Storing Comb Honey

In answer to the question how anc where to store comb honey during win ter ö. M. Doolittle gives the following advice and personal experience in Gleanings in Bee Culture: Coinb honey shonld always be stored in a warm, dry place during the fall and spring months it least, when a great cliange of temperature is likely to I take place, but dnring the winter it rnay be kept in a dry basement room or cellar where no frost ever reaches, provided yon are on the lookout to take it out when the temperature on the outside rises mnch above that in the basement, ütherwise the warm, moist outside air, coming in contact with the surface of the cold or cooler honey, will cause moisture to stand in drops on the combs, when the houey will rapidly deteriórate. If I were trying to keep honey of any aniount which 1 wished to preserve in salable form, I would not let the temperature of the room ever go below 60 degs., while f rom 70 to 90 degs. would be better. 1 once kept sotne section honey foi three years, and found it better at the end of the three years than it was when taken from the hive. This honey was placed on a shelf about four feet from the floor of the sitting room, rigbt back of a base burner coal stove, during the time the stove had a tire in it, while during the summer months, when no fire was kept in the stove, the honey was carried to an upper chamber facing the south, where the sun made the room very warm, in addition to the warmth coming from the kitchen stovepipe, which ran tnrough this chamber. In this way the honey never "saw" a temperature of Ie38 than 60 degs., while f rom 80 to 100 degs. was the rule much of the time. When 1 cut this honey it was nearly "jack was," and for quality it was not surpassed by any I ever tasted. I have of ten thought that it might pay to use this plan onawhole erop of honey during years when the production eiceeded the demapd, thus causing low prices lo preraif while the very next year might be a poor one, so that thus keeping it might doublé in price. When combs of honey are to be given to the bees the cracking of the comb does no harm, for the bees will fix it up during the next season so it cannot be told where the cracks were.