April, 1909. 



Amc^rican l^ee Journal 



used, and the most common receptacle 

 is a square can holding 5 gallons (60 

 pounds). Two of these are usually 

 boxed together for shipment. Square 

 and round cans of various types are 

 often used for smaller quantities. Bar- 

 rels are preferred by some for large 

 shipments for the baking and confec- 

 tionery trade, but their use can not al- 

 ways be advised. Before honey is put 

 into it. a barrel must be thoroughly dry, 

 and tight zvhen dry, because of the fact 

 that honey takes up a certain amount of 

 moisture, and if, when the honey is put 

 into it, the barrel is damp, the honey 

 win absorb the moisture, causing the 

 barrel to leak. Barrels also absorb a 

 certain amount of honey. In dry cli- 

 mates, particularly, barrels should be 

 used with caution. 



When honey is packed in bottles it 

 is desirable that granulation be retard- 

 ed, since a partially granulated bottle 

 is not attractive. To aid in the retard- 

 ing of granulation the honey should 

 be entirely liquefied, thoroughly mixed 

 in a large can, and run into the bottle 

 warm. The tjottle should be as full 

 as possible and sealed hermetically 

 while still warm. Granulation usual- 

 ly begins on the edges of the top line 

 of the honey, and spreads rapidly from 

 these points; this is probably because 

 some honey gets upon the sides, and 

 partially dries. It is, therefore, desir- 

 able that the honey fill the bottle clear 

 to the cover to prevent this. It must 

 also be free of bubbles. 



Bottles may be hermetically sealed by 

 using some style of clamp cover or by 

 sealing a cork with a nii.xture of bees- 

 wax and resin. This mixture may be 

 colored by the addition of a dye. Granu- 

 lation may be considerably retarded by 

 keeping the honey at a nearly uniform 

 temperature. This should not be less 

 than 65 degrees, F., and is much better 

 at 90 degrees to 100 degrees, F. While 

 the honey is in the hands of the pro- 

 ducer or bottler it may be kept liquid 

 for a long time in this way, but, of 

 course, when cold it is generally sub- 

 ject to changes of temperature. Honey, 

 either comb or extracted, should never 

 be kept in a cool or damp place. 



The Production of "Candied" Honey. 



Honeys of average type are relatively 

 free from non-sugars, such as that made 

 from alfalfa, soon granulate solid and 

 are sometimes sold in bricks. Granula- 

 tion may be hastened by changes of 

 temperature and by stirring. If it is 

 desired to have a can of honey granu- 

 late rapidly, it may be carried from a 

 warm room out doors in winter and 

 back again at intervals of a day or two 

 for a couple of weeks. If this is ac- 

 complished with occasional stirring 

 when granulation first begins, the whole 

 can will soon be a solid cake. Honey 

 may also be poured into smaller re- 

 ceptacles such as waterproof pasteboard 

 carriers or oyster pails, and allowed to 

 crystallize in the package in which it 

 is to be sold. If allowed to granulate 

 solid in a large tin can the tin may be 

 cut away and the honey cut into bricks 

 with fine wire in the way that prints 

 of butter are sometimes prepared. 



A market for "honey-bricks" must 

 generally be built up locally, for as yet 



the general public has not learned to 

 look for honey in such shape. The cost 

 of the package is less than that of bot- 

 tles, and the granulated honey is by 

 some considered as superior for table 

 use to liquid honey. Several bee-keep- 

 ers have used this method with suc- 

 cess, and claim that it gives great satis- 

 faction to their customers. 



Honey Types. 



It is well known that honeys from 

 different plants vary considerably in 

 taste, color, granulation, etc. The taste 

 and color are given to honey by the 

 plants from which the nectar is derived. 

 Granulation may be considered as a 

 property of all honeys, or, rather, of 

 the dextrose contained in all of them, 

 and, from a study of the chemical com- 

 position of many specimens, it seems 

 probable that all honeys would crystal- 

 lize were it not for the fact that some 

 of them contain an excess of either 

 non-crystallizable levulose or dextrose 

 gums, and other non-sugars. The fol- 

 lowing table will make this point clear : 



I. Normal Honey (from nectaries of 

 flowers.) 



