100 Character of Honey. 



cal change in the bee's stomach. The acid condition of honey ia 

 plainly recognizable by the taste, as all lovers of honey know. 



I have fed bees pure cane sugar, and when stored the late 

 Prof. R. F. Kedzie found that much of this sugar was 

 transformed in much the same way that the nectar is changed 

 which is taken from the flowers. 



It is probable that the large compound racemose glands in 

 the head and thorax of the bees (Fig. 23, a) secrete an abun- 

 dant ferment which hastens these transformations which the 

 sugars undergo while in the stomach of the bee. Probably 

 the stomach juices also aid in these changes. Much of the 

 water escapes after the honey is stored. 



The method of collecting honey has already been described. 

 The principles of lapping and suction are both involved in the 

 operation. 



When the stomach is full, the bee repairs to the hive and 

 regurgitates its precious load, either giving it to the bees or 

 storing it in the cells. Mr. DoolitUe claims that the bees 

 that gather give all their honey to the other bees, which latter 

 store it in the cells. This honey remains for sometime un- 

 capped that it may ripen, in which process the water is 

 partially evaporated and the honey rendered thicker. If the 

 honey remains uncapped, or is removed from the cells, it will 

 generally granulate, if the temperature be reduced below 70°. 

 Like many other substances, honey, if heated and sealed while 

 hot, will not crystallize till it is unsealed. In case of granula- 

 tion the sucrose and glucose crystallize in the mellose. Some 

 honey, as that from the South and some from California, seems 

 to remain liquid indefinitely. Some kinds of our own honey 

 crystallize much more readily than others. The only sure test 

 of the purity of honey is that of the polariscope. This is not 

 practical except in the hands of the physicist. The most practi- 

 cal test is that of granulation, though this is not wholly reliable. 

 Granulated honey is almost certainly pure. Occasionally genu- 

 ine honey refuses, even in a zero atmosphere, to crystallize. 



When there are no flowers, or when the flowers yield no 

 sweets, the bees, ever desirous to add to their stores, frequently 

 essay to rob other colonies, and often visit the refuse of cider 

 jnills, or suck up the oozing sweets of various plants or bark- 

 lioe, thus adding, may be, unwholesome food to their usually 

 delicious and refined stores. It is a curious fact that the 



