THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



333 



— comb honey. So convinced am I of 

 this that I no longer use full sheets of 

 foundation in sections, only starters. 

 I am not sure, but I believe that we 

 would have been better oflf if we had not 

 used foundation in sections at all. 

 When I first began bee keeping I used 

 only starters of comb in sections, and 

 if mj' recollection serves me right, I got 

 just as well-filled sections as I have 

 since with full sheets of foundation. I 

 have often wondered if it were not pos- 

 ble to profitably secure honey that was 

 in every sense a natural product. 

 The idea is certainly well worth try- 

 ing. It would be a great gain if we 

 could produce comb honey so that we 

 conld honestly paste on the top of each 

 section, a strip of paper that bore these 

 or similar words: "This honey is just 

 a« the honey bees have made it from 

 the nectar they gathered from the fields 

 and forests; and is in every sense a 

 natural product, both as to comb and 

 hon'^y. It was left on the hives until 

 well-ripened, and hence, possesses that 

 peculiar richness and boquet peculiar 

 to such honey. It is the old fashioned 

 kind of honey of the "long ago.'' 



UXRIPE COMB HONEY. 



While it is vitally important that 

 honey should be made as nearly as 

 possible a natural product, it is also 

 important to have the honey left on the 

 hives until the process of ripening has 

 sufficiently advanced and the cappings 

 are properly glazed over with propolis. 

 Nature's varnish, to keep air and mois- 

 ture out of the honey, the cappings be- 

 ing porous when they are first put on. 

 This propolis, for some reason, is call- 

 ed "travel stain." Besides keeping 

 the honey from coming in contact with 

 the air and moisture, it serves two 

 other purposes. One is to prevent the 

 bees from injuring the cappings by 

 clustering and traveling on them, and 

 the other is to aid the bees in walking 

 and clustering on the combs — in other 

 words to keep them from slipping. 



The finished sections should be re- 

 moved from the hives while the cap- 

 pings are still white, although practi- 

 cal experience has taught me that some 

 color to the cappings is no objection in 

 the local trade. When I began bee- 

 keeping I used to remove the sections 

 as soon as the cells were capped over. 

 The combs were beautiful specimens 

 of delicate wax work. One day a gro- 

 ceryman who was selling this honey 

 said to me: "What is the matter with 

 your honey ? People that I have sold 

 it to think that it is manufactured." I 

 saw the point. It seemed too beautiful 

 to be real, which it was. I now leave 

 the sections on until the cappings are a 

 little colored. Owing to sickness in 

 the family and other things to attend 

 to the past year, I was overwhelmed 

 with work and care, and the conse- 

 quence was that some of my honey was 

 left on the hives longer than it should 

 have been, so much so that I was 

 ashamed to offer it for sale; but I did 

 so, when, to my surprise, no fault was 

 found with it. There would be no use 

 securinjr honey of such delicate white- 

 uess as is the case when honey is just 

 capped over, if it were not for the greed 

 of the city market manipulator who 

 wishes for an excuse to cut down the 

 prices at every turn. His cunning 

 hand is plainly evident in the system 

 of grading as adopted by the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association. He fixes 

 the prices to both producer and con- 

 sumer and calls it bvsiness. 



GRADING RULES A DETRIMENT. 



The best way to grade honey for the 

 local trade^towns and villages — that 

 I know of is to separate the discolored 

 sections from the real and also those 

 not sufficiently well filled and capped 

 over for market and then grade the 

 others with regard to how well filled 

 and capped over they are. In a good 

 season the third grade should be small 

 in proportion to the others, and the 

 first grade should include from about 



