1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



257 



bee-keepers are "losing their heads." Sup- 

 pose, friend P., I were to say the same thing of 

 yonr statement, to the effect that sections 

 next to your divider were better filled out was 

 "all nonsense." The fact of the matter is, I 

 believe there is something in your divider ; 

 and I also believe that, before the season goes 

 by, if your prejudice does not run away with 

 your ordinarily good judgment, you will 

 be convinced ihat the plain section is not 

 a "silly fad" any more than your divider. 

 Why should it be ? The fence as we now 

 make it, and your divider, 'utilize one of the 

 same principles — free communication in every 

 direction. 



I suppose friend Pettit bases his statement 

 in the Canadia>i Bee Journal on his experi- 

 ence with a fence similar to what we use. A 

 sample of this fence was sent us, but it was 

 markedly defective in four important partic- 

 ulars ; viz., width of slats (too narrow), space 

 between slats (too wide), thickness of cleats 

 (too thick and too narrow), cud poor work- 

 manship. 



With regard to the size and shape of the 

 brood-chamber, and the importance of having 

 it kept warm, I agree with you exactly. — Ed.] 



SPECIFIC GRAVITY. 



What should be the Minhnum Weight per Gallon 



that should be Allowed to go on the Market? 



Extracting before all the Honey is Sealed. 



BY O. O. POPPI.ETON. 



On page 126 Mr. Dan White tells of a man 

 getting a larger yield of honey from about 90 

 colonies than almost any other person could 

 have done, by extracting each hive every day. 

 In the footnotes to the same article you sug- 

 gest the adoption of a rule that no honey 

 should be sold that weighs less than 11 lbs. per 

 gallon. These two extracts open up a subject 

 that I have wanted to say something about for 

 years, ever since my Cuban bee-keeping ex- 

 perience. 



It is generally supposed and conceded by 

 bee-keepers that a much larger yield of honey 

 can be obtained by extracting before honey is 

 sealed, than by waiting until a part or all is 

 sealed. Is this idea correct? I think not. 



The main honey-bearing flora in Cuba, a 

 species of morningglory, has some peculiar 

 habits of flowering that enable one to make 

 observations that are difficult to make in this 

 country. Its flowers last one day only, a new set 

 of bloom coming out each successive day. The 

 amount of bloom varies each day, but rarely 

 if ever two da3's alike. I have seen the hedges, 

 stone fences, etc., look almost like snowbanks 

 one day with the profusion of bloom ; the next 

 day I have had to walk rods to find a single 

 flower ; the next day, a half or a quarter the 

 maximum number would be out, and so on 

 through the entire blooming season. We had 

 over 400 colonies in one apiary, enough to 

 gather all the honey in the field ; and I could 

 tell each morning, by noting the amount of 

 bloom out that day, almost exactly the amount 

 of honey that would be gathered during the 



day, as shown by the hive on scales. I weigh- 

 ed the hive each evening after bees were all in 

 from the field, again in the morning before 

 they had started out to work, the difference in 

 the night and morning weights showing the 

 amount of shrinkage of the newly gathered 

 honey. A study of the record of these weights, 

 made after the close of the honey season, 

 showed two facts — one, that the shrinkage 

 Irom first-gathered to well-ripened honey was 

 about one-fourth ; the other was that this 

 shrinkage almost all took place during the 

 first night, onl}- about a tenth of the total 

 shrinkage occuring after the first night. The 

 peculiar honey-flow, and our having enoiigh 

 bees to gather all the honey in the flowers, 

 brought out the above facts much more clearly 

 and positively than I have ever been able to ob- 

 serve them here in the States. 



To enable that man Mr. White speaks of to 

 gain very much in quantity would require that 

 he extract his entire 90 colonies late each day, 

 after the bulk of that day's yield had been 

 gathered ; and even then, if the extracting were 

 done while the Vjees were still at work, in my 

 opinion the loss caused by disturbing the bees 

 would almost or quite equal the gain. 



Cuban honey has about the same body as 

 has our white-clover honey ; but honej- from 

 basswood is usually much thinner when first 

 gathered, and loses more in ripening. 



Another thing I noticed was that the amount 

 of honey in the hive had no influence on the 

 amount of honey the bees would gather, other 

 conditions being alike. It made no difference 

 in the amount of honey gathered by the bees, 

 whether there was '> or .50 lbs. of honey in the 

 hive, so there was plenty of storing-room yet in 

 the hive. 



The note of warning given by Mr. White 

 against our taking out unripe honey is one 

 that can not be sounded too often nor too long, 

 and I hope that what I have written will help 

 to do away with the mistaken idea that a larg- 

 er quantity of honey can be had by taking it 

 out while yet in an unripe condition. 



Three or four years ago a Canadian writer, I 

 don't remember who, wrote an article on the 

 " Weight of Extracted Honey." Two of his 

 statements caught my attention. One was 

 that "Cuban honey weighed 10>^ lbs. to the 

 gallon," the other was that "good honey 

 should weigh about 13 ^'4 lbs. to the gallon." 

 I don't believe that any one ever saw any 

 thing that could possibly be called honey that 

 weighed as little as 10)4 lbs. per gallon; nor, 

 on the other hand, do I think any honey 

 weighs as much as 13 >2 lbs. This is only ni}- 

 opinion. I have never had the facilities to 

 weigh accurately any samples — that is, with 

 scientific accuracy. One lot of over 3000 gal- 

 lons of Cuban honey we sent to this country, 

 weighed 11 lbs. 14 oz. to the gallon; and my 

 experience in handling hone}' makes me think 

 that is about the average weight of a good 

 article of honey. I doubt whether any good 

 honey ever varies more than half a pound ei- 

 ther way from that figure. 



Assuming that an article of well-ripened 

 honey weighs 12 lbs. to the gallon, which I 

 think is about correct, and water 8 lbs., it will 