1. High Purity (high in sugars, re- 

 latively low in dextrine gums, and other 

 non-sugars.) 



a. Levulose type, e. g., mangrove, 

 tupelo, sage. 



b. Average type ; a. High in su- 

 crose ; e. g. ; alfalfa. b. Low in su- 

 crose ; e. g. ; buckwheat. 



2. Low Purity (relatively high in 

 dextrin, gums and other non-sugars; e. 

 g. ; basswood, sumac, poplar, oak, hick- 

 ory, apple — most tree honey). 



II. Abnormal Honey (not from nec- 



taries of flowers) (generally high in 

 dextrin, gums and other non-sugars). 



1. Honey-dew Honey (from aphides 

 and other insects.) 



2. Coniferous Honey (plant exuda- 

 tions not from nectaries). 



Honeys containing approximately the 

 same amount of levulose and dextrose, 

 and which are high in sugars (average 

 type) granulate readily. Very few 

 honeys have more dextrose than levu- 

 lose. If, however, the levulose is con- 

 siderably greater than the dextrose 

 (Levulose type) or if the non-sugars 

 are relatively high (Low Purity and 

 Abnormal Honeys) granulation is re- 

 tarded. Some honey-dew granulates 

 rapidly, but no abnormal honeys of that 

 type were included in the samples ex- 

 amined, and consequently they are not 

 included in the table. 



The use of the terms "high" and "low" 

 purity in this table must not be taken to 

 indicate the comparative values of the 

 various honeys. Low-purity honeys 

 which have relatively more dextrin, 

 gums and other non-sugars, are just 

 as good honeys as those of the high- 

 purity class. Abnormal honeys, how- 

 ever, are less desirable. The presence 

 of the non-sugars in low-purity honeys 

 may be due largely to a slight admix- 

 ture of honey-dew, since most honeys 

 contain a trace of this. It must be re- 

 membered in considering this subject 

 that practically no honey is from a 

 single species of plant, and therefore 

 they will vary considerably according 

 to the other nectars added to them, as 

 well as according to local soil and cli- 

 matic conditions. — Read at the Harris- 

 burg Convention. 



"Boiled Dowiv^ 



Old Queens Dull-Looking. 



J. E. Crane, in Gleanings, thinks the 

 most distinguishing sign, when one tries 

 to decide by looks whether a queen is 

 young or old. is the dull look of an old 

 queen as compared with the briglit look 

 of a young one, no matter what the 

 color. 



Understocking a Ijocality witli Bees. 



The danger of too many bees on a 

 given area has been pretty well under- 

 stood, but perhaps no one heretofore 

 has said anything about any danger 

 from too few, unless it had reference 

 to there being too few bees to secure 

 proper fertilization of blossoms. Now 

 comes this statement, in Gleanings, from 

 the Colorado State convention ; 



W. C. Dyer said that he believed there ^yas 

 as much danger from understocking a location 

 as from overstocking. He claims that, if the 

 nectar remains in the flower, and is not gath- 

 ered by the bees or other insects, it will dry 

 down to a hard scale, and so stop further se- 

 cretion in the blossom ; but if there are suffi- 

 cient bees, the flower secretes nectar for sev- 

 eral days. 



Caution as to Liquefying Honey. 



Mr. E. E. Coveyou, of Michigan, the man 

 who does such an extensive business in bot- 

 tling honey, says that it is very important, in 

 liquefying honey, to draw off the melted por- 

 tion as fast as it melts. If the liquefied prod- 

 duct is kept under heat until all the solid por- 

 tion of the honey has become dissolved, it will 

 lose some of its delicate flavor and darken 

 somewhat in color. The same suggestion has 

 come from other sources; and we may say in 

 addition that Mr. Coveyou's experience has 

 been quite in line with our own. It is a fine 

 art to liquefy honey, and do it right, without 

 impairing the flavor or color. 



Right in this connection we discovered in 

 our experiments with the capping-melter that 

 it was important to allow the free honey to 

 run off as fast as the cappings melt. The 

 conditions in a capping-melter are much the 

 same as those that are present in a tank that 

 is melting up candled honey. — Gleanings in 

 Bee Cuhurc. 



Tariff on Honey. 



E. G. Mann, in Gleanings, regrets 

 that at the Detroit convention a higher 

 tariff was recommended without a fuller 

 discussion. He says: 



Those who advocate a higher tariff ostensi- 

 bly for the purpose of excluding diseased 

 honey and wax are open to suspicion, inas- 



