Decembkk, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE C U I; T U R E 



927 



aged by one of the most wondorfnl beekeep- 

 ers to whom we are all proud to do homage. 

 I hope Dr. Miller will notice that I ad- 

 \'ised no one to change liis system of winter- 

 ing, but merely stated that I did not be- 

 lieve there was the big difference in the two 

 systems tliat some writers .claimed. If I 

 lived in Illinois I am not sure which system 

 I would use; but I am quite certain that I 

 would give the outdoor plan a good trial 

 anyway. Tt would be the rankest presump- 

 ti( n on my part to suggest any changes in 

 Dr. ]\Iiller's ideas whereby he might winter 

 successfullv outdoors; but he will pardon 

 me for pointing out to him two things at 

 least that are against success. He uses 

 eight-frame L. hives, I believe, and is op- 

 posed to feeding the bees in the fall, pre- 

 ferring to give them combs of honey as 

 needed, to make up any deficiency. For 

 wintering, here in Ontario, the eight-frame 

 L. hive is the most uncertain ]3roposition 

 under the sun, unless heavy feeding is done 

 in the fall. Putting combs of honey in the 

 place of partly filled ones will not work 

 nearly as well. More or less brood in 

 the hive till quite latle makes this work 

 of replacing combs correspondingly late, 

 and disarranges tlxe brood-nest to the detri- 

 ment of tlie bees. Light colonies fed heavi- 



ly, and allowed to arrange the stores as they 

 see fit, seems to work much better. But, 

 if eight-frame hives were well protected and 

 made nearlj^ solid with honey by the middle 

 of October, I feel .s-ure that, regardless of 

 the wind, they woukl winter fine, even at 



^farengo. 



* * * 



During last week in O'ctober I wrote to a 

 friend in Pennsylvania asking him to send 

 me a queen to replace an undesirable one I 

 had found a few days before. The reply 

 came at once that they had already had a 

 fall of twelve inches of snow. While, no 

 doubt, this fall of the beautiful would not 

 stay with them very long, yet it seemed 

 rather strange that we in the North had no 

 snow at that date. My correspondent stat- 

 ed that the weather had been unusually cool, 

 so it looks as tho conditions have been much 

 the same thru all the northern zone. 



* « * 



Fall weather conditions continue to be 

 much colder than the average. In our lo- 

 cality the bees have had no real flight since 

 early in October. No harm has been done 

 b}' this enforced quietness on the part of the 

 bees, but naturally we are hoping for a real 

 good cleansing flight before actual winter 

 conditions set in. 



FLORIDA SUNSHINE 



E. G. Baldwin, Deland, Fla. 



AN i n quiry 

 has just 

 come from 

 a beeman li^dng 

 in Oak Hill, Fla., asking whether it is advis- 

 able to heat extracted honey when bottling 

 or putting it in glass jars, etc. As several 

 similar inquiries have come lately, apper- 

 taining to the same matter, it will not be 

 out of place to make a brief reply here. 



'J'he novice should never heat honey to 

 boiling, and .not over 140 degrees Fahr. 

 The expert may heat higher, with care; but 

 this seems to be the limit of ordinal'}- safe- 

 ty. The heating" should always b? done 

 with a double-cased heater, which the small 

 beeman may easiW make by taking any cop- 

 per or'tin pan or boiler and setting it into 

 one slightlv larger. There should be at 

 least a thirty-second of an inch of water all 

 around the outside of the inner vessel, and 

 more will not hurt. Be sure the water in 

 the outer vessel rises as high as the honey 

 in the inner one; and do all the heating with 

 an accurate thermometer in tlie honey all 

 the time. Do not use a galvnnized-iron 

 vessel for the hone\', as the slight acid in 

 the honey will attack galvanized ware quick- 



er under heat 

 than when cold, 

 and will have a 

 slightly dark 

 mark on the inside of the vessel, showing 

 that some metal properties have been assail- 

 ed and liberated into the honey by the acid. 

 Tin is all right, but not iron nor galvanized 

 :ron. If the heating is done gradually, and . 

 the honey covered so far as loossible, it will 

 be better. 



Why heat at all? the inquirer asks. Be- 

 cause after heating, and sealing while hot, 

 the hone}' will remain liquid longer — that is, 

 will not granulate so quickly under chang- 

 ing temperatures. We have found that it is 

 well to place the honey in the vessels it is 

 to be sold in ; set these filled cans, bottles, 

 or jars, right into tlie cold water, and heat 

 all to the temperature named above. Put 

 on the caps or lids while the honey is hot; 

 remove, and let cool slowly in a place slight- 

 ly warmer than the suirounding air. Then 

 wipe the cans clean ; label, and keep in as 

 even a tem]>erature as possible till sold. 

 Do not stii- the honey any more than can be 

 helped and do not expos? it to the air more 

 than is necessary, for in so doing one might 



