Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1890 — AMONG THE BEES. [ARTICLE]

AMONG THE BEES.

POPULAR RACES OF BEES. Careful selection in bees is practiced by skillful and wideawake apiarists, who believe that to obtain the best results in the industry they represent theymußt possess the highest grade of bees procurable. Progressive beekeepers are not content unless the queen be prolific, the bees industrious, strong, hardy and docile. The bees at present domesticated are all of one species—apis mellifica. There are maDy races. The best known and most widely distributed is the German or black bee. The name German refers to locality; the name black is misleading, as the bee is a gray-biack. The Italian bees differ in color, habits and activity from the German bees. -They are more beautiful to look at, pure Italians showing three golden rings or girdles at the base of the abdomen The Italians are also more active and less inclined to sting, and, above all, they have longer tongues than the German race. . £ The Cyprian bees, while they resemble the Italians closely, are a distinct race. They are more active than the Italians and the queens more prolific They are also much more irritable and hard to handle. The Syrian bees are active and prolific, and defend their hives against robbers. They are especially adapted for queen rearing. These bees are more banded with light hairs than others of the yellow races. The Egyptian bees*- are very cross, very yellow and frequently have fer* tile workers.

Carniolan bees are black, with white rings, and are noted for their gentle disposition. The Hungarian bees are longer than the German race, and are covered with gray hairs. The Dalmatian bees are slim, wasplike and very black, with light yellow rings on the abdomen. This race is much, liked by some of the European beekeepers. Other races as yet comparatively little tested here are the Herzegovinian varioty, the Smyrnian and the Tunisian. As will be seen these various races all have their good qualities, which accounts for the difference of opinion concerning their superiority.

DO BEES MAKkOR ONLY GATHER HONEY? A. J. Root gives the following answer to the question so often aßked: “Do bees make honey, or do they only gather it?” In other words, do they add too, take from or change over nectar as they get it from the flowers. •‘I think we may safely say that there is practically no difference or no change. There are some scientists and professors who insist that the bees do change the nectar in carrying it from the flowers to the hives, enough so that it can be detected by the chemist. In order to get unfinished sections “filled up at the end of the season we have fed to the bees different kinds of honey: but after being sealed up in the comb it was exactly the same honey to all appearances. By accident we scorched one lot a little, and hoped that the bees in their manipulations might remove the slightly burned taste. t They did nol, however, change it a particle. Again, we once had a Tot of honey that cxndied so readily we could scarcely keep it in liquid form at all. We melted it, added some water, and fed it tp the bees. They evaporated out the water added, placed it in their combs and sealed it up, but it candied after being sealed up in the combs just as it did before we fed it to them, and I have never been able to detect that it improved poor honey in any way, neither have I been able to detect that any injury wad done; or, in fact, that any change perceptible to any of our senses was wrought by any of their manipulations,”

MANAGEMENT OP EXTRACTED HONEY r. : As it requires less skill to produce extracted honey than honey in the comb, beginners, as a rule, succeed better when working for the extracted article. Extracted honey, which, by the way, is a very different thing from the old-time strained honey, is now produced to a much greater extent than eyer before. It is the puro honey taken from the comb by centrifugal force, with nothing added to it and nothing taken from it but tho comb. By use of the extractor a bee-keeper can avoid swarming and thus work for honey instead of for increase of colonies. It also enables him to remove uncapped honey in the fall. * 0

