THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



117 



strainer secured around the top, uncap- 

 ping can placed in position, our knife 

 sharp, dish of warm water to place the 

 knife in when not in use uncapping; 

 which will assist much in the work. 

 My uncapping can is just an oblong 

 box with a bent tin so as to drain the 

 honey to one end and run it in a dish. 

 My screen for holding the cappings is 

 one of the screens of my solar wax ex- 

 tractor. When the screen is full it is 

 placed in the solar, and another one 

 put in its place, and if it is a nice, 

 sunny day the same night we will have 

 no cappings to wash for vinegar, but 

 they will be into nice yellow wax, and 

 the honey which was in them can be 

 placed in the store can none the worse 

 for going through the solar. 



Now, when everything is ready — the 

 comb box, -wheelbarrow, and the smok- 

 er going good — I proceed to the bee- 

 yard and go around to those hives 

 from which I wish to extract, placing 

 the entrance blocks on, and giving a 

 few puffs of smoke. This will cause 

 an excitement and warm up the honey, 

 and will greatly aid in extracting. "We 

 must be cautious not to give too much 

 smoke, which injures the flavor of the 

 honey. Now proceed to that part of 

 the yard at which you wish to start, 

 and after giving a few more puffs of 

 smoke in the top, tear off the quilt and 

 take out one comb, placing it at the 

 entrance so as to give more room in 

 the hive to shake and brush the bees 

 from the combs, and prevent killing 

 and making the bees angry, placing 

 each comb as the bees are cleaned 

 from them into the comb box. After 

 all combs are out, close down hive, re- 

 move entrance blocks, and proceed to 

 the extracting room. Uncap and ex- 

 tract. A little caution must be taken 

 in turning the extractor; start slow, 

 gradually getting up speed, and there 

 is not much danger of breaking the 

 combs. After extracting, place the 

 combs to one side until evening, then 

 replace them on the hives. If I was 

 working, as I mentioned before, ex- 



tracting the half super at a time, I 

 would carry a set of combs with me 

 and replace them as soon as the full 

 ones are taken out. After the day's 

 extracting is over and all honey is run 

 into store cans, cover up the extractor, 

 uncapping dish, etc., so as to keep them 

 clean until needed again, and thus I 

 work on until the honey season is over. 

 During the last extracting the bee-tent 

 is usally brought into use to prevent 

 robbing. 



After the extracting season is finally 

 over and all combs extracted, they are 

 piled three high on hives, with a 

 quilt between the brood chamber and 

 supers, with a corner turned back to 

 allow the bees to clean them up, or, if 

 placed in the yard some distance from 

 bees, tiered up, and combs spaced to 

 allow bees access to them, they will 

 soon clean them up. But I prefer the 

 former way, as it does not cause the 

 same excitement. After combs are 

 clean and sweet they are again placed 

 in the store room with a sheet of pa- 

 per between each, until they are wanted 

 again the following spring. 



Thamesford, Ont. 



When Unite Weak Colonies. 



Written for the American Bee-Keeper. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



'Tir'UCH has been written on the 

 subject of uniting bees that 

 come out weak in the spring, 

 but from many inquiries which I re- 

 ceive it would seem that this is a sub- 

 ject on which "line upon line" must ap- 

 pear before it will be so done that the 

 best success may be obtained. When 

 I first began to keep bees I was told 

 that early spring was the time to 

 unite weak colonies; but from years of 

 experience I have learned that such 

 weak colonies will often "pull through" 

 alone, while, if united, all may perish. 

 The why for this seems to lie in the 

 fact that by thus uniting, an excite- 

 ment is caused which wears out the 

 nearlv exhausted life of the old bees 



