1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



515 



REMOVABLE SCREEN BASKETS IN AN UN- 

 CAPPING-CAN. 



Some Refinements of the Details in a Modern 

 Extracting-room. 



BY O. B. METCALFE. 



On page 403, July 1, the editor describes 

 the ISIcIntyre uncapping-can now used by 

 Mr. Townsend. We used that type of un- 

 capping-can for two years. The one we used 

 was '11/2 feet wide by 8 feet long. It was 

 much better than the small round cans; 

 but this spring I got to work and made one 

 that is still better. It consists of a rectangu- 

 lar tank 2 ft. deep, 2 ft. wide, and 3 ft. long. 

 One man uncaps at each end, and the cap- 

 pings fall into four screen baskets made of 

 galvanized dog -screen with half -inch 

 meshes. The baskets are held apart from 

 each other and from the tank all around by 

 yi X >^-inch strips, all running up and down, 

 so there will be nothing to catch when the 

 baskets are lifted out one at a time, by the 

 turn-down bales on either side of them. 

 Around the top of the baskets a half-inch 

 wooden rim keeps the cappings from falling 

 down between the baskets where they would 

 hinder the drainage which takes jilace 

 through all four sides of each basket and 

 the bottom. The basket bottoms are made 

 loose so that they can be used to shove out 

 the cappings when the baskets are taken 

 out and inverted. The four baskets occupy 

 all the space in the uncapping-can except 

 the half-inch drainage space, and they will 

 hold all the cappings two men can cut off 

 in a day. Thus they may have the night 

 to drain and be lifted out in four well-drain- 

 ed cakes the next morning. In the very 

 bottom of the tank a drain-pipe connects 

 with a hose which carries the honey to the 

 settling- tank on the ground beside the wag- 

 on. 



Between the uncapping-can and the ex- 

 tractor stands a comb-box made of galvaniz- 

 ed iron with a screen platform in the bot- 

 tom of it, and a drain-hole also. This comb- 

 box holds some 60 frames, and thereby al- 

 lows the uncappers to separate the combs 

 into groups of tender combs and strong ones, 

 or light and heavy. This greatly helps the 

 man at the extractor. By the way, the man 

 at the extractor needs his combs classified 

 when the uncappers get an easy run and get 

 to passing him honey at any thing better 

 than a thousand pounds per hour. He also 

 needs a small hopper attached to the top of 

 each basket, which I hope The A. I. Root 

 Co. will soon get to putting on their frame 

 baskets. Filling the passing baskets with 

 the power partly on, a small hopper on each 

 basket would be a great saving of time. 



For the benefit of the man at the extract- 



or the combs should all be set in the comb- 

 box with the top-bars turned one way. He 

 can more quickly get them in the extractor 

 turned oneway; and as he takes them from 

 the passing baskets with his left hand and 

 passes them back of him on to the platform 

 with his right hand they will fall all one way 

 so they can be picked up in bunches. To 

 do this with the extractor moving pretty 

 fast, the operator should never take his eyes 

 from the baskets, and should land the combs 

 by feel. He will soon get to land the tender- 

 est comb without injury. When he has re- 

 filled the extractor, and by the crank has 

 helped the reel to get under way, he can turn, 

 and, taking four combs the first grab and 

 three the next, almost fill a super in a sec- 

 ond. The extra comb from the eight-frame 

 extractor where seven extracting-combs are 

 used in an eight-frame hive-body may be 

 left to accumulate to seven. Using this sys- 

 tem I have extracted 1200 lbs. an hour. If 

 any one has better systematized the man's 

 work at the extractor I should be very glad 

 to hear from him. 



MORE ABOUT THAT DR. MILLER PLAN OF 

 PREVENTING SWARMING BY VENTILATION. 



On page 404, .luly 1, Dr. Miller accuses the 

 New Mexico Chap of having a faulty "no- 

 ticer" and a "noter " that needs repairing. 

 I do not think so, and I should be glad if 

 others would help me out on this subject. 

 I feel complimented that Dr. Miller took 

 time and space to criticise me at all; but at 

 the same time I do not feel flattered enough 

 to abandon the point. 



Now, his idea seems to be that the bees 

 get too hot and proceed to swarm if they are 

 not given ventilation enough. Can he an- 

 swer the following question with a "got too 

 hot " explanation? Why do our bees swarm 

 most in the spring when the weather is cool 

 and the honey-flow the same as it often is 

 during a dearth in the summer? During 

 the hot summer days we have not had a 

 swarm in 60 days from over 1600 working 

 colonies standing out in the boiling hot sun, 

 where it is so hot that now and then the 

 combs in one of the hives will melt down. 

 We have the queen confined with a queen- 

 excluder to half the space she had in the 

 spring when we could not keep them from 

 swarming whenever they got a hive nearly 

 full of brood and honey. They will swarm 

 now if they get filled up, but they will stand 

 much more crowding than they would in 

 the spring. We have not changed the en- 

 trances. Is this not pretty good proof that 

 even excessive heat does not cause swarm- 

 ing, and that I am right in my idea that it 

 is a question of scant room at a time of rapid 

 brood-rearing? The question I raised is, 

 " How does ventilation prevent swarming?" 

 If the doctor tries to change from hot air to 

 bad air I have him "cornered," for, no mat- 

 ter how foul the air becomes in a hive, the 

 bees will never swarm out unless they are 

 so strong in bees and brood that their in- 

 stinct says they can risk a division. 



Dr. Miller says that his bees fill their 