Prof, A. J. Cook advises using the extractor during the whole summer, when the price of extracted hooey is as much as 12 cents He always < x tracts just as the bees begin capping the honey, thereby avoiding the labor of uncapping. Many apiarists tier up and leave all in the hive until the rush of the season is over. Then they extract it all, and the honey is thick and of good quality. Dadnnt advises this method. When the honey is extracted before it is capped by the bees it Is thin and requires to be ripened before it is placed in tight packages or hipped. The usual plan of ripening is to place the honey immediately in a hot airy room, where by evaporation and heat it gradual ly thickens. Beginners will, perhaps, do well to leave their honey in the combs until the bees begin capping it In a prize essay written for the American Bee Journal, A.M. Clark says: • ‘As regards ripen Ing basswood honey may be extracted before the eells are completely capped, if immediately placed in a hot, airy room. By this method of evaporation it loses some of its strong, and, to many, disagreeable flavor. But white clover, which is deficient in flavoring matter at its best, should not be removed from the hive until thoroughly ripened, and unless the apiarist has the best es facilities for evaporating honey, he

had better leave all honey, even bass-! wood, to be ripened in the hive." Thos. G. Newman advises to keep each grade of honey separate. Fhr retail packages he recommends tin pails with elose-fitting covers, ranging in size from one and a quarter pounds tp ten pounds of honey. Where smaller packages are wanted glass jars are recommended. Mr. Heddon uses earthen crocks holding about ten pounds. Where large quantities of honey are extracted, wooden kegs, holding from five to seventeen gallons, are popular packages, though large tin packages are in many localities replacing kegs. Where kegs are used they must be waxed to prevent leakage. This may be done by pouring in hot parfine or wax and turning the barrel around well to cover the whole inside. Extracted honey, until sealed, must be kept in a dry place. If thin when extracted, keep in open cans in a warm, dry apartment until,it is sufficiently thickened. Should the honey granulate, reduce it to a liquid state by placing the jar containing it in a vessel of warm water, taking care while heating it that the temperature does not rise above 200 degrees Fahr. Place a piece of wood at the bottom of the second vessel to prevent the package containing the honey from touching the bottom. Prof. Cook is authority for the statement that if honey is heated to 180 degrees and sealed, it will generally remain ever afterward liquid.

HONEY VINEGAR. Not long ago we were told that the finest quality of "vinegai* -eoulfi-he-made from watermelon juice. Now a Canadian apiarist is making vinegar from waste and second-grade honey. He states that one pound of honey and one gallonof water are the proper porportions to make a good vinegar. “That is, twenty-nine pounds of honey will make (water enough being added to fill a regular thirty-two gallon barrel) one barrel of the best vinegar. The vessels used to make it in are common alcohol barrels, which are found at drug stores. Saw out one of the barrel heads and paint the outside to prevent the iron hoops from being destroyed by the vinegar. The barrels and vinegar are kept in the cellar, so covered with burlap as to keep the dust out and let the air in. One year converts this water and honey into the choicest vinegar. More age will make it sharper or more acid, but at one year old it is fine enough for any use. Sweetened water from hashing honey drippings is the most common waste of the apiary, and to utilize it is presumed to be the desirable matter in connection with honey vinegar. Still, with the low price of honey, bee-keepers may find a reasons able outlet for some of their poor honey,, such as is unfit to sell as an article of delicate luxury for table use. —California Fruit-Grower.

WHAT APIARISTS TELL ONE ANOTHER. The editor of the American Bee Journal says on the subject of feeding swarms in a honey-flow to forward storing: “When honey ean bo obtained from the flowers it is useless to try to ‘feed’ the bees in any other way. They preier the fresh nectar from the flora, and will gather and store it in the combs and entirely ignore all the .Jood’ you place before them.” A bee-keeper tells Colorado Farmer that “it appears now that the Langs-troth-Simplicity hive and frames, with the one piece one pound sections, is meeting the general idea of a ‘standard.’ All the other improvements can be attached.”

AriTowa apiarist tells in Gleanings in Bee Culture a simple way to water bees. He says: “I take a tub (I suppose anything else would do), tie a piece of burlap over it, put a piece of brick or stone that will keep it down in the center and then fill in with water until it comes up about one-third of the way on the burlap, which leaves a large surface for the bees to alight on, It is only occasionally that a bee gets drowned. One advantage of the tub is it does, not need looking aftei except occionally. Try it and be convinced,”