March IS, 1900, 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



163 



grower of the land. Prof. L. R. Jones, of the Vermont Ag- 

 ricultural College, informs me that Mr. Waite is quite con- 

 servative, and does not overestimate the value of bees in 

 this connection. — Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 

 Addison Co., Vt. 



Something- About Honey-Extractors and Their 



Use. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



AS I intend to buy ati extractor this year, I should like to get some 

 information in relation to it from a user^s standpoint, and not from 

 the manufacturer. 



Would a machine for a 12-iuch depth frame take [if a two-frame 

 extractor) four of the si,x-inch extractinpr-frames? I may wish, at times, 

 to extract from the brood-frames, which are standard length, and ll^-i 

 inches deep.— J. P. Cobukn. 



Answer. — Any extractor made for large frames, with a 

 basket 13 to 1334: by 20, will take one of the large frames in 

 question, or two of the shallow extracting-frames. So a 

 two-frame extractor will take four shallow frames with side- 

 bar 6 inches deep, such as we use. 



We have always used a four-frame extractor, and those 

 that were made for us years ago were of the Excelsior pat- 

 tern, then manufactured by Mr. JMewman, in Chicago. 

 These extractors took four large (juinby frames, or eight 

 small ones, and are still in use by us. We have five of 

 them, and altho some of them have been very much bat- 

 tered by rough usage and transporting in wagons with 

 honey-barrels from one apiary to another, they are still fit 

 to be used, tho some of them have been repaired a number 

 of times. 



They were made without any center rod, so the frames 

 can be turned over without lifting them out, and we find 

 that such extractors are about as convenient as the reversi- 

 ble, which are necessarily much more cumbersome since the 

 frame baskets in them have to swing around in the can. 

 The task of turning the frames over when they do not have 

 to be lifted out, makes but little additional work, and one is 

 able to put twice as many frames in the same space. The 

 four-frame reversible extractors are quite expensive and 

 cumbersome. 



Economy in extractors is a mistaken saving. A farmer 

 might as well economize in buying a plow, or a carpenter 

 in buying a saw, or a gardener in buying a spade. The 

 original cost of these implements is nothing compared to 

 the arnount of work they do, and an apiarist with but two 

 colonies of bees can easily pay for his extractor in one or 

 two years by using it judiciously. 



So, in buying extractors, I would urge always to buy 

 the very best regardless of cost. If a lubricant is needed 

 yvhen using it, use honey only, but be sure and wash it ofi: 

 in hot water as soon as the work is over. Tin will remain 

 bright under a coat of honey, but wherever the tin is worn 

 the iron under it will color the honey and will rust if allowed 

 to stand any length of time. So we always wash our ex- 

 tractors with hot water as soon as the crop has been taken 

 off, and dry them thoroly at once. 



The extractors that are now made are of much better 

 quality than those made previously, strength being now 

 more considered. The apiarist may save much strain to his 

 machine by using combs of fairly even weight in the oppo- 

 site baskets of the machine. This is the principal require- 

 ment, as the overbalancing caused by a greater weight on 

 one side will be likely to warp the baskets or the frame. 



There is no need of fast turning, especially in warm 

 weather. A.scertain the speed necessary to throw out the 

 nectar, and regulate the motion in accordance with this. 

 A great speed only serves to break out the comb, or to 

 crush it against the screen. Hancock Co., 111. 



Cellar-Wintering- of Bees— Something- About It. 



BY G. M. DOOWTTLE. 



A CORRESPONDENT writes that he is wintering his 

 bees in the cellar for the first time this winter, and 

 that upon going into the cellar lately he found one of 

 the colonies roaring to quite an extent. He wishes to know 

 what caused the roaring, and also wishes me to tell thru the 

 columns of the American Bee Journal how a person can 

 know when bees are wintering well in a cellar. 



Answering the above as best I may, I will say that it is 

 not an uncommon thing to find a single colony somewhat 

 noisy upon going into the cellar, but when one is so found 

 it is well to mark it in some way, that it may be watcht or 



lookt after the next time you go in. Very probably the 

 next time the cellar is visited he will find this colony as 

 quiet as any, for without more light on the subject, I should 

 expect that this colony was in the act of taking honey into 

 the cluster. 



