The shipping-crate ([Fig, 71]) should be strong, neat and cheap, with handles as seen in [Fig, 71]—such handles are also convenient in the ends of the hives, and can be cut in an instant by having the circular-saw set to wabble. With handles the crate is more convenient, and is more sure to be set on its bottom. The crate should also be glassed, as the sight of the comb will say: "Handle with care."
Mr. Heddon also makes a larger crate ([Fig, 72]), which is neat and cheap. Muth's crate is like Heddon's, only smaller.
It is well, too, to wrap the sections in paper, as thus breakage of one will not mean general ruin. However, this would be unnecessary in case the sections were of veneer and glassed, as before described.
Fig. 72.
In groceries, where the apiarist keeps honey for sale, it will pay him to furnish his own boxes. These should be made of white-wood, very neat, and glassed in front to show the honey, and the cover so fixed that unglassed sections—and these, probably, will soon become the most popular—cannot be punched or fingered. Be sure, too, that the label, with kind of honey, grade, and name of apiarist, be so plain that "he who runs may read."
Comb-honey that is to be kept in the cool weather of autumn, or the cold of winter, must be kept in warm rooms, or the comb will break from the section when handled. By keeping it quite warm for some days previous to shipment, it may be sent to market even in winter, but must be handled very carefully, and must make a quick transit.
Above all, let "taste and neatness" ever be your motto.