BEE- CULTURE. 



1085 



if exposed to zero temperature. As some honey candies at the very 

 first approach of cold weather, and other samples not until we have 

 severe, freezing weather, we cannot always be sure that perfect 

 ripening will prove a preventive. It is very seldom indeed that we 

 find sealed comb honey in a candied state, and we therefore infer that 

 the bees know how they can pre- 

 serve it best for their use; for al- 

 though they can use candied honey 

 whefn obliged to do so, it is very cer- 

 tain that they dislike to bother 

 with it, for they often carry it out 

 to the entrance of their hives when 

 new honey is coming in, rather than 

 take the trouble of bringing water 

 with which to dissolve it. ' 



Now, by following out the plan , 

 of the bees, we can keep the honey 

 in a clear, limpid, liquid state the 

 year round. The readiest means 

 of doing this is to seal it up in' or- 

 dinary self-sealing' fruit-jars, pre- 

 cisely as we do fruit. Maple mo- 

 lasses, syrup, and preserves of all 

 kinds, may be kept in the same way, if- we do our work well, almost 

 as fresh, and with the same flavor, as the day they were put in. The 

 jar should be filled full, and have the contents nearly boiling hot 

 when the cover is screwed on. The bees understood this idea per- 

 fectly before fruit-jars were invented, for they put their fresh pollen 

 in the cells, cover it perfectly with honey, and then seal it up with 

 an air-tight wax cover. To avoid heating the honey too hot, it may 

 be best to set the fruit-jars in a pan of boiling water, raising them 

 up a little from the bottom by a thin board. If the honey is over- 

 heated, even in the least, it injures its transparency and also affects 

 its color ; in fact, it seems almost impossible to heat- some kinds of 

 honey at all, without giving it a darker shade. If you allow a barrel 

 of linden or plover honey to become candied, solid, and then scoop 

 out the center after one of the heads is removed, it will be found, 

 after several weeks, that the honey around the sides has drained 

 much after the manner of loaf sugar, leaving the solid portion 

 nearly as white as snow, and so dry that it may be done up in a 

 paper like sugar. 



Fig. 1470.— English Hive. 



