JULY 15, 1914 



finally, needing some more supers a few 

 years ago, I ordered 100 made % inch wider 

 than regular, and nailed five little blocks on 

 the inside, on one side, these blocks being 

 1/2 X 4 X 1/2 or %. I nailed a slatted separa- 

 tor on to these blocks, spacing the blocks so 

 they would come where the rows of sections 

 join in the super, thus making a i/2-incli 

 bee-space between this separator and the 

 sides of the super ; and after putting in the 

 sections I used a follower bored full of 5-16- 

 inch holes, except 1/2 inch at each end, and 

 the same at the three places where the fol- 

 lower presses against the sections. 



This arrangement allows a layer of bees 

 at each side of the super, and the outside 

 sections are worked better than the old 

 style, and are filled plumper, there being 

 little if any difference in weight of outside 

 and center sections. The best building, how- 

 ever, seems to be on the side where the slat- 



led separator is, so I am rigging a bunch 

 now with two slatted separators nailed to- 

 gether for a follower in i^lace of a board. I 

 shall use 100 with the board, and 130 with 

 separate follower, and so find which is best. 



I find no trouble in using this super on 

 the regular eight-frame hive. It projects 

 over the brood-chamber about Yi inch on 

 each side, which does no harm ; and as I use 

 the common flat cover, tliat does not bother 

 either. 



This is a little matter that may seem 

 trivial; but with the eight-frame hive it will 

 lead to one-third of our sections being better 

 weight than with the common sui3er, and 

 more apt to be sealed, so it really is a thing 

 worth having. It costs so little to try it that 

 any one can do so. Just have the regular 

 super made % wider, and rig up as directed 

 above. 



Dunlap, Iowa. 



HYDROMETER FOE DETERMINING THE 

 EXTRACTED HONEY AND § 



PROPER DENSITY OF 



BY A. N. CLARK 



A Canadian beekeeper tells me that he 

 had lost some extracted honey from souring 

 by following the advice of Gleanikgs, tlie 

 editor and other writers having stated that 

 honey weighing 12 pounds per gallon is 

 heavy enough to keep. It is true that such 

 statements have been made, and it is very 

 generally agreed that any honey that weighs 

 12 pounds to the United States liquid gal- 

 lon is thick enough. But it just happened 

 that many Canadians and Englishmen are 

 not aware that the States use a different 

 gallon from what the former do. A Cana- 

 dian (imperial) gallon of honey should 

 weigh about liy2 pounds. A United St.ates 

 liquid gallon contains 231 cubic inches while 

 an imperial gallon contains 277.41 cubic 

 inches. As English-speaking nations are 

 over-blessed with a variety of measures, one 

 needs to bear in mind that a gallon or quait 

 may mean either United States liquid. Unit- 

 ed States dry, or imperial, depending vu 

 where it is used and what it is used for. 

 Official inspectors of weights and measures 

 tell us they have found storekeepers who 

 bought fruit and vegetables from farmei's 

 by the " dry " quart and sold the same to 

 consumers by the " liquid " quart, resulting 

 in the confiscation of their liquid measure 

 by the officials. 



Beekeepers who desire to determine the 

 density of extracted honey or of dilute hon- 

 ey, or syrups used for feeding, would make 

 fewer mistakes if they used a good Biix 



hydrometer. 1 once used a hydrometer with 

 a Beaume scale for testing extracted honey 

 and feeding-syrups; but the Brix scale is 

 preferable because the number of degTees 

 Biix is equal to tlie per cent of sugar in a 

 pure-sugar solution, or the number of 

 pounds of sugar in 100 pounds of syrup. 

 So if one wants a one-to-ten feeding syrup 

 he stirs in sugar until the hydrometer reads 

 10 degrees at the surface of the syrup, and 

 does not need to measure or weigh either the 

 sugar or the water. If it is a syrup for 

 winter feed he adds sugar to the hot water 

 until the hydrometer reads about 65 to 66 

 degrees in the hot syrui?, which is equivalent 

 to two pounds of granulated sugar plus one 

 pound of water ; that is, a syrup containing 

 two pounds of sugar and one of water will 

 read 67 Brix at a temperature of 68 F. If 

 a syrup or honej' is tested with any hj'drom- 

 eter at a temperature much higher or lower 

 than that at which the hydrometer was stan- 

 dardized, due allowance must be made for 

 difference in temperature, as all liquids are 

 ligliter when hot than when cold. 



Extracted honey at a temperature of 68 

 F. should have a density of about 85 Brix, 

 equal to a specific gravity of 1.45 ; weighs a 

 little better than 12 pounds to the Uni*^ed 

 States liquid gallon, and contains about 15 

 l^er cent of water. 



Of course the degree Brix does not indi- 

 cate the per cent of sucrose when the hy- 

 drometer is used in honey, but it comes very 



