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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 25, 1902. 



Mr. Dadant — On this question there are two points to 

 be considered, if you wish to know whether it has a great 

 or small effect on honey. There is the possibility that the 

 color of the comb has a very slight effect on the color of 

 honey, but if any one says that the color of the comb has a 

 great effect on the color of honey, I will dissent altogether. 

 We used to save all our old comb, all the broken combs, to 

 put into the frame ; we used to import in small boxes combs 

 6x4 ; we thought so much of the comb that we saved it and 

 put them one above the other, 16 pieces for one frame ; we 

 used those for extracting, and we have produced as white 

 honey as anybody else. There might be a very slight dif- 

 ference in the shade, we do not know whether that is due 

 to the comb or due to other causes, but we do know we can 

 produce a very white honey in very dark combs. There is 

 one color which gets into the comb that I think has more 

 influence than the dark color, and that is the yellow color 

 of the blossoms. Sometimes the combs are turned yellow 

 in a very few days; I believe that color can get into the 

 honey, but usually the honey we harvest at that time is of 

 the same shade, so that it can have no influence over it. 



J. A. Huebner— In regard to this question of honey- 

 coloring, I want to say that I had an experience of that 

 kind last year. Last fall I extracted some honey out of 

 dark comb, and it was almost water-white, and then two 

 weeks later these combs were filled up again, and I was 

 absent from home, and this honey was not extracted until 

 the next May, 1902, and that honey which stood in the comb 

 over winter got darker, which I have every reason to believe 

 was color taken from the dark comb. 



W. P. Collins — That honey which stood over might 

 have been darker, and even the white honey might get dark. 



Mr. Dadant— There is one thing I might state. If the 

 dark comb is likely to give any color I think it will give it 

 the first time. We have extracting-combs from which we 

 have extracted every year for 30 years, and they are better 

 to-day because they are heavier. 



Dr. Mason— Dark combs ? 



Mr. Dadant— Certainly. Before foundation was in- 

 vented we used to save the pieces of our combs and put them 

 in the supers. Those dark combs, after you extract from 

 them three or four times, do you hold they still color the 

 honey ? Suppose there is color the first time, it is not likely 

 that the color will be dissolved in the first extracting, and 

 that for IS years they will be as good as new combs? It 

 looks to me unreasonable to think we can make old combs 

 white by having them color the honey. There may be a 

 very slight difference, but you must be sure that that dif- 

 ference is not caused by some other things, such as you 

 mentioned here when you get two bottles of honey side by 

 side and say they are two grades of honey. Some of you, I 

 understand, say when there is no water in the soil the 

 honey is darker, although it is from the same blossom. 

 Don't charge the dark comb with the coloring of the honey 

 unless you are positive that that has done it. I believe you 

 can only say it has done it in perhaps the first instance, 

 that is, the time when it has just been used for brood, and 

 afterwards used for honey, and then this color is likely to 

 become loosened and absorbed by the honey. 



Mr. Gill— In my judgment I am satisfied that the honey 

 Mr. Huebner speaks of was darker when it was gathered 

 than the other honey was. 



Dr. Mason — I can understand this whole question. It 

 all depends upon the locality. You have had that before 

 you to-day. Now, then, you may argue all you have a 

 mind to. You can see those two bottles now, the honey in 

 one bottle is light honey, and that same honey was put in 

 the same combs ten days before I came here and left till I 

 came away, and that is the same honey, and those combs 

 have been used for extracting for the last four years. It 

 all depends upon locality, not on the combs. 



J. A. Green — I would like to ask Dr. Mason how he is 

 sure that is exactly the same honey in those two bottles ? 



• Dr. Mason— I know in this way, because I took some of 

 this honey and put into the dark combs myself just to test 

 it, because this question has beeen asked so many times. 

 That is the same honey, precisely ; it was in there seven or 

 eight days perhaps, andl took it out just for the purpose of 

 bringing it here. 



