Texas Beekeepino. 



61 



in two forms, comb honey and extracted honey, and the apiarist 

 must be guided by the demand he may have for either one or. the 

 other. Comb honey production requires closer looking to details, 

 and more frequent attention to the bees, than the production of ex- 

 tracted honey, but it requires a smaller investment, and there is a 

 good demand, at a better price, for it, while extracted honey has a 

 more stable demand. Producing both forms in the same apiary is 

 practiced by most beekeepers, and is a safe course to follow by the 

 beginner, who can later make such changes as his experience and the 

 demand will teach. 



Comb honey can be more easily produced for home use than ex- 

 tracted honey, and, unless the beekeeper has more than just a few 

 colonies to supply his own table, its production is advised. The in- 

 vestment with a few colonies for extracted honey production is greater, 

 as it becomes necessary to procure a honey extractor and other ap- 

 pliances not needed for producing comb honey. 



WHAT IS HONEY? 



Honey is the nectar of flowers gathered by bees, transformed in 

 some manner and stored in their combs by them. Sugar, or anything 

 else fed to bees can never be changed to honey, as some persons sup- 

 pose. Even if this were possible, it would not pay to feed sugar to 

 bees in any manner, with the in- 

 tention of "having the bees make 

 it into honey," on account of 

 the high price of sugar. Although 

 the bees would store the sugar 

 syrup in their combs, if fed to 

 them, it is still only sugar syrup 

 and it does not have the flavor 

 nor the aroma of real honey. 

 Besides this it would be contrary 

 to the Pure Food Laws, as it 

 would be adulterated honey, and. 

 as this is easily detected, the vio- 

 lator would likely be justly pun- 

 ished. In order to comply with 

 the requirements of the National 

 Pure Food Laws, honey must 

 come up to the following stan- 

 dard of purity for honey adopted 



by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists of the United 

 States : 



HONEY. 



1. Honey is the nectar and saccharine exudation of plants, gath- 

 ered, modified, and stored in the combs by honey bees (Apis milli- 

 fica and Apis dorsata) ; is laevorotary, contains not more than twenty 

 five (25%) per cent of water, not more than twenty -five hundredths 

 (0.25%) per cent of ash and not more than eight(8%) per cent of 

 sucrose. 



Just as built, by the bees. 



