892 



(iLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



could return the queen. The experiment would 

 cost him little; but, no! he falls back upon his 

 old experience, real or supposed, and says he has 

 tried it; and he reared poor queens. Well, I've 

 tried it, and I've reared good queens. But nei- 

 ther of those two things is exactly to the point. Let 

 Mr. Hutchinson give us something in the way of 

 clear proof that bees made queenless are in such 

 haste to rear a successor that they use bad judg- 

 ment in their selection, or else stop maligning 

 the bees. 



Marengo, 111. 



EXTRACTING-TOOLS. 



How to Prevent Robbing when the Ex- 

 tracting is Done During a 

 Honey-dearth. 



» ^ 



BY E. D. TOWNSEND. 



The tools for the yard work in harvesting a 

 crop of extracted honey consist of a Daisy wheel- 

 barrow, two empty hive-bodies, two Coggshall 

 bee-brushes, one of the latest four-inch smokers, 

 and three robber-cloths. The last named are 

 nothing more nor less than cloths two or three 

 inches larger than the top of a hive with sticks, 

 nailed on each long side. One of these cloths is 

 laid over the hive after the cover is removed, to 

 keep out the robbers; and as it is quickly rolled up 

 far enough to take out a frame, and then rolled 

 back, the whole top of the hive is never exposed 

 at one time. The cleats for the two long sides 

 of the cloths are made of pieces of lath 20 inches 

 long. One edge of the cloth is wrapped entirely 

 around one of the pieces, when a second one is 

 laid on top of the wrapped lath, and nailed. The 

 cloth now comes out between the two pieces of 

 lath, and is thus firmly secured. Two more 

 pieces are nailed on the other side of the cloth, 

 which makes it complete. The sticks must, of 

 course, be on the long side of the cloth rather 

 than on the ends, so that they will be parallel 

 with the top-bars. In this way it is very easy to 

 roll the cloth back just far enough to lift out a 

 frame. 



In removing the honey from the hives the row 

 furthest from the extracting-house should be be- 

 gun on first, so that it will not be necessary to 

 work at any time in front of the disturbed colo- 

 nies; for if the work is done when there is no 

 honey coming in from the field, robbers are al- 

 ways troublesome. Place the wheelbarrow back 

 of the hive and put one of the empty hive-bodies 

 on it lengthwise so the frames may hang parallel 

 with the barrow to prevent unnecessary swinging 

 and shaking. The other hive-body should be 

 placed at one side of the colony, leaving a space 

 between for the operator. When the hive is to 

 be opened, the smoker should be working well; 

 and as soon as the cover is removed the bees should 

 be given a gentle puff of smoke. If too much 

 smoke is given, bees become demoralized, some 

 fiying out and others running across the combs, 

 so that the results are not at all satisfactory. 

 There should be no smoke blown down between 

 the combs, therefore, until most of the bees have 

 run off the top-bars of the frames, and started 

 down toward the lower part. When bees are 



once started properly, there is no trouble in keep- 

 ing them going, especially if the honey is all 

 capped (as it should be), for the idea is to keep 

 the bees ahead of the smoke as much as possible. 

 When about three-fourths or more of the bees are 

 smoked out of the upper story this should be 

 quickly lifted off and set on the empty body that 

 has been placed near by for the purpose. It 

 is important to be quick about this, so that none 

 of the bees may have time to run back. If there 

 are more stories to be taken off, repeat the whole 

 operation, setting additional stories on top of the 

 one first removed. When the first story is taken 

 off, quickly cover one of the hives with one of 

 the robber-cloths, as the bees will soon " boil 

 over," when there will be trouble in putting on 

 the cover without killing the bees. Having the 

 bees nearly all smoked out, a comb should be 

 lifted with both hands and then held over the en- 

 trance of the hive. In that position it may be 

 held with the left hand in the original position 

 while the right hand holds the brush. A slight 

 turn of the wrist exposes either one side of the 

 comb or the other to the brush. This part is 

 clearly illustrated by the engravings, pages 1244, 

 1243, Oct. 1, 1906. Two sweeps of the brush on 

 either side of the comb are usually sufficient to 

 remove the bees with the exception of a few- 

 stragglers next to the bottom-bar, which are al- 

 lowed to pass out through the bee-escape on the 

 honey-house windows later. As fast as the combs 

 are brushed they are put into the hive-body on a 

 wheelbarrow. If the first three combs are placed 

 at the furthest side of the bodies, the further 

 edge of the robber-cloth can be lifted up to get 

 them in ; but it is best to put the five other 

 combs in from the front by lifting the front edge 

 of the cloth. As a full upper story will yield 

 about 50 lbs. of extracted honey, we wheel in 

 only two at a load. 



One great secret of success in extracting when 

 there is no honey coming in from the field is to 

 keep //// honey away from the bees while it is 

 being handled in the yard. Another secret is to 

 avoid giving combs wet with honey bacJk to the 

 bees while the extracting is going on. 



If it is desirable to return these combs to the 

 bees for any purpose, they should be given just 

 at night, when they will all be cleaned up by 

 morning so that there will be no commotion. 



The honey should be extracted almost imme- 

 diately, so that it will not have time to get cold. 

 In order to work to the best advantage there 

 should be two operators in the extracting-house, 

 and one to take off the honey and wheel it in. 

 All honey to be extracted should be piled up 

 near the uncapping-tank. While one person does 

 the uncapping, the other turns the extractor and 

 handles the honey, although sometimes the un- 

 capper has time to help a little in some other 

 work. 



When uncapping, the end-bar of the comb 

 should be rested on the pivot or point in the 

 cross-piece of the uncapping-tank. It is best to 

 use a long uncapping-knife, commencing at the 

 lower end of the comb, and cutting deep — down 

 even with the wood — with a dra\ving motion. 

 As the knife reaches the middle of the frame it 

 will be necessary to hold the comb nearly ver- 

 tical to prevent the cappings from falling back 

 on the comb instead of directly into the capping- 



