1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



309 



practicability of furnishing an even 

 high temperature for honey ; and I 

 think that, if grocers and holders of 

 honey come to realize that cold tem- 

 perature injures honey, many of them 

 will not keep their stock of honey in 

 the coldest part of the store, and, in 

 many cases, in their ice-boxes, under 

 the false idea that honey must be kept 

 cool. H, R. Wright. 



Albany, N, Y., Sept, 21. 



[Good extracted honey, if brought 

 to a temperature of not over 18U° 

 Fahrenheit, bottled and sealed wldle 

 hot, will usually, if kept in a uniform- 

 ly warm temperature, keep liquid for 

 a year or more. Indeed, we had some 

 fine clover honey, treated in this way, 

 keep liquid for two years. But there 

 is a great difference in honey. Some 

 will candy much quicker than others. 

 The riper — that is, thicker — the hon- 

 ey is, the longer it will keep liquid. 



Cold atmosphere is quite favorable 

 to candying of both extracted and 

 comb. 



The temperature of the storage- 

 room should be about that of a living- 

 room — 70°. Higher would do no 

 harm, but is inconvenient and expen- 

 sive. 



Cellars and cold rooms, especially 

 when subject to freezing, are poor 

 places for honey. 



In melting candied extracted hon- 

 ey, the temperature should not go 

 above 180°, otherwise the fine fla- 

 vor will in a large measure be de- 

 troyed. The usual way is, to place 

 the vessel of candied honey in another 

 larger receptacle containing hot 

 water, — Ed.] 



(From Gleanings,) 



BOTTOM STAETERS IN SECTIONS. 



SOME INSTRUCTIONS TO BEGINNERS. 



BY DR. C. C. MIIiLER. 



A correspondent writes: "I believe 

 you cut a starter in both bottom and 

 top of the section. I have tried put- 



ting in a bottom starter, but the bees 

 always gnaw it down. Can you tell 

 me what to do to prevent this sort of 

 work?" 



I believe it may be worth while for 

 me to do more than merely answer 

 the question asked. Possibly I over- 

 estimated the importance of a bottom 

 starter, as we are always likely to 

 think well of oyr own babies. But I 

 know that, since I used bottom start- 

 ers, I don't have combs break out in 

 sections in shipping as I formerly did. 

 Often, before using bottom starters, a 

 section would be finished up with a 

 space of about half an inch between 

 the comb and the bottom bar of the 

 section ; and in transportation such a 

 comb would swing back and forth and 

 break off. Besides, a section looks 

 ever so much better to be filled clear 

 down, and it weighs more. 



There is another point in favor of 

 bottom starters for those who have 

 out-apiaries that I never thought of 

 till I saw it mentioned in the A B C. 

 A starter that comes down within one- 

 fourth inch of the bottom-bar of the 

 section is inclined to swing in hauling 

 to the out-apiary. If the starter is 

 only an inch or so wide it will not 

 swing at all. Just how wide it must 

 be before it commences to swing, I 

 don't know ; but I know that a star- 

 ter that fills the section all but a 

 quarter of an inch will swing a great 

 more than one that is three-quarters 

 of an inch less. 



In " A Year among the Bees" I 

 say I shall never use bottom starters 

 less than 1 in. deep, and shall experi- 

 ment to see how much deeper can be 

 used. That's one of the many cases 

 in which I don't know as much as I 

 thought I did. Further experience 



