50 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 



EXTRACTING AND STRAINING THE 

 HONEV. 



''^^y> y^ur Feb. Xo. of Glkanings, you arc ailvising 

 |[| ouv IVicntU to place the extractor above the bar- 

 '^ ro!, and have the straining ba>j, in the biiniBr-hole, 

 etc.. In order to facilitate labor. Allow me to give my 

 idea in regard to that matter. 



Wc are ennitying a good many bajTcls of honev, and 

 whenever I sec a barrel opened and part of the honey 

 solid, while a qnantitj' of thin watery stuff is collect- 

 ing at the places from which hone.v is taken, I feel 

 ijnite sure that the man who sent me that honey is oc- 

 casionally troubled with sour honey; and also that he 

 runs his honey Into the barrel direct from the extract- 

 or. He belongs to that number of our brethren who 

 talk about '-ripening honey before extracting.*' 



I tried, some time ago, to show why honey would 

 sour in my cellar, when it would not in the store. I 

 tried to show that honey in a tight, covered bee hive, 

 would get sour for the "same reason. I had this win- 

 ter a number of super boxes with comb honey sent me 

 from other parties. The honey in the unca|)pped cells, 

 and even that in many of the capjic-d cells, was sour. 

 Here I claim again that it was not the thin fall honey 

 that caused the souring, liut the cellar-like enclosure 

 in which the honey was kept, and the moisture arising 

 from the bees anfi sattling on the honey. Had this 

 thl-j thin fall honey been pumjjed olT and kept in open 

 vessels for ;i short time only, it would not have soured. 

 On the contrarv I am sure it would have— ripened ? 



Look around among your friends, brother Novice, 

 and satisfy yourself if there is one that gives his ma- 

 chine cxtracteil honey a few day's evaporation in an 

 open vessel, before barreling it, who speaks about his 

 honey souring, or liis honey being ripened. 



Honey ripens (if so we may call it) in an open ves- 

 sel much better than in a bee hive; and while I con- 

 sider a strainer unnecessary, I consider it damaging 

 to the (iu.a!ity to run the honey direct from the pumji 

 into a barrel It is not very expensive to ha\ie, during 

 the honey season, a barrel or two, standing upright, 

 the head out, and an iron guage or a wooden stopper 

 in below. In these barrels the honey should Ix; al- 

 lowed to stand for a day or two; then "skimmed thor- 

 oughlj' and barreled or jarred. 



If treated in ihis manner, I feel safe in saying that 

 there will bo no more unripened honey. Besides, this 

 mode of treatment gives us the chance of not only in- 

 creasing our honey crop Ijut also of keeping separate 

 each kind of honey. This can not always be accom- 

 plished, if wc allow our honey to be capped before we 

 extract it, but i> of great importance to both dealer 

 and i)rodncer. It is ol the utmost importance to all of 

 us th'i* the consumer should know what kind of honey 

 to ask for. 



The honey trade has been very satisfactory with me 

 thi^ winter, at least as far as quantity is concerned ; 

 and judging from the increased retail demand, I have 

 reason to believe that my next year's business will be 

 better, f have therefore made contracts for next year's 

 crop wiih several parties, and am negotiating with 

 othei's for machine extracted and comb honey. Comb 

 honey, in the sale of which I hacl no confideiicc, sells 

 too, and I shall have a good supply next season. 

 However, comb honey will remain a fancy article on- 

 ly, and if an overstocking of the market takes place, 

 it will be with comb honey, and not with machine ex- 

 tracled. 



Some of our brethren complain bitterly that bee- 

 keei)iug does not ))ay. This is very natural. Farming 

 does not pav, and the same can be said of any other 

 business. .Sometimes wc an; to blame if our business 

 don't pay, and sometimes we are not: but it appears 

 that others got along if w-- don't. Would it not be 

 somethinL' extraordinary if bee-keeping were a busi- 

 ne«-< in which none of us failed !-' 



My bees are wintering lirst rate; so far. With the 

 exception of :i queens only, 1 have lost none. My 

 stands are all strong except one, and this one has bees 

 in only three spaces between th(! comb, but brood in 

 all stages. A few only of the balance have egirs. 



