JANUARY 1, 1915 



11 



(CONVEMSATIONS WITH DOOLITTLE 



Alt BorodimiT, New York. 



CARE OF COMB HONEY. 



" Will j'ou tell US something 

 about the care of comb honey — 

 how to look after it when taken 

 from the hive, grade it, etc."? You 

 may have Avritten something of 

 this in the past; but remember 

 that the constantly increasing number of 

 readers of (iLEAxixgs do not all have access 

 to the volumes published years ago." 



Allow me to say at the outset that it 

 should never be forgotten that honey of 

 (luality. and in any of the popular packages, 

 will constantly command a good price, far 

 above that of poor quality, put up in a 

 slijisliod way. The better gi'ade tempts 

 every eye, thus producing a longing which 

 makes a steady customer. I was once told 

 that no product of field and farm varies so 

 much in price as comb honey. On asking 

 why, I learned: "It only requires to be 

 put up attractively to create a demand for 

 all that can be jiroduced in America." 

 While I would take this statement with 

 allowance, 1 consider that there is much 

 truth in it. Comb honey has the preference 

 for table use at the present time; and if we 

 would cater to the public we must produce 

 that article in the most attractive shape. 



This is arrived at by growth. In 1850 to 

 '55 the smallest package of comb honey 

 marketed as the bees stored it in this local- 

 ity was a fifteen-pound box. By 1862 a 

 six-pound box having glass on two sides 

 came into quite general use. The year 1870 

 found the beekeepers using boxes holding 

 three and four pounds with four glass sides 

 and tin for corner posts, only the tops and 

 bottoms being of wood from % to V^ inch 

 thick. These Avere very attractive, as they 

 not only showed the nice white face side of 

 the comb, but told at a glance at the ends of 

 the combs the coloring of the honey, which 

 was a fair index of the quality and source 

 of the sweets inside. However, the beekeep- 

 •s were not yet satisfied; for after these 

 line the sections which were then two and 

 three pound " boxes," and these gradually 

 gave place to the one-pound section. 



Tomb honey should be taken from the 

 hive as soon as it is finished and fully 

 capped over, or as soon thereafter as possi- 

 ble. Xo apiarist can expect to have liis 

 honey sell for the highest market price if it 

 be allowed to stay on the hives for weeks 

 after it has boen sealed over, allowing the 

 bees to t:ive I be wbite combs a dirty-yellow 

 color by their constant travel over it and 



I lie brood-combs below. Honey, while on 

 the hive, is evaporated mainly by the heat 

 ])rodueed by the bees; and, therefore, if we 

 expect to keej) our honey in good condition 

 for market we nuist keep it as the bees do — 

 in such a condition that it will grow thicker 

 all the while. Jt should be stored in a 

 room Avhere tlu' mercury can be kept stand- 

 ing at from 80 to 95 F. If stored in this 

 way no honey will drip from any open cells 

 during crating, neither will any of the combs 

 have a Avatery appearance; but all will be 

 bright, dry, and clean. The supers of sec- 

 tions should be separated so that the warm 

 air can circulate freely all through — under, 

 over, and between each section. Only in 

 this Avay can the dry w'arm air treat each 

 section alike. When crating, one should 

 pack sections as nearly alike as possible as 

 to kind and quality of honey as well as to 

 ivhite capping and perfection of combs. 



The marketing of honey is a subject that 

 interests every apiarist. As hinted before, 

 it must be attractive. Has it ever occurred 

 to the reader to inquire why the best-selling 

 oranges are rolled up in fluffy paper with 

 lithogTaplis of enchanting faces and be- 

 witching scenes'? or why bolts of muslin are 

 labeled with pictures of luscious fruit? No 

 matter how good the quality, our comb 

 honey must please the eye. Hence, instead 

 of loading a bottomless fifteen-pound box 

 into a springless wagon with the bottom 

 covered with straw, as my father did in the 

 early fifties, or putting twenty six-pound 

 boxes into a crate, as did the writer in the 

 early seventies, we now put from twelve to 

 twenty one-pound sections into a no-drip 

 case with a corrugated paper bottom and 

 glass sides. So the attracted customer has 

 dealt out to him a single comb of honey, 

 w^hich, when removed from the section, is 

 far more inviting than all the lithograplis 

 the human mind has ever fancied. 



All comb honey should be graded and a 

 scale of prices established, based somewhat 

 upon market quotations in the large cities. 

 Remember that transportation and commis- 

 sion will amount to two or three cents per 

 section, besides the risk of breakage in 

 transit. So a sale at horrle can be made at 

 a cent or two less than market quotations, 

 even though it has to be retailed. 



A little practice will make any one 

 cnTiciont along all these lines. If these 

 suggestions are followed, no one can accuse 

 llie apiarist of "dumping" honey to break 

 down or ruin the market. 



