514 



GLEANINGS IN B !•; K (' ir I. T V K !•: 



ArciisT, 1922 



ing a looj) to go over the neck and lioM the 

 apron over tlie laj) and breast. 



Special Knife for Scraping. 

 A good knife is a most important tool 

 but somcwliat difficult to find. It should be 

 of the best steel, the edge straight, the blade 

 about two and one-half inches long, with the 

 end tapered to a sharp angle. Since I find 

 it diflieult to buy just what I want, I some- 

 times iiave taken an old steel case knife and 

 broken the blade to the right length, then 

 beveled down the end on an emery wheel. 

 An old file is very useful in keeping the 

 knife sharp, for it must be kept sharp to 

 do the best work. It is important to have 

 a shallow dish of machine oil with which to 

 oil the scraping knife frequently as we 

 work. A person who has not used it will 



these cartons in shipjiing cases, just two 

 dozen in a case. Our lioney will appear at 

 a great disadvantage in a first-class grocery 

 store, unless it is covered to keep out dust 

 and flics. 



Shipping Cii.se filled with sections of honey without 

 cartons. AVlien cartons are used it is not neces- 

 sary to use glass in the slapping cases. 



Sealed cartons make a sanitary package for sections 



of comb honey. Fancy comb honey is worthy of 



a good package. 



be surprised to see how it helps to keep his 

 knife and hands free of propolis in hot 

 weather, and relieve one of tiie most dis 

 agreeable features of cleaning iioney. Tf 

 sections are very badly glued up on top of 

 the super, we scrape tliem off witli a heavy 

 knife or hive-scraper, before taking out tlie 

 sections. 



We use plain sections, i. e., all sides tlie 

 same width. 1 find it requires an hour to 

 clean 100 sections, or, to be exact, an aver- 

 age of f)n an liour, but most help will not 

 do nearly so many. 



Weighing and Grading the Sections. 



Some persons weigh tlieir sei'tions as they 

 clean them ami place them at once in ship- 

 ping cases. We prefer to clean our supers 

 of propolis as we remove the sections, and 

 return the sections to the clean supers and 

 tlien weigh and sort them later. As we 

 weigii tliem we place each weight by itself. 

 so that all the sections in a case will be of 

 the same weight. We think it right to ask 

 more for a case of sections where each one 

 weighs 14 ounces net than for a case where 

 the sections weigh only 12 ounces. 



Each Section Is Placed in a Carton. 



()ni- \v(irl\ is not yet done. We must place 

 each section in a nicely printed carton and 



Cases Must Be Packed in Carriers. 

 One thing more. We have found that 

 freight and express matter is handled so 

 roughly in the last few years that it is wise 

 to crate comb honey when shipped in less 

 than carload lots. In fact, many railroads 

 make crating comb honey a condition for 

 receiving it. Consequently crates must be 

 made for all our fine cases of honey, which 

 adds much to the work of producing comb 

 honev for market. 



Irate or carrier for eight eases of comb honey. The 

 carrier is deep enough for an inch cushion of straw 

 in the bottom. The lining of paper keeps the cases 

 clean. The handles suggest to freight-handlers that 

 the crate sliould be carried, not dumped, and a 

 warning in large letters stenciled on toj' tells of 

 the fragile contents. 



W'luMi WH" add to this tlie extra work and 

 expense of buying sections and foundation 

 and getting them ready to place on the 

 liives, it is evident that comb honey sliould 

 sell for one ami one-half or even twp times 

 as lunch as extracted honey in order to ])ay 

 fur all the extra work and expense in }»ro- 

 ducing it. 



