1881 



GLEANINGS IN J3EE CULTUKE. 



591 



STORING AND KEIilPING CO.llB IIONE^. 



f]HE following from the Colorado Farmer 

 was credited to the Rural New Yorker, 

 ' and nothing more ; but unless I mis- 

 take very much, it was writlcu by our friend 

 Poolittle. Perhaps you have heard the sub- 

 stance of it before, but it is matter that will 

 bear repetition, without doing anybody any 

 harm : — 



CARE OP COMB HOXEY. 



ATuch has been written in rearard to the best meth- 

 ods of securing large yields of honey, the hives best 

 adapted to secure such a yield, etc., while but little 

 has been said in regard to caring for such honey aft- 

 er it has been obtained. It is said that Mr. Diirand, 

 the strawberry propagator of New Jersey, obtains 

 more money from his few rows of strawberries care- 

 fully tended, and put upon the market in fine condi- 

 tion, than is obtained from as many acres grown and 

 sent to market by shiftless parties. We find the 

 same thing occurring in regard to much produce 

 which is sent to market, and honey is no exception 

 to the rule. To place .our honey upon the market in 

 the best possible shape, therefore, should be the aim 

 of every bee-keeper in the land. 



If honey is left on the. hives but a few days after 

 being sealed over, its snowy whiteness will be 

 changed to a yellowish white, by the bees running 

 over it, thus spoiling it for a really fancy article. 

 Hence he that wishes to get the first price for his 

 honey will remove it from the hives as soon as 

 sealed, and not leave it on till the end of the season, 

 to save the trouble of going over the apiarv more 

 than onc^, as is the custom c)f some. I go over my 

 yard once a week, removing all scaled boxes, and 

 placing empty ones in ih<^ir places, and consider 

 this none too often. After taking the honey from 

 the hives there are two m>re things to bo looked 

 after, or we may have but a second rate article, no 

 matter how whit.? and nice it may he when first tak- 

 en off. If stored in a damp and cool room, honey 

 will take on dampness: and if left there long- 

 enough, it will become unsalable. How often wo 

 see honey becoming transparent and stanoing in 

 drons on the surface of the combs, ready to leak on 

 being handled the least bit, which not only hurts the 

 looks of it very much but makf-s it liable to sour un- 

 less consumed very soon. While in New York In 

 1877, I saw in a damp cellar several hundred weight 

 that had become so damp as to burst the cells and 

 run over the crates, tloor. etc. It smelt very bad, 

 and was unsightlv to behold. 



To avoid a mi-thap like this, honey should be stored 

 in a very warm, dry room as so'>n as taken from the 

 hives, and left there for a moot 1 1 or more before it is 

 crated preparatory to sending it to market. For 

 this purpose I use a room seven by t-en feet in the 

 southwest corner of mv shop, having the outside 

 painted a dark color, so that the sun will make the 

 room as warm a« possible. The mercury in this 

 room will sfiind from 90 to 10(i° most of the time, 

 thus ripening the honey si that in a month's time it 

 can be handled and turned over as much as I please, 

 and not a drop will leak out, even from the un- 

 capped cells at the edsres of the box. 



If kept thus warm, as nearly all practical apiarists 

 of the present time claim it should be kept, the sec- 

 ,ond trouble is quite likely soon to appear, which 

 comes in the shape of the larvae of the wax moth. 

