July, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



433 



vigorous shake at the front of the liive. But 

 few bees will remain. These may be brush- 

 ed off with a bee brush or feather as shown 

 in the illustration and placed in an empty 

 hive and covered. Some beekeepers use 

 no bee-escapes but remove all the surplus by 

 smoking, shaking, and brushing. Still we 

 do not recommend this method except in 

 ease of emergency, because of danger of 

 starting robbing. For after the honey flow 

 is over, the bees are eagerly searching for 

 more sweets and even the smallest amount 

 of honey left exposed may soon get the 

 apiary into a regular turmoil. Therefore 

 all honey handled outdoors should be kept 

 covered as much as possible and the win- 

 dows to the honey-house should be screened. 

 If extracted while still warm, more honey 

 can be removed from the combs. For this 

 reason some beekeepers prefer screened es- 

 cape boards, since with these the honey 

 keeps much warmer. 



Actual Process of Extracting. 



The supers of combs to be extracted 

 should be placed within easy reach of the 

 uncapping-receptacle. Then one at a time 

 the combs are removed and held with the 

 top bar away from the manipulator, and the 

 end bar resting on the nail-point of the cross 

 bar. Holding the upper end of the frame 

 with the left hand and tilting the upper end 



Shaking bees from a eomb. 



slightly to the right so that the cappings 

 may fall freely, begin at the loWer end of 

 the comb and with an ordinary extracting 

 knife dipped in hot water cut the cappings 

 from the entire right side of the comb, per- 

 forming the operation with a kind of sawing 



motion. If the comb contains any depres- 

 sions, the heel of the knife should be used. 

 Then reverse the comb, still keeping the 

 top bar away from you, and slice a thin 

 layer also from the other side, using tlie 

 cross piece to scrape off any cappings that 

 may adhere to the knife. 



Brushing bees off a eomb. 



The uncapped combs may next be placed 

 one in each basket of the extractor, the top 

 bar being placed next the hinge. It is quite 

 worth while to use two combs of about the 

 same weight; for if not perfectly balanced 

 the extractor will run unsteadily, and may 

 become loosened from its support. In case 

 of old, dark combs whose cell walls are 

 strengthened by many layers of cocoons, 

 there will be but little danger of the combs 

 breaking. When new combs are extracted — 

 those in which brood has never been raised 

 — greater care will be necessary to prevent 

 the combs from breaking out of the frames. 

 Such combs should be extracted until about 

 half of the honey is out of the cells of the 

 first side, the combs should be reversed and 

 the opposite side entirely extracted, and 

 then the remainder of the honey taken from 

 the first side. 



When the honey gets almost to the reel a 

 part of it may be drawn off at the faucet, al- 

 lowing it to run into a pail, which may then 

 be emptied into the straining tank, from 

 which it may be run into 60-pound cans or 

 other receptacles in which it is to be stored. 



As fast as the combs are extracted they 

 may be again placed in the supers and stack- 

 ed up in the honey-house. Along toward 

 night these may be piled five or six on each 

 liive, over a queen-excluder, leaving the bees 

 to clean out the honey still adhering. 

 How and Where to Store Honey. 



The best place for keeping honey is in a 

 dry room of even temperature, about 70 to 

 100 degrees Fahr. 



Honey should be stored in tin cans, and 

 never in large tanks and left to candy, as it 

 would be exceedingly difficult to remove it 

 for bottling. 



