1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1073 



PREPARING COMB HONEY FOR 

 MARKET. 



The Importance of Scraping Sections and 

 Sandpapering Shipping- cases; Some 

 W holesonie Advice from One who has 

 Had a Large Experience. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



When a nice section of honey lies on a plate on 

 the table, what does it matter what kind of case 

 contained it when it stood in the grocery.? Does 

 the eater stop to inquire whether the wooden sec- 

 tion tnat contained the comb was neat and clean, 

 or whether it was well covered with bee-glue.? 

 Of course not. But because it makes no differ- 

 ence after it's on the table, don't you fool your- 

 self into thinking it makes no difference before it 

 gets there. 



Suppose two cases of honey stand side by side 

 in a grocery. One of the cases shows signs of 

 travel and previous use, and even in its palmiest 

 days it was never a very neat affair. The other 

 is neat and clean — same difference in sections. 

 Those in the one case have been nicely cleaned 

 of all glue; in the other case, the sections are just 

 as the bees left them, and are plentifully daubed 

 with glue. The average customer, upon being 

 told that there is a difference of 2 cents per sec- 

 tion in the price, nothing being said about com- 

 parative quality, will very likely elect to pay the 

 extra 2 cents. If the grocer says, " The honey 

 itself is just as good in one case as in the other," 

 some will choose the honey at the lower price; 

 but some will say, "It may be so, but every 

 thing about this case looks so neat and dainty 

 that it must be a litde cleaner than the other, and 

 likely just a little better." But the grocer him- 

 self is likely to be impressed with the opinion 

 that there is really greater value in one case than 

 the other, and that opinion affects him, both in 

 buying and selling, and so from first to last this 

 case of honey, "just as good as the other," is 

 handicapped by its appearance. 



Even if the difference be only a cent a pound, 

 it will cost you only a fraction of a cent to have 

 the better class, and the remaining fraction of a 

 cent makes quite a tidy sum when your crop is 

 large. Besides, if the outside appearance in the 

 grocery is inviting, many will be tempted to buy 

 who would be repelled by something less attrac- 

 tive. 



You can save a little on shipping-cases by hav- 

 ing a narrower strip of glass, but it is poor econ- 

 omy. Either on the grocer's counter or piled up 

 in the wholesale room, the more glass the finer 

 the honey looks. But there is no advantage in 

 having glass on two sides, as only one side can 

 be seen at a time. 



To a bee-keeper there is nothing repulsive in 

 the appearaceof bee-glue, but to the average con- 

 sumer there is; so, don't send any bee-glue to 

 market. Your supers may be of such character 

 that the section is mostly covered, but hardly en- 

 tirely; and wherever the bees have a chance they 

 are likely to squeeze in at least some glue — the 

 later in the season, the more glue. Perhaps your 

 supers allow the bees free access to tops, or to 

 both tops and bottoms. In that case make a 

 wholesale job. Wedge the sections into a frame 



a little less in depth than the depth of the sections. 

 Take a cabinet scraper and give the surface a 

 good scraping. Then take No. 2 sandpaper and 

 sandpaper down till the whole surface of the wood 

 is entirely new and clean. Wonderful what a 

 change you can make! The superful of sections, 

 while you are doing this work, should be stand- 

 ing on a board as large as or a litde larger than 

 the size of your super. When you have finished 

 cleaning that surface, lay a similar board on top; 

 turn the whole business upside down, and clean 

 the other side. Then with a caseknife kept pret- 

 ty sharp clean off the edges of each section, rest- 

 ing the section on a block perhaps the size of a 

 section. 



Don't lose money by false grading. Let the 

 sections that are next the glass in the shipping- 

 case be a fair sample of the whole case. But you 

 are allowed to put the best side out of the sec- 

 tions that are next the glass, just as the best side 

 of a section will be uppermost on the table. 



If your bees have stored first-class honey you 

 may as well have every thing in first-class shape 

 and get first-class prices. Keep that up for a few 

 years, and you will have no trouble in finding a 

 market, perhaps getting into that class whose 

 honey is sold before it is taken from the hives. 



Marengo, 111. 



[Here is some good wholesome advice, and we 

 hope the small producer, at least, will cut it out, 

 even if he does mutilate his journal, and paste it 

 in his hat or on his honey-house door. 



It is a lamentable fact, and almost an outrage, 

 that so much comb honey goes on the market 

 without either scraping or grading, and in cases 

 that are either soiled or homemade. Oh the pen- 

 ny-wise-and-pound-foolish policies we see among 

 some bee-keepers! Why do they hold their noses 

 on the grindstone.? Why do they throw away 

 dollars and dollars when a few cents' worth of 

 time would save them.? If they would heed this 

 good advice of Dr. Miller, they could save a fine 

 profit which they now lose. As it is, they bring 

 down the prices of all honey. 



In talking with a honey-dealer the other day 

 we asked him what percentage of the honey came 

 in scraped and graded. His answer was, after 

 some litde reflection, "Sixty per cent of the fan- 

 cy and only about 20 per cent of the No. 1." 

 Just think of it, brother bee-keepers! Do you be- 

 long to the class of the 80 per cent who think it 

 does not pay to scrape and grade your honey be- 

 fore shipping to market.? And you who propose 

 to put up a fancy article, do you belong to the 

 40 per cent who neither scrape nor grade? 



You may say that a "fancy " honey is a grad- 

 ed product. It ought to be, surely; but in the 

 goods marked " fancy," the dealers tell us they 

 often find No. 1 and 2, all in the same case. Such 

 shiftlessness, or, perhaps, we better say dishonesty, 

 is enough to make one cry if it would do any 

 good. 



It is assumed, of course, that the readers of 

 bee-journals do not belong to the class who do 

 not scrape or grade their honey; and the unfortu- 

 nate thing about it is that our scolding does not 

 hit them. Those people can not afford to take a 

 bee-journal, and have not time to fix up their 

 honey so as to make it sell — "any old case will 

 do;" and if the sections were on the hive last sea- 

 son, all covered with stain and propolis, "they 



