180 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ffb. 15 



sulphide of carbon. The odor was quite 

 different; and this leads me to believe that 

 you a-d Dr. Brunnich are passibl3' refer- 

 ring lo another chemical. 

 I I have wondered if it would not be an in- 

 teresting experiment for several of us to 

 make an open-air hive, something like the 

 one shown in the illustration. It would 

 probably be necessary to fasten in some 

 combs, then put an inclosure around it un- 

 til the bees had got the combs well filled 

 with brood and honey; then remove the in- 

 closure, and use the hive as an exhibit or 

 curiosity to show to visitors. It goes with- 

 out saying, that the colony should be 

 powerful, or at least able to make a strong 

 defense against robbers during a dearth of 

 honey. Such an exhibit would be very in- 

 teresting at a bee sh:>w or f lir. — Ed ] 



EvSTERN HONEY IN PAPER BAGS. 



The Importance of Well rpened Honey for Candy- 

 ing; a Valmble Article, 



BY J. A. (iKEEN. 



Dr. Miller wonders if the Coloradoans 

 have a monopoly of the paper- bag package, 

 and expresses the opinion that other kinds 

 of honey than alfalfa might not work in pa- 

 per bags — at least not without draining — 

 while the editor is of the opinion that East- 

 ern h )uey should be fully drained before 

 it is put into bags. If it were not that I 

 have so frequently come across su ;h expres- 

 sions in regard to hone}' produced in the 

 middle and eastern States, I would almost 

 want to rub my eyes and wonder if 1 am 

 dreaming when I imagine that I once pro- 

 duced honey in the East. Why, Dr. M. 

 and E R., back in dear old Illinois, not so 

 very many miles from Marengo, I have pro- 

 duced tons of honey from which, when fully 

 candied, you could hardly any easier have 

 drained any liquid, without melting it, than 

 you cjuld from a newly burned brick! I 

 have also bought Wisconsin honey that was 

 almost as hard and dry as any alfalfa hon- 

 ey. Furthermore, fifteen years or so ago, 

 when I lived at Dayton, 111., and wrote for 

 Gleanings somewhat oftener than of late 

 3'ears, I put up honey in p iper myself — not 

 in bags. I did not get quite that far. Still, 

 it was in paper, and it worked all right. 



Although 1 had sjld a great deal o1 can- 

 died honey in paiis and various other small 

 packages, I had never found any way inwhich 

 any quantity of candied honej' in small 

 packages could be disposed of without per- 

 sonal solicitation. As 1 studied over va- 

 rious schemes for remedying this condition 

 of affairs I was impressed with the immense 

 quantities of sweets that were consumed in 

 the shape of confectionery. I reasoned that, 

 if we could only put up honey so that it 

 could be sold and eaten like a caramel, for 

 instance, a new market for enormous quan- 

 tities of honey could be secured. 



By folding little squares of paper about 

 a form, I made me a number of little boxes 



of various sizes, from an inch square to some 

 holding a pound of honey. These little box- 

 es, square or oblong, were set closely to- 

 gether in a shallow tray, to make them keep 

 their shape; honey was poured in. and they 

 were set away to harden, after which the 

 edges of the paper were folded over the top. 

 In some respects the results were very sat- 

 isfactory. I had neat square packages of 

 dry hard honey that kept in perfect condi- 

 tion until the heat of summer. But I decid- 

 ed it was too much labor for the busy bee- 

 keeper to undertake. Commercially, the 

 manufacture of a candy that required days, 

 or pjssibl}' weeks, to harden, instead of 

 minutes or hours, and that cauld be made 

 only at cert lin seasons of the year, would 

 require too much in the way of space and 

 fixtures to be profitable. 



My larger packages were intended to be 

 sold for table u»e, but my experience in 

 that line had been so discouraging that I 

 did not trrasp the possibilities of the situa- 

 tion as Aikiu did, but dropped them along 

 with the rest, and relegated the whole to 

 the limbo of manj' another of my brilliant 

 schemes. 



The point I wish to make is that the hon- 

 ey of Illinois, and probabh' that of most 

 of the other States, if of good quality, and 

 properly handled, is nearly as well adapt- 

 ed to use in a paper package as that of 

 Colorado. 



There are two points that should be ob- 

 served. First, the honey must be thorough- 

 ly ripened — not that which his been ex- 

 tracted when only a third or a half of the 

 cells were sealed, but that In which every 

 cell has been sealed; and it is all the bet- 

 ter if it has been allowed to remain on the 

 hives or in a very warm place for several 

 weeks after this. I think nothing has done 

 so much to discourage the use of extracted 

 honey as the marketing of an article a con- 

 siderable proportion of which is ihin. raw, 

 and unripened. Such honey will not candy 

 perfectly. 



The second important point is that the 

 hone}' should never be put into the final re- 

 ceptacle before it has begun to granulate. 

 Leave it in your honey-tank or other large 

 receptacle until it begins to granulate, then 

 stir thoroughly and draw off into the small 

 packages. The stirring changes the mode 

 of crystalliz ition so that honey that would 

 granul.ite with coarse crj'stals, with more 

 or less liquid between, granulates with a 

 fine grain, hard and dry. Besides this, it 

 will be consideral>ly lighter in color. Sim- 

 ply waiting until the honey begins to grain, 

 then drawing it off, will usually suffice, 

 but the stirring is much more effectual. 



Instead of the waxed paper sacks that 

 have been thought necessary, I would use 

 those of ordinary paper, and, if desirable, 

 in order to make a more sightly package, 

 or avoid any chance stickiness, put another 

 wrapper of paper around it. A very an- 

 noying feature of the waxed sacks that have 

 been sent out is that almost all of them will 

 leak; whereas the ordinary paper sack, 



