482 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 3, 1899. 



when we call in other members of the family to scrape sec- 

 tions, nail up fixtures, and take the honey to market. 



I am still in love with the business, and would heartily 

 recommend it to any woman who is situated so that she can 

 engag-e in it, provided she has lots of patience, grit and 

 energy. Mrs. A. J. Barber. 



Extracting' and Ripening Uncapt Honey. 



I 



BY C. P. DAUANT, 



HAVE received the following request for information, 

 which I will answer in the American Bee Journal : 



Mr. Dadant :— I am seeking information. Will honey extracted be- 

 fore bein^ capl be all rij^ht, provided it is put into tanks and ripened? 

 Will this discourage the bees from workiutr and storing? 



J. C. T., Miami, Ohio. 



We have made extracted honey our specialty in keeping 

 bees for nearly 30 years, or almost since the invention of 

 the honey-extractor ; but we have never aimed to extract 

 unripe honey. 



Our reason for preferring to produce extracted honej', 

 even tho it is of less ready sale, and of lower price than 

 comb honey, is that we have so many different things to 

 look after — so many irons in the fire — that we find it next 

 to impossible to manage five apiaries with limited help 

 when producing comb honey. The successful managing of 

 a comb-honey apian,^ requires constant supervision in order 

 to produce honey of the best quality and appearance. 

 Every season the hives must be supplied with a fresh lot of 

 sections, and as fast as these are filled they must be re- 

 moved and replaced with empty ones, so the combs of 

 sealed honey may not be soiled by propolis and the marks 

 of the passage of the bees — travel-stains, as they are called. 

 Then the product of the apiary must be disposed of during 

 the following winter, for comb hone_v that has been kept 

 over a year is but a second-grade at best, as there is always 

 more or less leakage and soiling of the sections. 



On the other hand, we find that the production of ex- 

 tracted honey lessens the labor. The hives are readily 

 supplied at the opening of the honey season, with the supers 

 and empty combs which have been set aside from the pre- 

 vious crop. One apiary after another may be fitted out in 

 this way with little labor, and one apiarist is sufficient to 

 care for five apiaries, with some time to spare for other 

 work except a few weeks in a very plentiful harvest. If 

 he is accustomed to handling them, and can readily gauge 

 their capacity at sight of the colony, he usuallj' can suppU' 

 each colony with the amount of surplus-room that it is 

 likely to need for the entire crop, except in extraordinary 

 seasons. And as there is not so much tinkering as with 

 the sections, additional supers, when needed, are soon sup- 

 plied. When the crop is over, a crew of three to five men 

 takes up the crop in a few days, and the profits are realized 

 without a great expenditure of labor. 



Then we find that it is not always advisable to crowd 

 one's honey upon the markets. When we have a large crop 

 many others are successful as well, and prices are low. If 

 we are able to hold our honey we often realize much better 

 prices, for a season of scarcity often follows an abundant 

 harvest. These are the main reasons that have induced us 

 to extract our crops. 



We do not wish to be understood as advising others to 

 follow our course, and we believe that each man should act 

 as circum.stances direct him ; he must be his ovpti judge, 

 and decide on his course accordingly, taking into account 

 his facilities for selling and disposing of his crop, as well 

 as his ability or willingness to put in the labor at taking 

 care of the crop. The average bee-keeper, who has but one 

 apiary, is usuallj' a careful man, neat and precise in his 

 habits. The minutiae of comb-honey production rather 

 pleases him, he delights in producing fine honey, well 

 sealed, in beautiful white comb, and that is why a great 

 majority of apiarists will always prefer the production of 

 comb honey, even if it vfas not of more ready sale than the 

 extracted honey. 



But I am wandering away from the subject of the en- 



quiry above. My purpose was to show why weliave but little 

 experience in extracting unripe honej', since we always 

 make it a rule to leave the honey on the hives till the crop 

 is over, except, as I said before, in extraordinarily wonderful 

 seasons, when it is impossible to furnish the bees enough 

 room in any reasonable amount of supers. But in such ex- 

 traordinary seasons the honey is usually more easily ripened 

 than in the years of scant crop, especially when the scant 

 crop is caused by a superabundance of moisture. 



