1504 Department of Agriculture 



conclusion that these bees may be more susceptible to European 

 foul brood than the average Italian. 



In the production of extracted honey I use a queen excluder 

 between the brood chamber and the supers. At the beginning of 

 the honey flow the first super, a twelve frame with only ten combs 

 spread, is put upon tlie hive, the hives having previously been 

 taken out of the outer cases, ^^-lien the bees begin to cap honey 

 in this first super, or even a little sooner, if the prospects are 

 good, I put on a second super, putting half the partly filled combs 

 in each super and one set of these combs immediately above the 

 other, filling the other half of each super with empty combs. 

 Placing the combs in this way makes the break to the bees less 

 violent, and in my estimation, gives more satisfactory results. In 

 this way tlie honey is tiered up during the entire white honey flow. 



The combs in the brood chamber are carefully gone through 

 each week, the majority of the bees being shaken from the combs 

 to facilitate examination for queen cells, and if any are found, 

 judged to be from the swarming impulse, they are broken down to 

 prevent swarming. 



The honey is taken off, and the bees brushed from both sides of 

 the comb by one operation, the one who does this work holding a 

 brush in each hand. I personally remove the honey from the 

 hive, shaking the bees very largely from the comb; after which, 

 it is brushed. 



The honey is placed in supers; nine or twelve being piled in a 

 light spring wagon and taken to the extracting house. A twelve- 

 frame reversible power extractor, run by means of a gasoline 

 engine, extracts the honey, a pump carrying the latter, after 

 coarse straining, into tanks six feet high by three feet in diameter. 

 I have eighteen of these tanks with a tight cover and honey gate, 

 and I like this method of caring for the honey so well that six 

 more have been ordered for the coming season. They hold 

 3,000 pounds or more each. 



The coarsest wax, etc., having been strained out, the balance 

 rises to the top of the tank and in a few days time is skimmed off. 

 The honey is then ready to be put into the vessels in which it is 

 to be sold. 



