THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



143 



except when extracting the honey. 

 And if I have a full supply of cases for 

 all the hives in the apiary, one general 

 extracting answers for the season. 

 When the cases are to be removed, the 

 bees are smoked down, the cases 

 lifted oft' and set in a " bee-escape ' 

 for the bees to have them and return 

 home. For six years past, I have used 

 these shallow extracting cases side by 

 side with the full upper story plan, 

 and the former has uniformly given 

 the best results in surplus honey, and 

 in time, patience aud labor. While 

 speaking of the shallow extracting 

 case, I wish to say that it is father to 

 the boasted "sectional brood-chamber 

 hive." I used the shallow cases fi'ej'ed- 

 up for brood-rearing before I ever 

 heard of the great "revolutionizing 

 Invention " which consists of nothing- 

 more than the new words and phrases 

 descriptive of my shallow extracting 

 cases, and applied to the " new hive." 

 I do not fear that future historians will 

 fail to place the matter in a true light. 

 Some of the leading bee journals are 

 going it headlong, just now, and 

 perhiips they will never get their eyes 

 open until "something drops." 



2. If honey once begins to ferment, 

 it can be saved by boiling and skim- 

 ming, but it will be only tit for feeding 

 bees. It can never be made fit for 

 table use. 



3. Heating honey changes its flavor, 

 but it does not injure it in our estima- 

 tion. We use it during the winter and 

 spring months, in this shape, all the 

 time, and I have never met a person 

 who does not pronounce it delicious 

 after partaking of it. 



4. We reduce the candied, extracted 

 article just as you would make syrup 

 from sugar. A little water is added, 

 the honey is melted and skimmed. 

 Now as to the flavor of honey. Bee 

 men do not like to own it, but it is a 

 iact, and always has been and will be 

 a fact, that tlie virgin flavor of honey 

 is peculiar to the internal heat of the 

 hive, and is never exactly the same in 

 flavor and smell after it once becomes 

 cold. Honey in all its glory is found 

 nowhere else than fresh from the bees. 

 Nevertheless, as a regular diet, I would 

 prefer the melted extracted honey in 

 the shape of a most delicious syrup. 



ANSWERS BY G. H. MARTIN. 



1 I use a frame eleven inches deep, 

 a'ndhave always extracted honey from 

 them when the honey is capped over 

 one-half or two-thirds of the surf;ice. 



I have never had honey ferment. I 

 have had a little thin honey collect 

 upon the surface of a barrel, but it 

 would soon evaporate. My only 

 method of curing is to run the honey 

 directly into half barrels, leaving the 

 bung out for several weeks. The bar- 

 rels stand on end and the bung is in 

 the end. This gives quite a surface 

 for evaporating any thin honey that 

 may rise on top. But it seldom rises. 

 The beekeeper should watch the condi- 

 tions of the weather. If it is wet and 

 the honey is thin, more care is required 

 in selecting combs for extracting, and 

 they should be nearly, if not quite 

 capped; while in a moderately dry 

 time, honey can be extracted when 

 capped but very little. Gauge your 

 extracting by experience and you will 

 have no fermented or sour honey. 



2. Not having experience I don't 

 know. I think if there were signs of 

 fermenting, heat would stop it." The 

 fermentation, however, should not go 

 too far. 



3 The flavor would certainly be 

 destroyed and the color changed to a 

 dark hue. 



4. Candied honey should be lique- 

 fied gradually. Put the vessel of honey 

 in a vessel of warm water and set back 

 upon the reservoir, as over an oil stove, 

 where the temperature can be kept 

 uniform and just warm enough to m<^lt 

 gradually and the flavor will not be in- 

 jured. The flavor, however, will not 

 in a majority of cases be injured if 

 warmed up rapidly, if it does not reach 

 the boiling poiut. Frequent warming 

 of the same honey will perceptibly de- 

 stroy the flavor. 



Beekeepers should educate the peo- 

 ple to purchase extracted honey in the 

 candied form; then there would be but 

 little necessity of so much warming up. 

 When I first sold extracted honey 

 every pound had to be liquefied, but 

 now I sell in the candied form, ihe 

 purchasers, in many cases/preferring 

 to eat it in that condition. 



ANSWERS BY C. W. DAYTON. 



1. Commence where the honey is 

 one-half capped and leave oft' where it 

 is all capped. There is a great difl"er- 

 ence in honev, though it be partly 

 capped; some is so thin as to run from 

 the comi)s easily, while for other honey 

 we have to turn the extractor long 

 and vigorously. 



2. Often in my locality we get some 

 honey from black locust and honey 

 dew just before our regular white hon- 

 ey harvest; in which case, every 



