136 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



agent, but as customers would call for it at 

 the stoi-e. 



Having bought respectable lots from 

 cliflferent parties, I had some experience in 

 the diflerent ways of putting up. This is 

 what I wish to speak about for the benefit 

 of all concerned. We are all apprentices 

 yet, and may be profited by a liberal ex- 

 change of ideag. 



Crystalization spoils the ready sale of 

 honey, although we all know that pure 

 honey will crystalize. Some kinds will do 

 so quicker than others. Linden honey for 

 instance has, in my experience, crystalized 

 when white clover honey has shown no 

 signs of it, and some white clover honey 

 has crystalized while other white clover 

 honey has kept perfectly clear. 



I have now on a shelf a dozen or more 

 of 31b jars of my own honey, which show 

 not the lo:ist signs of crystalization, while 

 I have bought no honey of anybody since 

 Novemlier, or end of October but was 

 crystalized. My own honey is very clear, 

 of a rich golden color, and thicker than the 

 thickest syrup. That part of my honey 

 which formed into crystalization, did not 

 expand in the jars but rather contracted, 

 like lard, after having cooled off. And 

 when brought to its fluid state again, by 

 putting the jars in hot water it retained the 

 same substantial thickness. Not so with 

 any other honey I had bought. I had 

 filled several barrels of honey in half gal- 

 lon fruit jars, to prevent it from candying 

 in the barrels. The jars had tin covers 

 slipped over the mouths. After crystaliza 

 tion had taken place, I found the covers as 

 if on icebergs, sticking one or two inches 

 above the jars, honey running down the 

 shelves, several jars burst in the lower tiers 

 where the covers could not give, and more 

 jars would have burst but for my partly 

 emptying them in time. One and two 

 pound jars, being corked and tinfoiled, had 

 the corks driven out etc. Nothing of that 

 sort happened with my own honey. What 

 was the reason? 



I had been particular to leave my honey 

 standing for a day or two after extracting, 

 in tin buckets made for the purpose — stone 

 jars, when buckets did not holdout etc., 

 when I had a good chance of having it 

 skimmed perfectly. I think it essential to 

 not leave a particle of wax in the honey 

 Ijefore we put it away for safe keeping, 

 Avhether in barrels or jars, as that particle 

 of wax may form tlie nucleus for the 

 crystalization of the honey. I used to 

 ])cat all of my honey, but found the honey 

 would get dark whenever the fire was too 

 Btrong. 



Next season I shall have a receiver made 

 of tin to hold HOU or CU(» lbs, when I .shall 

 have a better chance to let the honey stand 

 a few days after extracting, then skim the 



top perfectly and draw from below the 

 pure article. The last out of the receiver 

 may be heated over a slow fire if necessaiy. 

 I should never be satisfied with the honey 

 running through a strainer from the pump 

 into the barrel which was then to be cork- 

 ed up. 



Here I would ask : Has the honey too, 

 something like animal heat, which should 

 evaporate before the honey is put up in 

 tight vessels V I have heard of pure honey 

 souring in jars or barrels, and I see it stated 

 by prominent bee-keepers that uncapped or 

 fresh collected honey is too thin and 

 watery to extract, etc. Now I may say 

 there is no thicker honey than mine, and I 

 never had any sour. May not this hasty 

 shutting up be the cause of all this trouble ? 

 I have never let the bees cap any honey 

 when I could help it, have pumped every 

 week or whenever the cells were filled. 

 This saved time and labor to both parties, 

 and I have not yet seen my honey excelled. 

 During last month a customer ordered a 

 gross of honey and asked me to exchange 

 two boxes, which had crystalized. They 

 would have been sold long ago, he said, if 

 the honey had not been candied. Accord- 

 ingly we opened our boxes to dissolve the 

 honey by setting the jars in hot water, (no 

 need to uncork them, but they have to be 

 relabeled) before delivery. The last four 

 boxes in one row had stood there ever since 

 the last honey harvest, it was my own 

 honey and not a jar had crystalized, while 

 all the rest of the jars had crystalized per- 

 fectly, most of them with corks driven up 

 a little, as far as the lid would admit. 



To sum up the matter I would say : 

 Honey should stand sometime after extract- 

 ing — to cool oft', (?) and be skimmed perfect- 

 Ijr and freed from all other substances (run- 

 ning through a strainer is not sufficient) 

 before it is put up in air-tight vessels. 



Some bee-keepers have the bad practice 

 of sticking a piece of comb honey in a jar 

 of nice machine extracted honey. This 

 may look nice in the eyes of the ignorant, 

 but it does not look well in the eyes of 

 those knowing better, and it is no more the 

 pure honey, it contains also a piece of wax 

 with those impurities which always will 

 adhere to the comb. Besides it does not 

 take a piece of comb to convince con- 

 sumers that the honey is pure. Pure honey 

 recommends itself. 



Hives not only require a proper handling 

 of the bees but also a proper handling of 

 the product to make bee-keeping a success. 



Cincinnati, O. Chas. F. Muth. 



If bees are not allowed to possess any- 

 thing analogous to reason, the regard for 

 their queen, and the watchful care of their 

 young, must result from some pleasurable 

 sensations derived from them. 



