516 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



REPLIES by Prominent Apiarists. 



Flavor of Extracted Honey. 



Waxing Kegs and Barrels. 



Query, No. 1 00.— What is the best method 

 of waxing hooey kegs and barrels ?— F. A. 



G. M. DooLiTTLE says : " Have 

 the kegs as warm as possible, by 

 leaving them for a few hours in tlie 

 sun, when from 5 to 10 lbs. of melted 

 wax may be poured in at the bung 

 hole. Now drive in the bung part 

 way, and twirl the barrel so that the 

 wax may touch all parts of the inside. 

 Then remove the bung and let the wax 

 out. If the wax is hot, but little will 

 be taken by each barrel. See that the 

 bung does not strike you when taking 

 it out, as it will often fly with great 

 force, if the wax is hot." 



• Chas. Dadant & Son say : " Do 

 not wax them. Buy the very best 

 barrels or kegs, and keep them dry 

 until you are ready to put the honey 

 in them. Then, if they are good and 

 the hoops are tight, they should not 

 leak. We have had as many as 7-5 

 barrels of honey at one time, and 

 never had any leakage, worth men- 

 tioning, except from barrels that were 

 damp before the honey was put in, 

 and allowed to dry afterwards." 



J. E. Pond, Jr., replies : " Warm 

 the barrel in the sun. Have the par- 

 afflne or wax melted ; pour a small 

 quantity of the same into the barrel ; 

 turn it over and over, and twirl it 

 around till all the cracks are filled, 

 then pour out the surplus and melt it 

 over again." 



G. W. Demaree answers : " Why 

 not use cooperage made of soft wood 

 which needs no waxing V Leaky kegs 

 and barrels can never be made entirely 

 safe by waxing them. The shrinking 

 and swelling of the wood will break 

 the wax. and sometimes a heavy jar, 

 when moving the barrels, will start 

 them to leaking. Besides, it ia expen- 

 sive to wax barrels, etc. Good work- 

 men can make tight vessels, and they 

 cost no more than leaky ones. I have 

 used kegs for 4 years made of linden 

 timber, without any loss from leakage. 

 Any of the standard works on bee- 

 culture tell how to wax barrels, but I 

 think they should advise the use of 

 good tight vessels that need no wax- 

 ing." 



Prof. A. J. Cook, Agricultural 

 College, Mich., says : "Use soft wood, 

 and not wax at all." 



James IIeddon replies: "Have 

 the barrels and kegs dry and warm, 

 and hoops well-driven. Pour hot wax 

 into the bung-hole, and roll the barrel 

 around until the wax touches all 

 parts, and then pour it out. A barrel 

 or keg properly made of the right 

 kind of wood, needs no waxing; the 

 waxing is quite expensive." 



Query, No. 101.— What is the best plan 

 to preserve the comb flavor of extracted honey ? — 

 A. A. 



Dr. C. C. Miller replies : "Any 

 way that will keep it thick." 



James Heddon says : " Let the 

 honey be thoroughly ripened before 

 it is removed from the hives, and 

 after such removal, keep it in air- 

 tight cans, in the coldest place you 

 can find." 



G. M. DooLiTTLE answers : " Let 

 the bees thoroughly ripen it before it 

 is extracted." 



G. W. Demaree says : "Leave the 

 honey in the hive till it is thoroughly 

 evaporated and sealed. But some of 

 it will be thicker than the rest. Keep 

 each grade separate. Let it stand in 

 loosely-covered vessels, in a warm 

 store-room, till all the air globules have 

 disappeared ; then it is ready to put 

 up for the market or for future use. I 

 have samples of extracted honey run- 

 ning back to 1876 that 1 think has lost 

 but little of its original aroma." 



Chas. Dadant & Son answer : 

 " Have it thoroughly ripe, and keep it 

 in closed vessels, air-tight." 



J, E. Pond, Jr., replies: "Allow 

 it to thoroughly ripen before extract- 

 ing; then keep it in a warm and thor- 

 oughly-dry repository, where there is 

 no chance of its being affected of any 

 other flavor." 



W. Z. Hutchinson says: "I am 

 not certain what is meant by 'comb 

 flavor.' To give extracted honey a 

 tine flavor, it must be thoroughly 

 ripened. In my opinion, this can be 

 best done in the hive. When ex- 

 tracted, it should be stored in tin or 

 earthen vessels, and kept in a dry at- 

 mosphere that is free from odors. 

