive and the floor-board. My method is this : 



About a week or two before it is' time to take the bees 

 to the cellar I go to hive No. 1 with a clean bottom-board, 

 with rim attacht, and exchange it for the bottom on that 

 hive. I clean the latter from all little lumps, et",., and 

 fasten a rim to it. I then go to hive No. 2. and proceed in a 

 like manner till all hives are thus gone over. 



In the spring, after all colonies are returned to their 

 places in the yard, I follow a similar system in removing 

 the rims. This gives us clean bottom-boards in the fall 

 and also in the spring. Reversible bottom-boards accom- 

 plish the same object, but we don't all have them. 



Very few bee-keepers make it a practice to reduce the 



