April, 1909. 



American ^ee Journal 



Formerly the general public was sus- 

 picious of granulated honey, in the be- 

 lief that it contained cane-sugar, but, 

 fortunately, it is now generally under- 

 stood that pure honeys will granulate 

 in time, and this crystallization is gen- 

 erally considered as a test of purity. 

 The education of the purchasing pub- 

 lic has so far progressed that now some 

 bee-keepers prefer to sell their honey 

 in a solid granulated condition, it be- 

 ing cut up into bricks and wrapped in 

 oil paper. 



In bottling honey, or putting honey 

 from any large receptacle into smaller 

 ones, it is necessary to liquify the en- 

 tire quantity completely before the op- 

 eration is begun. This may be done by 

 immersing the receptacle in water which 

 has been heated to 160 degrees to 170 

 degrees, F., and letting it remain until 

 the honey is all liquid and free from 

 crystals. Honey should never be lique- 

 fied by direct application of heat, and 

 it is extremely important that it should 

 not reach a temperature of more than 

 160 degrees, F. It is well-known to al- 

 most all bee-keepers that honey heated 

 to higher temperatures will become 

 darker in color and lose flavor, and, 

 consequently, they are generally very 

 careful on this point. There is, how- 

 ever, a very much more important rea- 

 son for avoiding high temperatures. 

 When honey is heated to 180 degrees, 

 F., and more, the higher alcohols which 

 give honey its aroma are driven off, 

 and, more than that, a decomposition 

 of certain of the sugars takes place; 

 this is what gives the darker color to 

 the honey. Of all the various substances 

 used for the adulteration of honey the 

 one most nearly resembling pure honey 

 is invert sugar, of which the Herzfelt 

 artificial honey is the best illustration; 

 in the detection of adulteration, one of 

 the tests for the addition of invert sugar 

 is based on the presence of decomposi- 

 tion products due to heat. These de- 

 composition products in invert sugar 

 are probably identical with the decom- 

 position products in overheated honey; 

 at any rate, honey which has been heat- 

 ed to more than 180 degrees F. for any 

 considerable time, gives the test for in- 

 vert sugar and would, therefore, be de- 

 clared to be adulterated if this test were 

 applied by a chemist. A bee-keeper 

 might argue that he is not infringing on 

 the pure food law in over-heating his 

 honey, since he had added nothing in 

 the way of an adulterant. If, however, 

 he changes the chemical composition of 

 his honey by injudicious treatment, it 

 is no longer pure honey, and he has no 

 right to sell it under that name. 



It is very much safer to liquify hon- 

 ey at a temperature of about 140 de- 

 grees, F., and thus avoid any danger of 

 decomposition. If this lower tempera- 

 ture is used, it is, of course, necessary 

 to keep the honey at this temperature 

 for a considerable time; but the safety 

 of such a proceeding makes the extra 

 time well worth while. 



Two or three of the most widely cir- 

 culated American te-xt-books on bee- 

 keeping advocate the drawing off of 

 the liquid portion of granulated honey, 

 particularly in the case of honey which 

 was not thoroughly ripened before it 

 was extracted. The granulated portion 



is then allowed to liquefy and is recom- 

 mended as a verj^ fine quality of honey. 

 This practice is in no way permissible, 

 as will readily be seen if the composi- 

 tion of honey is studied. Honey is made 

 up of dextrose and levulose in about 

 equal quantities, sucrose, a certain 

 amount of ash, and vifater. In granula- 

 tion, the dextrose crystalizes readily, 

 and the levulose probably does not 

 granulate at all. If then, the liquiu 

 portion, consisting largely of levulose, 

 sucrose and water, is removed by drain- 

 ing or by pressure, the resulting por- 

 tion is not honey but dextrose. How- 

 ever fine the flavor of such a compound 

 may be it is not honey, and cannot 

 truthfully be sold as such. 



Since honey separates into its com- 

 ponent parts in granulation, it is very 

 necessary that alt the honey in the re- 

 ceptacle be hquefied and thoroughly 

 mi.xed before any portion is removed 

 from it for bottling or canning. If, for 

 example, honey is in a 60-pound can, 

 and is to be transferred to pound bot- 

 tles, it is necessary that the entire 60 

 pounds be liquefied and mixed before 

 any is poured out into bottles, in order 

 that all the bottles may contain honey 

 according to the legal standard. Un- 

 less this is done, some of the bottles 

 will contain a high percentage of dex- 

 rose and will granulate rapidly; while 

 others will contain a preponderance of 

 levulose and will not granulate for a 

 long time. Unless this mixing is done 

 thoroughly, none of the bottles will con- 

 tain absolutely pure honey. In order to 

 protect himself, the bee-keeper must be 

 very careful on this point. Some bee- 

 keepers prefer to pour the honey cold 

 into the bottles and heat it afterward 

 before sealing. As a matter of con- 

 venience this has many points in its 

 favor, but, in view of the separation in- 

 to component parts which may take 

 place, it is a bad practice. The honey 

 should first be heated and liquefied com- 

 pletely, especially if honeys from sev- 

 eral species of flowers are to be blended. 



