504 



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COMB HONEY. 



Caring for Comb Honey After It 

 Lieaves the Hive. 



Written for Die American Bee Journal 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Two questions have been sent to me 

 regarding the care of comb honey, the 

 first wanting to know if honey can be 

 talcen from the hive before all the cells 

 next to the wood are sealed up ; and 

 the second, desiring to know about the 

 moth-worms on comb honey in sections, 

 and how they can be got rid of. As 

 these questions can best be answered 

 by an article, I will give in brief how I 

 manage comb honey after taking it 

 from the hives. 



The first requisite for caring for 

 honey after taking it from the hives, is 

 a good, warm room in which to store 

 it. I use a room 7x10 feet, in the 

 southwest corner of my shop, having 

 the outside painted a dark color, so 

 that the rays of the afternoon sun will 

 make it as warm as possible. 



Some use an upstairs room, which 

 will generally be warm enough with- 

 out any pains being taken with it, es- 

 pecially if this room is under the south 

 roof of the building, with no partition 

 between the roof and the room. The 

 only objection that I have to such an 

 upper room, is the amount of heavy 

 work it makes in lugging the honej^ 

 up and down the stairs. 



As a body of honey, once thoroughly 

 warmed, will hold the heat for a long 

 time, the average temperature of such 

 a room will be pretty high, ranging 

 from 80° to 100° most of the time, 

 thus ripening the honey splendidly. 

 The object of this is to have the honey 

 growing better, instead of poorer, 

 from the moment that it leaves the 

 hives, and have the honey in those un- 

 sealed cells around the outside of the 

 section next to the wood (which is 

 spoken of above) grow so thick that it 

 will equal any in the section. These 

 unsealed cells next to the wood of the 

 sections are rarely all ever sealed up, 

 and to wait for them to be so, is only 

 a waste of time ; so I take oif my 

 honey as soon as the honey in the body 

 of the section is fully capped over. 



When the honey is taken from the 

 hives, that in the unsealed cells is so 

 thin that if the section is held so that 

 the mouth of the cells are down, it will 

 leak or run out b.adly ; but by leaving 

 it in a warm room for a month, it can 

 be handled as we please, tipping it 

 over, etc., and not a drop of honey 

 will run out ; and if after it gets to 



market, it is stored in a damp, cool 

 place, it will be some time before it 

 will take on moisture enough to affect 

 it to any great extent. 



Perhaps all will not agree with me, 

 but I think that all comb hone}' should 

 be stored in such a room at least a 

 month before crating, to ripen and 

 sweat out. I know that it is a saving 

 of time and labor to crate it at once ; 

 but I think that it pays for all of this 

 extra time and labor, in the better 

 quality and appearance of our product. 



Having the honey placed in a warm 

 room, the next thing that will need 

 our attention will likely be the larvas 

 of the wax-moth, which brings us to 

 the second question. 



Comb Honey and Motli-I^ar^'se. 



After the honey has been away from 

 the bees for about ten days, where 

 placed in a warm room, if we inspect 

 the cappings of the honey closely, we 

 will detect little places of white dust, 

 resembling flour, upon the surface of 

 the comb, and usually most abundant 

 near the bottom of the section. Al- 

 though the moth is not as troublesome 

 as it used to be, still it is always well 

 to keep a good lookout for it ; and 

 although tins place resembling flour 

 may not be larger around than a fine 

 needle, still it tells us for certain that 

 a tiny worm of the wax-moth is there, 

 and that unless it is killed, it will de- 

 stroy more or less of the nice, white 

 comb which encases the honey. 



While in one of our cities a number 

 of years ago, I saw sections of honey 

 which had worms in them as large 

 around as a slate-pencil, and an inch 

 or more long, which had nearly de- 

 nuded the honey of the nice white 

 cappings to the cells, making the 

 honey an object of disgust, rather than 

 of attraction, the same caused by the 

 producer not knowing how to detect 

 the first appearance of the worms, or 

 being too shiftless to kill them after he 

 had found them ; or, perhaps, being in 

 too big a hurry to rush his honey to 

 market, instead of ripening it as I have 

 advised. 



If, after several examinations, you 

 fail to find such little, white, flour-like 

 places, you may well be glad, for it is 

 no small task to keep the worms from 

 honey during the latter part of the 

 summer and fall, where they are as 

 plenty as they were here 15 or 20 years 

 ago. 



If you should find these flour-like 

 places, the next thing is to sulphur the 

 honey. To best do this, the honey 

 should be stoi-ed on a platform, which 

 I build as follows : 



Take pieces of 2x12 inch plank, and 

 cut them 3 feet and 9 inches long, and 

 spike two pieces together, thus making 

 a stick 4x12 inches, and 3 feet and 9 



inches long. Use three of these on a 

 side, the platform running the 7-foot 

 way of the room. These are set the 

 12-inch-way up, and on them are laid 

 four 3x4 inch pieces 7 feet long. Across 

 these last pieces are laid sticks 3 feet 

 and 9 inches long, by li inches square, 

 they being placed so that the sections 

 will stand on them the same as they 

 did on the hive, and have the ends of 

 the sections meet in the centre of these 

 lix22 sticks. Piled in this way the 

 fumes of burning sulphur can pene- 

 trate the whole pile, by placing sulphur 

 under it. 



Having all in readiness, put some 

 ashes in an old kettle, so that there 

 will be no danger from fire resulting 

 from the heat from the coals, which 

 are to be placed therein. 



Take the kettle of coals to the honey- 

 room, and pour sulphur (which has 

 been previously weighed) on the coals, 

 to the amount of one-fourth of a pound 

 to every 75 cubic feet contained in the 

 room ; when the kettle is quicklj' 

 pushed under the pile of honey, and 

 the room closed. Leave it thus closed 

 for 15 minutes, when it should be 

 opened to let the smoke out, for if it 

 settles on the combs, it will give them 

 a greenish tint. 



Just how the eggs of the moth get 

 into the surplus apartment of the hive, 

 is not known, but it is supposed that 

 they are carried there on the feet of 

 the bees. Combs having pollen in 

 them are more subject to the moth 

 than are those having no pollen in 

 them ; therefore, those having pollen 

 should be kept separate from the main 

 crop of honey. If more honey is put 

 into the room later, sulphur it again 

 ten days after putting in. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



HONEY SHOWS. 



How to make a Oood Display- 

 One that Will Attract. 



Written for Gleanings in Bee-Culture 

 Br R. m'knight. 



There has been a good deal in the 

 bee-papers of late, respecting the best, 

 method of arranging for and setting 

 up honey shows. If these be made 

 large and attractive, they serve a good 

 purpose in promoting the interests of 

 bee-keepers by attracting attention and 

 promoting sales. 



To do the work well, is no easy mat- 

 ter. This arises mainly from the ab- 

 sence of variety in the article shown. 

 Extracted honey is extracted honey in 

 whatever form it may be shown. 

 Monotony can be broken only by 

 variety in the design of the packages 

 in which it is put up, which is in itself 

 limited. 



