Aug. 15. 1911 



487 



®®[JDW(B[P^gll]D(o)[]l]©' MDGDd [D® (DD D^fiD© 



At Borodino. New York 



HOW TO KEEP COMB HONEY. 



"I have nearly a thousand pounds of 

 honey which I took from the hives in .June 

 and early July, and it seems to be sweating, 

 and some of the sections at the bottom of 

 the pile smell almost sour. Is there a dif- 

 ference in the keeping qualities of comb 

 honey?" 



"Did you pile the honey directly on the 

 floor? ' ' 



"Yes." 



"I inferred this from your saying that 

 the sections at the bottom of the pile were 

 souring. When honey is stored on the 

 floor the air can not go under the bottom of 

 the pile, and, through lack of proper circu- 

 lation of air, it often becomes watery near 

 the floor and at the bottom-back side of the 

 pile in even a well-ventilated room. Some 

 kind of open-work platform should be fixed 

 on which to pile the honey, so that there 

 will be a current of air going up through it, 

 and all about under the bottom of the pile. 

 When I first commenced keeping bees I 

 stored my comb honey in a room on the 

 north side of the house, and piled it direct- 

 ly on the floor, as the most of those having 

 bees about me at that time stored their 

 honey in the cellar. But when I came to 

 crate the honey for market I found that that 

 which had been next to the wall and on the 

 floor was very watery. Some of this honey 

 had soured, and was bursting from the cap- 

 pings of the cells, while that in other ])arts 

 of the room away from the wall was in fair- 

 ly good shape. The next year found me 

 with a temporary platform fixed of slats, 

 spread apart enough so that the edges of the 

 sections would just catch on them, the i)lat- 

 form being raised about sixteen inches from 

 the floor. When another tier of sections 

 was to go on top, stri])s of lath were ])laced 

 between, and so on clear to the top of the 

 pile, and in this way the air could circulate 

 all around the sections. This method has 

 proven a perfect success for nearly forty 

 years." 



"Do you still store your honey in that 

 same room on the north side of the house?" 



"No. Honey will not kee]) well in any 

 cold room, for it will draw moisture rapidly 

 every time it becomes much cooler than the 

 sin-rounding air, and it always will be ev- 

 ery time the room is warmed up by the 

 temperature of the outside air. The pile of 

 honey being slower in changing than the 

 air in the room, it will sweat at all such 

 times, and thus moisture is aljsorbed to the 

 detriment of the honey, the bee-keejjer, and 

 the consumer. If such a room can be ven- 

 tilated it will help much; but ventilation, 

 unless cou])led with warmth, will not keep 

 honey to perfection. 



"Again, I have found that a high tem- 

 perature in a room is of little value if said 

 room is so tight and close that no draft of 

 air can carry off the moisture which evap- 

 orates from the honey; and the larger the 



pile of honey stored in any room, the great- 

 er should be the ventilation. 



"An upper room right under that part of 

 the roof which pitches toward the south is 

 preferred by many of the New York apia- 

 rists, for the reason that the sun heats it up 

 nearly every day, and there are enough 

 cracks and crevices abovit the eaves, under 

 the rafters, and out-of-the-way places to 

 give just the right sort of ventilation re- 

 quired for the most perfect keeping of hon- 

 ey. But without an elevator, the storing of 

 honey in such an u])per room is no small 

 task. Where such a room can be had, even 

 honey that has begun to sweat can be re- 

 stored to fairly good condition; but honey 

 which has been kei)t in a i)Oor room until it 

 has begun to sour can hardly be made sala- 

 ble again." 



" Do you take off many sections not fully 

 capped over? I have the worst trouble with 

 these where the cells are not sealed." 



"Taking off sections not fully sealed 

 should never be done, iinless it may be 

 those nine-tenths sealed at the close of the 

 white-honey harvest, so that the dark hon- 

 ey shall not be mixed with the white, or at 

 the end of the season in the fall, when, of 

 course, we are comi)elled to take off all sec- 

 tions. Fully capped honey is not as likely 

 to become watery and sour as is that which 

 is unsealed; and as unsealed honey in any 

 part of the sections makes such a section 

 more or less unsalable, it is always best, if 

 possible, to leave all sections on the hive 

 until they are fully sealed. In no case 

 should these i)artly filled sections be mixed 

 in the cases with well-sealed honey when 

 sending to market, for the one buying the 

 honey by the case would become disgusted. 

 Then, such a course will result in your whole 

 crop bringing a less figure; for in finding 

 unsealed honey in the middle of a case 

 faced up with fully sealed combs, the one 

 receiving it will not take the pains to pro- 

 cure a good ])rice which otherwise would be 

 done. Where you have such honey, and it 

 is good enough for market, crate these part- 

 ly sealed sections by themselves, and in 

 this way you will get its full value without 

 detracting from the sale of your fancy arti- 

 cle. These little matters niake all the dif- 

 ference between success and failure in our 

 pursuit. ' ' 



The Powell Gravity Strainer. 



Mr. Poweir.s gravity strainer, as illustrated on p. 

 327, .lune I, seems to be just the thing. But what 

 need is there of the honey-tank? Why not draw 

 the honey from the gravity tank's pipe at once into 

 the five-gallon cans? 



St. Louis, Mo.. .June 8. F. C. Amei.s.s. 



[We do not know that there is any particular ad- 

 vantage in the honey-tank in connection with the 

 Powell honey-strainer, except that the use of such 

 a tank would render the filling of the flve-gallon 

 cans more convenient. If there were no tank one 

 per.son would have to keep almost constant watch, 

 for the capacity of the strainer is not very great, and 

 the honey could not be .shut off very long without 

 overflowing the strainer-tank. — Ed.] 