Mr. Green — Did you give it back to the bees after that ? 



Dr. Mason — No, sir; the bees had nothi"g to do with it 

 since I got it, of course not. 



Mr. Green — I ask that because it is so easy for the bee- 

 keeper to be mistaken in that respect. The first honey that 

 I extracted this year was very light in color, about a white, 

 and a few days later, and from the same source, and from 



the same comb, much darker. Like Mr. Dadant, I have old 

 combs. 



Dr. Mason— The question is. Will the color of the comb 

 make any difference in the color of the honey ? 



Mr. Green — I have a large number of old combs, and I 

 agree with Mr. Dadant that for the first extracting there 

 will be a slight tinge given to the honey, but after that 

 there certainly can not be, or at least very little. I have 

 these old combs, thousands of them, some of them 25 years 

 in use ; to all appearances they are just as black as ever, 

 and I get just as light honey from those combs as from new 

 combs. 



J. B. Adams — One year I had a good chance to test that. 

 I had white combs. I had read in the journals considerable 

 about the combs coloring honey, but I didn't want the bees 

 to be idle, so I used black combs, and I got just as white 

 honey from those black combs as can be produced any- 

 where. It didn't make a particle of difference; there was 

 no more shade to the honey than there was to any water- 

 white honey. 



R. D. Williams — I use in my upper stories half-drawn 

 combs, and I have full sheets of foundation ; the full sheets 

 of foundation are white, while the others are very often 

 very black, and I notice there is no difference at all in the 

 honey. 



Mr. Dadant — I was called upon to give an opinion on 

 this subject, and I think it would be well for me to add that 

 in regard to the color of honey we must never be too sure 

 on that point. We have had honey from the same blossoms 

 in three or four different yards, and there was so much dif- 

 ference in color that while we could sell the honey from one 

 yard we could not from the other ; the difference in shade 

 was quite perceptible, so that the person buying would not 

 accept the honey from one yard in place of that from 

 another, and yet the blossoms were the same. What caused 

 it, I am unable to tell. I believe if you can at any time get 

 very white honey from very dark comb, that will settle the 

 question. I, perhaps, have seen that, but I have not paid 

 any particular attention to it. 



W. L. Hawley — For the last eight years there is one 

 thing that I have borne in mind. I have noticed one par- 

 ticular thing : Take a frame and put it into the super, 

 leave that till the last, and throw that out while there is a 

 light flow of white honey, and you will see a difference; 

 but the next time you go around and perform the' same 

 operation you will see no difference whatever ; frpm that 

 time on, as long as you use those combs for extracting, 

 there is no dift'erence whatever between the old comb and 

 the white comb ; but the first time you remove it out from 

 below, or use it for extracting, is where the difference' 

 comes, and that is the only time you can see any difference 

 in the use of the comb. 



Dr. Mason — This thing probably depends upon locality, 

 for the gentleman is absolutely wrong so far as my locality 

 is concerned. I tell you, the comb that colored this honey 

 has been used for extracting purposes for five years, and 

 has been extracted from a good many times, you can not be 

 right. Locality makes a difference. 



Mr. Green — Was there no brood reared in that comb 

 during those five years? 



Dr. Mason— No, sir. 



Mr. Brown — Speaking about locality and color of honey, 

 in receiving honey I received it from cential California 

 and different locations, and on the south is Tulare Lake ; 

 it is a shallow body of water, and the ground being sandy 

 the water runs under it, and alfalfa is grown upon its bor- 

 ders, the roots run down directly into the water ; the honey 

 that is produced in that locality is darker; but a little 

 further away where it is dryer the honey is whiter ; when 

 you come up to where it is very dry, and no moisture, our 

 honey is white ; and when you show me white alfalfa honey 

 I will tell you the condition of the ground on which it is 

 grown, every time ; but whether that holds good with ref- 

 erence to other honey, I can't say. 



(Continued next week.) 



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