The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1897-08-26

EXTRACTING HONEY.
Treatment of Tnripe Honey Advised by
G. L. Dadant.

Treatment of Tnripe Honey Advised by
{. L. Dadant.
Following are extracts from a letter
written to The American Bee Journal
iv Il we'll known Illinois bee man on
topic Of common interest 10 beekeep-
as Mr. Dadant writes:
The fact that bees are Gaping
comb Of honcv docs not mean that the
honey Is sufficiently ripe. | have often
ecou honey work, or fcunent, III such Il
way a. 10 burst the Gaping Of the
comb This happens more especially in
hot and damp summers, when 1t Is very
difficult for the honey 70 rlpen, OWING
10 the dalupne-s Of the atmosphere. In
an ordinary season money may be CON
sidcrrd sufficiently rIpencd when 1t has
been on the hive for a week or more.
The greatest trouble with unripe honey
comes from that which Il daily added
to an unfinished super hy the bees.
During the first two or three days after
it is harvested clover or Eastwood honey
is usually 50 thin as to shake ont Of the
combs very readily, or even to drip out,
if the comb is upturncd. Such honey
viii not do TO extract unless 1t Is after
ward ripcncd artiticiaIly.
Mes-rs Muth & Son Of Ohio, who
handl" hundreds Of barrels Of honey ev-
cry year, tell US that they rlpen their
honey by keeping 1t III open vessels
after extracting, III a warm and dry
room. Thus 1t Is quite likely that II
the surcrs are taken off and placed
where they can have air and warmth
the honey viii thicken and become
rye, Lut we prefer to leave such supers
on the hive, even if we have to tier up
to such au extent that 1t would become
necessary to prop up the hive with
stakes or braces. Not only would the
bees ripcn this honey faster than can be
done artiticialIy, but there would be al
50 the advantage Of the super furnishing
them additional space for honey as fast
as he quantity Is lesscued by evapOra-
ton. Consequently we would not start
extracting until there was absolutely no
room left for the bees to store honey, Or
so little thai further delay would be
likely to induce them to swarm.
There are several reasons why the
tnan III full Oue-that is, provided the
combs are already built The hive be
ing less crowded, they find the place to
deposit their load much more readily
and thus lose less time i'll hunting for
empty cells Then there Is no need of
building additional combs or whitening
OF stretching the combs already built.
But when one super IS full and the 9TH
or only one story above it there is but
little time lost, and we believe it is Il
mistake to remove either before they are
well filled unless more may be procured
or unless the crop Is ut an end.
When the crop Is ended, it takes but
Il very short time for the last honey
harvested to mature, and We make it Il
point to begin the extracting just as
soon as the harvest ceases. There are
seasons however, like the present one,
when the honey flow is SO strong and
SO continuous that the bees get over
crowded and the supers are all filled
long before the end Of the crop. The
only remedy fer such Il state of things is
to take the chances Of il little unripa
honey and relieve the hive of its load
before any time is lost by the bees or
before SW;urming preparations are made.
When there Is any doubt, however, as
to the III Ness Of the honey, it Is we'll
to follow the Auth method and keep it
III open vessels III "a hot, dry place for IA
few weeks before attempting to put it
on the market.