Nov. 2 190S 



THfc AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



759 



-V (£ontrtbutcb ^- 

 Special Clrticlcs 



=^ 



Caring for Comb Honey After Taken Off 

 the Hive 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE 



WILL you please tell us through the columns of the Bee Journal 

 how to take care of comb honey after it is oft the hive ; that is, 

 from the time it is taken from the hive till it is taken to mar- 

 ket? I am a beginner in the bee-business, and when I took off 

 my honey I put it in a cool room on the north side of the house, think- 

 ing that this would be a good place for it; but some way, now that I 

 am preparing it for market, it does not look as good and white as it 

 did when I took it from the hive, and the honey that is in the few un- 

 sealed cells next to the wood of the section, runs out if I tip it the 

 least bit sidewise. What is the trouble?" 



I doubt if there ever was a season since I have written 

 about bees when I had so many inquiries about the care of 

 comb honey as now, and from the letters received it would 

 seem that, owing to the generally poor season in most parts 

 of the country, the honey the bees obtained was thinner or 

 less evaporated than usual. But, to the question : 



The first requisite for caring for comb or section honey, 

 after taking it from the hives, is a good, warm room in which 

 to store it. Don't for any reason store it in the cellar, as so 

 many beginners seem prone to do, nor make the mistake the 

 questioner did, of storing it in a room on the lower floor on 

 the north side of the house, for this is nearly as bad as in the 

 cellar. 



It seems strange to me that nearly every one who has not 

 been told better, will take it for granted that honey should be 

 stored in a refrigerator, or some place as cold as can well be 

 found. If they would stop to think a moment, they would 

 know that the place where the bees keep it is warm, and the 

 bees are models for keeping honey. The warmer honev can 

 be kept the better, till a degree of 100, Fahr., is reached, and 

 to secure such a high temperature without being obliged to 

 keep a fire, quite a few of our most practical apiarists put it 

 in an upper chamber or the attic. In this way the rays of the 

 sun shining all day directly on the roof warms the room and 

 the honey up to near this 100, Fahr., point, and the honey 

 being thus warmed during the day holds the heat till weil 

 toward morning, so that it is thickening and ripening in such 

 a place very much the same as it would were it left with the 

 bees. The only objection that can be brought against such 

 an upper room is the amount of heavy work required in lug- 

 ging the honey up and down the stairs. Where an elevator 

 can be used, such a place is just the thing. 



As a body of honey once thoroughly warmed will hold the 

 heat for a long time, the average temperature of such a room 

 on the south side of the house will be pretty high, ranging 

 from 80 to 100 degrees the most of the time up to Oct. 1, thus 

 ripening the honey splendidly. The object of this is to have 

 the honey growing better and better, instead of poorer (as did 

 that of our correspondent in his lower north room), and that 

 from the moment it leaves the hives, this causing the honey 

 in those unsealed cells — where there happens to be any 

 around the outside of the comb ne.xtthe wood, which is spoken 

 of above — to become so thick that it will equal any in the sec- 

 tion. Ofttimes it is better not to wait until these unsealed 

 cells nex'. the wood of the sections are a// scaled over, for to 

 wait for them to be so is often a great waste of time, espe- 

 cially so for those sections near the outside of the surplus 

 arrangement. When the honey is taken from the hive, that 

 in the unsealed cells is often so thin that if the sections are 

 held so the mouths of the cells are down, it will leak or run 

 out badly ; but by leaving it in a warm room, as above, for 

 three weeks or a month, it can be handled as you please, tip- 

 ping it over, etc., and not a drop of honey can be shaken out. 

 And after it gets to market, if 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 honey should be stored in such a room at least a month 

 before casing or sending to market, to ripen, or "sweat out," 

 as it is more usually termed. I know that it is a saving of 

 time and labor to case it as soon as it is taken from the hives ; 

 but I think it pays for all the extra time and labor required, 

 in the better quality and appearance of our product. 



