

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION 



65 



this California honey doesn't granulate. 

 I would like to know if there is any 

 way of preventing granulation without 

 adulterating honey, without changing 

 the character of the honey? 



J. F. Teel — I was brought up in Ala- 

 bama, and in that country there is a 

 grade of honey that never granulates. 

 It is also true in Mississippi. While it 

 is not a real, first-class grade of honey, 

 it is fairly good, and people prefer it, 

 who are accustomed to it, and prefer 

 it to real white honey; but there is a 

 honey that is pure that doesn't granu- 

 late. 



Mr. France — I will say that of some 

 60 kinds of honey over the States I 

 have been learning something. I find 

 that the honey from the North has a 

 tendency to granulate much earlier than 

 that in the Southern States, as a general 

 rule, so I believe there is something in 

 the latitude. The flowers and the lo- 

 cality have something to do with the 

 granulation. 



Mr. Rouse — My experience is that ex- 

 tracted honey, well ripened, will not 

 granulate. I have had it in an open 

 room, that is, the shop or factory where 

 I work, and I have kept it there all 

 winter and it has never granulated at 

 all. It was well ripened when it was 

 extracted. Sometimes it granulates and 

 sometimes it doesn't, but I cannot tell 

 you why. I think there is an element 

 in the honey or in the weather, or some- 

 thing. 



Dr. Bohrer — I think the kind of honey 

 has something to do with it. In Central 

 Kansas alfalfa honey will granulate 

 sooner than any other honey. I don't 

 eat anything sweet at the table except 

 honey, but at home I drink hot water, 

 and I season it to taste with alfalfa 

 honey. My folks have a large bottle 

 with a glass stopper, in which they pre- 

 pare this honey, but I have to superin- 

 tend it and put it in warm water every 

 two, three or four weeks, so it will not 

 granulate. Now, I have no other dis- 

 tinct and superior variety of honey that 

 I am able to speak of. The fruit 

 blooms are consumed during the breed- 

 ing season, preparatory to the main 

 honey flow. The kind of honey has 

 something to do with the granulation, 

 and I don't know of any preventive, ex- 

 cept warming it in warm water about 

 half an hour. 



Mr. Hyde — I have had a little ex- 

 perience with it. I find that there are 



two conditions that will granulate our 

 honey; that is, the coming of the cold 

 weather will always granulate all of our 

 Texas honey; but we have a honey here 

 we call the "catclaw," and we some- 

 times get what we call a crop of 30, 

 40, to 50 pounds to a colony and this 

 will granulate in July or August. We 

 always harvest it before the first day 

 of May, and it will granulate when the 

 thermometer stands at 90 or 100 degrees. 

 Our catclaw or mesquite honey will not 

 granulate until the coming of cold 

 weather ; so the cold weather, has some- 

 thing to do with it, I think; but the 

 source from which it is gathered has 

 more to do with it. I had a vial of honey 

 shipped from Cuba, from one of our 

 Texas bee-keepers, W. W. Sommers. I 

 kept that honey for two years and it 

 never granulated, and the same can be 

 said of the California honey; it will not 

 granulate under two years. The granu- 

 lation is caused from the source from 

 where it is gathered. Is there anyone 

 here who knows what the honey is 

 gathered from in California? I would 

 like to hear. 



Dr. Treon — With reference to the 

 granulation of honey, I want to give 

 the bee-keepers my experience, while I 

 have not been in the busin-ess over four 

 or five years. I had an early crop of 

 honey that comes from the catclaw; 

 this is our first surplus crop, and some 

 of this granulated before it was all sea- 

 soned. I don't know of any other honey 

 that granulates as quickly as our cat- 

 claw honey. As Mr. Hyde just said, I 

 saw some that Was brought from Cali- 

 fornia, gathered from sage-brush, and 

 it had been in a bottle and was as clear 

 as I ever saw. I saw it in Hot Springs 

 Ark., about a year ago. Now in ref- 

 erence to our other honey, the mesquite 

 honey is a little slow to granulate, but 

 as Mr. Hyde said, it will granulate on 

 the coming of cold weather. Horse- 

 mint honey will even granulate in hot 

 weather. 



Mr. Laws — My experience is that all 

 early honey will granulate much quicker 

 than the honey produced in the Fall. 

 Our catclaw and waheah will granu- 

 late sooner. I pack the comb in 5-gal- 

 lon cans, and unless I sell it soon it 

 will granulate. Our fall honey does not 

 do this. Our honey that is gathered 

 in rainy or moist seasons granulates 

 slowly. 



Mr. Teel — I went over into Uvalde 



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