BEE CULTURE. 49 
MANAGEMENT OF COMB HONEY. 
Comb honey should be taken from the hive as soon as it 
is finished, or as soon thereafter as possible. ‘+ No apiarist 
can expect to have his honey sell for the highest market 
price,” says G. M. Doolittle, “if he allows it to stay in the 
hives for weeks after it has been sealed over, allowing the 
bees to give the combs a dirty yellow color, by constantly 
traveling over it. All comb-honey producers know that 
there always will be cells next to the section that are partly 
filled with honey but not sealed over, and when taken from 
the hive, if the section is turned over sidewise, the honey, 
being thin, will run out, making sticky work. The remedy 
for this is a small, warm room. Bees evaporate their honey 
by heat, and therefore, if we expect to keep our honey in 
good condition for market, we must keep it as the bees do, 
in such a position that it will grow thicker, instead of 
thinner all the while. Our honey room is situated on the 
south side of our shop, and is about 7 feet square, by 9 feet 
high. We have a large window in it, and the whole south 
side is painted a dark color, to draw the heat. In it the 
mercury stands from 80° to 90°, while our honey is in it; 
and when we crate it for market, we can tip our sections as 
much as we please and no honey will drip, neither will any 
of the combs have a watery appearance—all will be bright, 
dry and clean. But if we keep honey thus warm, the moth 
will make its appearance, and make it unfit for market, by 
gnawing off the sealing from our beautiful combs. 
«We build a platform on either side of our honey room, 
of scantling, about 16 inches high, and on this we place the 
sections so that the fumes from burning sulphur can enter 
each one; in about 2 weeks we fumigate, by burning 3 of a 
pound of sulphur for every 200 cubic feet in the room. We 
take coals from the stove and put them in an old kettle, so 
as not to get anything on fire ; pour on the sulphur and push 
it under the pile of honey, and shut up the room. Watch 
through the window, and in 15 minutes after the last fly or 
bee that chances to be in the room has died, open the door 
and let out the smoke, for if it stands too long, the smoke 
may settle on the combs and give them a greenish hue. As 
there may be a few eggs that have not yet hatched, we 
fumigate again in about 10 days, after which the honey will 
be free from moths, if you do not let millers into the room.” 
