THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
149 
MEAD OR METHEf GIN. 
Oxi of our subscribers asks us to give a 
receipt in our next for making mead, and we 
have much pleasure in complying with his 
request, and giving him and our readers 
generally full information on this subject. 
Honey consists chiefly of two kinds of 
fermentable sugar (which is different from 
our ordinary cane sugar) and water. It 
appears that the bees actually gather the 
sugar in the nectar of the flowers, as cane or 
crystallisable sugar, but that becomes con- 
verted by the saliva of the bee into what the 
chemists call dextrose and levulose, two forms 
of sugar, exactly alike chemically, but having 
certain different physical properties. Dextrose 
is crystallisable, and levulose not. Now, 
these sugars are fermentable, the levulose 
most so ; in fact, honey is as easily converted 
into alcohol or vinegar, as bre vers glucose, 
to which it is very closely allied. 
Honey can therefore be used instead of 
lncose or sugar in all kinds of fermented 
rinks. 
The most common drink made from honey 
is known as mead ; the old fashioned way of 
making it was to mix honey and warm water 
together, of such a consistence that a new 
laid hen’s egg would just float in it ; if there 
was too much water the egg would sink ; if 
too much honey the egg would float too much 
above the fluid. To this mixture a little 
yeast was added to produce fermentation, 
which at a certain stage was stopped by the 
addition of some spice or bitter herbs, and 
bottling. Mead made this way is a moderately 
strong drink, and apt to produce headache 
unless very old. It should be kept many 
months in bottle, when it will much improve. 
The recipes for making mead, or methelgin, 
as it was called in olden times, are too 
numerous to refer to here. We shall content 
ourselves with giving two or three of the 
formulas for making the most wholesome 
kinds. 
Most people nowadays know how to make 
hop beer, dandelion ale, &c., and if in making 
these we use honey instead of sugar, we have 
a more wholesome and rather a more pleasant 
beverage. Honey makes splendid vinegar, 
and no better use can be made of coarse, bad 
flavored, or refuse honey than by turning it 
into good vinegar. To do this, take one 
measure (a pint, quart, gallon or more), and 
mix it with four measures of water. Expose 
it in an open vessel to the sun, with mosquito 
or wire net over it to keep out insects, and in 
about five or six weeks it will have become an 
excellent fine flavored vinegar. 
From Newman's “ Bees and Honey” we 
extract the following : — 
Methelgin. — Mix honey and water, strong 
enough to float an egg ; let it stand three or 
four weeks in a warm place to ferment ; then 
drain through a cloth and add spices to suit 
the taste. 
Wine Mead. — Three pounds finest honey to 
two gallons water, the peel of two lemons to 
each gallon ; boil and skim well. Start it 
fermenting with yeast, after fermentation has 
thoroughly setup put it in a jar or cask, 
lightly bunged, for several months to mature, 
then bottle off. 
Harvest Mead. — 201bs. honey, 12 gallons 
water, whites of 6 eggs ; boil together an 
hour, then add cinnamon, ginger and cloves, 
and start it with a tablespoonful of brewers’ 
yeast, and in 24 hours it will be fit for use, 
and a capital drink for hot weather. 
In the United States of America beekeepers 
preserve a good deal of fruit in honey, and it 
is said to form a most delicious preserve. 
HIVES. 
Continued from page 118. 
An enquirer asks us to point out wherein a 
frame hive is so superior to a box hive in the 
results it furnishes as to warrant its purchase 
at a cost, say from ten shillings to a pound, 
when a box hive can generally be got for a 
shilling? This is not an easy question to 
answer plainly and satisfactorily, as the reply 
must depend on a variety of circumstances. 
First, we will take the case of two bee- 
keepers, each with say two stocks of bees, 
one in box hives, which have cost say, half-a- 
crown for the lot : the other, in frame hives, 
costing from 10s. to 12s. each. It is generally 
found that not more than half the number of 
hives in an apiary will turn out decidedly 
profitable, except in an unusually good season. 
Swarming time comes on, and the box hives 
eacli give off a prime swarm, and probably two 
after-swarms, for which six boxes have to be 
bought, costing say six shillings ; he has now 
eight stocks of bees in eight boxes, the outlay 
for boxes being 8s. 6d. We will assume he 
sells two of the best of his two after swarms 
say, for 10s. each, the last being in all prob- 
ability a very weak one. If the season be 
good his first swarms may themselves throw 
off a swarm about Christmas, or some time in 
January, which will likely enough he followed 
by a weak after-swarm. He may sell two of 
these swaruis which will, so late in the season, 
be worth no more than 7s. 6d. each. He has 
now eight Btocks, four probably weak, and 
four moderately strong. If there has been all 
this swarming there will be very little honey 
at the end of season, and he will be fortunate 
if from the four strongest hives left, he can 
obtain 401bs. honey (by cutting away the out- 
side combs) without leaving bis Ian s too short 
for winter supplies. Of course if his original 
stocks only swarmed one each, or if he united 
second swarms, his return of honey would be 
much better. This, altogether, would be the 
result of a good season with a good honey- 
flow, and a maximum increase by swarming. 
