FabHshetJ Weekly, at Sl.OO per annum. 



Sample Copy sent on Application. 



36th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JULY 16, 1896. 



No. 29. 



Working for Comb Honey — Finishing the Season 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



We will suppose that by the time this reaches the readers 

 of the American Bee Journal, swarming is all done with and 

 we are ready to look after the sections. If we had sections of 

 empty comb to put in the center of our surplus arrangement, 

 as I have advised so often in the bee-papers, we will only have 

 to look after these the first time over the apiary, for if any 

 are finished it will be these, for bees can fill empty comb and 

 seal it over much sooner than they can build comb or draw 

 out foundation. 



The first thing to be done is to get the smoker, having it 

 lighted and ready for use, together with a spring wheelbar- 

 row. On the wheelbarrow is placed some wide frames of sec- 

 tions with starters to take the place of the full ones as they 

 come off. Having arrived at a hive, take off the cover and 

 gently pry the wide frames apart with a stout knife, when a 

 little smoke is blown down through the crack between them, 

 so as to drive the bees away that we may see if any are com- 

 pleted, which is told by the cells being sealed over. Unless 

 all in one wide frame are finished I do not attempt to take 

 any, but when they are I remove such wide frame, shaking 

 the bees off, which is readily done at this time, except a few 

 behind the separator, as each bee is filled with honey so it is 

 easily rolled off by the usual method of shaking brood-combs, 

 vyhich I have several times described. 



The wide frame of honey is now placed on the wheelbar- 

 row and a wide frame of empty sections put in its place on 

 the hive. If more than one wide frame of sections are finished 

 they are taken off also, and others put in their places, the 

 same as was the first. Proceed to the next hive, working the 

 same as at the first, and so on until you have been over the 

 whole apiary. 



Of course, it would be less work to leave the honey all on 

 until the close of the season, and then take all off together, 

 but if we do this, much of this first finished will get travel- 

 stained and not sell for so fancy a price as it will if taken off 

 when snow-white. 



If the honey-yield keeps good, I go over the apiary in the 

 same way a week later, and so on until the honey season 

 draws near its close, when what remains on the hives is al- 



lowed to stay as long as there is prospect of the bees complet- 

 ing any more sections, after which the whole is taken off by 

 means of the bee-escape board, so often spoken of in our bee- 

 papers. 



As fast as taken off, the honey is stored in a dry, airy 

 room, and the warmer this room can be the better, for in such 

 a dry, warm, airy room the honey in the sections keeps grow- 

 ing thicker and thicker, and better and better, as long as it 

 remains, bringing it to a condition where it will not so quickly 

 gather moisture or " sweat," if the consumer or dealer does 

 not happen to store it in a favorable place when it comes into 

 his hands. This item of properly curing honey is of more im- 

 portance than the average bee-keeper places upon it, judging 

 from the numerous letters which I receive every fall, asking 

 " What ails my honey ? It is taking on a watery appearance, 

 and the honey in the unsealed cells is standing out in drops. 

 What can I do for it?" Nothing ails the honey, only that the 

 apiarist has stored it in a damp, cool place so that it has 

 taken on moisture till the expansion has become so great that 

 it has touched the sealing to the cells, giving it the watery 

 appearance; and if left in such a place long the cappings will 

 burst, the honey run out, sour, and become so deteriorated as 

 to be unfit for use. It seems too bad to have a nice crop of 

 honey, which has been worked for so hard to obtain, spoil, or 

 become second class, from lack of knowledge regarding how it 

 should be cared for when off the hives. 



Being kept in a warm, dry room, as all honey should be, 

 the next difficulty which is liable to appear, comes in the 

 shape of the larva; of the wax-moth, for warmth is what they 

 revel in. How the eggs from the moth come on our comb 

 honey is a mystery, as the bees guard the hive with vigilance 

 against these moth enemies ; but certain it is, that they are 

 on the combs, or else there would be no larv» to commit 

 depredations. All sections fully sealed and snow-white should 

 be placed by themselves, as these are rarely troubled, but 

 those having pollen in them, or which are discolored near the 

 bottom by the bees working bits of old comb from the hive 

 below into that in the sections, should be carefully watched, 

 and if the works of the larvas are seen upon them, they should 

 be stored in hives, tiered up or in a tight box or room, and 

 sulphured, as has been given so many times in our bee papers 

 and books. 



The honey being properly cured, it should now be crated 

 and gotten ready for market. Some are almost as careless 

 about this part as they are about curing the honey, tumbling 

 the sections into a wagon and hauling to market in a manner 

 which shows they are not posted in their business, this giving 

 the groceryman the clue that he can buy the honey at his own 

 price, thus giving the producer poor returns for his labor, and 

 injuring the market for others who know how honey should 

 be handled. 



The honey should be properly graded and put up into 



