68 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 28. 1904. 



committee be accepted, that we thank the committee, and 

 that it be continued. 



Mr. York — With the consent of the second we will make 

 that the motion. 



A vote being taken, the motion was declared carried. 

 (T De continued.) 



Report of the Proceeding's of the Colorado State 

 Bee-Keepers' Convention, Held in Den- 

 ver, Nov. 23. 24. and 25, 1903. 



BY H. C. MOREHOUSE, SEC. 



[Continued from pa^e 37 ) 



Ne.\t was a paper by R. C. Aikin, of Larimer Co., Colo., on 

 the subject of 



HOW TO PRODUCE FANCY EXTRACTED HONEY. 



The subject is not well stated. If it said " tine "' or " No. 

 1 " e.xtracted honey, it would suit me better. The people who 

 put up their honey in fancy packages are the ones who put 

 up the fancy article. I believe I know how to produce a No. 

 1 article that may be sold as fine or No. 1. I am consider- 

 able of a crank on this subject, the same as in methods of 

 management of bees. 



What is No. 1 e.xtracted honey? It is well-ripened and 

 thick, and has a good flavor. The flavor depends largely upon 

 the bloom ; the body or quality depends largely upon the 

 management. Many advocate and practice extracting before 

 the honey is fully sealed. In a damp climate this is altogether 

 wrong. In a dry climate it is not altogether wrong, but noth- 

 ing is gained by it. Never, in any climate, extract before 

 the combs are half to two-thirds sealed. Let it remain on the 

 hive long enough to become all ripened. But to get a good 

 article, that is not all. In extracting you always incorporate 

 with the honey minute chips of wax and bubbles of air. Both 

 of these, in their relation to honey, are impurities. The honey 

 should be clear, and free from all impurities. As the honey 

 weighs 12 pounds to the gallon, and the wax approximates 7 

 pounds to the gallon, if there are any chips of wax in the 

 honey, gravity will separate them. The same is true of air. 

 When a tank is filled with honey, it contains a large quantity 

 of air. The warmer the liquid the quicker impurities come to 

 the top. Almost any impurity will rise to the top. There- 

 fore, it is necessary to have a large settling-tank. It not only 

 secures well-strained honey, but is also a great saving in other 

 ways. 



A number of producers advocate extracting at the out- 

 yards. Evidently they do not have a large settling-tank. It 

 is true, many haul their honey home after extracting and put 

 it in a tank. But I do say the man who fills his retail pack- 

 ages from a small tank will never have a first-class article. 

 There will be too much foam and too much wax in it, and, 

 when it reaches the consumer, there is something on the top 

 that is not inviting to look at. A tank will also go a long way 

 in eliminating thin or unripe honey, as it will rise to the top, 

 while the faucet drains ofl' the thick honey from the bottom. 

 I have a tank of five tons capacity, and other tanks, besides. 

 The large tank is one of the greatest of savers. 



I haul all my extracting-combs home, and extract the 

 honey and put it in the tank on the upper floor of the honey- 

 house. It holds all I can extract in ten days. I am never 

 bothered with honey overflowing, or being obliged to draw it 

 ofl before it has all settled. When the honey is in the tank I 

 let it remain as long as it does not candy. When it begins to 

 candy I drain it off. It is a permanent investment. It cost 

 me S35 on board the cars at my station. It is of galvanized 

 steel, and to-day the same tank would cost $50. At that esti- 

 mate, it amounts to half a cent for each pound of what it 

 holds at one time. 



Suppose one is anticipating a flow, and buys cans ahead, 

 how much does it cost him ? Not less than three-fourths of 

 a cent per pound, and the cans will be gone when he sells the 

 honey, while the tank will last for 25 or 80 crops. You don't 

 have to store many crops before the tank pays for itself. 

 Don't undertake to extract without a big tank. 



In the tons and tons I have shipped and sold there was 

 never a single complaint as to the quality of the honey. 

 Everywhere it goes it is satisfactory, and the customers want 

 more, and for the last two years I have not been able to sup- 

 ply the demand. Why don't they buy from the rest of the 

 bee-keepers ? One reason is, many do not produce the quality 

 of honey that I do. They think it requires too much expense 

 to remove the impurities, and that if the honey is candied 



they have to liquefy it. Honey with granules in it can not be 

 strained, except by gravity. 



