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AT $1.00 PER ANNUM. 



SStli Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JULY 18, 1895. 



No. 29. 



Cot;)tributed /Kriiclcs^ 



On Important A-piarian Subjects, 



No. 7. — The Production of Extracted Houey. 



BT CHAS. DADANT. 



Before proceeding to give our views on the methods of 

 putting up extracted honey, and the care to be given to this 

 product, I wish to say a few words concerning a remark 

 made by one of the contributors of the American Bee Journal 

 a few weeks ago. This gentleman says that it is a mistake to 

 advise bee-keepers to use several supers on top of each other, 

 and that it is better to extract the honey as fast as it is harv- 

 ested. Our reasons for using several supers on the hives are 

 two-fold. First, it is next to impossible to extract from the 

 only super that is on a hive, during a big flow of honey, with- 

 out harvesting a large amount of unripe honey which has just 

 been gathered, at the same time with the ripe honey. On the 

 other hand, the reader must bear in mind that we are giving 

 our own methods, and that in our practice, with four or five 

 apiaries, we find it inconvenient to extract any of the honey 

 while the crop lasts, as the bee-keeper must attend to several 

 apiaries, and cannot afford to spend two or three days in suc- 

 cession in any one of them at that time. 



As for the danger of losing the combs, from moths, dur- 

 ing a bad season, we are not at all afraid of this. Whenever 

 we have lost combs, it has been the neglect of some one to 

 keep the screens of the honey-house windows well closed. 

 Moths cannot live over winter in a honey-house where no fire 

 is kept, in this climate, and the moths would have to be 

 brought from the outside. In a well-conducted honey-house, 

 where old combs from colonies that have died late in the 

 spring are either rendered up in wax or sulphured, or used for 

 new swarms, there is no danger of moths. We have now had 

 three bad honey seasons in succession, and we have a number 

 of surplus cases with the combs in them that have not been 

 out of the honey-house in all that time, and yet they are as 

 perfect as when taken off the hives. 



The different grades of honey which are harvested during 

 the spring crop cannot usually be kept separate, as they are 

 generally harvested at the same time. Basswood and clover 

 go well together, and a slight tinge of basswood rather makes 

 clover honey more pleasant. Basswood honey alone is too 

 strong, and a poor product to sell. Honey-dew is very objec- 

 tionable, whether by itself or mixed with other grades, but we 

 have yet to find a method of compelling the bees to harvest it 

 separately. As a matter of course, we do not leave the honey 

 from the spring crop on the hives, but extract it as soon as the 

 first honey season is over. In some localities, further north 

 than ours, the two crops, spring and summer, almost run to- 



gether, but there are always a few days of suspension, when 

 the first crop may be removed from the hives to make room 

 for the yellow honey of fall blossoms. 



After the extracting is over, the first thing that requires 

 attention is the capping can. We usually leave the eappings 

 In it, for a week or two. If more than one canful have been 

 taken, they are kept in a barrel with one head taken out, and 

 after the last batch has been well drained, those in the barrel 

 may be drained again, until they are nearly dry. After this 

 we wash these eappings in hot water, to remove the last par- 

 ticles of honey that may remain. It is a mistake to render 

 up the capping into wax without first washing them, as the 

 honey is lost, and this is very useful to make vinegar or wine, 

 metheglin or mead. If neither vinegar nor wine Is wanted, 

 they may be kept until cider-making time, and then washed, 

 and the water may be added to the cider with profit. To 

 make a fair article of either cider or vinegar, an egg should 

 float at the top, part of the egg, about the size of a nickel, 

 showing above the water. 



The water in which we wash the eappings is heated about 

 140°, or nearly to the melting point of beeswax. We stir 

 them in it, and afterwards dip them out and press them in a 

 small press. They may afterwards be rendered into beeswax 

 according to methods described elsewhere. The water which 

 remains seems turbid and dirty, but this is only apparent, for 

 if the business is conduced with cleanliness, there is nothing 

 in the water but honey, a little pollen and broken bits of wax. 

 The wax is thrown off by the liquid during fermentation, and 

 the other impurities are deposited at the bottom of the vinegar 

 or the wine after fermentation has stopped. To induce fer- 

 mentation in the sweetened water, any fruit-juice may be 

 used that is at hand ; neither does it take very much of it in 

 warm weather. Blackberries, raspberries or grapes will give 

 the liquid a nice red color. 



But we have stretched this subject rather longer than 

 anticipated, and will have to leave the question of honey- 

 packages for another time. Hamilton, HI. 



What Dr. Miller Thinks. 



Removing Queens.— On page 406, Adrian Getaz says re- 

 moving queens at the honey harvest has produced splendid 

 results with thousands of colonies. Not with him, but with 

 Elwood and others. It hasn't worked well with me, and I 

 think conditions here are much the same as in New York, 

 the main harvest being over with clover. Perhaps the fault 

 is mine, but I wish Bro. Elwood would tell us if he thinks as 

 much of the plan as ever. 



Isn't there something just a bit lame about the reasoning 

 of Mr. Getaz? He counts a gain by rearing no brood for 19 

 days, the honey harvest being over by the time the brood 



