436 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 11, 1901. 



I Contributed Articles, l 



Storing Comb Honey and Surplus Combs. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A CORRESPONDENT wishes me to tell, through the 

 American Bee Journal, how I would fix for storing- 

 comb honey and surplus combs in some building 

 already on a new place he has just moved to, he 

 wishing to make what changes are necessary. As I quite 

 frequently have this question or similar ones asked, I will 

 gladlj' comply with the request. 



For a honey-room the first thing necessary to know is 

 that there is a good foundation under that part selected for 

 the room, and sleepers of suitable strength, so that should 

 we happen to place several tons therein, there will be no 

 danger from breaking down. Knowing this, the next 

 thing is to make the room mouse-proof. This I would 

 have, let it cost what it would, even if I had to line every 

 inch of it with tin, for the filth from vermin about honey 

 is not to be tolerated at all. Having the room mouse-proof, 

 all that is necessary afterward is to be sure the door is kept 

 shut when not in use. 



It is better to locate this room in the southwest corner 

 of the building, and paint the outside of the two walls 

 which come nest to it, black, or some very dark color, so 

 that the rays of the sun raaj' be so absorbed as to heat the 

 honey-room as much as possible, as the hotter and dryer 

 the honey can be kept, when off the hives, the better it will 

 ripen and keep afterward. 



The door to the room should be on the side nearest the 

 general entrance to the building, so as to save as much 

 travel and lugging as possible. Then there should be two 

 windows in the room, one on the south and one on the west 

 side, which are to be opened on warm, dry days, so as to 

 ventilate thoroughly the room and pile of honej'. Over 

 these windows, on the outside, is to be placed wire-cloth, so 

 the windows can be left open at pleasure, without any fears 

 of robber-bees. To let the bees out, which may chance to 

 come in on the honey or in any other way, let this wire- 

 cloth run eight or ten inches above the tops of the win- 

 dows, nailing on strips of lath, or other strips -s thick, so 

 as to keep the wire-cloth out that far from the sides of the 

 building, thus giving space for the bees to crawl up on the 

 cloth to the top when they are on the outside. With me. no 

 robber-bees ever think of trying to get in at this entrance, 

 their efforts being directed toward the open window, where 

 the fresh scent of the honey comes, and, by so iixing, your 

 room is kept clear of bees, flies, and other insects all the 

 while. 



In hanging the door for this honey-room, do not make 

 the mistake that some do, of having it swing into the 

 honey-room, for if you do j'Ou will regret it some year when 

 j-ou have a bountiful crop of honey, as it will be greatly in 

 the way at such times, and more or less at all times. Let 

 it swing out into the main building, and hang it so that 

 when you wish, it will swing clear around against the side 

 of the room, thus being entirely out of the way. 



On either side of the room fix a platform for the sec- 

 tion honey, which should be at least six inches above the 

 Hoor. This platform should be built nearly as solid as the 

 floor has been, and should be so arranged that the air can 

 circulate up between and around each section or tier of sec- 

 tions. Or if you store the honey away in the supers, then, 

 no matter what style of super you may use, this platform 

 is to be so arranged, that each super is separated from its 

 neighbor an inch or so at the bottom, top, and all around, 

 so that the air can circulate all through and all about the 

 honey, thus curing and ripening it thoroughly. Many fail 

 here, and after working hard to produce a crop they let it 

 deteriorate from one to three cents a pound in not properly 

 caring for it after taking it from the hive. And not only 

 that, but such poor honey generally bought cheaply, injures 

 the market to quite an extent for others. When fixing it 

 costs little more to liave it so your crop is always growing 

 better, instead of becoming of less value, and after once 

 fixed, the labor required for universally sending off a good 

 article is not so great as it is to fix up that which has partly 

 spoiled after its production. 



Then you wish your honey stored and piled as above, so 



that the fumes of burning sulphur, or something of a simi- 

 lar nature, can penetrate the whole pile, should it be neces- 

 sary to fumigate on account of the larvit- of the wax-moth 

 being liable to injure it. Don't be afraid of a little extra 

 work or expense in fitting up this room, for on it hangs as 

 much of your success as the producer of fine comb honey, 

 as on any part of the pursuit. 



