AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



663 



that honey must be left on, or in the 

 hive, in order to become best ripened 

 and flavored. I am confident that is a 

 mistake. If properly cared for, honey 

 does as well out of the hive as in it — in 

 many cases even better. 



In the case of the honey that soured 

 on the vi^ay to Cheyenne, the error vi^as 

 not in extracting when it was one-third 

 sealed, but in the after treatment. I 

 judge it was run into screw-cap cans, 

 the caps screwed on, of course, tumbled 

 into a warm honey-house, afterwards 

 into a wagon and hauled through a hot 

 sun, so that in both cases it would heat, 

 but could not evaporate, and it soured 

 in consequence. My friend, if you had 

 put that honey into stone jars, or other 

 open vessel, tied a cloth over each one 

 and left it in a hot room to cook, you 

 would have had a very different result. 

 It certainly ought not require more than 

 a second thought to convince you that 

 those close cans were not the proper 

 vessels in which to ripen honey. 



That honey may be extracted too rank 

 to ripen even in a stone jar before it 

 sours, is no doubt true. I have taken a 

 comb that had been filled with clover 

 honey inside of a day or two, and put it 

 in the upper story of a hive where no 

 bees could get access to it, and it would 

 promptly sour. I have also shaken 

 some of this same raw nectary honey 

 out on a painted hive-cover, where the 

 summer sun would strike it, and a few 

 hours later licked some of it off a knife- 

 blade — or my finger — about the thickest, 

 richest honey I have ever tasted. Now, 

 don't you grasp the idea ? Don't you 

 see the difference '? The water quickly 

 evaporated from that sprinkled on the 

 hive cover, while it could not from that 

 in the comb — that is all. 



From the above examples alone I 

 gather — First, that bees can add noth- 

 ing to the flavor of honey after it has 

 left the honey-stomach. Second, if 

 proper conditions are observed, this 

 honey may be taken the moment it is 

 deposited in the cell, and ripened arti- 

 ficially as well as the bees can do it. In 

 other words, the only thing that im- 

 proves the quality of honey is ripening, 

 i. e., expelling the superfluous water. 



The correct conditions for ripening 

 are heat and facilities for the escape of 

 water in proper proportions. Too much 

 of the former for the latter will sour 

 the honey. Hence, while that honey 

 extracted when one-third sealed could 

 not ripen in a screw-cap can, it would 

 have done so in open jars or cans in a 

 warm, dry room. Likewise, the watery 

 stuff that will shower out of a comb 



when shaking off the bees, would prob- 

 ably sour in a four-gallon jar, while it 

 would ripen nicely in a shallow bread 

 pan, out in the sun. Suppos-:', .-/e test 

 that specifically next year. 



Mr. Dayton thinks that comb honey is 

 best that has staid on the hive long 

 enough to become travel-stained. An 

 old settler of this region (central Illi- 

 nois) once told me that the French, of 

 St. Louis, used to dress their beef and 

 hang it up until it began to st — smell, 

 when it was ready to eat. I could but 

 wonder when I read those words by Mr. 

 Dayton, if his taste was not similar in 

 regard to honey. I am satisfied that ■ 

 while honey gains nothing on the hive 

 that cannot, under proper conditions, be- 

 gained elsewhere, it does at least in this 

 clime, lose in quality by being left on 

 very long. 



I am not prepared to say that of two 

 sections of honey removed during th& 

 honey-flow, one somewhat travel-stained, 

 the other just finished in its marble 

 whiteness, the former is not superior to 

 the latter in richness. It may be slightly 

 so. But I do say you may take those 

 two sections of honey to a honey-house 

 situated in a hot, sunny place, with a 

 free circulation of air all around and 

 beneath it, pack them in a box, being 

 sure to set the box at least six inches 

 above the floor, and away from the wall 

 — I think higher above the floor is bet- 

 ter — and in a few weeks at least the 

 white one will be fully equal to the 

 other. At the same time, you may put 

 the travel-stained section back on the 

 hive, and take the marble white one to 

 this same honey-house, and at the end 

 of three months the former will be far 

 inferior to the latter. While that in the 

 honey-house retains all the original rich, 

 oily flavor found only in honey, in an 

 intensified degree, that on the hive 

 loses that flavor, and often acquires a 

 strong, moldy taste. I have noticed the 

 rancidness especially prominent when 

 the hive was pretty well shaded. 



In the dry atmosphere of Colorado and 

 her neighboring States, where the tem- 

 perature is pretty uniform, with noth- 

 ing to intercept the heat of the sun, or 

 the sweep of the winds, such might not 

 occur ; but here in Illinois the climate 

 is variable in every respect. The humid 

 atmosphere of a wet spell, with changes 

 of temperature, must be what injures 

 our honey. That packed in the honey- 

 house, as I have described, is apparently 

 less affected by such conditions than 

 that on the hive out-of-doors. I see no 

 reason why the latter should improve for 



