8 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTURE. 



erally not more than 20 per cent. Some very ripe honeys will have as 

 little as 12 per cent of water in them. If more than 25 per cent of 

 water remains in the honey at the time of extraction, it will probably 

 ferment. The ripening of honey consists not only of the evaporation 

 of the surplus water of the nectar, but especially of the transforma- 

 tion of the sugars of the nectar into the levulose and dextrose of 

 honey. Unripe honeys contain a larger proportion of sucrose or cane 

 sugar, and it is probable that the longer the honey remains in the hive 

 the less of sucrose will be found in the honey. While honeys vary all 

 the way from zero to 8 or 10 per cent in their sucrose content, the pur- 

 est honeys are those which contain the least. The official honey 

 standard of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists allows 

 8 per cent of sucrose in honey. 



It is the policy of most bee keepers to allow this ripening to take 

 place in the hive by waiting until the honey is almost all or entirely 

 capped, and this is undoubtedly the preferable method. It is a matter 

 of common observation that honey which remains in the hive for a 

 long time has a better " body " and has more of the characteristic 

 honey aroma. By ripening in the hive honey gets its characteristic 

 flavor to a greater extent than is possible in evaporation outside the 

 hive. 



Several machines have been devised for the artificial ripening of 

 honey which has been extracted " green." that is, with too great a 

 water content. The principle on which all of these are constructed 

 is the application of heat, not to exceed 160° F., for a sufficient time 

 to reduce the amount of water present to about 20 per cent. Either 

 sun heat or artificial heat may be used. In the western part of the 

 United States honey may be, and usually is, extracted before it is all 

 capped, because it is the general practice of bee keepers to run the 

 honey directly from the extractor to large tanks, sometimes holding 

 several tons, out in the open, covered with porous cloth tightly tied 

 down to exclude bees. Many of these tanks are contracted at the top. 

 leaving only a comparatively small opening. On account of the 

 extreme dryness of the atmosphere and total lack of rain during the 

 dry season, this partial evaporation outside of the hive takes place 

 very rapidly. 



The advocates of ripening outside of the hive argue that, if honey 

 is extracted before all the water is removed from it, the bees have 

 less to do inside the hive and can devote almost all their time to 

 gathering nectar in the field. This obviously would result in an 

 increased amount of nectar and, consequently, provided the forage 

 will produce it, in an increased amount of honey. They argue that 

 it is impossible to detect any difference between honey ripened inside 

 the hive and that ripened outside, as far as flavor is concerned, but 

 this is a point on which many other bee keepers and experts in honey 



