250 



Tmm fEMEKicMif MMW jQmmnm%,. 



RIPENING HONEY. 



Tlie Importance of Having 

 Honey Well Ripened. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY C. THEILMANN. 



Ripening extracted lioney is a part 

 of the Querj' 691, on page 165. It is 

 quite surprising tliat none of the 

 twenty responses give the true light, 

 or the all-important point in which 

 concentrates the true way of ripening 

 honey, but nearly all circle around 

 that point of most importance, viz : 

 How can the water be evaporated 

 artificially out of honey, without start- 

 ing bacteria or fermentation ? 



Some of the replies to the query say 

 that honey exposed in open vessels 

 loses some of its qualities, and others 

 say the reverse. Mr. Pond says: "Not 

 if placed in a clean room, and properly 

 cared for." This, I thinls, is correct ; 

 but how do we know that "proper 

 care," without telling the readei's how 

 to do it ? 



Others say, let the bees evaporate 

 the water ! Mr. Demaree is one of 

 them. I wonder if bees in Kentucky 

 always ripen all their fall honey in the 

 supers, when honey has ceased to 

 come in, after a night's frost, and the 

 nights continue to be cold. I know 

 that bees in Minnesota do but little, if 

 any, evaporating after this condition 

 sets in ; not onlj' that, but they leave 

 the supers, seeking a warmer place in 

 tlie brood-nest below, and moisture in 

 the supers will condense instead of 

 evaporating from the warmth below 

 and cold above. How, then, is Mr. 

 Demaree going to get such honey ripe, 

 and make it fit for a sensitive tongue 

 and palate ? 



Mr. Doolittle says that honey in open 

 vessels loses none of the flavor which 

 it has when extracted. This depends 

 altogether upon what condition the 

 honey is in when extracted ; but as the 

 query stands, tlie answer is incorrect. 

 If we take it for a fact, and it is not 

 far from it, that as Mr. Heddon ex- 

 jjlains it, namely, that with thin honey 

 witli the temperature well up, bacteria 

 or fermentation is produced, and Mr. 

 H. also lets the bees evaporate it, but 

 seals it air-tight soon after extracted, 

 he, like Mr. Doolittle. I suppose, has 

 all his honey ripened bj' the bees doing 

 the work. I have not found it so in 

 Minnesota, but we have to give Mr. 

 Heddon credit for getting pretty close 

 — almost getting his fingers on the all- 

 important point of this evaporation 

 business, but fails to get a fair hold 

 of it. 



I claim that, as a whole, there is but 

 little, or none, of all the extracted, and 

 but little of the comb honej-, put on 



the market, which has its full value 

 and keeping qualities, without going 

 through an artificial procedure, and 

 the quicker and the more efl'ective it is 

 done after taken from the hives, the 

 better and finer in taste, quality and 

 keeping powers it will be. These are 

 not theories, but facts, as they have 

 come under my observation and ex- 

 periments. 



Honey, sealed up air-tight, right 

 from the extractor, will keep as long 

 as so sealed, but as there is always 

 some unripe honey in it, it will fer- 

 ment more or less when exposed, and 

 get that queer, sharp twange in taste, 

 as Mr. Heddon calls it. In fact, it gets 

 partly sour, and there is no way yet 

 found to get that out of it again, and it 

 is partlj' spoiled, and does much harm 

 in the market. 



Honey newly from the extractor, put 

 into the cellar, or other damp places, 

 or put in an orilinarily warm place 

 with cool nights, in open vessels, will 

 be almost sure to produce bacteria, 

 and will sour ; but take the same 

 honey to a room in wliich the air is 

 pure, and from 85° to 90'J above zero 

 for from three to five weeks, and the 

 same honey will be the best of its kind 

 in every respect that can possibly be 

 produced. The same is true of comb 

 honey. I have practiced this for the 

 past two years, and my customers say 

 that they cannot get such honey from 

 anybody else. Even the late fall honey 

 is thus made as fine as any of its kind. 

 I sent 11,000 pounds to Albany, N. 

 Y., last fall (all dark honey), and a 

 few weeks ago I received a letter from 

 a dealer in New Jersey, who got some 

 of the lot in some way, and wanted to 

 know all about it, on account of its 

 being so fine. Also the man in Albany 

 was highly pleased with the shipment. 

 It will seem strange to some of the 

 readers to be told that honey, or nec- 

 tar, is most freely produced under the 

 same atmospheric condition as is maple 

 sap — the difference is only in the 

 more warm season for the nectar ; but 

 sap and nectar, or green, unripe 

 honey, are very much akin in nature. 



Twenty or thirty years ago, -when I 

 used to make maple sugar and molasses 

 or syrup, I learned that I would get 

 but little sap if the atmosphere was 

 not right ; also, that when sap was 

 slowly running, and partly evaporated 

 in the sun and air, bacteria were pro- 

 duced, and that that sap could not be 

 boiled down to sugar in any length of 

 time, but boiled until it would almost 

 be burned ; it would be a sticky, 

 tough mass, whicli had lost that fine, 

 smooth, aromatic taste which maple 

 syrup has, when boiled as soon as the 

 sap comes from the trees. 



I find in bee-culture, that we need 

 similar atmospheric conditions for a 



big honey-flow, and the honey needs a 

 similar treatment in regard to the 

 quick evaporation, after it comes from 

 the hives, as stated above about sap. 

 If every bee-keeper, or honey-pro- 

 ducer, would treat his honej' as I have 

 described, before putting it on the 

 market, we would have no trouble in 

 selling all we could produce, and also 

 get a good price for it ; and every pro- 

 ducer of any kind of food, should take 

 a pride not in the production only, 

 but also in having the very best of its 

 kind, that gives it the demand. 

 Theilmanton, Minn. 



HONEY. 



Is it Digested Xeetar ? Questions 

 to be Ansivered. 



Written for tfie American Bee Journal 



BY S. J. YOUNGMAN. 



In the olden time of the bee-gum 

 and the king-bee, honey was honey, 

 and honey onl}- — it was strained 

 honey. Ignorance was bliss — and this 

 honey of our fathers' was a luxury at 

 25 and 30 cents a pound. No one 

 doubted its purity ; the bee-bread, 

 larvffi, and other delicious(!) substances 

 entering into its make-up, gave it a 

 decided taste that there was no danger 

 of mistaking. It was not " digested 

 nectar " then. 



Basswood honey, white clover and 

 buckwheat honey, then were not 

 known. Many of the old-timers miss 

 the peculiar taste of their quondam 

 days ; and as they taste of the pure 

 honey of the present day, they wisely 

 (?) shake the head, and, as they smack 

 their lips, they say, "That honey has 

 got sugar in it. You can't fool me. 

 We used to keep bees on the farm. 1 

 used to help father take 'em up lots of 

 times in the fall," etc. 



Now in respect to this question of 

 digested nectar, although it has but 

 little bearing on the pursuit of bee- 

 keeping, and will probably not interest 

 the mass of the reading public, it is 

 like Banquo's ghost, and now that it is 

 up, it will not down at any one's 

 bidding. 



Although not personally acquainted 

 with Prof. Cook. I always read his 

 books and articles with great interest 

 and pleasure — never dared to doubt or 

 presume that they were not a trutliful 

 insight into Nature and her wonderful 

 laws ; and I was astonished that the 

 average bee-keeper would dare assail 

 his position on the digested-nectar 

 question ; but as the matter is not plain 

 to me, I would like to have the Pro- 

 fessor, or any advocate of the theory, 

 explain what I will now try to describe: 



