VOL. Ul— NO. I 



HAMILTON, ILL., NOVEMBER, 1921 



MONTHLY, $1.50 A YEAR 



CARE OF HONEY FROM EXTRACTOR 



TO MARKET 



Ripening, Straining, Liquefying, Packing, Etc. 

 —By C. P. Dadant 



The beekeeper who harvests honey 

 in sufficient quantities to put it up in 

 barrels is quite a producer. Usually, 

 when he has gone that far, he has de- 

 vised his own methods. He perhaps 

 has a central plant in which he does 

 all his extracting and keeps large 

 tanks and a number of implements 

 which would be too expensive for the 

 average producer. This article is in- 

 tended to give the best methods that 

 we know of for the producer who is 

 not organized on a large scale, but 

 who may have one or more outapi- 

 aries and tries to retail at least a 

 part of his honey. 



But why put up the honey in bar- 

 rels at all? Well, there are several 

 good reasons. If you use good bar- 

 rels, sound, dry, not charred inside, 



well bound, with iron hoops, it is at 

 least as safe to put up and haul the 

 honey in that way from your outapia- 

 ries as in tin containers. We use 

 second-hand alcohol barrels, which 

 have been gummed inside so that 

 there has been no loss of alcohol, and 

 such barrels, if well cared for, need 

 never lose a di'op of honey. We have 

 used the same ones over and over, for 

 years. They are more easily hauled 

 around than cans, there is less danger 

 with them from ants and other in- 

 sects than with tanks, and if you must 

 keep the honey from one year to an- 

 other, in order to get the price that 

 you want, it will keep better in one 

 of those barrels than in tanks or cans. 

 We kept honey as long as 5 years, 

 after a record crop, rather than throw 



LuaJiiig barrels to be Tjllcd al the uuty.ird 



it upon the market at a low price and 

 finally came to a short crop, when we 

 were glad to have it for sale. It is 

 easier to take the granulated honey 

 out of a barrel than out of a metal 

 tank, unless your tank is so placed 

 as to be heated artificially to liquefy 

 the honey. By carefully marking the 

 head of the barrel so as to replace it 

 in the same position exactly, using a 

 gimlet in the center of the head to 

 pull it out, loosening the hoops only 

 as much as necessary, using a new, 

 clean spade to take out the honey, we 

 can replace the head and tighten up 

 the hoops again after removing the 

 honey, leaving the barrel just as good 

 as before. It is true that we remem- 

 ber having bought some "honey kegs" 

 from a dealer in Chicago, years ago, 

 and found that those kegs would not 

 even hold water, much less honey. 

 Yet, even such kegs, if thoroughly 

 dry, could be made to hold honey, by 

 heating them and dousing the inside 

 with a mixture of hot wax and grease. 

 The grease must be sweet and odor- 

 less and only enough should be used 

 to make the wax soft. This mixture 

 enters the pores of the wood and cools 

 there. 



But here comes an objection: How 

 am I to handle barrels full of honey 

 if I do my work alone? This is an 

 argument which we cannot overlook. 

 Yet, I have filled barrels with honey, 

 loaded them on the wagon and un- 

 loaded them, without help, by the use 

 of long skids, and when I could not 

 get skids, I used a long ladder, sup- 

 ported at intervals to bear the weight 

 of the barrel. Then I used the de- 

 clivities in the yard, placing the 

 wagon at the lower side. We used to 

 say that a man was not a "man" un- 

 less he could up-end a barrel full of 

 honey. If you do not wish to do 

 heavy lifting and you are alone, you 



