August, 1910. 



American Hee Jonrnal 



though discouraged at first, matured 

 quite a good crop from late blossoms. 

 Basswood bloomed quite profusely, 

 and, what is better, is yielding nectar. 

 We are now in the midst of the linden 



the thinner it became, until often, by 

 the time I cased it, a section could not 

 be turned upon its side without this 

 thin honey dropping out and daubing 

 everything upon which it fell. From 





A Profitable Corner in One of Scholl's Apiaries.— See page 254. 



harvest, and the perfume cheers the 

 bee-keeper's heart. 



The best crop of white clover honey 

 has been secured tliat we have had for 

 many years. Supers are piled three 

 and four high on the best colonies. 

 We have the finest honey ever put up 

 by those matchless alchemists — the 

 bees. 



The season has been hot since the 

 middle of May, with little rain, but 

 everything is looking well. 



Many bees were in poor condition in 

 the spring, and where not fed the loss 

 was heavy. The owners of such are 

 not bragging. It is another instance 

 in proof of the wisdom of keeping the 

 pitcher right side up, even if it doesn't 

 rain honey. 



Forest City, Iowa, July 15. 



Ripening Section Honey 



BV G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes me that he 

 prefers not to shake the bees all off his 

 section honey, but desires quite a few 

 left on, when he puts the surplus in the 

 box under the cloth, to rid the same of 

 bees; for before they come up on the 

 cloth to get out each bee fills itself with 

 honey, and this honey is always the 

 thin honey in the unsealed cells which 

 are around the outer margin of the 

 sections. And the more of this margin 

 honey the bees take out the better, as 

 it saves its dripping out from these few 

 outside unsealed cells when scraping 

 the sections and putting them in the 

 cases for market. 



These words carried me back to the 

 time when I used to store section 

 honey in a room on the north side of 

 the house, as I then thought that the 

 cooler honey was kept the better. But 

 I found by thus keeping the honey in 

 the few unsealed cells next the section, 

 which many colonies insist in leaving 

 without capping, kept thin, and the 

 longer the honey staid thus stored be- 

 fore it was gotten ready for market. 



this I thought I had struck a bright 

 idea, when I told all the bee-keepers 

 who visited me that all sections should 

 be kept right side up at all times if we 

 would keep things tidy and slick and 

 inviting about our product. Of course, 

 the apiarist could do this ; but how 

 about the merchant who bought it' and 

 the consumer ? 



For several years I sold my honey to 

 the same merchant, and I well remem- 

 ber taking a sample section of snow- 

 white honey to him, and the first thing 

 he did was to turn the section down flat 

 in his hand, as his eyes looked admir- 

 ingly upon it ; but said gaze was only 

 momentary, for the honey from the 

 unsealed cells, which I had been so 

 careful to keep in place, was dripping 

 down between his fingers, which caused 

 a feeling other than admiration to come 

 over him. I then gave him a lesson in 

 handling honey, and never afterward 

 did I see him handle honey except in 

 an upright position. But however well 

 a few could do this, the great mass 

 were sure to do just the thing my mer- 

 chant first did, so that the many would 

 become disgusted with the "dauby 

 stuff," even if the bee-keepers and the 

 merchant did not. 



After studying on the matter for 

 some time, I chanced to see Mr. Bet- 

 singer, who had been brought up 

 among the bee-keepers living about 

 " Father Quinby," and while there I 

 went to see his honey, which was kept 

 in a small building a few rods from 

 any other, the same being only about 8 

 feet high, and having a rusty tin roof 

 on it. As we went in I remarked about 

 the great heat inside. He told me that 

 this was as he desired, for this great 

 heat ripened his honey so that it was 

 thick, never sweat or turned of that 

 watery appearance so often seen when 

 honey was stored in a cool or damp 

 place ; and best of all, it never leaked 

 so as to daub things. 



Acting upon what he had said, he 

 picked up a section which had been in 

 the room 10 days, or such a matter, and 

 turned it over backwards and forwards 



and top side down, then laid it flat 

 down on a table and left it. After look- 

 ing over the honey all I cared for, we 

 came back to the table, when I picked 

 up the section and there was not a par- 

 ticle of drip about it or on the table. 

 As I remarked on how nice such a 

 condition was, he picked up one he 

 had brought from the hives an hour or 

 or two before I came, when upon going 

 through the same proceedings, it not 

 only " leaked " in handling, but dripped 

 several drops on the table. I now saw 

 what was the remedy for my trouble, 

 for up to this time I had always kept 

 my honey in some of the rooms on the 

 lower floor at the north side of the 

 house. I thanked Mr. B. for what I 

 had learned, and stored the rest of that 

 year's crop in a south chamber, which, 

 with the 1^^-story house which I then 

 occupied, was so close under the roof 

 that it was too uncomfortably hot to 

 sleep in during the summer months. 

 When getting this part of my honey 

 ready for market, it was such a comfort 

 in not having a particle of drip from 

 the unsealed cells, that I resolved when 

 building a shop and honey-house com- 

 bined, I would paint that part of it 

 black in which the honey was to be 

 stored. On thinking the matter over, I 

 saw that this honey-room should be in 

 the southwest corner of the building, 

 and so it was located there. 



After building and locating it as 

 above, the mid-day and afternoon sun 

 would heat this room to 90 and 100 de- 

 grees, and in very warm weather it 

 would sometimes go to lOtj, on account 

 of the black paint absorbing the heat 

 to such an extent. I often feared there 

 would come a time when it would rise 

 to so great a heat that the combs in the 

 sections would melt down ; but it never 

 did. When I would get from 1000 

 pounds to several tons in this room, 

 the whole would become so warm dur- 

 ing the day that it would act as a kind 

 of " balance wheel," and thus the tem- 

 perature would remain from 80 to 95 

 degrees the whole 24 hours, unless we 

 had several days of cool or cloudy 

 weather, as the honey heated during 

 the day would hold its heat well up to 

 the next forenoon, and again in turn 

 hold its cooler degree, obtained during 

 the night, well up toward the evening 

 of the next day. Later on, when I came 

 in possession of an automobile, I added 

 a "wing" to the south side of a build- 

 ing, covered this with a paper roofing, 

 and painted the wing and roofing with 

 a red paint, using a part of the room 

 for the auto, and a part for storing sec- 

 tion honey and getting the same ready 

 for market. In order that I might 

 work at any of my various occupations 

 during the winter months, I put a stove 

 in this wing, and herein I found an ad- 

 ditional comfort about the ripening of 

 my section honey. 



At two different seasons, with the 

 room in the shop, there came one of 

 those damp, cool times when the air is 

 almost "wringing wet" with moisture, 

 during which the sun was not seen 

 for a space of from 10 days to 2 weeks. 

 I now found that the black paint was 

 no better than white, nor wa-s this room 

 better during such a spell than was 

 those I had formerly used on the north 

 side of the house ; the result being, 

 that at the end of these spells the 