The late Chas. F. Muth, who so lamentably ended his 

 career a little over a year ago, was a very practical bee- 

 keeper, as well as one of the most extensive, if not the most 

 extensive, honey-dealer in the etitire world, and I have 

 often heard him say that he did not care how unripe the 

 honey was, it could be easily ripened b)' keeping it in a hot 

 place in an open vessel during the hot weather. His method 

 was to use an extractor-can covered only with a light cloth 

 or muslin, kept in an attic until the end of the summer. I 

 will confess that we have never tried this. Mr. Muth had 

 but a few bees, living in the heart of a great city (Cincin- 

 nati), and the amount of unripe honey which he harvested 

 could not be much in the way. But if we were to try this 

 method with apiaries numbering 400 to 500 colonies, it 

 would take a very large room and an endless number of 

 large cans. We prefer to let the bees do the work, which 

 we think they can do with much more satisfactory results. 

 The quantity of honey that has to be handled is much less 

 when it is ripe, and the labor much less. The only gain of 

 which we see any possibility in handling unripe honey is 

 the greater ease with which it may be removed, as one does 

 not wait until it is sealed, or till the crop is over, and there 

 is less danger of excitement in the apiarj' and of robbing 

 during the operations if they are performed while there is 

 still honey to be had. But the latter result may often be 

 attained by beginning the extracting before the entire 

 finish of the crop. 



One thing I must emphasize, and that is, that honey 

 does not necessarily need to be sealed to be ripe. A great 

 deal of honey is left unsealed by the bees after the crop, 

 which is as ripe as the sealed honey, and their reason for 

 leaving it in this shape seems to be only because the crop 

 is nearing its end, or is intermittent, and they probably 

 do not see the need of spending time and was in .sealing 

 cells which they think will be emptied of their honey before 

 many weeks. 



On the other hand, honey which is sealed by the bees 

 is not always ripe. We have seen many instances of honey 

 fermenting and bursting the caps of the cells, and such 

 honey when found would better be harvested in separate 

 vessels, to be sold separately. We find more unripe honey 

 in our locality from basswood than from any other bloom. 

 For some reason unknown to us we have seen but very lit- 

 tle fall honey that was not thoroly ripened within a very 

 few days after the harvesting of it by the bees. 



As to the question whether the taking of their honej' 

 will discourage the bees, I would say no. The combs are 

 returned to the hive always sticky with honey, and this 

 seems rather to add a new stimulus to their energy. It has 

 always appeared to us that when tlie honey was extracted 

 during the flow the bees seemed to work with increast 

 energy, so there would be no objection on that score. 



Hancock Co., 111. 



Early California Bee-Keeping Crop of 1899. 



BY W. A. PRY'.AI.. 



THE early history of bees in this State dates, I might 

 say, from their introduction into San Jose, then, and 

 still, the garden spot of California. Alameda County, 

 which was then a portion of Santa Clara County (San Jose 

 being the county seat), secured colonies of bees frotn the 

 Garden City, as the fruit-growers in the latter county, even 

 at that time, recognized the importance of bees in an or- 

 chard. So, in the latter SO's and early 60's, Alameda, Santa 

 Clara and Sacramento counties were the home for many 

 years of the bee in this State. Of course, it was not long 

 before adjoining counties became stockt with the little 

 workers. Thus, bees were distributed for a distance north 

 and south of about ISO miles. But Sacramento soon became 

 the center of the bee-business. This was owing mainly to 

 the fact that Mr. Harbison lived there, and was engaged in 

 producing honey, making his patent hive, and, I believe, 

 raising nursery-stock. 



The forage along^ the Sacramento River in those days 

 was excellent. Hydraulic or " placer " mining in the hills 



