308 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Care of Coiiil) Honey — No. 1 . 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



As I intiniiited at the start when 

 commenciTig these articles, tliat I 

 woulil take up tlie text under the dif- 

 ferent heads : " Production, Care, 

 and Sale," separately, so having 

 spoken of production, my next or 

 second part will l)e care. At the out- 

 set I wisli to say tliat many seem to 

 suppose tliat the producing jiart is 

 about all tliere is to any Ijranch of 

 business, which supplies our markets 

 with merchandise. How often we 

 And butter, wool, maple sugar, etc., 

 taken to market in such poor shape 

 that it does not bring as much, within 

 20 per cent., as goods of no better 

 quality are selling for, where the pro- 

 ducer understands that the placing of 

 his product upon the markets in at- 

 tractive shape, has much to do with 

 the value thereof. It is said that Mr. 

 Durand, an extensive strawberry pro- 

 pagator in Ifew Jersey, always finds 

 a ready sale for his choice strawberries 

 at a very high tigure, while those of 

 shiftless producers spoil on the 

 markets without a purchaser. Thus, 

 Mr. Durand obtains more money 

 from his few rows of choice fruit put 

 upon tlie market in attractive shape, 

 than is obtained from as many acres 

 grown in a slip-shod manner, and 

 sent to market by shiftless parties. 

 Honey is no exception to this rule, 

 unless it is that the difference is still 

 greater than on most other produc- 

 tions. 



Hence, to place our honey upon tlie 

 market in the best possible shape 

 should be the aim of every bee-keeper 

 in the land. My aim has always been, 

 not only to get the honey off the hives 

 before it was soiled by the bees, as I 

 stated in the lu'oductiou part of these 

 articles, but also to keep the combs 

 as nice and perfect till tliey were 

 placed upon the market, as they were 

 when first taken from the hive. This 

 is no easy task, for from the first, 

 honey is liable to accidents which, 

 if they occur, soon reduces the price 

 from i;j to i|. 



I once hired a man to help me re- 

 move honey from the hive, as I was 

 nearly sick and unable to keep even 

 with ' my work as I desired to, but 

 after his working with me half a day 

 I so improved in health that his as- 

 sistance was no longer necessary. He 

 would manage to get his fingers 

 against the honey so as to break the 

 nice cuppings to nearly every box, in 

 spite ot all I could do, and if he did 

 not do that he would get the corner of 

 one box into the face side of the comb 

 in some of the other boxes, and I ac- 

 tually believe I paid him 75 cents for 

 doing me $10 damage. Where a per- 

 son is naturally sensitive, such pro- 

 ceedings will cure slight sickness 



quicker than a physician can. I only 

 give this illustration to impress on 

 the minds of the readers that the 

 utmost care is necessary at all times 

 in handling section boxes of honey. 



The first requisite in caring for our 

 honey after it is taken from tlie hives 

 is a good room in which to store it. 

 Years ago it used to be the custom to 

 store lionev in the cellar to keep it 

 cool, but 1 believe all of our practical 

 bee-keepers of to-day prefer a warm 

 rooift to a cool one, on account of the 

 honey sweating, or taking on damp- 

 ness in a cool room, thus giving it a 

 watery appearance. If left for a great 

 length of time in such a place the 

 honey will often become so damp and 

 thin as to burst the sealing, and leak 

 badly as well as to sour. While in 

 New York, in 1877, I saw in a damp 

 cellar several hundred pounds that 

 had liecome thus damp and thin. It 

 had run down the sides of the crates 

 and over the floor, where it had soured, 

 making it smell badly and look equally 

 bad. To avoid an occurrance like 

 this our honey should be stored in a 

 dry, warm room, and be so piled up 

 that the air can circulate freely all 

 around it. 



In visiting some of our extensive 

 comb honey producers here in the 

 east, I found them carrying their 

 honey up a flight of stairs to the 

 chamber of the house or workshop, 

 that they might getthe heat jiroduced 

 by the sun shining on the roof. Now, 

 while this gave all that was necessary 

 in the shape of a honey room, it also 

 gave a large amount of extra work 

 which I consider as unnecessary. 



