HONEY and beeswax are the two principal products of the honey bee colony. The pollen gathered by the bees from the flowers is mixed with honey or sugar sirup within the hive to feed the bees. Some experiments have been made which suggest that pollen may have some possibilities as a human food.

The propolis gathered by the bees (similar to glue) and which the bees use to close up holes and cracks in the hive as well as to cover objects within the hive which the bees cannot remove, has been used at times as a furniture glue and polish. The acid of bee stings is being marketed as an inoculation for certain types of arthritis.

Honey

Honey is actually made or "manufactured" by the honey bee. The worker bee visits the flowers which secrete a sweet liquid called nectar. This nectar, waterlike in consistency, is sipped from the blossoms by the bee and carried to the beehive in its honey stomach. In the manufacture of honey from nectar, two distinct processes are involved: One brings about a chemical change in the sugar which makes it more easily digested, and the other results in a physical change whereby surplus water is eliminated. The sugar in nectar is largely cane sugar but as soon as it is taken into the honey sack of the field bee there begins a process, known as inversion, which rapidly changes most of the cane sugar into two simple sugars, dextrose and levulose. After many handling processes, including water evaporation and enzyme addition, the house bees convert the raw nectar into honey.

Such honey contains from 15 to 20 per cent water (usually about 18 per cent), 40 per cent levulose of fruit sugar, 34 per cent of dextrose or grape sugar, and 2 per cent of sucrose or cane sugar. There is besides, in the honey, a small percentage of dextrine, ash, acids and minerals and a small quantity of undetermined materials. When honey contains 20 or more per cent water it is unripe and under some conditions may ferment. For that reason the beekeeper is urged to leave the honey on the hive until the bees have thoroughly ripened it. Sealed honey, except under extreme conditions, is ripe. The bees often ripen the honey as it is gathered. It is only under circumstances of heavy honeyflow or high humidity that they have difficulty in keeping up with the field-gathering bees. At the end of the flow, all honey, sealed or unsealed, is safe to remove. Ripe liquid or extracted honey weighs 11 1/2 to 12 pounds to the gallon.

Honey is classified according to the source from which it is collected. Thus, we have a wide variety of honeys depending on the major source from which they were gathered, whether it be black sage, orange, sourwood, clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, milkweed, etc. Similarly, in most localities where there is a variety of plants, we are apt to have a mixture of honey from several flowers, the honey taking its color and flavor from the combination of flowers represented. In our chapter on "Honey Plants" we give a chart with names of the principal honey plants in various sections of the country.

Honey also is classified according to its color and flavor. It may either be white, amber, dark amber, or straw colored, and may be either mild, or more pronounced in flavor. Usually the light-colored honeys are milder in flavor, while the strong-flavored ones generally are darker in color. The darker honeys have somewhat higher mineral content and are preferred by some for this reason. Usually the kind of honey we have been used to in our neighborhood, is the honey which appeals to us. The New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians like their buckwheat. The northern sections generally produce the clovers which are preferred there, while the Southerner prefers sourwood, or mesquite, or tupelo, or gallberry.

There are few honeys which are objectionable. The bitter-weed of the South produces a bitter honey which should be left on the hives for winter food and spring build-up. But even the bitterweed loses much of its bitterness when off the hive and exposed to the air.

Most honeys granulate within a few months after harvesting, the ones with the least water content being the most rapid to granulate. Thus, the honeys of the arid regions are much more apt to granulate rapidly (candy or sugaring) than those where the humidity is greater. Granulation of honey is nearly always a sure proof of the purity of honey, though nowadays the public is protected from adulterants by the pure food laws. Tupelo honey, to the contrary, seldom granulates because of its relatively high content of levulose sugar and a minimum of dextrose. It finds a ready special market.

A honey which has been heated as a preventive of granulation will be slow to granulate again. So, the bottlers and packers of liquid or extracted honey heat the honey as rapidly as possible to a maximum of 150 degrees, being careful not to injure the honey by overheating or scorching. This is usually done in steam or water jacketed tanks with a very careful control of the temperature. The honey is then drawn off quickly into retail receptacles and sealed at once while hot. This helps retard further granulation also. But care must be taken to allow the honey to cool as rapidly as possible after it is sealed, otherwise, if stacked in a close pile, the retardation might definitely darken the honey and impair its flavor.