266 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



extracting room may be kept as cool 

 as a parlor. With this method of man- 

 agement there is no dripping of honey 

 over the floors, as the bees clean up 

 any broken brace combs before the 

 honey comes off the hives, and there 

 are no bees brought in with the honey, 

 as when they are hastily brushed off, 

 to be crushed on the floor, or to buzz 

 about on the windows. Everything can 

 be kept as clean and neat, and com- 

 fortable — well, I extracted my honey 

 here at Flint right in my office, taking 

 the hone}' off wifh bee escapes, and 

 carting it four blocks to the office. 



HOW TO MAKE A HONEY KNIFE CUT 

 LIKE A RAZOR. 



After the honey is off the hives, the 

 biggest job is that of uncapping the 

 combs. If they are thick, "bulging," 

 they can be uncapped much more 

 easily. If only eight combs are used 

 in a ten-frame super they will be of 

 this class, when, by cutting deeply, so 



Lamp-Stove That Keeps the Uncapping 



Knife Hot. 

 as to leave the combs only about an 

 inch thick, each side can be uncapped 

 with "one fell swoop." It was hard 

 for me to get over the feeling that I 

 ought to uncap as thinly as possible — 

 that thick cappings were like thick 

 parings taken from a potato — but it 



really makes little difference whether 

 the honey goes through the extractor 

 or drains from the cappings. To do 

 the best and quickest work when un- 

 capping, have the knife, sharp, hot 

 and wet. Only the man who has tried 

 it can realize the difference between 

 such a knife and one that is cold, dull 

 and dry. I have a little two-burner, 

 oil stove sitting on a barrel at my 

 elbow, and on top of the stove a baking 

 tin full of water. The wicks can be 

 adjusted to keep the water at just the 

 right temperature — a little below the 

 boiling point. When through uncap- 

 ping a comb, instead of laying the 

 knife down on something else, I simply 

 lay it in the tin of water — it is just as 

 easy. When I begin extracting on an- 

 other comb the knife is hot and wet, 

 and the way it slips through the comb 

 is a caution. Very new combs, or 

 very old ones, do not uncap as easily 

 as those that are between the extremes. 

 An old comb that has been recently 

 drawn out thick, that is, the bees have 

 lengthened the cells, partly with new 

 wax and partly with that taken from 

 the old comb, is about the nicest comb 

 to uncap. The lower part of the cells 

 have a stiffness, or stability, while the 

 upper part has sufficient softness to 

 make it cut easily. A man can afford 

 to go to quite a lot of expense and pains 

 to get just the right kind of combs for 

 use in his supers — old combs spread 

 wide apart — as the saving of time in 

 uncapping is very important. 



A cracker barrel is away ahead of 

 anything else for holding the cappings. 

 In the first ]ilace, it costs only ten 

 cents. Next, it is just about the right 

 height. Again, the cappings can be 

 allowed to stand in it and drain for 

 weeks and weeks — no hurry about the 

 barrel, simply pay ten cents for an- 

 other one. I bore three or four holes 

 in the bottom for the honey to run out. 

 This may not be necessary, as auch 

 barrels are not water-tight, but it is a 

 safe tiling to be sure there is a place 



