ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



117 



uniform temperature. This should not 

 be less than 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and 

 is much better at 90 to 100 per cent. 

 Fahrenheit. While the honey is in 

 the hands of the producer or bottler it 

 may. be kept liquid for a long time in 

 this way, but of course, when cold it 

 is generally subject to changes of tem- 

 perature. Honey, either comb or ex- 

 tracted, should never be kept in a 

 cool or damp place. 



The Production of "Candied" Honey. 



Honeys of the average typfe are rel- 

 atively free from non-sugars, such as 

 that made from alfalfa, soon granu- 

 late solid and are sometimes sold in 

 bricks. Granulation may 'be hastened 

 by changes of temperature and by 

 stirring. If it is desired to have a 

 can of honey granulate rapidly, it may 

 be carried from a warm room out doors 

 in winter and back again at intervals 

 of a day or two for a couple of weeks. 

 If this is accompanied with occasional 

 stirring when granulation first begins, 

 the whole can will soon be a solid 

 cake. Honey may also be poured into 

 smaller receptacles, such as waterproof 

 pasteboard carriers or oyster pails, and 

 allowed to crystallize in the package 

 in which it is to be sold. If allowed 

 to granulate solid in a large tin can, 

 the tin may be cut away and the honey 

 cut into bricks with fine wire in the 

 way that prints of butter are some- 

 times prepared. 



A market for "honey-bricks" must 

 g-enerally be built up locally, for as 

 yet the general public has not learned 

 to look for honey in such shape. The 

 cost of the package is less than that 

 of bottles, and the granulated honey 

 is by some considered as superior for 

 table use to liquid honey. Several 

 bee-keepers have used this method 

 with success, and claim that it gives 

 great satisfaction to their customers. 

 Honey Types. 



It is well known that honeys from 

 different plants vary considerably in 

 taste, color, granulation, etc. The taste 

 and color are given to honey by the 

 plants from which the nectar is deriv- 

 ed. Granulation may be cosidered as 

 a property of all honeys, or, rather, of 

 the dextrose contained in all of them, 

 and, from a study of the chemical 

 composition of many samples, it seems 

 probable that all honeys would crys- 

 tallize were it not for the fact that 

 some of them contain an excess of eith- 

 er non-crystallizable levulos.e or dex- 



trine gums and other non-sugars. The 

 following table will make this point 

 clear: 



1. Normal Honey (from nectaries of 

 Flowers.) 



1. High Purity (high in sugars, rel- 

 atively low in dextrin, gums, and other 

 non-sugars.) 



(a) Levulose type, e. g. mangrove, 

 tupelo, sage. 



(b) Average type. 



(a) High in sucrose, e. g. alfalfa. 



(b) Low in sucrose, e. g. buck- 

 wheat. 



2. Low Purity (relatively high in 

 dextrin, gums and other non- sugars; 

 e. g. basswood, somac, poplar, oak, 

 hickory, apple (most tree honey.) 



If. Abnormal Honey (not from nec- 

 taries of Flowers.) 



(Generally ihigh in dextrin, gums and 

 other non -sugars.) 



1. Honey-dew Honey (from aphides 

 and other insects.) 



2. Coniferous Honey (plant exuda- 

 tions not from nectaries.) 



Honeys containing approximately the 

 same amount of levulose and dextrose, 

 and which are high in sugars (average 

 type) granulate readily. Very few 

 honeys have more dextrose than levu- 

 lose. If, however, the levulose is con- 

 siderably greater than the dextrose 

 (Levulose type) or if the non-sugars 

 are relatively (high (Low Purity and 

 Abnormal Honeys) granulation is re- 

 tarded. Some honey-dew granulates 

 rapidly, but no abnormal honeys of that 

 type were included in the samples ex- 

 amined, and consequently they are not 

 included in the table. 



The use of the terms high and low 

 purity in this table must not be taken 

 to indicate the comparative values of 

 the various honeys. Low purity hon- 

 eys which have relatively more dex- 

 trin, gums, and other non-sugars, are 

 just as good honeys as those of the 

 high-purity class. Abnormal honeys, 

 however, are less desirable. The 

 presence of the non-sugars in low- 

 purity honeys may be due largely to 

 a slight admixture of honey-dew, since 

 most honeys contain a trace of this. 

 It .must be remembered in considering 

 this subject that practically no honey 

 is from a single species of plant, and 

 therefore they will vary considerably 

 according to the other nectars added 

 to them, as well as according to local 

 soil and climatic conditions. 