 Worms in the boxes an inch long and nearly as large 

 as a pipe stem are not very tempting to a customer 

 who is in search of a nice box of honey for his fami- 

 ly, or perchance for a select party. These have 

 bo»n seen by the writer while looking over honey at 

 different markets. To prevent such a state of af- 

 fairs, the honey when taken from the hive should 

 be placed on scantliners which should be raised a 

 foot or more from the tloor to permit tho placing of 

 burning sulphur underneath the pile, if the moth 

 worm should tte troublesome. Evamino the honey 

 every few days, and if you see many boxes with lit- 

 tle white plHces resembling flour on the combs, you 

 may know that the little worms have commenced to 

 work and will eventually eat the sealing off. unless 

 either they are killed by burning sulphur or their 

 work is arrested by cold weather. To sulphur, get a 

 pan of coals and set them in a kettle, or fi.x thorn in 

 some way to prevent danger from fire, and when 

 they are burning pour on them three-quarters of a 

 pound of sulphur for every 200 cubic feet contained 

 in the room. Sulphur the last thing before crating, 



and you may be sure your honey will not depreciate 

 while staying in the market. Just how the I'ggs of 

 the moth get in the boxes is not known. Some sup- 

 pose the bees carry them there on their feet from 

 walking over places where the miller hns deposited 

 them, while others think the miller gets access to 

 the interior of the hive at certain times. 



When thoroughly ripened and sulphured as above, 

 the honoy should be stored in crates made of nice 

 white wood, holding about ^5 lbs. each, with the 

 gr( S5 weight and the weight of the crate pl-iinly 

 marked on e.ich as well as the net weight. When 

 honey is thus put up it will always bring the highest 

 price in the market. If there is any difference in 

 the honey it should be graded. T make three grades, 

 putting none but that which is nice and white in No. 

 1. For No. 3. that which is mixed with buckwheiit 

 honey is \ised, as well as that built on old combs 

 from which it is always darker thati that from new. 

 Buckwheat, goldenrod, and other fall hone.y goes as 

 No. ;}. as well as all corahs which have once been oc- 

 cupied with brood. When all box honey in the Unit- 

 ed States is placed upon the market in the above- 

 described coniition, we shall have made a long 

 stride toward a settled market value for our prod- 

 uct, as there now is for most other productions. 



RAmBIilB NO. 8. 



TO THE FOREST. 



"^^^^^^ are admonished again by the recent visits of 



WM Jack Frost, that winter is once more rapidly 

 ^ -' descending upon us. The comfortable fire 

 reminds us that the woodman will soon put his ax in 

 order and march to the forest, and with a few 

 sturdy strokes lay low the monarchs that have 

 swayed their branches in the free air of heaven for 

 a century or more. 



At this season of the year, when the forest-leaves 

 are tinted with those rich and variegated hues, and 

 before the destroyer commences his work, we love 

 to lamblo up the mountain-side and note the 

 changes of the year. Tho apiarist whose mind is 

 upon tons of honey or scores of queens, will find 

 mrch food for reflection beneath the trees. We find 

 hero the primitive home of the honey-bee, and the 

 paradise for the bee-hunter. It seems now as 

 though it ought to he a short step from the hollow 

 log to tho modern bee-hive; but, tho movable frame 

 was born only through many trials and experiments 

 by man J- wise men. 



We have learned that it is more economical to cut 

 our tree into boards, and that the soft woods yield 

 to our tools and make a better hive than the hard 

 woods. We find that pine makes the best body to 

 the hive; that locust gives us a better wood for the 

 frame, for it finishes as smooth as glass, and holds 

 a nail tenaciouslj'. Basswood and poplar give us 

 the snow-white sections for our surplus comb 

 honey. 



When those sections are being filled with the 

 choicest gifts to the apiarist in the mouth of July, 

 the eye is often turned toward the forest, and to 

 those lofty tree-tops that rise like mounds above 

 the general level of the forest. As the seasons roll 

 round, you will miss, each year, a few of those 

 mounds; the ax, the saw-mill, and the plane have 

 converted your linden-tree and your bee- pasturage 

 into articles for the use of man. Is it any wonder, 

 then, that the apiarist should bestir himself, and 

 plant fer the future by his many visits to the for- 

 est? He has learned to improve upon nature, and 

 plant his trees at such a distance apart as to give 

 full development to the tree. In studying this de- 

 velopment, another beauty is observed: The habits 

 of growth of different trees. The linden has the 



