

llfElS^ 



VOL. Ill, 



FLIKT, MIMAN, JULY 1§, 18§0. 



HO. 1. 



Wooden Boxes for Extracted Honey : Ripen- 

 ing Comb Honey and Shipping the 

 Cases in Crates. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



fSEE Vjy your leader, Mr. Editor, that 

 the next Review is to take up that all 

 importaut question to bee-keepers, 

 "From the hive to the honey market." 

 I sa> uU important, for there are many bee- 

 keepers who produce lar<re crops of lioney, 

 yet so manage it after it is off the hivcs that 

 it brings them scarcely one-half what it 

 ought to. What is the use of raising honey 

 unless we are able to so turn it into cash 

 that we and our families live by the business':* 

 Important as may be the questions relating 

 to all the rest of our pursuit, still it seems to 

 me that tliis oue is the crowning one of them 

 all : foi , on the disposition we make of our 

 crop, depends the true results of our season's 

 labor. 



As you speak first, in your leader, of ex- 

 tracted honey, I will say a few words in 

 regard to tliis, although I have produced 

 mostly comb honey. You say put it on the 

 market in liquid shape, and seem to prefer 

 glass as the package to contain it when 

 it is to be used as table sauce, but my 

 little experience with extracted honey gives 

 me an entirely different view of the matter 

 than that taken by most parties. I find that 

 the best way to put up extracted honey is in 

 wooden boxes, poplar or whitewood being 

 the preferred material of which to make the 

 boxes. Make the boxes to hold 10, 20, .W and 

 100 pounds respectively, and when made and 

 finished all but nailing on the cover, coat 

 the inside thoroughly with wax or paraffiiie, 

 the latter being preferred. Take especial 

 pains that the corners or joints are well 

 coated, and have the coating material so hot 

 when coating the box that it will penetrate 

 the wood to a certain extent. Now, when 

 extracting your honey, strain it into large tin 

 cans having a very large molasses gate at 

 the bottom, and, when the cans are full, tie 

 over the top common cotton cloth so as to 

 exclude all dirt, yet at the same time allow 

 of thorough evaporation and ripening, the 

 honey being stored in a warm room for this 

 purpose. As soon as it begins to granulate, 

 stir the honey so that the granulation may 

 be even throughout the can, and when as 

 thick as it will run through the molasses 

 gate, place the boxes on your scales and fill 



them to the desired weight, giving from one- 

 quarter to one-half of a pound more in each 

 box than you mark the weight. Some object 

 to anything but exact weight, but let me 

 whisper to you that nothing is so likely to 

 bring back customers as good goods and 

 good weight. Having the boxes filled, set 

 them to one side with a cotton cloth over 

 each till the honey gets hard in them, when 

 a sheet of manilla paper of the right size is 

 to be placed over the top after having taken 

 off the cloth, and over this the cover, which 

 is to be nailed on securely. 



Now for the marketing. When winter ar- 

 rives, and you are at comparative leisure, 

 bore holes of the right size in blocks of wood 

 and into these holes put samples of the 

 honey which is in your boxes, cutting the 

 same in chunks so they will go in the blocks, 

 and mail these blocks to the postmasters of 

 different villages where you have reason to 

 suppose honey is not very plenty, having 

 printed directions for liquifying the sample, 

 prices, etc.,. and see how easy a matter it is 

 to dispose of your crop of honey at paying 

 prices. My figures in the past have been 

 Sfil.lO, .S2.00, $4.75, and i^y.UO per box respec- 

 tively. One item : in shipping honey in this 

 shape it goes at the lowest rate of freight, as 

 I am not often required to say what is in the 

 boxes. In one instance this honey was ship- 

 ped as potatoes. After the honey becomes 

 hard there is no more danger of holes being 

 punched through the box in shipping than 

 through a solid block of wood. 1 use inch 

 ends on all the boxes, and I4, ■'«. K< ^^^ % 

 respectively for sides, bottoms and tops. 



Regarding comb honey you have left little 

 to be said. I was greatly pleased with your 

 " silent gaze of admiration " at the neat pile 

 of honey in your honey room, and your 

 "disgust" at the same pile of hflney in a 

 distant city. That's me exactly. The idea 

 of crating the cases is an excellent one, and 

 is ijartially a going back to the old plans 

 adopted twenty years ago. When I first 

 commenced to keep bees from loO to 200 

 pounds was put in a crate and handles put at 

 the sides to handle it by the same as in the 

 cut in the leader. I used such cases or crates 

 as late as 1877, by the direction of Thurber 

 and Company, m shipping them a two-car- 

 lot of honey. The only objection to them 

 that I know of, is that those self same 

 handles are in the way of loading, as they 

 take up much room in the car. Another 

 thing ; it always takes two men to handle 