Having moved to the old D)olittle homestead during the 

 past year, and there being no place for keeping honey except 

 the chambers, I have built a place for the >ame, not wishing 

 to perform all the labor necessary to keeping it in an upper 

 room. This building is in the form of a " lean-to ' on the 

 south side, it being 12 feet wide and 24 feet long, ihe 24 feet 

 being east and west, with the one-sided roof slanting toward 

 the south. This roof and the three sides have been painted 

 with what is known here as " Venetian red," and the sun 

 heats it up, even after quite a cold night, to from 80 to 90 

 degrees by 10 a.m. When it gets up to about 100, the win- 

 dows are opened so that the air, coming through the screens 

 on them, can carry out all moisture, and thus I have it hot 

 and dry on every sunshiny day. At night the windows are 

 closed, and they are left thus except when the mercury rises 

 above 90. 



When the honey was taken off, the first super was set on 

 2 inch square blocks, one under each of the 4 corners, the 

 blocks resting on the floor. Then on each of the 4 corners of 

 this super were placed 4 l-iuch square blocks, on which to 

 set the next super, and so on till a pile of 10 supers high was 

 reached, when a new pile was started. In this way there was 

 a 2-inch space (under) between the first super at the bottom 

 and the floor ; and an inch space between each and every 

 (other) super. This allowed the heat and air to circulate un- 

 der, above, and around every section of honey in every 

 super, aud when I came to get the honey ready for market a 

 few days ago, I never had honey any better ripened before. 

 Some of it used on the table was so thick that even the honey 

 in the unsealed cells next the wood of the sections would stay 

 almost half a day before dropping out, where the knife was 

 used in cutting the comb of honey out for use. I am much 

 pleased with the result, and especially as it is an easy matter 

 to handle the honey for all purposes from this room. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Work in the Apiary for November 



BY C. P. D.\DANT 



IF you have not removed all the supers during October, the 

 cool mornings of the early part of November must be used 

 for this purpose. It is well toexamine the hives and make 

 sure that none of the entrances are too deep ; that is, deep 

 enough for mice to go through, as there is greater danger of 

 disturaance from mice in the very coldest weather. A very 

 strong colony may get rid of the mice, but an average colony 

 which does not cover all the combs during cold weather, will 

 be very much disturbed by the mice gnawiug at the unoccu- 

 pied combs. 



We like to reduce the entrances of the hives to the space 

 necessary for ventilation only. We believe in sheltering the 

 bees against changes of temperature in all possible ways It 

 is true that bees can winter, and do winter, with a great deal 

 of ventilation, even with the bottom-board entirely removed, 

 but this is done at the expense of an extra amount of food. A 

 good colony of bees in a healthy condition will keep warm 

 during the coldest weather, but it will require a greater quan- 

 tity of honey in cold weather, and the colder the atmosphere 

 the more they will consume. That is why bees wintered in 

 the cellar consume so little. It has been estimated by some 

 apiarists that colonies may consume as little as 5 pounds of 

 honey In the cellar during the winter. This is a low estimate, 

 but 1 am satisfied that 8 or 10 pounds is a fair estimate, while 

 nearly double that amount will be consumed in i cold winter 

 on the summer stand. It is evident that bees produce heat 

 by the consumption of stores. 



While we want to shelter the hives against the cold winds 

 and storms of winter, we want to secure them against an ex- 

 cess of moisture by the use of absorbents over the cluster. It 

 has been held by some that upward ventilation is necessary. 

 I ooubt tbis, and believe that the only advantage of upward 

 ventilation is the carrying away of the moisture, which, in a 

 tight-fitting hive, would condense and wet the interior of the 

 hive. But upward ventilation also carries away heat. So we 

 have made it a practice to remove the tight-fitting cloth which 

 is placed over the brood-chamber during the warm season, 

 and replacing it with a straw mat covered with forest leaves. 

 This does not allow of any loss of heat, but absorbs the mois- 

 ture as fast as It is produced. This moisture is not often in- 

 jurious; usually It condenses in the corners and runs down 

 and out of the hive, especially If the hive is tilted forward as 

 all should be. 



But I have seen two or three winters in my experience in 

 which the condensation of moisture was so great that it liter- 

 ally soaked the combs, the bottom-board, and all the dea'l 