As previously stated, there has ex- 

 isted, and possibly still exists, a popular 

 idea that granulation indicates adultera- 

 tion by the addition of cane-sugar. This 

 is, of course, untrue, since pure hon- 

 eys do granulate solid. Many bee- 

 keepers in combating this idea have 

 stated that this very granulation is a 

 test of the purity of the honey. This 

 statement, so frequently made, is equal- 

 ly untrue, since invert sugar — one of 

 the adulterants sometimes used — will 

 also crystalize solid as rapidly as do 

 most honeys. Bee-keepers should not 

 make such statements to their custo- 

 mers since it may reflect on the purity 

 of their goods if the truth is found out. 



Age seems to affect honey greatly. 

 Repeated granulation and liquefaction 

 as the temperature varies year after 

 year in some way affects the chemical 

 composition of the honey, changing the 

 product so that it may not have the 

 composition that it had at first. Some 

 honey 35 years old, submitted to this 

 Department, was found to contain too 

 much sucrose. A sample of the same 

 honey had previously been analyzed by 

 two official chemists and declared to be 

 adulterated; but the history of the 

 sample precluded this possibility. The 



honey had apparently changed greatly 

 with age in appearance as well as in 

 composition. 



Some bee-keepers make a practise of 

 adding a very small amount of glycerin 

 to the honey to prevent granulation. 

 This should not be done, for it is adul- 

 terating the honey. Some have argued 

 that, since glycerin costs so much inore 

 than honey, they are not adulterating 

 in that they are not adding something 

 cheaper to the honey to increase their 

 profit. According to pure food laws, 

 however, nothing can be added to hon- 

 ey, unless the addition is specifically 

 stated, and the addition of even a small 

 amount of glycerin is, in the eyes of 

 the law, as great an offense as the ad- 

 dition of glucose. 



Heating Honey for the Desthuction 

 OP THE Bacteria of Disease. 



The only condition under which hon- 

 ey should be heated to a higher tem- 

 perature than 160 degrees F. is in the 

 case of honey which has been extracted 

 from a colony containing foul brood. 

 In order to kill the bacteria of either 

 of the brood-diseases, it is desirable to 

 dilute the honey by adding an equal 

 amount of water and then raising the 

 temperature to the boiling point and 

 keeping it there, allowing the mixture 

 to boil vigorously for at least 30 min- 

 utes; in order that no risk may be run, 

 it is better to make this one hour. Hon- 

 ey which is so treated is changed chemi- 

 cally and is no longer pure honey, but 

 it makes a good syrup for feeding to 

 bees and is the best way of using honey 

 from an infected source. Too much 

 care cannot be exercised in bringing 

 this to the proper temperature, but it 

 must, be remembered that the resulting 

 product is not honey but a syrup, the 

 chemical composition of which is quite 

 unlike that of pure honey. 



Packing of Extracted Honey. 



If honey tends to granulate rapidly, 

 it will save much trouble in liquefying 

 to put it into the receptacle in which it 

 is to be sold as soon after extraction 

 as possible. There will then be no 

 difficulty from the various ingredients 

 becoming separated. To preserve the 

 delicate aromas it is desirable that hon- 

 ey be sealed as soon as possible. 



When honey is put up in less than 3- 

 pound packages it is generally bottled. 

 A bottle makes a much more attractive 

 package than a tin can and shows off 

 the contents. There is no doubt of 

 the fact that honey sells largely on its 

 appearance, and too much care can not 

 be exercised in packing and labeling so 

 as to make the package attractive to 

 the purchaser. In cases where a bee- 

 keeper sells directly to a local trade he 

 may educate his customers to judge his 

 honeys by their flavor, in which event it 

 is immaterial what kind of a package 

 is used, and honey may even be run out 

 from a large can into a vessel furnished 

 by the customer, when the honey is de- 

 livered. It is too often the case, how- 

 ever, that bee-keepers put up their hon- 

 ev in such poor, unsightly packages that 

 they can get only a low price for their 

 goods. 



If honey is put up in more than 3- 

 pound packages, tin cans are generally 