I was rather late with my extracting this year, and dur- 

 ing the last two weeks extracted several thousand pounds that 

 had more or less granules in. One chamber of combs with 

 granules through the honey will so stop the cheese-cloth 

 strainer that nothing will go through. The strainer I ordi- 

 narily use is a box set in the top-floor where I extract. Three 

 or four inches from the bottom of the box is a wire-cloth 

 covered with cheese-cloth. The honey, after going through 

 this, passes out through a spout to the next floor below. 

 When extracting combs that are slightly granulated, I have 

 another box between the extractor and the tanks, divided into 

 two compartments, one large where the honey flow-; in, the 

 other an inch wide, and extending from the top to about an 

 inch from the bottom with an overflow spouton the side oppo- 

 site from that next to the extractor. With the help of this 

 box I can extract all day long without interruption. The 

 thickest and cleanest honey passes under the partition, and 

 overflows from the top of the small compartment. It requires 

 a box of considerable capacity to do the work ; not less than 

 would hold 100 pounds, and 200 or 3oO would be better. If 

 the honey were made to pass up and down several times in- 

 stead of once, it would be more efficacious. So far, I have 

 found that many impurities pass under the partition, and 

 have to be skimmed later from the surface of the big tank. 

 But the great body of chips of comb is left in the gravity 

 strainer. The time the honey remains in the settling-tank 

 depends upon the amount of heat and the thinness of the 

 honey. If the honey is thick, and it is warmed, the impurities 

 separate much more readily. 



My tank is supported by a circular wall of stone-work, 

 making a shaft at the bottom of which, in the cellar of the 

 honey-house, is the heating stove. The tank itself is sur- 

 rounded by a wall of brick at a distance of two or three 

 inches, closed at the top so that the tank is kept enveloped in 

 a volume of hot air. It is surprising how much difference it 

 makes in the handling of honey to heat it. It is almost im- 

 possible to draw well-ripened honey through a nozzle an inch 

 to an inch and a quarter in diameter. But when thoroughly 

 warmed by a fire underneath, it runs three or four times 

 faster. 



When the honey in the tank is so nearly candied it will 

 not run, if it is warmed and stirred with a stick it will run out 

 as if it were greased. In the multitude of business I once had 

 80O pounds of honey candied solid in the tank. I did not 

 think the fire below would heat it enough to make it run. My 

 heater is an old range cook-stove enclosed in brick-work. I 

 set that going and put in a heating stove besides, and fired 

 that, and so softened that 800 pounds that I could draw it 

 off. It was not liquid, but candied solid in a very few days. 



As to the other end of the subject, the management in 

 the yards, on the hives, I build up in the spring the same as 

 for comb honey. But when it comes to equipment on the 

 hives, I never produce extracted honey without a queen-ex- 

 cluding honey-board. Some say let the queen go anywhere. 

 I don't allow that to influence me. It is economy in time to 

 take olf a chamber of extracting-combs and know it is all 

 honey. It will cost twice the effort to get the bees out if 

 there is brood. I don't shake the bees off ; I smoke as many 

 of the bees down as I can, and then take the chamber off just 

 as it stands — just as I handle comb honey by the super — and 

 set the chambers criss-cross over each other in the yard. 

 They catch the infection of excitement from one another and 

 begin to hustle out. The bees are practically all gone when I 

 load up. I just put the chambers on, perhaps blowing in a 

 little smoke. I have a large covered wagon, bee-tight, with 

 an escape in it. When I load up almost all the bees are out, 

 without having handled a single frame. If I take off the 

 chambers when the bees are robbing I do the same, only I 

 shove them right in the wagon and lock the screen-door. 

 Each time I open the door again a lot of bees fly out, and, be- 

 sides, there is a bee-escape in the wagon. 



Therefore, you don't need to go to handling frames unless 

 you want to, and you don't need to extract in the out-yards. 

 You have to transport the honey in anyhow, and all the addi- 

 tional capital needed is an extra chamber for each hive, and 

 you need that anyway. 



Never produce extracted honey with one set of extracting- 

 combs. The extra labor saved will pay for the extra set of 

 combs. When you pay money to a laborer it is gone ; but 

 when you put it in extracting chambers and a honey-house it 

 is still your money, and not the other fellow's. Don't stint 

 necessary appliances — tanks, chambers, combs — put money in 

 them at the start; it will pay better than putting a whole lot 

 of work in extracting during the flow. Have enough extras 

 to take the entire crop, and during the flow do nothing but 



