Granulation of Honey. 145 



generally granulate, if the temperature be reduced below 

 70°. Like many other substances, most honey, if heated 

 and sealed while hot, will not crystallize till it is unsealed. 

 In case of granulation the sucTOse and glucose crystallize 

 in the mellose. Some honey, as that from the South and 

 some from California, seems to I'emain liquid indefinitely. 

 Some kinds of our own honey crystallize much more read- 

 ily than others. I have frequently observed that thick, ripe 

 honey granulates more slowly than thin honey. The only 

 sure (?) test of the purity of honey, if there be any, is that 

 of the polariscope. This, even if decisive, is not practical 

 except in the hands of the scientist. The most practical 

 test is that of granulation, though this is not wholly relia- 

 ble. Granulated honey is almost certainly pure. Occa- 

 sionally genuine honej' and of superior excellence 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 mills, or suck up the oozing sweets of vari- 

 ous plant or bark-lice, thus adding, may be, unwholesome 

 food to their usually delicious and refined stores. It is a 

 curious fact that the queen never lays her maximum num- 

 ber of eggs except when storing is going on. In fact, in 

 the interims of honey-gathering, egg-laying not infre- 

 quently ceases altogether. The queen seems discreet, 

 gauging the size of her family by the probable means of 

 support. Or it is quite possible that the workers control 

 affairs by withholding the chyle, and thus the queen stops 

 perforce. Syrian bees are much more likely to continue 

 brood rearing when no honey is being collected than are 

 either German or Italian bees. 



Again, in times of extraordinary yields of honey the 

 storing is very rapid and the hive becomes so filled that the 

 queen is unable to lay her full quota of eggs; in fact, I 

 have seen the brood very much reduced in this way, which, 

 of course, greatly depletes the colony. This might be 

 called ruinous prosperity. 



The natural use of the honey is to furnisn, in part, the 



