FEBRUARY 1, 1913 



Conversations Avith Doolittle 



At Borodino, New York. 



YE OLDEN TIMES. 



A correspondent writes, " If Doolittle 

 does not have something February' 1st about 

 ' Ye Olden Times ' in beekeeping I shall be 

 greatly disappointed." 



My memory goos back to the days when 

 father kept bees in box hives, and to log- 

 gnm times. In that age fifteen and twenty 

 pound boxes for comb honey were made of 

 rough half-inch lumber with a hole bored 

 in one side, over wliich was placed a piece 

 of glass broken from a window pane 

 through which I, as a boy, would peer to 

 see whether any honey was being built. 

 Usually I did not even see a bee inside. It 

 had to be a good season to drive the bees 

 into these boxes, for in most cases there was 

 only one auger-hole, an inch or an inch and 

 a half in diameter, through the top-board 

 to the hive. This board was of about the 

 same thickness, and the big empty honey- 

 box was without any starter of comb. Fi'om 

 our standpoint of to-day, this would be a 

 great drawback; but, strange as it may ap- 

 pear, during one season father took as 

 much as 70 pounds of comb honey from ore 

 of these rough hive boxes in which were 

 hived two swarms which came out and clus- 

 tered together. A few years later the lum- 

 ber for these boxes was planed on the in- 

 side, and a piece of white comb stuck fast 

 to the center of the top. Tliis greatly pro- 

 moted the willingness of the bees to enter 

 tl:e honej'-i'eceptaeles. However, few of the 

 farmers did little else than hive swarms in 

 old boxes, portions of hollow logs, half- 

 barrels, or nail-keg's, in those times of 60 

 to 80 years ago. 



Then all colonies not needed for winter- 

 ing were killed by setting the hives over 

 fumes of burning sulphur. After the bees 

 were dead, the hives were pried apart, or 

 the old logs split open and the combs of 

 honey cut out. In this way from each hive 

 or log twenty to fifty pounds of honey were 

 obtained, the best and whitest of Avhich was 

 put into bright tin joans to be disposed of, 

 while all of the rest was put into a cloth 

 bag and hung up before the fireplace to 

 drain out as strained honey. After prac- 

 tically all the honey had drained out, the bag 

 was immersed in water, as hot as the hand 

 could bear, and the whole was kneaded and 

 worked over with the pudding-stick till all 

 the sweet had been separated from the 

 comb. This sweetened water was boiled 

 down to honey water. It was then used to 

 sweeten apple sauce or pies. In these dif- 

 ferent ways much pleasure and enjoyment 



was given to the family of the farmers who 

 kept bees. 



When I began to keep bees in the latter 

 sixties, Langstroth liives were beginning to 

 supersede the old logs and boxes. These 

 were thought to be the height of perfection, 

 for each had a honey-board on which were 

 placed six boxes six inches square by five 

 inches deep, each having a glass on two 

 sides, the glass being on opposite sides. 

 Before the glass was put on, three pieces of 

 comb were stuck to the top of each box 

 equal distances apart, to be used by the 

 bees as guides for building their combs in 

 a certain direction, as well as for starters. 

 In this way I procured my honey for the 

 first three years. I used these boxes more 

 or less till 1875. They held from six to six 

 and one-half pounds, gross weight, and, 

 strange to say, I was offered 50 cents a 

 pound for my 1869 crop. 



After these came the four-pound box 

 with its four metal corner jDosts and four 

 glass sides. This box was considered the 

 most fancy honey-receptacle that ever was, 

 as two sides showed the nice white capping 

 of the honey while the other two showed its 

 color and qualitj', where the cells were stuck 

 to the glass. I doubt if there were ever 

 more attractive packages, when filled with 

 honey, than these glass honey-boxes with 

 their shiny metal comer-posts. 



A few 3'eai-s later came the Harbison 

 three-pound bos, then the two-pound sec- 

 tion, which was soon followed by sections 

 holding one pound — some even going so far 

 as to make those holding as little as a half 

 and a quarter of a pound. Both of these, 

 however, proved to be too small for any 

 profit, so that the one-pound section soon 

 became the standard, and has held that 

 place until the present time. 



I might speak of many things which 

 would now be considered drawbacks, which 

 came about in the transition between those 

 old times and the present. Then we did 

 the best we could without sections, queen- 

 excluders, bee-escapes, movable frames, 

 comb foundation, extractors, etc. 



But I wish to speak of something which 

 seems a mystery to me. In all of those 

 years honey brought much more in revnrn 

 to the producer than it does in this, the 

 twentieth century. Father used to trade 

 that cut comb honey, from those briglit tin 

 pans, giving 12 to 18 pounds for a pair of 

 shoes, according to the riuality of the shoes 

 and that of the honey. Then he could get 

 a bushel of wheat for four pounds of this 



Continued on page 78. 



