36 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Second: Always have the packages clean and free from stickiness. 

 If in bottles, jars or cans, be sure they do not leak. 



Third: If producing considerable quantities of honey and sehing 

 to stores or shipping it awaj' have each case of comb honey all of one 

 kind, and all sections as near as possible equally filled and capped. 

 Have the honey of each lot in bottles of the same kind. 



Sell first to your neighbors, next to the stores in your nearest town, 

 and bj' the time your crops are too large for them to handle you will 

 have learned where and how to sell large quantities. If you start 

 supplying a store, try and reserve enough honey of the kind you 

 start with to carry that customer through to the next season. Noth- 

 ing so upsets the honey trade as a change in the flavor of honey. 

 Man}' beekeepers are now practicing "blending" or mixing their 

 various sorts of extracted honey so as to have it all of one general 

 flavor. This is excellent practice, but requires experience for its 

 greatest success. Strong flavored or very dark honeys must be 

 scrupulously left out of such blends. 



The best that can be done with comb honey is to see that in each 

 case all of the sections are of the same crop and endeavor to supply 

 only one kind to one customer for the season. 



When customers comment on the differences in flavor it is necessary 

 to explain that the flavors of honey from different sorts of flowers 

 vary as do the odors. 



Extracted honey will granulate or crystallize in time, hence it is 

 not wise to bottle at one time more than the customer is likely to 

 dispose of before it begins to granulate. 



In melting granulated honey heat it slowh' and as soon as it softens 

 stir it from time to time that it may heat uniformly. Be careful not 

 to over-heat it or the flavor will be injured or spoiled, and the honey 

 darkened. About 130° F. is as high as it is safe to heat it. 



PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING. 



These should begin in August with the re-queening of the colonies. 

 If there is a dearth of nectar and the prospects of an immediate flow are 