Where bees are wintered out-of-doors they generally 

 " break cluster" with every warm spell that comes, and go 

 over to the outside combs of sealed honey, uncap the same, 

 and carry quite a store of it over into the center combs sur- 

 rounding the cluster, so that they may have plenty of un- 

 sealed honey near at hand to carry them over to another 

 warm spell. This, in a measure, insures their safety from 

 starvation should the cold hold out longer than the sealed 

 stores immediately above them last, as they have this much 

 in addition. In thus carrying honey the whole colony is 

 aroused, and a merry hum is given off, the same as with 

 colonies when being fed at any time, or when procuring 

 nectar from the field, for, so far as I have observed, bees 

 never move nectar from flowers, or feed on honey from 

 feeders or the combs, but that this hum of happiness is 

 heard. 



Now and then a colony will carry honey into the cluster 

 as above while in the cellar, doing this as often as the un- 

 sealed honey is consumed surrounding them, which would 

 account for the roaring spoken of by the correspondent ; 

 but the majority of colonies wintered in the cellar do not 

 usually thus carry honey. If this particular colony keeps 

 up this roaring I should try (if it were possible to do it with- 

 out disturbing other colonies) giving such colony more or 

 less ventilation to its own hive, until I struck the right 

 amount, when it would remain as quiet as the others. 



As to the part about bees wintering well, it would be a 

 hard matter to tell exactly about it ; but that I may do the 

 best I can, I have just been into my cellar and will tell the 

 reader as near as I can what I did and how I found things, 

 and I think the bees are wintering fairly well this winter. 



My bee-cellar is perfectly dark, in fact, so dark that I 

 have many times taken a piece of perfectly white paper in 

 with me, a foot or more square, and after having staid so 

 long that my eyes have become accustomed to the darkness, 

 all they would were I to remain there 24 hours, I have taken 

 this piece of paper and past it backward and forward before 

 my eyes without being able to discern the least sign or 

 shadow of it. 



There are four doors leading to the cellar, all of which 

 are shut behind me in entering one after the other, so that 

 no disturbing ray of light or breath of cold air shall dis- 

 turb the bees from their quiet slumbers, special pains being 

 always taken that all of my movements shall be of the most 

 quiet kind, so that no jar or loud noise shall ever greet 

 them. Being in total darkness I stand still and listen, for 

 in this listening we can tell more about how the bees are 

 wintering than b3' any other one thing after we have struck 

 a light. The sound I hear is like a low, faint murmur of a 

 slight breeze in some far off tree-tops, the rumble of some 

 train of cars miles away, or the lashing of the waves on 

 some distant shore, which is very nearlj' indescribable. 

 Occasionally this semi-stillness is broken by a bee flying 

 out on the cellar-bottom, or some single bee giving off a 

 " zeep, zeep," as we often hear while holding the ear close 

 to a hive in midsummer, but the same being very much 

 fainter and more supprest. 



I have about 75 colonies in this cellar, and the above 

 describes as well as I can all that could be heard for a time 

 suflicient to count slowly 500, I standing perfectly still all 

 of this time before striking any light. Should there be any 

 mice or rats present in the cellar, their presence is more 

 quickly detected in this way than with a light, for they are 

 very apt to make a noise by running about among the 

 hives, which is easily heard in the deep darkness and still- 

 ness which reigns. 



If the correspondent has only a few colonies of bees in 

 the cellar, he may be obliged to place his ear near the hives 

 to hear their low hum, and stay half an hour or so to hear 

 a bee fly out ; while if there are 200 to 300 colonies in the 

 cellar the hum will be louder, and bees be flying nearly all 

 the while, if near spring, which it will be before this is 

 publisht. 



If the bees are in the house-cellar it will be necessary to 

 get up before the family in the morning, so that all may be 

 still, in order to test this part of the matter. 



After listening till satisfied, I strike a match and light 

 a paraffin or spermaceti candle, tl>us . not annoying the bees 

 to nearly so great an extent as a lamp or lantern, while 

 with it I can secure a much more satisfactory result. These 

 candles can be procured at almost any country store, and I 

 always advise their use in bee-cellars. 



