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GLEAKINGS in bee CULTUttE. 



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tilPENING HONEY AHTIFICIALLY. 



THOMAS WII^LIAM COWAN'S METHOD. 



§OME years ago Mr. Thos. Wm. Cowan, 

 of the British Bee Journal, sent us a 

 leaflet, with description and illustra- 

 tion of his method of ripening honey 

 artificially. At the time, we had in- 

 tended to give "it insertion in Gleanings; 

 but in some way or other it got mislaid. 

 When Mr. Cowan was here he mentioned 

 the fact of his having sentthe leaflet referred 

 to. This reminded us that it had never ap- 

 peared in the pages of our journal. A dili- 

 gent search was made, but without success. 

 Very recently a clerk ran across it, and 

 handed it to us. As there is so much of 

 value in it we decided to insert it, even at 

 this late date, and here it is : 



The honey hai-vest could be much Increased, if, as 

 fast as the nectar is collected from the flowers and 

 put into the cells by the bees, it could be safely ex- 

 tracted. It is well known, that, after the bees store 

 their honey, and before it is sealed up, it has to un- 

 dergo a process of ripening, or it will be liable to 

 ferment. The heat of the hive assists in the pro- 

 cess of evaporation, and only when the superfluous 

 moisture has been extracted from it are the cells 

 closed. Those who have had experience in ex- 

 tracting honey know the honey in the sealed combs is 

 much thicker than that in the open cells, and that it is 

 only safe to put the former into jars. There is a great 

 deal of honey shown and sold that is unripe, but this 

 in a very short time begins to ferment, and even be- 

 comes sour. The appearance of unripe honey is 

 also peculiar. It has a decided green hue, and is 

 not improperly called " green honey." In all books 

 we are told not to extract from unsealed^combs, and 

 also for wintering we are recommended to extract 

 all honey not sealed over, because the thin watery 

 honey is likely to produce disease. It is from its 

 readiness to ferment that disease (dysentery) is pro- 

 duced. When bees collect honey they put it into 

 the empty cells, a little into each, so as to expose a 

 large surface of the honey to the influence of the 

 heat of the hive. If the income has not been very 

 great during the day, the bees are able to evaporate 

 the moisture sufficiently during a warm night to en- 

 able them to carry the honey from the lower cells to 

 those above. As the honey becomes ripened it is 

 sealed over, that at the top being ready first. If, 

 on the other hand, the bees have collected a very 

 large quantity of honey in the day, they are not able 

 to evaporate it in the night, and, therefore, do not 

 store it up above. All the cells being full, the bees 

 returning with honey do not find anywhere to put 

 it, and the consequence is that they waste their 

 time in converting it intowax, and adding it to their 

 cells. When bees are in this condition I think in- 

 stinct (or reason) prompts them to make prepara- 

 tions for swarming. Queen-cells (which take a 

 large amount of wax) are constructed as a prelimi- 

 nary step. Now. if we wish to prevent this we 

 should extract the honey, and by extracting it 

 daily a very much larger quantity of honey can be 

 obtained than if we waited for it to be sealed over. 

 We must also bear in mind that the sealing over is 

 done at the expense of honey, twenty pounds being 

 consumed to produce one pound of wax. Hitherto 

 no satisfactory method has been devised for ripen- 

 ing honey, the ordinary cans doing very well when 

 a small (juantity of unripe honey is extracted with 

 a large (juantity of ripe honey, but they are unlit 

 for large quantities. From experiments I have 

 been carrying on I find that if honey is subjected 

 to a heat under 200° Fahrenheit it is in no way in- 

 jured either in color or flavor. It must, however, 

 not be put into an oven, or the flavor is decidedly 

 spoiled. The illustration shows the sort of appara- 

 tus I have devised for evaporating honey, and 

 which has been found to work (juite satisfactorily. 

