162 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. 1 



what practically amounts to that. Your saw- 

 dust packing, when pressed down tight, in 

 effect shuts off all upward escape of warm 

 air, and, of course, no moisture can escape. 

 If the packing were loose and porous like 

 chaff, moisture would rise and lodge in the 

 packing. — Ed.] 



EXTRACTING ALL THE HONEY FROM 

 OUTYARDS AT ONE PLACE. 



Hauling Exlracting-supers in a Covered 

 Wagon. 



BY V. V. DEXTER. 



We need all the information about black 

 brood that we can get out here in Washing- 

 ton. One of our largest bee-keepers has 

 either pickled or black brood all through his 

 apiaries. I have read of no one using the 

 same methods in extracting that I do; and 

 possibly by telling my ways some one may 

 gain new ideas. 1 live in town, and have 

 about 500 colonies in 7 apiaries, placed all 

 the way from 4 to 15 miles from home, and 

 have about two extracting-supers, Lang- 

 stroth depth, for each hive. 



I do my extracting at home, hauling the 

 honey there in a canvas covered spring wag- 

 on painted white. It is beetight, and has a 

 small screened window with bee escapes on 

 each side. The door is in the back end. The 

 wagon will carry about 20U0 lbs., or 50 supers; 

 but this is hardly enough, and some day I am 



going to have a larger wagon, provided foul 

 rood does not get the better of me. 



My extracting-house is 20 feet square, and 

 has a cement floor. Across one end is a plat- 

 form about 8 feet wide, one end of which is 

 partitioned off for a warming room, the floor 

 having openings in it to admit heat from a 

 stove underneath. On the end of the plat- 

 form opposite the warming-room is the ex- 

 tractor, and next season I expect to have an 

 engine near the extractor; but down on the 

 cement floor stands a 2000-lb. tank into 

 which the honey runs from the extractor. 

 After the specks of comb have risen to the 

 surface the honey is run into cans which are 

 placed in a hole in the floor under the faucet. 



There is a door opening outdoors from the 

 platform, through which the full combs are 

 unloaded and carried into the warming-room. 

 The threshold of the door is on a level with 

 the platform, and also about on a level with 

 the floor of the wagon-box, which makes un- 

 loading more convenient. 



This year I melted my cappings as they fell 

 from the capping knife; but I do not like that 

 way, as it is very uncomfortable working 

 over a hot stove on a warm day, and we do 

 have some very warm ones here. Next year 

 I shall uncap into a large dishpan and then 

 empty the cappings into the capping-melter 

 in another part of the room. I would leave 

 them to be melted later, but it is not nice to 

 have a lot of cappings lying around. 



The past year has been practically a failure 

 here So far as bees are concerned. T^e 



farmers are plowing up the alfalfa, our prin- 

 cipal honey-plant, and putting in fruit, from 

 which the bees gather almost no honey, as 

 our springs are usually cold and windy. 

 North Yakima, Wash., Jan. 15. 



[A number are tinding it more convenient 

 to uncap into a separate can, which may be 

 emptied, as often as full, into the melter. 

 Others conline the heat of the melter by 

 wrapping several layers of asbestos paper 

 around it so that the heat radiated is not ob- 

 jectionable. — Ed.] 



MORE ABOUT COTTON AS A HONEY- 

 PLANT. 



BY J. D. YANCEY. 



As to the quality of cotton honey, I can say 

 from my own experience that it varies in col- 

 or from light amber to almost water-white. 

 While I do not consider it the equal of white- 

 clover honey in flavor, it is superior to bass- 

 wood. My experience with it dates back 

 some 14 years to Hunt Co., Northern Texas, 

 where it was our main dependence f < r a hon- 

 ey crop. The bees worked upon it continu- 

 ously, more or less (depending on whether 

 th^; weather was favorable to thp secretion 

 of nectar) from early in the blooming season 

 until long after the first frosts As mention- 

 ed by D P. Hunt, page 21. Jan 1, the flow 

 increases toward the last of the season; and 

 if we can get two weeks of nice weather 

 after the first frosts it generally amounts to 

 a consid-^rable increase in our crop. 



I distinctly remember a season when we 

 secured a considerable extracting after we 

 had given up all hopes of a crop, and the 

 bees went a distance of three to four miles 

 to the river bottoms, where the cotton had 

 not been injured by the severely dry weath- 

 er as it had on the prairies around us. The 

 honey, however, from cotton growing on 

 heavy bottom land is not so light-colored nor 

 as finely flavored as that gathered on the 

 lighter and dryer soils of the uplands — at 

 least such has been my experience. 



Besides the nectar glands mentioned by 

 Mr. Hunt, there is on the under side of the 

 leaf, on the center rib, a small g'and that at 

 times secretes a considerable amount of nec- 

 tar. This gland seems to be the most active 

 about the time the leaf reaches full maturity. 

 When atmospheric conditions are just right, 

 such large drops of nectar will collect on 

 these lear-glands that one may readily taste 

 it; and a bee has to visit only a very few to 

 obtain a load. At such times they neglect 

 the blossoms entirely, and the honey comes 

 in with a considerable rush. I could not tell 

 that this honey was any different in either 

 color or flavor from that gathered from the 

 blossoms. 



In a ten-year residence in Southern Texas 

 I have never noticed bees work on cotton as 

 they did in the northern part of the State. 



Bridgeport, Wash. 



