1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



42S 



plain section and fence. Now, understand I 

 do not say positively that the bees will go into 

 such a super sooner. It is' quite necessary for 

 me to be emphatx on these points, as some 

 chap ma\' be setting up another man of straw, 

 and then knocking it over again. — Ed.] 



RIPENED HONEY. 



Dan White's Ripened Honey ; Extracting Before 

 Honey is Sealed ; More Hot Shot. 



BY DEI,OS WOOD. 



On page 125, Feb. 15, 1898, Dan White 

 complains of all bee-keepers who extract 

 hone}- before the bees have sealed it, and gives 

 hot shot, but fails to point his gun in the 

 proper direction. His article is a good one, 

 and will bear careful study, even by himself. 

 There have been so few writers who advocate 

 extracting unsealed honey that I can not call 

 the names of any of them. I, for one of those 

 1 it by Mr. White's bombs, am willing to join 

 hands with him in condemnation of putting 

 thin, watery, or unripe honey on the market. 

 "The everlasting footnote" to Mr. White's 

 article says we should "agree not to put on 

 the market extracted honey weighing less 

 than 11 lbs. to the gallon." That is too thin 

 and watery for me, Mr. Editor. Honey that 

 does not weigh 12 lbs. to the gallon is not 

 \yell ripened. Weigh that "over at the 

 house " and you will find it about 13 lbs. 



On p. 249, April 1, in " California Echoes," 

 J. H. Martin gives a kick especially aimed at 

 the Califcrnia b^'e-keepers who extract before 

 sealing. His paragraph sa3ing"Thin honey 

 is liable to sour, and more or less of it will be 

 a dead loss, the flavor raw and unpalatable, 

 etc.," is correct; and any one selling such an 

 article will soon ruin his market. In another 

 place he says, "It is pure shiftlessness to 

 produce unripe honey." This, if taken just as 

 it reads by itself, can not be objected to ; but, 

 taken in connection with what precedes it, I 

 infer that it is a mere kick at extracting before 

 the honey is sealed. 



Now, in reply to both of these articles I 

 would ask, " Who has ever advocated putting 

 unripe honey on the market ? " I never have, 

 and am willing that every buyer and user of 

 honey may know that I advocate and practice 

 extracting honey before it has been sealed by 

 the bees ; but I have never sold a pound of 

 unripe honey since I quit selling comb honey. 

 I have never sold a can of extracted honey 

 that did not weigh 12 lbs. or over to the gal- 

 lon. In a lot of two tons, sent to a commission 

 house in San Francisco a few years ago, in 

 5-gallon tin cans, the net-weight returns 

 showed 63 lbs. per can. This honey was taken 

 as fast as the bees stored it, not waiting for 

 any to be sealed, and ripened in the sun, and 



sold a fraction above market quotations. I 

 always put my name and adiress on every 

 case shipped, and have never received one 

 complaint of sour or unripe honey. 



Who sells unripe, watery, or sour honey ? 

 It is those who wait for the bees to seal their 

 honey. Then they honestly think they can 

 join Dan Whitt's society. Bei s are like some 

 farmers When work is pressing, every thing 

 is done in a hurry. Example : The farmer in 

 the East, where summer rains abound, has a 

 large lot of hay cut, and a rain is threatened. 

 That hay is hustled into the barn as soon as 

 he thinks it will do. If he fears it is not well 

 cured he perhaps will dose it with salt, and in 

 goes another load, and .so on until the last is 

 well sprinkled with rain. Result : That hay 

 heats, sweats too much, molds, and is unfit 

 for market. 



Bees are rushed by the enormous honey- 

 flow at times, and they go it pellmell, slap, 

 kick 'em off, get done quick, a la Coggshall, 

 and seal their honey before it has had time to 

 evaporate or ripen. The comb-honey man 

 takes off the nice ripe honey (?) while it is 

 white, and sells the watery stuff. The man 

 who works for extracted has waited until all 

 is sealed, and he honestly thinks it is well 

 ripened. He imcaps and extracts, and runs 

 the honey direct from the extractor into the 

 can, and sells it, and these are the ones who 

 are selling unripe honey weighing 11 lbs. per 

 gallon. When honey is sealed it ripens verj' 

 slowly, and this is why E. R. Root once ad- 

 vocated leaving it on the hive until travel- 

 stained. 



I have cut open well-sealed honey, stored in 

 May and June, and kept on the hive until 

 winter, that would run from the combs almost 

 as fast as water, and would smell strongly of 

 vinegar. Was it well ripened ? 



It woiild take a long article to tell what 

 constitutes well-ripened honey, and how to 

 produce it, and I will not attempt it at present, 

 as you may condemn this to the waste-basket; 

 but if you do not, you may put a No. 10 

 double-soled footnote to it. 



In conclusion I wish to say that, in my 

 opinion, any one who runs honey direct from 

 the extractor into the cans, no matter if every 

 cell is sealed, is liable at times to put unripe 

 honey on the market. 



Santa Barbara, Cal. 



[There is a good deal of truth in what you 

 say. May be it is all truth. If so, it only 

 goes to show that your conditions, so far as 

 ripening honey is concerned, are different from 

 what they are in Ohio. I do not think I ever 

 saw the time when sealed honey in Ohio was 

 unripe; but I can imagine that the bees might 

 pour the honey into combs pellmell, and seal 

 it before it is really ripe. If that were the 

 case, then of course the honey ought not to 

 go from the extractor into the marketing-cans 

 or barrels, but should, on the other hand, as 

 you imply, go into evaporating- cans, thereto 

 remain until it has attained the proper con- 

 sistency. 



You ask me to weigh that honey "over at 

 the house," that you think will run about 13 



