Oct. 23, 1902, 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



681 



made the first week in May. and lots of those hybrid bees 

 lived 90 days ; and I had held previous to this, that bees 

 lived only (>l) days, dnrinp the heifjht of the working season. 

 All of those cells were extra larjje, and contained a lar^ro 

 amount of royal jelly. 



I have also thoroughly tested, to my own satisfaction, 

 some of the colonies from those deg^enerate queens, as to 

 their lonfjevity, and they lived only from 30 to 40 days, and 

 your belief or unbelief ivill we/ affect the facts. 



I never did double up swarms in order to rear Queens, 

 but I put two swarms into my larg^e hive so as to be sure to 

 have it filled with worker-comb for next sea.son, as I did not 

 have ready-made combs to till up with. This fall the inten- 

 tion is to kill the hybrid queen, and next winter take out 

 the division-board, then I shall have 20 Lanffstroth combs; 

 remove nearly all the honey and commence stimulatinjj 

 with diluted sug'ar, as granulated cane-sujjar costs, at retail, 

 20 pounds for $1.00. Understand that bees gather pollen all 

 winter here. By stimulating^ just right I can rear a rousing 

 colony, and have them rear drones early, swarm early, and 

 have my queens purely mated before impure drones are out. 



Now, Mr. Greiner, have you any objections ? If so, 

 please state them before I commence operations. I cer- 

 tainly have no objections to your making a large hive and 

 doubling up swarms until you rear a , 30-year-old queen, if 

 you wish to. 



What induced me to experiment with large hives was, 

 seeing the large colony in the basswood log. out of which 

 were taken enough bees to stock strongly four 10-frame 

 Langstroth hives; and where I saw the largest queen lever 

 saw, up to that time, and the very largest queen-cells that I 

 had ever seen, and I reasoned that there must be a cause, 

 and by experiments I have demonstrated what that cause 

 was, to my own satisfaction. I reasoned that those bees 

 must be longer-lived than bees reared in small hives, or they 

 could not be so extra-numerous; all were the progeny of one 

 queen. In the aforesaid basswood log was where I first dis- 

 covered the missing link, attached to the embryo queen. 



You can have no idea how I have enjoyed the stirring 

 up that I have made in the camp of bee-keepers. Speak up, 

 gentlemen ; don't be afraid of irritating or harming the 

 "old gent;" you will find out he is " no spring chicken," 

 on this queen-rearing question. He has more to say on this 

 subject hereafter, as it is a subject of vast importance to 

 the bee-keeping fraternity, for upon the quality of the queen 

 hinges the success of bee-keeping. 



Because you reared one inferior queen in one of your 

 colonies, I do not jump at the conclusion that you claim 

 that all your queens are of that class. 



.Orange Co., Calif. 



No. 11.— Bee- Keeping for Women. 



How to Preserve the Fine Flavor of Honey. 



BY BMMA M. WILSON. 



WE are all anxious that our honey be of the very best 

 quality and ilavor, but, perhaps, we are not all of us 

 aware that we ourselves have much to do in bringing 

 about the desired result, as well as the bees. The bees may 

 give the honey into our hands in the very best condition, 

 yet it is possible for us, by our ignorance or carelessness, 

 to injure it much, if not utterly ruin it. 



It is a fact that not manj- people, aside from bee-keepers, 

 know how to keep honey properly. 



One of our neighbors bought a case of honey from us. 

 She used one section for tea, and put the rest of the case in 

 the cellar for safe keeping, and only to be used upon state 

 occasions. Some time afterward company came unex- 

 pectedly, and as she knew they were very fond of honey she 

 went to the cellar for a section, thinking, as she went, how 

 fortunate she was in having such nice honey to offer them. 

 You can imagine how she felt on finding her honey utterly 

 ruined, not much like the beautiful white honey she had put 

 there. The cellar was damp — the very worst place she 

 could have possibly put it ; and yet it is a very common 

 thing for people who do not know any better to put honey 

 in the cellar. They naturally think it a nice, cool place for 

 it. not knowing that the hottest and driest place you can 

 find is the best place in which to keep honej-. 



