83K 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



spring-; but I stay with the bees all summer, and 

 until they are fixed for winter. 



I have observed the fact, that the longer the hon- 

 ey remains in the solar evaporator in the rays of the 

 sun— in other words, the more thorrniohly cured or 

 ripened the honey is, the slower it is to candy. In 

 fact, when canning- honey a year ago the early part 

 of this winter, I found considerable honey that had 

 been in the evaporator an unusual length of time, 

 and very thoroughly cured, then drawn off into 

 60-poun(l cans, simply to store away until the can- 

 ning season, that had not candied at all, while the 

 rr-st of my crop was hard. This is the first time I 

 have ever had any honey in early winter not can- 

 died before heating and sealing. A. Christie. 



Smithland, Iowa, April 11, 18S8. 



Thank you, friend C. Tlie point you 

 bring out, that unripened honey is more apt 

 to candy, is a good one ; and it may be tliat 

 one gi'eat reason why some honey will keep 

 in an open dish the year round, without 

 candying at all, is because it is so tlioroughly 

 ripened. Attention has been called to the 

 fact that a very nice article of California 

 mountain-sage honey will not candy, even in 

 zero weather^ We have also had specimens 

 of lioney from alsike clover that behaved 

 pretty much in the same way. Now. is it 

 not owing to the thorough ripening as well 

 as to the source from which the honey is ob- 

 tained V 



DOOLITTLE'S SHOP AND HONEY 

 STOREROOM. 



ALSO HOW TO KEEP HONEY THKEE OB FOUR YEARS, 



OR LONGER, AND HAVE IT KEEP GETTING 



BETTER INSTEAD OF WORSE. 



T HAVE been asked to give a description of my 

 (^ shop, and also to tell how I keep my honey so 

 ^l as to have it growing better after it is taken 

 -*■ from the hive, as I have spoken of in back 

 numbers of Gleanings. To do this, friend 

 Root thought it best to have some engravings made, 

 so that the description would be better understood. 



1)1 lOl.n I LKS SllOl' AM) HONEY-HOUSE. 



Fig. 1 shows the shop as viewed from the south- 

 west side of the apiary. It is ',V2 feet long by 16 

 wide; but if I were to build again I think 1 would 

 have the width at least 24 feet. In this shop, during 

 the winter season, I do all of my work, such as 

 getting out sections, hives, wide frames, honey- 

 boards, and all that is necessary to be done along 



this line, besides doing much work in the line of 

 getting out bee-flxtures for my bee-keeping neigh- 

 bors, and sawing and planing for any who wish 

 it for all ordinary purposes, although not rigged for 

 very heavy work, as my engine is only a six-horse 

 power, and my saws and planer gotten for my own 

 use in making hives, etc. I am frequently asked if 

 it pays me to do this work myself, instead of buj'ing 

 of dealers in supplies. To this I answer both yes 

 and no. It certainly pays along the line of being 

 iudei)endent, and being able to make any little thing 

 1 wish to use for an experiment; but when it comes 

 to dollars and cents, if I call the interest on my 

 machinery any thing it does not pay at the present 

 low prices of supplies. I wonder if many, if any, 

 of those who are reading this realize what the close 

 competition in supplies has done for those who pur- 

 chase their bee-flxtures at the present time. When 

 I first began to keep bees I bought my supplies; 

 and what do you suppose the prize boxes, or sec- 

 tions, as they are now called, cost me? Well, if you 

 open wide your ej/f^ I shall not lilame you, for the 

 price paid was $40 a thovisand. nailed, or $30 in the 

 flat. I could not stand this high pressure, so I 

 bniiglit machinery .-ind got out my own. From this, 

 1 saw ihat there was money in the supply-business, 

 at the hnv (7) price of $30 per M., for sections in the 

 Hat, si) 1 started thcin at that price and did quite a 

 good business at it for a time; but soon some one 

 cut under me, as 1 had done for those before me, 

 till the price went down to $15, then to $13..50, $10, 

 $8, and finally to $5 and less. When the price got 

 as low as $8 I said those who wished to work at the 

 business could do so for all me; and from that time 

 till the present I have had .50 cents an hour for 

 work with machinery, and the man who has the 

 work done helps me at the saws, etc., or else I do 

 not work. In getting out my (iicii hives, etc., I am 

 engineer, fireman, and sawyer at the same time, 

 not hiring any of any amount, as I ha\e before said 

 in Glioanings. 



an IN'lEKiOlt VIEW INTO THK lluNKV-UOOM 

 THIO SHOP. 



In the northeast corner of the shop is the oHice, 

 in which 1 write all of my contributions to the dif- 

 ferent bee-papers, and for a few agricultural j<jur- 

 nals, while the most of my private correspondence 

 is done at the house,as seen at the lef t of picture,that 

 being done evenings. The reader will notice that, 

 at the southwest corner of the shop, there is a por- 

 tion of it that looks darker than the rest. This is 

 where the storeroom for honey is, and is painted a 

 dark color so as to absorb the heat from the sun. 



