370 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Off. Doc. 



After being left in the hive it becomes ripened and rich. Some 

 Ihiulc it not advisable to extract till the honey is all sealed. At 

 least a lartre proportion of it should be sealed. 



EXTRACTING SUPERS. 



Honey may be extracted from the brood-combs taken from the 

 brood-chamber, and if care is taken not to turn too rapidl}^ the honey- 

 will be thrown out and the brood left in the cells. But it is better 

 to leave the brood-combs undisturbed, and have a separate story 

 or stories for extracting. These stories or extracting supers may 

 contain combs shallower than those used in the brood-chamber, such 

 shallow extracting combs being preferred by those that produce on 

 a large scale, but being more convenient, it is a common practice 

 to use extracting combs that are exactly the same as the brood- 

 combs; indeed, the same combs are used sometimes in the brood- 

 chamber and sometimes in the extracting-chamber. Some think that 

 honev extracted from old black combs that have been used for vears 

 for brood-rearing is not so light-colored as that extracted from combs 

 in which brood has never been reared. But there can be no very 

 great difference. 



In order to prevent the 

 queen from going up into the 

 extracting super, a zinc 

 honey-board is used, called 

 also a queen-excluder. This 

 queen-excluder may be made 

 entirely of zinc, but is usual- 

 ly made of alternate strips of 

 wood and zinc. 



The zinc is perforated with 



, , , , ^ . ,, „ ZINC HONEY-BOARD 



holes about one-sixth of an ,„ • • ^ « ,• AT,n *« .^ „ 



(By permission from Root s A B C of Bee Culture.) 



inch in diameter, the best 



size being considered 165- 



1000 of an inch. Perfora- 

 tions of this size bar the 

 passage of a queen, while 

 they allow workers to pass 

 freely. The use of a queen- 

 excluder makes it certain 



PERFORATED ZINC. *^^* ^^^^^ ^'^^ ^^ °° ^'"^''^ 



(By permission from Uools A B C of Bee Culture.) 



in the extracting sufter. Neither need there be any fear lest the 

 qnrcn be lift(-d out when combs are taken for extracting. 



It may be remarked in passing that while it is considered very im- 

 portant to have a queen-excluder under an extracting-super, it is 