I use a room 7x10 feet, in the south- 

 west corner of my shop, having the 

 outside painted a dark color, so tliat 

 the rays of the afternoon sun will 

 make the room as warm as possible. 

 As a body of honey, once thoroughly 

 warmed, will hold the heat for a long 

 time, the average temperature of this 

 room will be pretty high, ranging 

 from 80^ to 100^ most of the time, 

 thus ripening the honey so that in a 

 month's time it can be handled as you 

 please and not a drop of honey will 

 leak, even from the few uncapped 

 cells the bees always leave around the 

 edge of the box. 



To secure a free circulation of air, 

 as honey will take on dampness even 

 in a warm room if the air is partially 

 excluded from it, I build a platform 

 of scantling a foot from the floor, and 

 six inches out from the wall, upon 

 which I pile the filled sections, keep- 

 ing them in the same ixisition they oc- 

 cupied while standing on tlie hive. 

 On warm days raise the windows on 

 each side of the room, so as to admit 

 all the fresh, dry air possible, and as 

 it comes toward evening close them 

 again. To prevent robbers coming in, 

 and also to let tlio few bees that may 

 come in on the honey out, I cover the 

 window (tacking it to the casing out- 

 side) with wire-cloth, letting it go 

 above the casing nearly a foot at the 

 top. and keeping it out from the 

 building i^ inch by means of strips of 

 that thickness tacked to the outside 

 of the shop, and running up and down 

 the side. Thus, all bees from the in- 

 side crawl to the top above the win- 



dow where they find an outlet, while 

 the robbers are intent on getting 

 through the wire-cloth where they 

 can see and smell the honey, as their 

 instinct is not equal to showing them 

 that by going above the window a 

 foot, and down behind the wire-cloth 

 they could get the tempting sweet. 

 So they are kept mitside where you 

 wish them by this simple device, 

 while the climbing instinct of those 

 inside enables them to get out, thus 

 keeping your room clear of bees. 



My next will be how to detect the 

 work of the moth-worm when it first 

 hatches, and how to head them off if 

 troublesome. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Reply to Mr. Clarke. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



I wish to assure Mr. Clarke that I 

 have no ill feeling toward him or any 

 other bee-keeper ; that I admire his 

 terse and scholarly writings. In our 

 views on practical apiculture we dif- 

 fer ; that is best, perhaps. Of Mr. 

 Clarke's practical knowledge of api- 

 culture, I have never been able to 

 learn much. I presume I was wrong 

 in my use of the more belligerent term 

 " attack," when I meant simply "crit- 

 icism." I stand thankfully corrected. 

 I ask to be excused for this literary 

 mistake, having had far less chance 

 to become proficient in this direction * 

 than the Rev. Mr. Clarke or Prof. 

 Cook, having made honey producing 

 a specialty since my youth, and have 

 had to stick very closely thereto, to 

 support my family and " get on in the 

 world." 



Mr. Clarke, do you not frequently 

 read facts in the Bee Journal, 

 where experiments have been made 

 especially to test the pollen theory, 

 which indicate that pollen is one of, if 

 not the chief trouble. I have many 

 private letters upon the subject, all 

 favoring that theory. Among them 

 I call to mind Dr. A. B. Mason's, of 

 Wagon Works, O., and Walter 

 Harmes', of Manistee, Mich. There 

 are many more, but I depend upon 

 memory only. Referring to my re- 

 ligious views, and that, too, where it 

 has no bearing upon the subject under 

 consideration, I think myself is 

 " questionable " in its " propriety." I 

 mentioned it as I did to illustrate the 

 point that Mr. D. and many others 

 believed things implicitly, where there 

 were no living " witnesses that he could 

 cross-examine." I thank you, Mr. 

 Clarke, for wishing that I believed a 

 soniething, the same as you do, and I 

 trust that you do not hold to the an- 

 cient custom of convincing me by a 

 little screw applied to my thumbs. 



But, really, has not the time gone 

 by when you can satisfactorily an- 

 swer a man's argument by pointing at 

 what you think to be a hole in iiis 

 coat ? Perhaps I think more of sci- 

 ence, and less of the supernatural than 

 you do, because of our labors with and 

 incomes derived from these sources. 

 Whether " Thomas " doubted or not, 

 honesty was always the best policy, 



