306 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 15. 



a difference in the scent of the two, let them 

 change hats and see if they don't still find 

 the black one. I have kept bees for 17 years, 

 and this has been my experience. 

 Hillsboro, Wis., Mar. 6. 



[In view of the former evidence to the same 

 effect, I do not believe that I was at all hasty 

 in concluding that bees do dislike black ob- 

 jects. Mr. Martin (Rambler), in taking the 

 opposite view, cites the fact that bees are 

 more inclined to sting the white leg than the 

 black pants. But this is not a matter of color. 

 The leg itself has an odor that gives the bees 

 a distinct knowledge of that part which is 

 animate and that which is inanimate. — Ed ] 



TEMPERATURE OF BOILING HONEY. 



225 and 235 F., according to the Specific Gravity of 



the Honey; the Difference between Spores 



and the Bacilli Themselves very 



Clearly Set Forth. 



BY HARRY S. HOWE. 



I have read with great interest the articles 

 on foul brood which have appeared in the bee- 

 journals this winter. I am putting in a year's 



titude. Even after considerable time the hon- 

 ey would not go above 209°. The tubes were 

 then taken out of the water, and heated over 

 a gas flame until the honey boiled vigorously, 

 when the temperature of the best sample was 

 235°, and the thin one 225°. The thermome- 

 ters used were standard ones, made and tested 

 expressly for bacteriological work. Care was 

 taken to see that the bulbs did not touch the 

 sides of the test-tubes, and that the temperature 

 reached nearly that of the boiling honey itself. 



The experiments were repeated several times 

 to make sure that no mistake had occurred. 

 Each time samples from the same lot of honey 

 reached the same point. A slight addition of 

 water reduced this several degrees, showing 

 that the boiling-point depended upon the spe- 

 cific gravity of the honey. 



Prof. Hodge speaks of the three boilings, 

 which are part of the routine work of a bacte- 

 riological laboratory in sterilizing culture me- 

 dia, and on that account advised the three 

 boilings for honey. There is, however, a very 

 important reason why this will not apply to 

 foul-broody honey. The reason, as he states 

 it, for the three boilings of culture media, is to 

 kill the germs in the vegetative stage, having 

 just time enough between the treatments for 

 the spores to develop, but not long enough 





CALIFORNIA LILAC. 



work here at Cornell University in the attempt 

 to work out some of those very problems 



When I read those notes on the temperature 

 of boiling honey, the first thing I did was to 

 hunt up some samples to represent the ex- 

 tremes of ripeness and body, and carry them 

 up to the bacteriological laboratory. The 

 samples were first placed in large test-tubes, 

 and heated in a water-bath until the water 

 boiled, which was at a temperature of 210^° 

 F. — about what was to be expected at this al- 



for them to form spores again. This is all 

 right in a medium in which the spores will 

 develop ; but the spores of Bacillus alvci do 

 not develop in honey, nor can the bacillus live 

 in honey except in the spore stage. We might 

 boil the honey as many times as we wish, and 

 not kill the spores, if each boiling were just 

 too short to kill them. 



As to the time to do this, I am not yet sure. 

 I have been working for some time on this 

 point, without coming to any conclusion as to 



