3i6 



THB BEE-KEEPFAS' REVIEW 



off, j'our first supers will be clean of bees; 

 it need not take more than one or two 

 hours at most, to remove the supers to 

 the honey house. 



If alone, set jour upcapping can close 

 beside the extractor, so as to easily reach 

 the extractor handle. After uncapping 

 the combs fill the extractor; give it a few 

 turns and let it run of itself while you 

 are uncapping and piling up j^our next 

 batch of twelve half-depth frames for the 

 next filling; occasionally give the crank 

 a few turns to keep up the motion. Al- 

 ways place the top-bars together in the 

 comb-baskets; when taking out the em- 

 pty combs, grasp both top bars with the 

 right hand and lift them out; with the 

 left grasp the other end let the top comb 

 roll over beside the under one and you 

 have them in the right position to set in 

 the empty siiper. 



With a little practice you can easily re- 

 move, uncap, and extract 500 to 1000 lbs. 

 per day, alone, and put the empty supers 

 back on the hives, which I do toward 

 evening. 



I have alone taken 1080 lbs. of honey 

 from the hives, uncapped, extracted, put 

 it into five-gallon cans, and returned the 

 empty supers to hives, working from 7 

 o'clock A. M. . to 6:30 P. M. Others may 

 have done far more in less time. 



With a six-frame machine 5 lbs. can 

 be extracted as quickly as 2 lbs. can with 

 a two-frame extractor. I have both, but 

 don't use the smaller unless compelled 

 to. 



For filling 5-galllon caus use a large 

 funnel holding a pail full, and have a 

 cork that fits the lower end of the funnel, 

 with a large wire reaching up through 

 the honey to the top of the funnel; when 

 your can is full cork up the funnel and 

 change to the next can and have no spil- 

 ling. 



After the cans are filled place the cover 

 on the box and nail — but don't nail the 

 can. 



About October first, remove the supers 

 from the hives to the hone}' -house, look 

 through the hives and see that all colo- 



nies have 25 lbs. each but 50 lbs. will do 

 no harm, as they will make good use of 

 it. 



Let the bees quiet down to their now 

 smaller hive for a day or two before put- 

 ting on the chaff for winter. Get the 

 winter cases and distribute, one to each 

 hive, a sheet of burlap to cover frames 

 and three corn cobs to use as a Hill's de- 

 vice, as cobs are cheaper and better as 

 there is no metal about them, besides 

 they make No. i smoker fuel for next 

 season. 



Load your crate of 5 or 10 bushels of 

 chaff onto your wheel-barrow, and wheel 

 it along behind the hives right where 

 you want it, then fill a half bushel with 

 chaif so as to be all ready before you open 

 the hive. You don't need any smoker 

 or veil as the bees are somewhat dormant 

 at this time of year and will not fly for a 

 few seconds. 



Next uncover the hive with the left 

 hand, meanwhile with the right putting 

 on the three cobs across the frames for 

 the bees to cluster between, set on the 

 chaffs case, and lay the burlap over the 

 frames and cobs, and dump in your chaff, 

 seeing that it fills the corners well, put on 

 the cover and take the next hive, it need 

 not take much longer than to read this. 

 After having chaffed all, then pick up 

 the super covers and put them in the 

 honey-house, and if the apiary is where 

 the snow does not drift you need not look 

 at them until the next spring. 



One man can easily chaff 100 hives per 

 day where the chaff, cases, etc., are at 

 the apiary. 



Compare this with lugging bees into 

 cavee, up and down cellar stairs; besides, 

 the bees certainly appreciate a cleansing 

 flight occasionally during winter. 



After the bees are all chaff packed for 

 winter, then look up a customer for your 

 honey crop, if you should have a crop, 

 and keep yourself posted as to market 

 prices, and don't let some unreliable 

 commission house fool you with its 

 high prices. Some years, selling is hard- 

 er than producing. 



