^DS. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



35 



jr to do this we must study our lo- 

 ility and know the time our honey 

 oducing flowers open, and thus we 

 all gain a knowledge which will en- 

 le us to reap a rich harvest of honey, 

 tien honey is secreted in the flowera. 

 Borodino. N. Y. 



Details in Extracting Honey. 



]\'iitU:n f<_ir l/if American IJft-h'ffptr. 

 By w. z. HrrcHixsoN. 

 Editor American Bee Keeper — A cor- 

 spondent in your November number 

 ks for details in the work of ex- 

 icting honey. 



He uses an eight-frame hive, and 

 ks how many frames he shall empty 



one time supposing them all in the 

 3ie condition. Not much headway 

 n be made in the production of ex- 

 icted honey with an eight-frame 



e, unless it is used two ox more 

 tries high. 



A.bout all of the combs of one eight- 

 ime hive are needed for brood. One 



two outside combs might be found 

 It would contain considerable honey, 

 d they could be run through the ex- 

 tcior with little or no damage to the 

 Dod. if care is taken not to turn fast 

 ough to throw out any unsealed 

 3od. But this is a slow way of get- 

 g extracted honey. In a good honey 

 w these one or two outside combs 



u!d have to be emptied daily in or- 

 ■ to give the bees room to store what 

 ney they could gather, and in many 



tances a colony would need several 

 lies this room. Not only this, but 



re wou'.d not be time to ripen the 

 ney. Use the eight-frame hives, two 



more stories high, and they are all 



ht for the production of extracted 

 ney. Put on a queen-excluding 

 Qey board over the top of the lower 

 iry and thus confine the queen and 

 ; brcod to the lower story. When 

 ; second story is full of honey, if it is 

 t capped over it may be raised up 

 i another story placed between it 

 1 the lower story. By the time that 

 ' last added story is full of honey it 

 likely that the top one will have its 



honey ripened and sealed over. If it 

 isn't, I would add still another story, 

 or, better still, put the upper story, 

 bees and all, on some weak colony that 

 has not yet an upper story. Three 

 stories high is about as high as it is 

 advisable to tier up full sized hives. 



I would not extract until the honey is 

 all sealed, or, at least, most of it is 

 sealed. Perhaps this ought to be quali- 

 fied a little. By this tiering-up process 

 it often happens that the honey is real- 

 ly ripened before it is all sealed over. 

 Judge of the matter by the thickness 

 of the honey. If the honey is as thick 

 as that of fully ripened honey that is 

 sealed over, it is ripe enough to extract. 

 One great trouble with the sale of ex- 

 tracted honey is that so many extract 

 it before it is ripe and put it on the 

 market in that condition. Experts 

 may extract honey that is not fully 

 ripe, and then ripen it by artificial 

 means, but the ordinary bee-keeper 

 dees not do that way. Some good au- 

 thorities assert that honey may be 

 ripened artificially and be of just as 

 fine flavor as that ripened by the bees. 

 WTiile it is possible that this is true, 

 there is no doubt that the honey 

 ripened by the bees is all right. 



When the honey in the upper story 

 is ripe, remove the cover and drive the 

 bees down with smoke. Take the 

 combs out rapidly before the bees come 

 trooping back, and give each comb a 

 sharp shake or two that will dislodge 

 most of the bees. Brush off the rest of 

 them with a quill from a turkey wing 

 or something of this nature. When the 

 combs are free from bees, hang them 

 in an empty hive. If there are other 

 empty combs, they may be at once put 

 in the places of those that have been 

 removed. Wired foundation is all 

 right to put in the supers, but finished 

 combs are better, especially when 

 honey is coming in freely, as they are 

 all ready to put honey into. A hive of 

 combs can be wheeled or carried to the 

 extracting room, the cappings shaved 

 off and the honey extracted, and then 