If you can find a place for it in the kitchen near the 

 cook-stove, that is an ideal place in which to keep it. If 

 kept in such a place long enough the honey will string from 



the knife when it is cut, and the flavor will be uninjured. 

 Neither will you be likely to have any trouble with the 

 honey candying' in the comb, as it may do if kept in a cold 

 place, even if the place be dry. 



Just the other day a lady telephoned me to know what 

 she should do with her honey that had candied in the comb. 

 I told her the only thing she could do was to melt it up and 

 use it as extracted honey ; gave instructions as to how she 

 could do it, saying: 



" Put the honey in a dish or jar, set it in hot water, but 

 be careful not to let it get too hot, as that would spoil the 

 flavor. When it is all melted, .set it aside to cool. When 

 cool, remove the cake of wax which has risen to the top, 

 and the honey is ready for use. After washing the honey 

 off, put the wax in a dish with some hot water, and melt it 

 over again, and when it is cool you will have a nice cake of 

 wax." 



If the public knew more about taking care of honey it 

 might be that they would use more of it. As it is, if they 

 spoil the honey by not taking the right care of it, they are 

 not likely to blame themselves for it, but think they have 

 been cheated by having an inferior article palmed off on 

 them, and they make up their minds that they will not 

 again invest much in honey right away. And they may be 

 honest in it, too, as they don't know any better. 



The kitchen will do very well for a small quantity, but 

 if a large quantity has to be stored, some place else must 

 be provided for it. An attic or a garret is a good place — 

 one of those attics on which the sun beats down so fiercely 

 in the summer time that it makes it such a hot place that 

 you feel as if you could scarcely breathe in it, that's the 

 place for your honey. There it will thoroughly ripen. CZ! 



It may not be generally known, but honey that has 

 been kept for a sufficient length of time in such a hot place 

 will be able to stand the freezing of the severest winter 

 without the comb cracking, as it usually does when frozen. 



After the thorough ripening the honey gets by being 

 in such a hot place it never granulates, and perhaps it is 

 the granulating that cracks the comb. Some have special 

 rooms made as honey-rooms, with dark walls and roofs, to 

 attract the rays of the sun. 



In piling up your supers of honey in such rooms, or in 

 the attic, it is a good thing to place small blocks between 

 them at the corners, making a space of about an inch be- 

 tween the supers, for a free circulation of air to pass, 

 through. Jc McHenry Co., 111. 



Nice Flavor in Extracted Honey- 

 Barrels. 



-Waxing 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes me that it does not seem 

 that his extracted honey has as good flavor as it 

 should be, and wishes to know what is the best plan to 

 preserve the flavor of extracted honey. I am of the opin- 

 ion that he has been extracting unripe honey, and then put- 

 ting it up without paying any especial attention to a further 

 ripening of it. The best plan to secure the best flavor of 

 extracted honey, or of any other, as for that matter, is to 

 leave it on the hive till it is fully ripened by the bees. 



I think it pays well to'have sufficient combs in number 

 so that colonies can be given two, three, or four stories if 

 need be, enough so that all of one kind of honey can be 

 stored in them before any is extracted, and then leave these 

 combs on the hive till just at the commencementof the flow 

 of nectar from some other honey-yielding plant ot tree, 

 when it should all be extracted, or enough of it at least, so 

 that the needed combs for the next yield can go on again. 

 In this way the honey is thoroughly ripened on the hive, 

 giving the honey the best possible flavor for its kind, and 

 be all of that kind, as no other is stored with it. And if it 

 can stay on the hive until all of the cells are capped over, 

 or very nearly all, it will be ready to put up for market as 

 soon as it has stood long enough for any impurities to rise 

 or settle. In this way we secure the best possible honey 

 from our locality. 



In any event, honey must be thoroughly ripened to give 

 it a fine flavor. If any one thinks he must extract honey 

 every few days during the honey-flow, then let him procure 

 an evaporator, either sun or otherwise, through or over 

 which this green honey should be run, until it is of the con- 

 sistency of that nicely ripened by the bees, when he will 

 have something approaching, as nearly as possible, that 

 ripened by the bees, both in quality and flavor. 



