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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1057 



General 

 Correspondence 



CLEANING COMB HONEY. 



How to Make a Table for the Purpose, and 

 How to Avoid Scattering Bee-glue 

 w^here it does Not Belong; Plain Sections 

 Best for Scraping. 



BY J. E. CRANE. 



I said to my helper a few days ago that I was 

 expecting to write an article for Gleanings on 

 cleaning comb honey. "Well," said he, "there 

 ain't nothing to do in cleaning honey but just to 

 scrape off the propolis. That is all there is to it. " 



It seemed a good deal so to me; but when I re- 

 membered the slow sticky job of years ago, and 

 the cleaner and more rapid way we now do it, 

 it looked as though there might be something 

 said that would be of some value, at least to be- 

 ginners. 



First, we want a suitable bench or table. The 

 one described in the A B C and X Y Z of Bee 

 Culture seems sadly defective, as it makes the 

 operator stand on his feet, which alone would 

 tire me without doing much work. A table that 

 one can sit down at seems to me more desirable. 



One of the best I have ever seen was described 

 in Gleanings, I think, by Mr. P. H. Elwood, 

 of Starkville, N. Y., a few years ago. I made 

 one somewhat after his description, and it is 

 about as follows: 



Make a table of planed boards, 3^ ft. long by 

 lyi wide, with legs short enough so that, when 

 you sit in a chair, the top of the table will come 

 just above your knees. Around the top, nail a 

 four-inch board for a rim which will extend 

 three inches above the upper surface of the ta- 

 ble. Two strips, one inch by ]/& inch, and 

 the length of the table, are to be nailed six 

 inches each side of the middle of the table. Now 

 get two aprons of denim or other strong cloth, 

 made so one end can slip over your neck, like the 

 leather apron of a blacksmith, with the lower 

 ends tacked to the end of the table. Now place 

 a super of sections on the two cleats which 

 support it one inch above the table, and with the 

 apron over your neck, a sharp knife, and your 

 sleeves rolled up, you are ready for business. 



The apron and table catch nearly all the pro- 

 polis, and the cleats hold the super out of the 

 way. It is not necessary to rest the section on 

 the table, but hold it in one hand and your knife 

 in the other, and then you can make the propolis 

 Hy. I like a good heavy jack-knife for this work, 

 and it should be of the best steel, and kept sharp 

 to do the best work. The propolis scrapes off 

 better in cool weather than when it is hot, and 

 after the sections have been off the hives a few 

 weeks than when first taken off; but as we can 

 not always wait we find that a little dish of wa- 

 ter on the table, to dip our knife into frequently, 

 will help much in keeping the propolis from stick- 

 ing to it 



Before sitting to the table to work I take five 

 supers, and with an old steel caseknife I scrape the 

 top of the sections clean, and then scrape the bot- 



tom of the super free of wax and propolis; and as 

 the sections are cleaned they are placed in clean 

 supers. After the sections are removed from a 

 super the entire super is cleaned of propolis. I 

 have seen sections cleaned and then returned to a 

 super to be again stuck up before using. Some 

 weigh and pack the honey as cleaned; but I pre- 

 fer to put the sections back in supers by them- 

 selves and the separators in other supers by them- 

 selves. 



GRADING AS WE CLEAN. 



If we can, it is well to sort as we clean, plac- 

 ing the best grade alone in the same supers, sec- 

 onds by themselves, and the very light ones in 

 supers to go to the extractor. Another grade 

 should be made if necessary. 



All combs containing cells of pollen, not cover- 

 ed by honey, or containing cells of brood, should 

 be put in a super or supers by themselves, as 

 worms, or the larva? of the wax-moth, are almost 

 sure to develop in them and ruin them unless 

 watched; and when a few sections have worms 

 just beginning on them, place in a stone crock 

 and on top of them a dish into which pour a tea- 

 spoonful of carbon bisulphide and cover tight 

 for twelve hours, after which they may be set 

 aside with safety until you get ready to dispose 

 of them as you think best. 



THE WORK OF DIFFERENT COLONIES IN THE SU- 

 PERS. 



In cleaning ten or twenty thousand sections we 

 are sure to find some imperfect ones, and others 

 that have brace-combs so attached as to make 

 them surely leak when detached from separa- 

 tors, and there are many others that have been 

 set to dripping by careless handling. For these 

 I have two tin traps or pans, 18X24 inches, and 

 \% inches deep, set on a table. Over these I 

 stretch galvanized wire screen on which I place 

 any sections that drip, until they have run dry, 

 when they may be cleaned of honey and used or 

 sent to the extractor. 



One of the most difficult things in cleaning 

 honey is to keep propolis in its place. With 

 seme help it will get all over the floor and over 

 your honey-house, out on the walk, into the 

 kitchen of your house, and even into your par- 

 lor, and you wonder where it all came from. 

 Even with the greatest care it will be well, when 

 you hear the dinner-bell, to scrape your feet care- 

 fully or change your shoes, or the good wife may 

 meet you with a frown instead of a smile. 



Heavy paper laid on the floor before beginning 

 to clean honey is a great help in cleaning up 

 when through, for you have only to take up the 

 papers and burn them, and your floor is about as 

 clean as when you began. 



At its best, cleaning sections is apt to be some- 

 what monotonous. It is better to work at it by 

 the job rather than by the day. A watch on the 

 table beside or in front of you is sometimes help- 

 ful; and if you can clean 120 an hour you can at 

 least clean 1000 a day; and if you have only 

 12,000 to clean you know that two good hands 

 should go through it in a week. 



There is a way by which the monotony of 

 cleaning honey may be largely done away with 

 providing the honey is of your own production 

 and from your own bees, and you do aJl the work 

 yourself. Just mark on each super as you take 

 it off, the number of the hive, and whether it is 