CiiAS. F. Ml;tii. 



Were; not the above from such excellent au- 

 thority wo might hesitate to give it; what is 

 stranger still. Prof. Cook seems to be of the 

 same opinion, at '.east so far as extracte<l honey 

 is concerned. The llrst clover honey we took 

 out last season was simph^ sweetened water, 

 and aitliough the hives were full, we stopped 

 and put on upper stories. This thin honey 

 was mixed with some that was thicker, and 

 was allowed to stand in an open tin can for a 



week or 10 days ; was then put into a barroF 

 for retailing. The iTi'st that was drawn oil' was 

 very fair, but it seems the thin honey swam on 

 top, for toward tl\e last it was like water, ancf 

 finally soured. Wc .gave all our customers 

 who had used it, some better without charge, 

 and we have little disposition to risk our repu- 

 tation in that way again. Althougli the honey 

 was worse in this rcspe(;t last season, it is ))y 

 no means the first occurrence of the kind ; ami', 

 such troubles, with our readers, are quite fre- 

 quent. Are we to think friend M., that it is 

 all because we don't use straw mats? Gallup 

 taught quite to the contrary in regard to the 

 ripening process, viz: hive crowded until 

 bees filled it, etc. 



HOW SOON SHAI.Ii WE COWIMTENCE 

 STIMltiATIVE FEEDING. 



Shall we Feed in t!»e Springr at All ? 



Last spring we did considerable feeding, 

 both of mcil and sugar ; and by the middle of 

 April we had sealed brood in abundance. But 

 after the April freeze, as we then stated, wr 

 had apparently nothing left but the downy 

 young bees — see page (i3, Vol. Ill — and this 

 seemed to be the case all through the apiary 

 with the exception of a colony that was 

 queenless until April ftth ; strange to tell, tli'' 

 old bees did not die in this colony, and wc 

 could see no reason why they were an excep- 

 tion, only that they had no brood to rear, 

 when the others were full of it. Now this- 

 colony, when the honey season opened, were 

 very nearly as good as any of those tliat had 

 been so busy on the meal for a month or more. 

 Now comes the ((uestion : Suppose there had 

 been no such freeze, liow would they have 

 turned out ? We cannot say positively, but as 

 we have had the same spring dwindling for 

 several seasons past, it looks somewdiat as if ir 

 might be just as well or bettor, not to feed be- 

 fore May or .June, if we do at all. The fol- 

 lowing seems to bear on the point: 



My report for 1S7,'> i? rather of the discouraging or- 

 der. I ))ut out 4S hives in good condition as to Dec-', 

 but rather short of stores ; I bought a barrel of sugar 

 and commenced feeding early in April. Everything 

 went all right for a few days! and then came a colil 

 spell. On examining the hives afterward, I found 

 much unsealed brood killed bv cold. Bees began to 

 get weak from dying and getting lost, .and by the lirst 

 of Mav 1 had but .S.'J weak swarms. Now I am very 

 sure if I had let the I'eeding alone until the last vif 

 April or first of Ma}-, I would have come out in very 

 much better shape. I conclude from this that the ex- 

 periment of early feeiling cost me about 18 swarms of 

 bees and a barrel of sugar. Cheap enough ! Hereafter 

 I shall not commence stimulative feeding until tht^ 

 first of May, or nearly|that. l''inaUy I increased my 

 bees to 53 very good swarms, and took about 1500 lbs. 

 honey. The season, with us, was a very cold and wet 

 one. ' Jas. Scott. 



Epworth, Iowa, Dec, Slth. 1S75. 



We confess we do not know what to advise 

 in this matter, and would be glad of facts on 

 both sides of the question. The number nf 

 reports in favor of stimulative feeding in the- 

 spring, (aside from the modern dwindling,) is 

 so great that it would be folly to question it ; 

 but if it causes them to die more rapidly, st> 

 that we have wasted our feed and are no better 

 off, we certainly had belter look to it. 



Feb. 14z(h — It maj' make mischief, but ire do 

 so love to see bees work, that we are going to 

 ours ; and wc give the preference to outdoor 

 feeding. We shall give, them all the sugar 



