1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE (^tltuRE. 



321 



CRATING AND MARKETING HONEY. 



VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS FROM ONE OF LARGE 

 EXPERIENCE. 



In regard to shipping-cases for comb honey, I be- 

 lieve the size, 24 to 33 lbs., to be the very best, all 

 things considered. In fact, some honey was crated 

 in stiff crates of six cases of Vi lbs. each, making a 

 total weight of 80 lbs. or so, and I never had any 

 honpy ship better. The crate was open all around, 

 and the cases glassed, so the railroad men could see 

 what they were handling. One great danger to 

 small cases is, that they will be piled up; and when 

 other freight supporting them is removed, down 

 they go. Your humble servant had about 600 lbs. 

 of beautiful honey entirely ruined this last year in 

 just that way. The honey was in l~-lb. cases, and 

 not one-sixth of it came unbrolien, lam convinc- 

 ed that a rather showy and very plain label, six by 

 six, of such size as to be conspicuous, will be a valu- 

 able aid to safety in shipping. I think the great 

 thing to aim at is to have as large bottom area as 

 possible, compared with the weight of the case, and 

 there should never be two tiers of sections. When 

 any in the upper tier are broken, they daub the 

 ones below. Of course, any one who is thoughtful 

 will put heavy paper between. 



Another great aid to neatness would be to put 

 heavy paper in the bottom of the cases in such a 

 way as to come up a little around the sides to pre- 

 vent the honey running out of the cracks of the 

 case and smearing every thing. I have sometimes 

 seen paper tacked on the outside, but this is un- 

 sightly. 



I can sympathize with friend Nance thoroughly 

 when he speaks of people asking him whether his 

 was bee honey. Why, this very day an old and very 

 intelligent-looking gentleman asked me if this hon- 

 ey I was selling was genuine. It was broken honey 

 on butter-plates. "Why," said I, "lam surprised 

 at your asking me such a question." 



" Oh : " said he, " that is just as easy as making 

 hens' eggs, and they are doing that every day." 



When I meet these people I have now one way 

 with them. I get them into bee-talk; and if they 

 know a little about bees, so much the better; and 

 then by the time I am done with them they are con- 

 vinced that I am selling pure honey, whatever any 

 one else may do. And that is, after all, the main 

 point. Of course, my private estimate of the aver- 

 age intelligence of such as the foregoing is not very 

 high ; but it would not do to let them know t hat. 1 

 have found, time and again, that traveling men de- 

 light in repeating or originating lies about our bus- 

 iness, about which, in point of fact, they knew ab- 

 solutely nothing. One in particular in Logansport, 

 last summer, told me that the firm he traveled for 

 (Franklin McVeagle & Co., Chicago), made and sold 

 lots of manufactured honey, and especially comb 

 complete. I wrote them, giving his name, and they 

 in their reply branded him as a liar, and said they 

 sold pure honey, in comb and out of comb. 



In regard to shipping comb honey, after having 

 thipped thousands of pounds in all sizes of cases, 

 and at all times of year, I would never advise any 

 one to ship comb honey in less than car lots when it 

 must be transferred. That settles the matter for 

 me. The risk is too great. It is like running your 

 own risk against Are and not insuring in some good 

 company. Any one accustomed to handling honey 

 could almost give the disposition and character of 



any person on inspection of honey he had shipped 

 to market. How often do we find cases faced with 

 beautiful white sections; and inner rows composed 

 wholly or partly of culls— dark, half-filled combs! In 

 fact, honey in pasteboard cartons is not very popu- 

 lar among our merchants, owing in part, no doubt, 

 to the temptation to put in a few poor boxes where 

 no one can see them. That's all right for once, if 

 you have no conscience; but be sure you don't put 

 any name or address on your shipping-boxes so 

 they can remember who you are. Honesty is the 

 best possible policy, whether in packing honey or 

 elsewhere. I have in my mind's eye just now as fine 

 a lot of white clover honey as one would wish to see, 

 which is in oneof our commission houses here await- 

 ing a buyer. Why does it not sell? I'll tell you. It is in 

 5t)-lb. cases of U-lh. sections, and nearly half of the 

 sections are loosened out of the frames. This is 

 caused largely by the extreme size of the cases and 

 the avarice of the shipper, who put in many sections 

 that were imperfectly fastened at the bottom and 

 sides. Far better give the poor sections away at 

 home than to send them along to market to spoil 

 the condition and sale of a lot of good ones. 



Another great mistake that our bee - keepers 

 make is to use the unfinished sections of last year 

 in the hive this year, having in them the candied 

 honey that was kept over. We have done so to our 

 sorrow, and have handled lots of honey that be- 

 came candied before being sold, for this reason. 

 Always put the unfilled sections that contain a lit- 

 tle honey in the extractor, and throw out the honey 

 that is in them. Ten or twelve sections at a time 

 can be easily put into the extractor, to expedite 

 matters. H. F. Mooke. 



Cleveland, O., Apr. 4. 



{To hi: continued ) 



Friend M., your suggestion in regard to 

 a thick paper, with the edges turned up in 

 the bottom of the case, so as to hold the 

 honey instead of letting it run out and daub 

 every thing and everybody, it seems to me 

 is a very wise suggestion. I never want to 

 see any more such stickiness as I have seen 

 twice during the past year, with broken 

 comb honey. 



THE VAN DEUSEN CORNER. 



inventing new hives. 



Friend Root:— I do not think the Van Deusen met- 

 al corners would interfere with the honey-knife in 

 uncapping, to any great extent. The new corners 

 do not project quite ill of an inch from the side of' 

 the frame, and are beyond the sweep of the knife 

 unless it happens to slip. But this is only " think 

 so" on my part, for I produce no extracted honey, 

 and have never uncapped a comb in a frame hav- 

 ing these corners. They could not possibly inter- 

 fere so much as would your tacks, for they project 

 less than half as far, and are situated more remote- 

 ly on the corners than tacks can be placed. 



Of course, you abandoned the plan of spacing 

 frames with tacks a good many years a^o. So did 

 the rest of us who handled frames very much. It 

 is one of the early symptoms of the bee-fever. 

 The first bad symptom is to invent a new hive, this 

 usually appearing with the victim's first colony of 

 bees. When this colony casts a swarm or two, and 

 the owner finds that, in placing the newly hived 



