822 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



in for No. 1; what for No. 2, and what for 

 No. 3. making all so plain that a beginner in 

 apiculture need not fail to know how it is 

 done." 



"My plan of grading is to take a perfect 

 section of white honey and set it up in a con- 

 venient place for a sample to work from, or 

 to guide the eye, if you please; and all sec- 

 tions which come up to this one are classed 

 as No. 1. But my usual way is to mark 

 this grade of honey as XXX, as I like this 

 better than the No. 1, as these X's are very 

 easily placed in the hand-holes of the cases, 

 so that, when a lot of cases are piled to- 

 gether with the ends toward you, or in any 

 way so you can not see the ' face ' side of 

 the combs, they can be easily sorted." 



' ' But you go too fast. What do you call 

 XXX or No. 1 honey?" 



"To be No. 1 the comb must be smoothly 

 and evenly capped over throughout its en- 

 tire surface, except, perhaps, a few cells 

 bordering on the section, with little or no 

 discoloration near the bottom of the section. 

 The section itself must look new and clean, 

 while no cells of bee-bread, or pollen, must 

 be seen when looking through the honey to- 

 ward the light." 



" What! must it be as perfect as that? " 



"That is the way I try to have it." 



"Such honey would be 'fancy,' I should 

 think." 



"Yes, my XXX honey is always fancy." 



"But you will not get very much such 

 honey out of the whole year's crop, will 

 you? " 



' ' That depends very much upon the sea- 

 son. With a good season I have had fully 

 three- fourths of my crop of white honey 

 that would class XXX; while in poor seasons, 

 when the nectar was secreted at intervals, 

 and slowly at all times, if one-eighth of it 

 classed as XXX it would do pretty well." 



"I should have guessed that the one- 

 eighth would have been the result, even in 

 the best of seasons. But how about No. 2 

 honey? " 



" A sample of this is s^ up to work from, 

 the same as the No. 1, setting the same 

 near the first, so that the eye can take in at 

 a glance to which grade any sections be- 

 long that I may chance to pick up. This 

 No. 2 I grade as XX, and it is to be the same 

 as the XXX except that in it are put all sec- 

 tions with combs not too badly discolored 

 near the bottom (so discolored by the bees 

 traveling over them), together with sec- 

 tions which may have a few cells of pol- 

 len in them, the same being detected by 

 holding the sections up to the light. And 

 sections having a few unsealed cells of hon- 

 ey near the lower corners or other parts of 

 their comb surface are also placed in this 

 XX honey." 



"That would be a grade of honey that 

 would seem good enough for anybody; but 

 I suppose it would not be profitable to put it 

 in with the other? ' ' 



"No. The old way used to be to mix all 

 the season's crop together, when crates 

 were used holding 100 pounds or so; but with 



our small shipping-crates of the present it is 

 more profitable to have the grade in each as 

 nearly uniform as possible." 



" What about the next grade, or No. 3? " 



" In No. 3 or X grade, as I use it, I put all 

 sections having unsealed cells to the amount 

 of one-eighth of the comb surface, those 

 that by accident or brace-combs have a 

 small part of their surface marred; all such 

 as have pollen in them to any extent, and 

 all that are badly soiled or discolored by 

 the travel of the bees, or by the bees work- 

 ing in wax from the old combs below in 

 capping them. If I have any sections in 

 which brood has been reared, or that are 

 one- third unsealed, or are otherwise unfit to 

 go in grade X, they are set away by them- 

 selves till enough for a crate has accumulat- 

 ed, when they are crated as No. 4, and 

 marked by me as 0." 



' ' Then you would not send to market un- 

 der any grade sections which were less than 

 one-third unsealed?" 



" As a rule, sections that are less than 

 one-third unsealed had better be extracted, 

 or the honey fed to the bees, and the combs 

 kept over till the next year, to be used as 

 bait sections to entice the bees to rapid 

 work earlier than they otherwise would." 



"But don't you have any difliculty by get- 

 ting things mixed in this sorting matter?" 



" No, not at all." 



" Explain a little more fully. Probably 

 my head is a little thick." 



' ' Having my sample sections set up I take 

 a tray which will hold the number of sec- 

 tions which one of my shipping-crates or 

 cases will hold, when I commence to take 

 the sections from the supers. If XXX hon- 

 ey predominates I set each section of that 

 grade on the tray, setting all others in the 

 apartments made for XX, X, and 0. When 

 I have enough on the tray for a case of XXX 

 honey, I take the tray to the bench, stand, 

 or table where it is to be cleaned, scraped, 

 or prepared for the shipping case or crate, 

 when, as each section is scraped and clean- 

 ed, the same is set in the shipping-case 

 where it belongs. When all are in, and the 

 case ready for market, I go to fill the tray 

 again, sorting as before. In this way I keep 

 on until there have accumulated enough sec- 

 tions of either of the lower grades to fill a 

 case, when these are put on the tray, and a 

 case of that kind of honey gotten ready for 

 market. Does this make it plain?" 



" Yes, enough so that I am willing to risk 

 a trial of the matter. If I get into trouble 

 you will see me again." 



" All right. Come as often as I can be 

 of help to you." 



I note your mention of Walter Harmer 

 feeding his bees liquid feed in the cellar. I 

 have been feeding a part of my bees for 

 four months in the cellar with liquid feed 

 prepared in the way he mentions, and those 

 that I fed came out fine; but those that I 

 did not feed came out very weak. 



Carlton, Minn. F. R. Palmer. 



