1800 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



18 



and Leslie, many promises are made to keep up the 

 friendship between each one by way of correspon- 

 dence. 



AUGUST 8. 



" Now, boys, we are left alone— four of us— to 

 prepare the honey for market; but as the crop is a 

 rather light one we shall have a short job of it. I 

 have already four women scraping sections, and 

 another one coming today. Scott, you may nail 

 crates together, and Leslie will stencil the ends and 

 stamp wood sides, and wait on the women while I 

 grade the honey; and Fred will crate and weigh it, 

 so each will have his special part to do. 



"Good morning, Mrs. F. I suppose you have come 

 to help us in this work, so I will give you a few in- 

 structions to start with. You will occupy this cor- 

 ner of this long table. As there is ample room for 

 six persons to work around it you will have one- 

 third of one side. In this largest pile are the sec- 

 tions of honey that have not been scraped. All are 

 in clamps, just as they came from the apiaries, 16 

 sections to each clamp. Now, you take one of these 

 clamps and set it on the table at your right hand. 

 At your left hand you have an empty clamp, all 

 clean, into which you set each section after it is 

 scraped. Here is a knife to work with. This is a 

 common potato-knife, such as many housekeepers 

 use for paring potatoes, apples, etc. This knife will 

 require sharpening often, as it needs to be sharp to 

 do the work well; therefore, whenever you want it 

 sharpened you can call on Leslie, as he is supposed 

 to render you ladies any assistance you may re- 

 quire. The first thing to do is to turn back the 

 screw at the end of the clamp, here, which holds 

 the sections snugly in place. With your right hand, 

 take a section of honey, thus, and set it on the table 

 before you, and with the knife scrape all the propo- 

 lis from off the top, then from the edges of the 

 section, and then from the bottom. Be sure to get 

 it all off, so that the section will look white and 

 clean. You will need to be very careful, and not 

 stick the point of the knife (nor your fingers) into 

 the honey; and if you should, do not put that sec- 

 tion with the others, as the honey will run out and 

 soil the sections under it. But you can set it in 

 that large tin tray over there, made for that pur- 

 pose. There, that section is scraped just as I want 

 them all. It is now set in this empty clamp; and 

 when you have it full, turn up the screw and carry 

 the honey into the crating and grading room; then 

 take the clamp you have just emptied, and scrape 

 off all the propolis from that as well as the separa- 

 tors, although you are not supposed to remove the 

 stain, but simply that portion which would cause 

 them to he sticky. There, now you can take the 

 knife and try your hand at it. There! you have 

 punched your finger into the first one. Well, never 

 mind. [ will set this section over a colony of bees 

 for them to take up the dripping honey, which they 

 will do very quickly; but that section will now have 

 to go in with the No. 3 honey." 

 Mrs. F. says : 



" I will pay for that, Mr. M." 



"Oh, no! I never ask my girls to pay for any 

 broken honey. I simply ask them to be careful. 

 You were not so much to blame in this case, after 

 all, as you were a little nervous, owing to my stand- 

 ing here, looking at you; but you will soon get ac- 

 customed to handling honey, and then you won't 

 mind it. And now since you are so willing to pay 

 for this box, I will make you a present of it, and 



perhaps that will impress upon your mind the im- 

 portance of being careful. 



"Why! how do you do, Mr. T.? Walk right in, if 

 you are not afraid of these ladies, though I judge 

 you have always been a little shy of the opposite 

 sex, for here you are, past middle age, and the in- 

 dications are that you have never dared to pop the 

 question; but I will say no more about that before 

 these ladies. Well, how have the bees done with 

 you this season?" 

 Mr. T. says: 



"Not very well, I assure you. My crop is a light 

 one; but, you know, I don't fuss with them much. 

 I have only 35 colonies, and it won't pay to spend 

 much time with them. But I have a little honey, 

 and 1 have come here to learn how to fix it for 

 market, and then I want to send it with yours, if 

 you are willing I should." 



" Certainly you can do so. I will now show you 

 how we prepare the different grades for market. 

 In the first place, the honey is all hauled here from 

 the out-apiaries, and stored here in this large room, 

 which is, as you see, well ventilated. Here it re- 

 mains until prepared for market. In this middle 

 room the sections are all nicely cleaned by scraping 

 oft' all the propolis. It is then stored in this other 

 room, where I grade it. This work I do myself, 

 making four grades. Thus, No. 1 is that which is 

 very white, and well filled and nicely capped. I 

 mark this Suowflake. No. 3 is the next best, which 

 includes all well-filled sections of white honey. 

 This is marked Choice Clover. The next grade is 

 partly filled sections, such as are not wholly capped. 

 This is marked LiuM Wei(iht, and the fourth grade 

 is whatever dark honey I have. We usually get a 

 little sumac and daisy honey. Although not very 

 dark, yet it is too dark to be classed as white honey. 

 This I mark Comb Honey. 



"After the honey is graded, the No. 1, or Snow- 

 flake, is put into paper cartons, and all the other 

 grades are put up with wood sides, which are 

 stamped to represent each grade." 

 Mr. T. asks: 



" How do you like the paper cartons?" 

 " Well, if we can get a cent a pound more by us- 

 ing them, it will just about even up the extra cost 

 between cartons and wood sides; and what we get 

 over one cent is clear gain in favor of cartons; 

 therefore as yet I use cartons only for a fancii 

 grade of honey." 

 " I see your shipping-crates all hold 30 sections. Do 

 you prefer that size to smaller crates?" 



" Yes, I do. I have used crates holding 13 and 

 16 sections, but now I use crates holding 30 sections 

 all together, for the reason that my honey does not 

 bring more or sell any quicker in small than in 

 large crates; and as the30-lb. crates do not cost any 

 more than those holding only 13 lbs., it is, of course, 

 cheaper for me to use the large ones, and then it 

 saves the bother of having so many sizes." 

 " Do you aim to have every crate hold just 30 lbs?" 

 " Oh, no! we can't do that very well. Just come 

 out here where Fred is crating and weighing. 

 There, you see there is a pile marked 18 lbs., and 

 there is one marked 18'/i, and there is one 19, and 

 one 19!/j, and that last is 30 lbs. We don't have any 

 over 30 lbs., as the dealers do not like to have them 

 weigh over a pound to the section, and they prefer 

 to have the crates weigh a little less; 19 lbs. net is 

 about right to suit the dealers. We tdm to have as 



