1148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



and another way is to take a sample case of 

 fancy honey and go on the road as a sales- 

 man. We have had good success in making 

 sales by both these methods. Honey is not 

 a staple article, and we learned years ago 

 that a honey-producer, in order to be suc- 

 cessful, must necessarily be a good salesman, 

 as it is just as essential to know how to dis- 

 pose of your product to good advantage as 

 it is to know how to produce it. 



When we receive an inquiry through the 

 mails from a prospective pux'chaser we make 

 it our business to answer such by return 

 mail, fully describing our honey, telling just 

 how it is graded and in what kind of cases 

 it is packed, and just how it is crated for 

 shipment, so that, when he gets our answer 

 to his inquiry, he knows just what he is go- 

 ing to get if he buys our honey. As a rule 

 these large buyers will drive a close bargain. 

 We have found, however, that they are usu- 

 ally willing to pay a good price for a really 

 fancy ai'ticle; and if they insist that our 

 price is too high we usually beg the privilege 

 of sending them a sample crate, and this 

 ■ usually fixes them; and the next season very 

 early we usually receive a letter from them 

 something like the following: "How much 

 honey have you got like that we bought of 

 you last year, and what is your price? " 



Not long ago we wanted to buy some fan- 

 cy comb honey to supply one of our old cus- 

 tomers after our crop was all sold, so we 

 wrote to a bee-keeper who had advertised 

 honey for sale, asking him how his honey 

 was graded and packed, and the price. His 

 reply was that he could grade and pack it 

 almost any way to suit us. Well, that was 

 all right so far as it went; but we knew no 

 more about his honey after we received his 

 answer to our inquiry than we did before; 

 and as we did not want honey that was 

 graded "almost any way" we did not buy. 



FUMIGATING COMB HONEY. 



Having found a cash buyer for our honey, 

 the next thing to do is to grade and pack it 

 for shipment. However, before our honey 

 is removed from the supers it must be thor- 

 oughly fumigated with sulphur; for, although 

 we do not expect to hold it ourselves, some 

 one else may, and we can't afloi'd to lose a 

 good customer by allowing our honey to be- 

 come infested with wax-worms. Not long 

 ago, while in Cleveland we noticed a com- 

 mission man opening a consignment of comb 

 honey from a bee-keeper in an adjoining 

 State; and if that bee-keeper could have 

 been at that end of the route he would have 

 had an object-lesson of how not to prepare 

 honey for shipment, for the honey was not 

 only not properly graded and packed, but 

 the evidence of wax-worms was plainly visi- 

 ble on the cappings to many of the sections; 

 and we promised ourselves then and there 

 that none of our honey should leave our api- 

 ary without being thoroughly fumigated. 



When our honey is removed from the hives, 

 and tiered up in the honey-room as high as 

 we can reach, with an inch-square strip be- 

 tween the supers at each end, we are ready 



to fumigate it. Perhaps the best way to 

 fumigate honey is by means of sulphur fumi- 

 gating candles such as poultrymen use to 

 disinfect their poultry- houses. All we have 

 to do is to light the candles and close the 

 door, and the job is soon done. 



As it has been our chief aim to produce a 

 strictly fancy article of comb honey, so now 

 having produced it we should endeavor to 

 grade it so that it will be uniform; and per- 

 haps the only way we can do this is to have a 

 rule for each grade, and perhaps the grading- 

 rules as adopted by the North American Bee- 

 keepers' Association at its Washington meet- 

 ing are as neai"ly correct as it is possible to 

 get them. If any thing, we would place the 

 standard of the fancy grade higher; for the 

 higher the grade the higher price it will 

 bring, and there is no surer way of lowering 

 the price of honey than by lowering the 

 standard of our grading-rules. By our im- 

 proved methods of filling the sections with 

 foundation, together with our system of fin- 

 ishing our sections over a feeder, we get a 

 more uniform and perfect filling of the sec- 

 tions than it is possible to get in any other 

 way. Indeed, all our sections are perfectly 

 filled and practically free from pop-holes in 

 the corners, and our No. 2 se(;tions are as 

 perfectly filled as our fancy ones, the only 

 difference being that the No. 2 are slightly 

 travel-stained, and some of the cells are 

 not capped, hence we make only two grades, 

 which we call "fancy" and "No. 2." As 

 the outside of our sections is protected by 

 wide frames we have only to scrape the edges 

 of our sections, for the tops are as clean and 

 white as when we put them into the supers. 

 We can't understand why bee-keepers will 

 continue to use the T super and the section- 

 holder, thus exposing the tops of the sections 

 for the bees to travel over and daub with 

 propolis. Such sections can't be made white 

 again, and always look soiled and dirty in 

 spite of the scraping and sandpapering. 



Having our honey graded, and making the 

 fancy grade strictly fancy in every respect, 

 we will inclose each section in a neat paper 

 carton, after which the sections are weighed 

 before they are put into the case, as is also 

 the case, and the weight of the honey and of 

 the case is plainly marked on the top of each 

 case. 



Having our honey graded and cased we 

 will next turn our attention to getting it to 

 its destination in as good condition as possi- 

 ble, for a pleased customer is our best adver- 

 tisement. For shipping comb honey we use 

 a crate holding eight 24-lb. cases, made deep 

 enough to allow of six inches of straw in the 

 bottom of the crate when packed down. We 

 use a follower on top of the straw; and by 

 getting on the follower with our feet we press 

 the straw down solid far enough so that the 

 top cases will be about an inch above the 

 top of the crate when first put in. The idea 

 of having a follower for the cases to rest on 

 is a good one, and prevents the straw from 

 bulging up the bottom of the lower cases and 

 breaking the honey out of the sections. Each 

 case should be wrapped with paper before 