 The scum that arises should be 

 skimmed off, when the honey can be 

 put into glass or tin vessels, ready for 

 sale." 



Dr. G. L. Tinker replies : " Seal 

 it up as soon as extracted, and be 

 careful not to heat it to the boiling 

 point of water when liquefying it. 

 What is termed 'the water- bath' 

 plan is the best, taking care that the 

 water does not boil. The cans should 

 be kept in the water until the honey 

 becomes quite hot. A wash-boiler 

 may be used for the purpose, or any 

 suitable vessel. If glass jars are used, 

 they should be placed in the water 

 when cool, and then slowly heated. 

 Use wood shavings in the bottom of 

 the vessel to set the cans on." 



Prof. A. J. Cook says : "We cure, 

 or ripen, and seal tightly,, and we 

 think our extracted honey is equal to 

 any comb honey. People will always 

 prefer comb honey, as the comb 

 dilutes it. A spoonful of rich ex- 

 tracted honey soon cloys. When eat- 

 ing comb honey, we get less honey at 

 each mouthful ; and so on nice, warm 

 biscuit it rentiains appetizing forever. 

 I have noticed that hearty laboring- 

 men eat extracted honey with a relish, 

 as do hearty children." 



Do Queens Eat Pollen? 



Query, No. 102.— Do bees feed pollen to 

 the queen ? If they do, why does she not have th© 

 diarrhea, seeing that she does not leave the hive 

 for a cleansing flight like the other beea ■^— R. A. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE replies : " I think 

 not. She feeds herself at all times 

 when brood is not being reared." 



J. E. Pond, Jr., says: "All an- 

 swers to the above will be entirely 

 theoretical. For myself, I believe the 

 bees feed the queen nothing but honey, 

 and only so feed her when she is en- 

 gaged in depositing eggs in the cells." 



Dr. G. L. Tinker answers : "The 

 queen is fed, during the time of ovi- 

 positing, a large amount of introge- 

 nous food, but I am unable to say 

 whether it is in the form of bee-bread 

 or the milky-food fed to larval bees. 

 The queen suffers with the bees in an 

 affected colony, and frequently dies 

 long before all the bees are gone." 



Dr. C. C. Miller remarks : " The 

 few times I have happened to actually 

 see the queen in the act of voiding, 

 the evacuation could not be distin- 

 guished from water." 



G.W. Demaree says: "That bees 

 feed anything to the queen but pure 

 honey, is mere conjecture. That she 

 will lay eggs when there is no pollen 

 in the hive, I know to be true. That 

 bees will exhibit every phase of nor- 

 mality when deprived of pollen or its 

 substitute, except that they cannot 

 rear brood, is pursuasive evidence 

 that the sole use of pollen by the 

 honey-bee is to prepare food for the 

 young while in the larval state. So 

 far as I have been able to see, not a 

 single ray of light has been thrown on 

 the use or influence of pollen in the 

 bee-hive since the days of Aristotle." 



Prof. A. J. Cook replies : " I think 

 it very likely that the queen is fed 

 digested pollen. We all know that 

 she lives longer than all the bees. She 

 certainly must have pollen, as that 

 alone furnishes nitrogen, and all her 

 tissues contain this element. If her 

 food is digested for her, that shows 

 why she may live longer." 



James Heddon says : " According 

 to the basic principle of the pollen 

 theory, the queen must consume large 

 quantities of nitrogen, which I have 

 no doubt, comes from the pollen of 

 flowers, but I think the workers have 

 much to do with the residue of the 

 pollen from which it comes, before 

 the nitrogen is given to the queen. I 

 have no absolute proof to offer, but 

 such a belief is reasonable when we 

 consider the great amount of animal 

 tissue thrown off by the queen, which 

 we are told, is '3 times her bulk and 

 weight, in 24 hours.' It is hardly 

 plausible that one bee takes care of 

 all the residue from the great quantity 

 of nitrogen necessarily consumed. 

 Neither is it necessary that the queen 

 takes the nitrogenous substance into 

 her intestines. Worker bees h;;.ve a 

 fortunate instinct not to void in the 

 hive. The queen (one bee) could be 

 an exception to this rule and not per- 

 ceptibly interfere with the economy of 

 the hive." 



