THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



233 



to do the uncapping, if we made any 

 headway; now Delbert alone will un- 

 cap more honey than any two-frame 

 extractor will handle; and we are con- 

 templating- putting- in a four-frame 

 machine in the future. It is surpris- 

 ing- how quickly one of these fat combs 

 can be uncapped. A man who never 

 saw any uncapping done, stood look- 

 ing at Delbert slicing off the whole 

 side of a comb at one clip, the whole 

 operation taking perhaps four or five 

 seconds, when he remarked: "It's a 

 regular skinning machine! Were I to 

 run that knife like that I would not 

 have any fingers on that left hand, in 

 about three minutes." Probably the 

 worst mistake made in uncapping is 

 in holding the comb at such an angle 

 that the cappings, after being cut off, 

 fall back on the comb, necessitating 

 going all over the comb a second time, 

 to scrape off the loose cappings, thus 

 consuming more time than it took to 

 uncap it in the first place. Then oth- 

 ers, when they have run their knife, 

 say one-third the way over the comb, 

 or when they think they have all the 

 cappings their knife will hold, stop 

 and scrape their knife on the vmcap- 

 ping tank; in fact, it does seem as 

 though some parties trying to uncap 

 honey, spend half their time scraping 

 and cleaning their knife. The only 

 time a knife needs cleaning is when 

 one has been so bung-ling as to get 

 some particles of comb daubed over 

 the edge. 



MAKING THE COMBS "BALANCE" IN 

 THE EXTRACTOR. 



It does not require as much experi- 

 ence to handle tbe extractor, as it 

 does the uncapping knife, and if the 

 weather is warm, and the combs of 

 even weight, everything will work 

 smoothly ; but, as it often happens, the 

 conditions are not always this way. 

 It sometimes happens that it is an ad- 

 vantage to commence extracting in the 

 morning, a little before the honey is 

 warm enough to handle to good advan- 



tage; in this case we instruct Arthur, 

 who runs the extractor, something like 

 this: "Now we are commencing a little 

 early this morning, and as last night 

 was a little cold, you will turn at a 

 good brisk speed, the same as usual, 

 only you will have to turn longer. You 

 cannot gain much by turningya5/i?r, as 

 it takes about so long, anyway, to get 

 the honey out. By watching the spray 

 on the side of the extractor can, and 

 occasionally lifting the combs, you can 

 tell when you have turned long enough; 

 and when you once get the knack, you 

 will know without looking, when they 

 are done, almost the second the honey 

 is all out." Select combs as near of a 

 weight as you can find; and here 

 comes in one of the advantages of the 

 comb-rack, pi-eviously described, as 

 this holds several combs, thus allow- 

 ing a selection. It is not always nec- 

 essary to select combs that will weigh 

 the same, to balance in the extractor. 

 To illustrate: an upper story that is 

 two-thirds full, will have its central- 

 combs full, but as we go towards each 

 side they commence to be lighter. We 

 will suppose the outside frame has one 

 pound in the side towards the wall of 

 the hive, and two povnids on the side 

 towards the center; the second comb 

 has two pounds on the outside, and 

 three on the other; now; if we put the 

 light side of the light comb, and the 

 heavy side of the heavy one out, when 

 placing them in the extractor, they will 

 after the first turn or two, be of the 

 same weight. This idea comes in play 

 often in putting combs into the extrac- 

 tor. The experienced eye is quick to 

 take in the situation, and put in combs 

 that will balance well. 



PUTTING THE HONEY IN THE TANK. 



It is not practicable, with our system 

 of setting bees on rented ground, to go 

 into anything elaborate, such as run- 

 ning the honey direct from the extrac- 

 tor to the tank; so the best we can do is 

 to draw it off into a 16-quart pail, and 

 empty into the tank by hand. Now, 



