JANUARY 15, 1914 



59 



just as deep as the 



five-yalloii cans are 



high plus one inch to 



accommodate wooden 



strips placed in the 



bottom of the vat on 



which to place the cans 



to prevent burning the 



honey. The water in 



the vat comes to a 



)"oint one inch from 



the top. The vat is 



placed on brick six 



inches high, so as to 



have the fire flush 



against the bottom of 



the vat. When heating 



begins, the water is 



used as a thermometer. 



The water in the vat 



around the honey is 



heated to the tempera- 

 ture of hot dishwater, 



and held at this tem- 

 perature. Presently the 



heated honey will be- 

 gin to flow to the top 



of the can, allowing 



the granulated part to 



sink to the bottom of 



the can. This process of the heated honey 

 rising and the solid parts going down con- 

 tinues until the whole mass is liquid. I heat 

 the honey until it reaches about two-thirds 

 the boiling-point. The cans are kept sealed 

 tight all the while to retain the aroma of 

 the honey. The stirring referred to by Mr. 

 Scholl is unnecessary. 



I ielic|uefy and redeem chunk comb honey 

 by thus heating, and have as a result fine 

 ' extracted honey with a nice cake of wax. I 

 have used this method of reliquefying hon- 

 ey for 1.3 years, and it has been very satis- 

 factory to myself and customers. I have 

 yet to receive my first complaint. 

 Bartlett, Texas. 



B. J. Mayo's tree 

 500 pounds. 



A TREE HIVE 



BY C. B. MORRIS 



B. J. Mayo, of Metuclien, N. J., a bee- 

 keeper of forty colonies, has an interesting 

 specimen of bees in a tree-trunk that was 

 obtained in November, 1913, at a cost of 

 considerable trouble and labor. 



The colony was discovered in the woods, 

 about twenty-five feet from the ground, in a 

 dead tree. An investigation proved the worth 

 of both bees and honey, and on the follow- 

 ing night the first steps toward gathering 

 were made. The tree-tnink was sawed at 



hive, weigliing, with the bees, in the neighborhood of 



the point where the bottom of the combs 

 was correctly judged to be, and allowed to 

 fall over and down into a smaller one. The 

 smaller one was cut, and allowed to fall into 

 a still smaller one, and so on until four trees 

 in all had been cut down. This permitted 

 the lowering of the hive by degrees, and 

 thus saved the otherwise 25-foot drop that 

 would have resulted in an entire loss of 

 bees. 



As the bees were of the Italian breed, and 

 not the common black kind that are so often 

 found in the woods, it was an object to save 

 them as well as to obtain their honey. 



The top half of the tree was larded safe- 

 ly, and the extent of the colony judged to 

 be .51 inches upward from the bottom cut. 

 This estimate proved to be wrong, as the 

 saw passed tlrrougli the combs, leaving about 

 a quarter of them still in the top. The 

 smaller portion was then cut off, and, with 

 the larger one, placed in a wagon and taken 

 to Mr. Mayo's apiary. 



The picture shows how the larger portion 

 was made fast to a tree, the smaller one ly- 

 ing on its side empty. 



It is the desire of Mr. Mayo to have the 

 bees in the larger portion work their way 

 up and into the hive on top, filled with the 

 remains of extracted honey-combs, and then, 

 under favorable conditions, remove the colo- 

 ny to a place where other hives of this pat- 

 tern are located. Already this procedure 