 The honey can be passed over it as many times as 

 it is necessary to bring it to a proper consistency, 

 and, being exposed to the air, the evaporation is 

 very rapid. It is very compact, the space occupied 

 being quite small. The honey evaporated in this 

 way can be put up into jars at once, and is much 

 clearer than the ripe honey extracted, because 

 the warmth drives all the air-bubbles to the top of 



the receiving-can, whereas in the thick honey the 

 air-bubbles are very slow in ascending; and some- 

 times, if the honey is very thick, they do not rise 

 at all, and this gives the honey a cloudy appearance. 

 By referring to the figure it will be seen that the 

 evaporator consists of a series of trays heated with 

 hot water, and the honey passing over these is re- 

 ceived in the tank below in a fit state to put into 

 jars. By referring to the illustration it will be seen 

 that the tank at the top is divided into two com- 

 partments, A being for water, and b to contain the 

 unripe honey as it is taken from the extractor. Be- 

 low the tank are the trays, six in number, o. h, c, d, 

 e, /, and they slope in opposite directions. Eaeh of 

 these trays has a hot-water chamber at the bottom, 

 and the top portion is divided by means of parti- 

 tions of tin in such a way that the honey flows back- 

 ward and forward, and comes in contact with every 

 portion of the warmed surface, d is a small boiler 

 heated by a gas-jet or lamp, and has a pipe from tank 

 A to keep it supplied with water. Another pipe is 

 taken from the top of boiler d. and communicates 

 with the lower end of tray/. Each tray has a con- 

 nection with the next one above it at opposite sides, 

 so that the water when heated in the boiler passes 

 into the tank at the bottom of tray/, then into e, 

 then d, and so on until it reaches the higher point 

 of tray rt,- it then returns by a pipe direct to the 

 boiler. In this way a constant circulation of hot 

 water is kept up; and to allow for the expansion of 

 the water in the event of its boiling, another pipe 

 leaves the highest point of tray a, and is turned 

 over tank A as shown in illustration. 



When it is required to 

 work the macliine the 

 unripe honey is put into 

 tank B, and water into 

 tank A, taking I care to 

 keep this about half full, 

 the lamp lighted, and as 

 soon as the water be- 

 comes warm the valve at 

 the bottom of thetank b 

 is opened by the lever i, 

 and the hone.v '"s'allowed 

 to flow into the top tray. 

 The quantity can be reg- 

 ulated by opening the 

 valve more or less. The 

 thin honey flows along 

 the zigzag channel or 

 tray a until it reaches 

 the lower end of it, 

 when it drops down into 

 tray b; and so from one 

 tray to another until at 

 last it runs from the tray 

 / through the funnel F 

 into the receiving-tank c, 

 and can be bottled off by means of the valve g. In 

 this way the honey travels a distance of 100 feet 

 over a heated surface, and all the superfluous 

 moisture is evaporated on its passage. If^the honey 

 is very thin, it may require to be passed through 

 the machine a second time. The machine is con- 

 structed entirely of tin, as I find zinc or galvanized 

 iron injures honey. From the rapidity with which 

 the machine acts, I have called it "The Rapid 

 Honey-Evaporator." 



Our readers familiar with this matter will 

 recognize the above arrangement to be vir- 

 tually the same as the hot-water apparatus 

 in common use. The stand-pipe is the re- 

 ceptacle A. The trays with a false bottom 

 are equivalent to the series of pipes, the 

 boiler being located entirely below the pipes 

 to be warmed. As soon as' the water in the 

 boiler becomes hotter than the water in the 

 stand-pipe A, the hot water ascends under- 

 neath the trays ; and when it lias become 

 cooled off at A , the cold water goes down 

 into the lower part of the boiler again, 

 through the return-pipe. As long as the 

 water in the boiler is warmer than that in 

 the stand-pipe A, there will be a constant 

 circulation. The apparatus is quite in- 

 genious, and will, no doubt, do the work 

 beautifullv. 