And now about the room or closet for all frames of 

 comb not covered by the bees, or not in use in the hives. 

 In some convenient place, on one side of the building, 

 spike on 2x4 scantling, just as far apart as the top-bar of 

 your frame is long, using as many of these as you think 

 you will ever have use for. Now nail strips of stuff, 2)4 

 feet long by five inches wide to these studding, letting them 

 .stand out into the room in a horizontal position. Let the 

 distance between each strip trom top to top be two inches 

 greater than the depth of your frame, so as to give suffi- 

 cient room to manipulate the frames handily. Three 

 inches from the ends of these strips run a partition clear 

 across the space occupied for the purpose of storing these 

 combs, which partition is to have close-fitting narrow doors 

 placed in it, spaced so as to be most convenient. Close up 

 the ends, and see that top, bottom, ends and sides are as 

 nearly tight as possible, so that in fumigating there shall 

 be as little waste of the gases as may be. 



Now hang in the combs whenever you have any not 

 occupied by the bees from any reason, and see that all 

 combs not in use are in their place, and not I.ving about 

 somewhere else. As often as any signs of worms are 

 found, put in a pot of burning sulphur, close the doors, and 

 the work is done. Onotidaga Co., N. Y. 



Is a $200 Oueen a Fake?"Oueen Values. 



BY DK. C. C. MILI.EK. 



ON page 391, G. M. Doolittle has gone be5'ond anything I 

 have seen in print in showing that there may be justi- 

 fication in placing a very high price upon a queen. 

 Granting his premises, the extra 10 pounds of honey and 

 the 4,000 queens, it is hard to get away from his conclusion 

 that " we have S3, 750 as the worth of that queen." 



Coupled with that is a repetition of the strong intima- 

 tion on page 293 that the A. I. Root Co. are in the fake busi- 

 ness when they advertise that they have a $200 queen. Mr. 

 Doolittle refers to it as being like the work of a fakir, and 

 says a fakir is a "street vender." Looking at the diction- 

 ar)' I find that a f-a-k-e-r is a street vender, and a f-a-k-i-y is 

 "one who originates a fake, humbug, or swindling contri- 

 vance." Mr. Doolittle's line of argument is somewhat 

 hazy, but clearly discernible through the haze is the inti- 

 mation of dishonesty on the part of the A. I. Root Co. 



Mr. Doolittle makes the rather strange assertion, 

 "There is no value in a dollar.^'' If that be true, then 

 there is no value in S200, and he should hardly find fault 

 with attaching to a queen a price of "no value." But he 

 seems to object to a queen " having only a dollar-and-cent 

 value attached to her," and says, " the simple saying that 

 this queen 'is worth 5200' without any qualification.... 

 expresses no value, save that which comes from the wear 

 and tear of the lungs doing the hawking.'' Elseivhere he 

 says, " But not to appear as a fakir, we should know that 

 the queen has real value in the work accomplished by her 

 bees and those from her queen daughters, putting that 

 work out to the world as her real worth, rather than saying 

 that ' we value her at so many dollars." " 



It is not entirely clear just what it is to which Mr. Doo- 

 little is making objection, but it sounds a little as if he 

 were objecting to placing upon an article a value in dollars 

 and cents. Surely he can hardly object to a thing which is 

 absolutely necessary to the transaction of business, and 

 without which the wheels of commerce would stand still. 

 Mr. Doolittle himself puts a dollar-and-cent price on the 

 queens he sends out. O. L. Hershiser told me he got a 

 queen from Mr. Doolittle that Mr. Doolittle said was worth 

 $50 to a breeder. What wrong was there in that ? The dol- 

 lar is the unit of value, and there is no other way bj' which 

 he could in so few words express the value he placed upon 

 that queen than to say how many dollars she was worth. 

 And if it was right for him to say she was worth $50 because 

 her progeny were beautiful (I saw them, and they were 

 beauties), is it wrong to say another queen is worth $200 if 

 she really possesses such value? Again, on page 380 of 

 the American Bee Journal, H. G. (Juirin advertises a Golden 

 Breeder from Doolittle, saying that Doolittle says. " If 

 there is a breeder of golden bees in the U. S. worth $100, 



