116 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



July 



two colonies I remoA'-e the queen from 

 one of them, leaving it queenless a day 

 or two, then unite by simply setting 

 the queenless one upon the top of the 

 other. The quarreling or loss of queens 

 from this method of uniting has been 

 so slight that it is not worth consider- 

 ing. 



The accompanying engraving, show- 

 ing a portion of my apiary, was made 

 from a photograph taken in August 

 when the supers were off the hives. 



Flint, Mich., June 6, 189S. 



Management for Kxtracted Honey 



Written for tlic American Bee-Keeper. 



BY JOHN NEV.'TON. 



Ijr^N running an apiary as I do, partly 

 Ti|S for comb and partly for extracted 

 ^^^ honey,! usually select the strong- 

 est and best colonies for comb honey, 

 and the rest are run for "extracted." 

 When the spring work has been done — 

 such as clipping queens' wings, etc., 

 and before the honey season opens — 

 I see that my extracting combs and su- 

 pers are clean and in proper condition 

 for the honey season. My supei'.s are 

 the same size as the brood chambers, 

 only one comb less is used; eight 

 combs 81/4x16% comprising my extract- 

 ing super. 



As the season opens, my supers and 

 queen excluders are brought from the 

 store-room, the smoker is lighted and 

 the bees smoked, the excluder placed 

 over the brood chamber and one su- 

 per is put over the excluder on all 

 colonies to be run for extracting honey, 

 and are strong enough to need room. 

 After the honey flow fairly opens, I 

 make it a rule to see what is being 

 done in the supers, or colonies not yet 

 having extra room; so that if more 

 room is needed it may be given at 

 once. I never allow a shortage of room 

 for storing. In doing so, two objects 

 are sought: One is to discourage 

 swarming from over-loading, and the 

 other is to receive the greatest amount 

 of surplus honey. I run all colonies 



two stories high. When super No. 1 

 is about two-thirds full, it is raised 

 and super No. 2 placed under it. 



I might here say for those who have 

 not so many spare combs, that it can 

 be worked by extracting one-half of 

 the combs at a time, always placing the 

 combs with the most honey to the 

 centre of the hives. By doing this, you 

 will get well-ripened honey, and it does 

 not allow the bees to be over-crowded, 

 or in need of store room. 



As the season advances, and in four 

 or five days after you have placed on 

 your second super, super No. 1 will be 

 ready for extracting, but here let us be 

 sure that our honey is well ripened be- 

 fore extracting. We all know that nec- 

 tar which the bees collect from the 

 flowers is thin and watery, and must 

 be fully evaporated to make the best 

 honey. The bee-keeper should be 

 equally wise and not extract his honey 

 until it is capped over. This requires a 

 little more labor of uncapping, but 

 then we get honey far superior, and 

 the wax for our trouble. W"e do not 

 want honey that has been ripened arti- 

 ficially. All honey should be allowed 

 to ripen in the hives; the honey will 

 have a better body and is superior in 

 flavor. 



Now we must see that our extracting 

 and store rooms are in good order — 

 everything clean and tidy. When vis- 

 itors come to see me I never feel 

 ashamed to show them into my ex- 

 tracting room; I know they will not be 

 disgusted and depart saying, "I do not 

 want to eat any extracted honey if 

 every bee-keeper is as dirty as Newton; 

 it is not fit to eat." 



I have seen extracting rooms all 

 daubed and sticky, and the bee-keeper, 

 also. Let us put a good clean article 

 on the market and command a good 

 price. Have our extracting and store 

 rooms in good order, the extractor 

 placed in position on a box or bench in 

 good order and high enough to let a 

 pail under the tap, the honey cans the 

 same in the store room with our 



