AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



19 



gan crawling, and in another five she 

 was quite lively. 



I then tried to introduce her, but it 

 was. not until she had been endangered 

 by the bees balling her, six or seven 

 times, that I succeeded. This was about 

 the middle of August ; by the middle of 

 October I had a fine colony of bees — her 

 progeny — when I removed her to 

 another hive, for the purpose of rearing 

 some queens from her. She soon filled 

 with bees the hive I transferred her to, 

 and they soon filled the hive with honey. 



In February, 1894, I removed her 

 again, and now she has her third hive 

 of bees and honey down for the winter. 

 I gave a Mr. Pollock a frame of her 

 eggs, and he also reared some queens 

 from her, which have produced the best 

 bees in his yard, one of the colonies 

 giving him 27 frames of honey, each 

 weighing over 10 pounds, in the tail 

 end of the season. The daughters I 

 have reared from her have also proved 

 equally satisfactory. 



Wingham, N.S.W., Australia, Apr. 12. 



Comte for Eitractliig. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY J. A. GREEN. 



Extracting-frames are usually the 

 same in size as brood-frames. In fact, 

 many use them interchangeably and 

 consider it a great advantage to be able 

 to do so. Doubtless there are some ad- 

 vantages in doing this, but my prefer- 

 ence is decidedly in favor of having 

 separate sets of combs for the different 

 purposes. Brood-combs are more or 

 less injured by having honey extracted 

 from them, if that honey has to be un- 

 capped — and no honey should ever be 

 extracted that does not require to be 

 uncapped. Brood is not wanted in the 

 extracting combs. 



By the use of perforated zinc the 

 queen is readily kept out of the surplus 

 department, to the great convenience 

 of the apiarist, and often to the great 

 improvement of the honey. 



My extracting-frames are closed-end, 

 tightly clamped together by means of 

 screws. The cases which contain them 

 are only six inches deep. There are 

 several very decided advantages in hav- 

 ing the extracting-frames shallow. The 

 combs are not so easily broken, and they 

 are moro easily handled and uncapped. 

 The bees will enter a shallow super 

 more readily, and room may be added 

 more gradually as it is needed. 



By the use of perforated zinc and the 

 bee-escape, the combs are freed from 

 bees with far less labor than by the old 

 plan of shaking and brushing the bees 

 from the combs. 



After they are taken from the hives, 

 these shallow supers with fixed frames 

 are handled much easier than the deep, 

 loose frames. By loosening the screws, 

 the whole lot of frames may be dumped 

 ' out on a table on their backs together, 

 where they are easily handled. 



Most of my extracting-combs have 

 been transferred into the frames they 

 now occupy, some of them from frames 

 of odd sizes or those in which the combs 

 were crooked, and some from box-hives 

 and scraps of comb. 



Now it is decidedly a nuisance to ex- 

 tract from crooked combs, and as trans- 

 ferred combs are almost always more or 

 less crooked, I suppose you wonder that 

 I should advise using transferred combs 

 for extracting. But my extracting- 

 combs aie nearly all as straight as a 

 board, and this is how it happens : 



In my extracting-supers I use only 

 seven frames in a space of llj^ inches — 

 a space which is just right for eight 

 brood-combs. The bees must build out 

 the combs a little thicker than they 

 were originally. When the honey is 

 extracted from them the first time, they 

 are pretty crooked, and some patience is 

 required. I cut away every high place, 

 and am very careful to uncap every low 

 place, so that the bees will have a 

 chance to build it up level. This work 

 of straightening the combs, as well as 

 the labor of uncapping them forever 

 after, is made much easier by the fact 

 that the top and bottom bars are made 

 just 1 8/32 inches wide. This forms 

 a guide to the uncapping-knife, which 

 extends clear across the shallow frame, 

 and everything is pared down to a level 

 each time the honey is extracted from 

 them. As the frames are made accur- 

 ately, and are held at fixed distances, by 

 the time the combs have been uncapped 

 two or three times the crookedest of 

 them are as straight and even as one 

 could wish. As I allow all my honey to 

 be capped over before it is extracted, it 

 is a great saving of labor to have every 

 comb uniform. 



The top-bar of my frames is 11/32 

 and the bottom bar 8/32 of an inch 

 thick. This is sufficient to keep them 

 from sagging when the frame is only 

 5^ deep, and full of comb, and is pref- 

 erable in some respects to a greater 

 thickness. If you expect the entire 

 weight of the honey to be suspended 



