Page:Bee-Culture Hopkins 2nd ed revised Dec 1907.pdf/18

 of this process, to find that the well-known E. W. Alexander, one of the most extensive and experienced beekeepers in the world, was working on the same method. His articles on the subject in Gleanings, early in 1906, created quite a sensation among beekeepers in America, some of whom rather fiercely criticized him and his method, and in reply he wrote, ‘‘But I do say that the man who has had experience, and has the necessary storage-tanks, can ripen his honey after the bees commence to cap it so that it will be just as good as if left with the bees all summer. In this way we not only get twice the amount, but we save our bees much labour and waste of honey in capping it over, and ourselves at least half the work in extracting.’’ I may add that by ripening honey outside the hive swarming can be better kept under control.

During a heavy flow of honey when it is left in the hive to ripen it is necessary to keep adding top boxes to take advantage of the flow, as the honey will be stored faster than it can be ripened. This means the providing of a large quantity of extra material and combs, at considerable cost. Each top box would be worth at least 2s. 6d., and the nine frames of comb at 1s. 3d. each, 11s. 3d., making a total of 13s. 9d.; and two of these extra boxes may sometimes be needed for each hive if full advantage is to be taken of the conditions mentioned.

The most effective method of ripening and maturing honey is to expose a large surface of comparatively shallow mass to a warm, dry atmosphere. Many of the ‘‘tanks’’ in use at the present time consist of cylinders similar to those of a honey-extractor, about 18 in. or 20 in. in diameter, by 36 in. deep. These, besides being small, are wrong in principle—they are too deep, and the surface is too small. Even when the honey is allowed to ripen within the hive it is necessary to have shallow tanks to mature or clarify it, for, no matter how small in the mesh the strainer may be or how carefully the honey is strained, it is impossible to prevent very fine particles of wax and pollen-grains running from the extractor into the tank with the honey. If the body of the honey is deep these particles cannot rise to the surface as they do in a shallow tank, forming a scum, which, when skimmed off, leaves the honey in the very best form for market. Air-bubbles, which in themselves may contain moisture (and it is absolutely certain that honey containing air-bubbles quickly deteriorates), cannot rise or escape through a deep mass of honey.

With regard to the scum just mentioned, it is by no means uncommon to find an unpleasant-looking film, or layer, anywhere between ⅛ in. and ¼ in. deep on the top of honey in tins sent into the market. This is the result of tinning it before it has been matured and skimmed,