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Date: | Sun, 10 Oct 2021 09:57:15 -0400 |
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the evaporation within the hive comprises at least three phases.
(1) Evaporation from the mouthparts of the house-bee.
(2) Evaporation from hanging drops placed temporarily in the roofs of cells.
(3) Evaporation from the body of the cell.
The importance of the first two seems apparent but so far the
proportion of the total process performed by them is unknown;
It is a common observation that, so long as available room permits,
bees naturally tend to spread out the newly gathered nectar, placing
only a small amount in each cell, later to be gathered up and stored
compactly before sealing. It is to be doubted whether bees often fill a
cell more than one-fourth full of thin nectar under normal conditions,
and as a rule the amount probably would be considerably less than that,
with the possible exception of times of very heavy honeyflow.
The results obtained indicate that evaporation from
nectar in the body of the cell takes place at a rate sufficient to advance it
to the concentration of ripe honey within three days, if the initial
concentration is 20 per cent or over, and within two days if the initial
.concentration is 30 per cent or over. (The time required for bees to
ripen nectar into honey is usually considered to be about three days.)
When the bees have access to the nectar, as they do under normal hive
conditions, the evaporation process should be greatly accelerated over
and above the rates indicated by the above determinations, due to the
manipulation of the nectar by the mouthparts of the house-bee, and at
times also to the hanging drops which the bees often place in the roofs of cells.
O. W. PARK, Iowa Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa
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