118 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 



Mr. Wilcox — No. 



Mr. Burnett — A gentleman here has the idea with regard 

 to that brood, that it has a tendency to sour the honey. If 

 there is any such thing it is important. It may be one of 

 those things that is an unknown quantity to us. We often 

 find in a consignment of honey, there are one or two packages 

 that will ferment, and the rest show no tendency to do so. 

 As dealers, and finding so many instances of that kind, we 

 are quite at a loss to know what is the cause of it. 



Dr. Miller — I should say yes to that question ; if you had 

 obliged me to say yes or no just at first blush I should have 

 said no, but thinking more carefully over it I should say yes, 

 because if you put brood-frames — and by that we generally 

 understand combs containing brood — into an extractor you 

 most surely will have unripe honey in that, and when you 

 throw unripe honey out you are likely to injure the quality 

 of your honey, and that may account for the kind of honey 

 that Mr. Burnett is talking about. 



Mr. Wilcox — I think it is terrible to throw out unripe 

 honey, but it does not follow just as he expressed it, surely. 



Dr. Miller — Almost surely. 



Mr. Dadant — I have had considerable experience in the 

 matter of extracting honey. I must say, in the first place, 

 it is not advisable to extract honey from combs containing 

 young brood; and in the second place I believe Dr. Miller 

 is right; if you do that you are extracting in the beginning of 

 the season and you will have thin honey. If you extract at 

 the end of the season from brood-combs that contain brood 

 and sealed honey the brood will likely be sealed also. There- 

 fore it is unlikely that the bee-keeper who wants good honey 

 will extract from brood-combs containing unsealed honey. 

 If it contains any he can throw it out without throwing 

 any brood out. Those who are expert enough can make it 

 in such a manner that it moved the larvae a little forv/ard 

 when it was extracted and this larvae could work back 

 after the comb was taken back to the hive, or the bees 

 would take them back, and yet none of them were thrown 

 out. But you don't want a careless boy to turn the ex- 

 tractor, because a little too fast whirling will throw the 

 brood out, and then you have a chance for fermentation. 

 Although, I believe very ripe honey will not ferment even 

 if it has brood in it. The ancients tell us they used to 

 preserve bodies in honey, showing that honey will keep 

 things from rotting. I believe that bees and larvae will 

 be preserved in the honey if th^ honey is ripe, but if the 

 honey is unripe it will be sure to ferment, whether you 

 have dead larvae in it or not. 



Mr. Wheeler — I have had a suspicion of that thing 

 for quite a number of years, and the more I have watched 

 it and studied it, the more I have made up my mind there 

 is a great deal in it. You not only throw out the honey, 

 but the food that is given to the bees, that sours the 

 larvae. One has to be very careful in extracting. Another 

 point Mr. Dadant makes about the honey season bemg 



