THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



215 



when ready to extract. This plan 

 greatly lessens the work during the 

 busy season, as about all there is to 

 do is to see tliat jilenty of surplus 

 room isprovided. If the harvest is pro- 

 longed, lasting several weeks, it is 

 quite likely that some of the supers 

 will be ready to come off before the 

 harvest is over, and it may be best to 

 remove them if they are becoming piled 

 up too high. 



It seems almost unnecessary to say 

 that I would use a queen-excluding 

 honey board over the brood nest. If 

 bee escapes are to be used, the pres- 

 ence of brood in a super will defeat the 

 plan, as the bees will not desert the 

 brood. If we are going to brush oflf 

 the bees and extract the honey at once, 

 no honey that is thoroughly ripe can be 

 successfully extracted without at the 

 same time throwing out some of the 

 unsealed brood if any is in the comb. 

 With unusually' deep combs in the 

 brood nest, it may be advisable to use 

 shallower combs in the supers, with 

 combs no deeper than the Langstroth, 

 I doubt the advisability of having any 

 shallower combs for the supers. In the 

 production of extracted honey there is 

 not much to choose between an eight- 

 frame Langstroth hive and a ten-frame 

 one, unless (nit-apiaries are to be 

 established, when the ten-frame hives 

 seem to enable the bees to bear neglect, 

 to shift for themselves, to better ad- 

 vantage. They are less likely to run 

 short of stores. Some bee-keepers use 

 only nine combs in a ten-frame super, 

 or seven combs in an eight-frame super, 

 thus inducing the bees to lengthen out 

 the cells and make the combs thicker. 

 .I'he honey ripens more slowly in such 

 deep cells, but the uncapping is thereby 

 greatly faciliated. When the combs 

 are uncapped, the cappings should be 

 given a thorough opportunity to drain, 

 and, if they are kept clean, the water 

 in which they are melted when they 

 are rendered into wax may be made 

 into vinegar. H. G. Sibbald, of 



Ontario, has the best uncapping box 

 that it has been my good fortune to see. 

 It is five feet long, 16 inches wide, and 

 made in two sections, each nine or ten 

 inches deep. The lower section is for 

 honey, and, with the exception that the 

 corners are halved together, it is simply 

 a well-nailed and neatly made box, 

 waxed inside at all joints, with a 

 honey gate at one end to draw ofJ the 

 honey; the legs being a little shorter at 

 the end having the gate, so that the 

 honey will run off readily. The top 

 half or section is made in the same 

 manner, only that, instead of a board 

 bottom, it has a wire screen bottom 

 which allows the honey to drain from 

 the cappings. The bottom section is 

 halved on the inside, upper edge, and 

 the top section halved on the outside 

 lower edge. Being made in this man- 

 ner, the lower edge of the upper section 

 fits inside the lower one, and thus no 

 honey runs down outside the lower 

 box. 



After the honey has been thoroughly 

 ripened, and is extracted, and found 

 to be in possession of all the tine 

 qualities I have mentioned, what shall 

 be done with it ? How shall it be 

 treated that it may retain its flavor ? 

 The key to success in this direction is 

 exchision of the air. Seal it up in glass 

 jars, or tin ciins, or in clean barrels; 

 and the sooner this is done (after the 

 particles of wax and scum have raised 

 to the top) the less the escape of aroma. 

 My preference is a round, jacketed, tin 

 can, with aflat top, and a large screw- 

 cap in the top. A five-gallon can of this 

 kind, holding 60 pounds of honey, can 

 be bought for about 30 cts. This style 

 of package can be rolled on the floor, 

 while the square can must be picked 

 up and carried, or else slid along upon 

 the floor. A barrel is really the cheap- 

 est package for storing or shipping 

 honey, and when we know that the 

 hone}' is to be shipped to some manu- 

 factor}', there is no objection to the 

 use of barrels if they are well-made. 



