A BR1EK SURVEY OF HAWAIIAN BEE KEEPING 



I 



the Hawaiian bee keepers have done and it is now sold as " honeydew 

 honey." The bee keepers of Hawaii fully realize the peculiar honey 

 with which they have to deal and are not attempting to market honey- 

 dew honey in competition with flora) honey for table use. It goes to 

 the baking trade and for such use is reported to be satisfactory; at 

 any rate, the price received is equal to that received for algarroba 

 honey. 



As stated elsewhere, bees prefer floral nectar to honeydew. How- 

 ever, when the supply of floral nectar is not great, the bees work on 

 both, and as a result there are mixtures of the two, stored in the 

 hives, varying all the way from the pure honeydew honey to pure 

 floral honey. It is these mixtures that cause the trouble in labeling. 

 One of the requisites of a pure honey as defined by the standards" 

 is that it shall be hevorotatory to polarized light ; hence, since honey- 

 dew honey is dextrorotatory and there are blends made by the bees of 

 this and algarroba honey, it is necessary to have a chemical analysis 

 made to be absolutely certain whether a given quantity of the product 

 of the islands may be sold as honey or as honeydew honey. The 

 various mixtures which occur are well illustrated in Plate I of Bul- 

 letin 110, Bureau of Chemistry, here reproduced as Plate VI. This 

 plate illustrates very well the influence of honeydew on the physical 

 properties of honey. At one end of the series is the pure algarroba, 

 which is represented as granulated, while at the other end is a sam- 

 ple of honeydew honey which is as pure as it is usually found. Be- 

 tween the two in perfect gradation are shown various mixtures just 

 as they came from the hive in various extracting^. The chemical 

 analyses of these particular samples, made by Miss Alice R. Thomp- 

 son, 6 show that the chemical composition varies in exactly the same 

 way. Of these samples, Doctor Browne (; says : 



From the polarizations and analyses of these samples (as given in the table i 

 it will be seen that there is a range in direct polarization from — 22.0 i<> 



a U. S. Dept. Agr., Office of the Secretary, Cir. 10. i>. 11. 

 h Polarization and analyses of honeydew blends. 



I From P.ul. 17. Hawaii Agr. Exp. Sta.] 



Data. 



Algar- 

 roba 

 honey. 



Polarization direct 



(°V) -22.00 



Polarization invert 



(°V) -27.61 



Sucrose (percent ».. 

 Reducing s u ga r 



(per cent i 



Ash (per cent) 



Non suga rs (i> e r 



cent i 





76.84 



1.41 



18.3 







Blends. 







3. 



4. 



6. 



6. 



v 





11.:; 



-.7 



-0.3 



h0.fi 



i.i' 



B. 9 



L9 2 



-21.4 



•J. 1 



17..; 

 •J. 3 



11.:. " 

 '•J. 2 



3.8 



1.2 

 3.7 



-1.0 



•j.:; 



:?. -J 

 1.6 



| 12, I 



... 8 



76.64 

 .58 



77.28 



. 69 



72. 36 



7'_ > 



1.(16 



66. 16 



1. 11 



67. 28 

 1. 12 



1.:;:; 



1.77 



1.67 



L.81 



7.17 



13.52 



L2.09 



1 1 . M 



15.27 



17.68 



llt.i:, \ 



dov 



7.2 



59. 76 





Bui. no. Bureau of Chemistry, pp. 55 56. 



