October, 1913. 



337 



AniQrican "Bee Joarnal j 



tilled with honey and brood, and the 

 full sheets have been drawn into combs 

 in a very few days. 



Wintering should not be a serious 

 problem this year, as the quality of 

 stores is good, and breeding has been 

 above normal since the main flow 

 waned in late August. Early in Sep- 



tember I had many colonies with brood 

 in every frame. These were 8-frame 

 hives, however. It was not true of the 

 10-frames. 



The third growth of alfalfa has fur- 

 nished nectar this year, which is un- 

 usual. When alfalfa seeds well you 

 can count that it also furnished honey. 



Mk. Nichols' Separator Cieaner. Seethe railroad iron on top in uive pressure to the 



cleaning: knives. 



Southern 



Beedom^ 



Conducted by I.oins H. Scuoi.L. New Braunfels. Tex 



Cleaning the Shallow Bulk Comb Honey 

 Frames and Extracting Combs 



"What do you do with your frames 

 after cutting out the honey? Mine 

 always have more or less honey 

 'messed' on them. How do you man- 

 age to get rid of this sticky condition 

 when the time comes to put foundation 

 in them again ? Also with the wet ex- 

 tracting combs, do you do anything 

 with them or just let them alone ? Last 

 year I filled my supers out in the yard 

 and let the bees clean them, but it 

 caused an uproar. My bees are too 

 near the road for that. My supers are 

 all stacked in my honey-house with the 

 wet e.xtracting and bulk comb honey 



frames in them. Will it do to let them 

 stay that way ?" Porter C. Ward. 



Elkton, Kv. 



There are various methods of dis- 

 posing of frames employed by different 

 bee-keepers. Our method is as fol- 

 lows: After the comb honey is cut 

 from the shallow frames, in the comb 

 honey house, another person with a 

 somewhat dull knife scrapes the re- 

 maining comb and hcuiey, together 

 with the bur or brace combs, ofi the 

 wood into a strainer tub. The honey 

 is drained from these comb scrapings 

 which then go into the solar wax-ex- 

 tractor. The scraped frames are then 

 hung back in the supers, which are 

 taken out into the back yard and 

 stacked up. They are closed bee-tight 



except for a very small opening at top 

 and bottom through which bees may 

 enter almost singly and remove what 

 little honey remains on the frames. 



In scraping the frames, close atten- 

 tion is paid to get the underside of the 

 top-bar smooth and clean, so that the 

 sheets of foundation that may be put 

 in later will fit snugly to the top-bar. 

 The rest of the frames, on the inside 

 surface, need not be cleaned so particu- 

 larly, as the bees will build the subse- 

 quent combs back to the wood again. 

 In fact, it is an advantage to have the 

 combs attached to the wood where the 

 comb honey is hauled many miles to 

 the packing house from the yards. The 

 outside of all the frames should be 

 scraped clean, however, so that there 

 may be a minimum of bur combs built. 

 When these are numerous they prove 

 a nuisance, as they prevent rapid hand- 

 ling of the comb-honey supers, and 

 also result in mashing many bees. 

 When these bur combs are filled with 

 honey, as they sometimes are during a 

 good honey-flow, the broken honey 

 makes things disagreeable. Such a 

 condition also often results in stirring 

 up robbing, and hence should be pre- 

 vented, if possible. 



If it is desired to put foundation in 

 the shallow frames as rapidly as the 

 honey is cut out, all the frames, after 

 they have been scraped clean, are 

 washed olT by plunging them up and 

 down in a large tub or vat of water. 

 After being rinsed off they are thrown 

 out and scattered to dry, being careful 

 not to leave them in the hot sun any 

 length of time, as it may twist and 

 warp the wet frames into all kinds of 

 shapes. When dry they are hung back 

 in the supers, and are ready for the 

 foundation sheets. Without the wash- 

 ing they are very sticky, and it is dis- 

 agreeable to handle them when putting 

 in the foundation sheets. 



The shallow extracting combs are 

 placed back into supers as they come 

 out of the extractor. The supers are 

 then taken out into the yard, preferably 

 some little distance from the apiary, 

 and stacked up in high piles, the same 

 wav as we do with the shallow supers 

 with the frames from which the honey 

 has been cut. Very small openings are 

 left at the bottom and top of each stack 

 of supers, being careful that these are 

 so small that only one bee can pass at 

 a time. 



By this slow method of having them 

 cleaned out there is little danger of 

 the usual uproar, and besides the 

 combs are not likely to be damaged by 

 the bees. After they are clean and dry 

 thev may be set back on the colonies 

 needing them, or if it is late in the sea- 

 son they maybe removed to the store- 

 house for winter. Care must be taken, 

 however, that they are closed tight 

 enough so that mice may not enter and 

 destroy the combs. It is not customary 

 to store extracting combs here in the 

 South, but these are kept on the colo- 

 nies during the winter ; sometimes four 

 and five of them piled on one colony. 



It is a mistake to pile the wet supers 

 of combs or the besmeared frames in 

 supers anywhere the bees can have free 

 access to them. The uproar caused by 

 the bees is not only disagreeable, but the 

 bees may cause trouble by stinging 

 people. This is especially to be guard- 



