1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



315 



to extract from the only super that is 

 on a hive, during a big How of honey, 

 without harvesting a large amount of 

 unripe honey which has just been 

 gathered, at the same time with the 

 ripe honey. On the other hand, the 

 reader must bear in mind that we are 

 giving our own methods, and that in 

 our practice, with four or five apiaries, 

 we find it inconvenient to extract any 

 of the honey while the crop lasts, as 

 the bee-keeper must attend to several 

 apiaries, aad cannot afford to spend 

 two or three days in succession in any 

 one of them at the time. 



As for the danger of losing the 

 combs, from moths, during a bad sea- 

 sou, we are not at all afraid af this. 

 Whenever we have lost combs, it has 

 been the neglect of some one to keep 

 the screens of the honey-house win- 

 dows well closed. Moths cannot live 

 over winter in a honey-hive where no 

 fire is kept, in this climate, and the 

 moths would have to be brought from 

 the outside. In a well-conducted 

 honey-house, where old combs from 

 colonies that have died late in the 

 spring are either rendered up in wax 

 or sulphured, or used for new swarms, 

 there is no danger of moths. We 

 have not had three bad honey seasons 

 in succession, and we have a number 

 of surplus cases with the combs in 

 them that have not been out of the 

 honey-house in all that time, and yet 

 they are as perfect as when taken off 

 the hives. 



The different grades of honey which 

 are harvested during the spring crop 

 cannot usually be kept separate, as 

 they are generally harvested at the 

 same time. Basswood and clover go 

 well together, and a slight tinge of 

 basswood rather makes clover honev 



more pleasant. Basswood honey alone 

 is too strong, and a poor product to sell. 

 Honey-dew is very objectionable, 

 whether by itself or mixed with other 

 grades, but we have yet to find a 

 method of compelling the bees to har- 

 vest it separately. As a matter of 

 course, we do not leave the honey 

 from the spring crop on the hives, but 

 extract it as soon as the first honey 

 season is over. In some localities, 

 further north than ours, the two crops, 

 spring and summer, almost run to- 

 gether, but there are always a few 

 days of suspension, when the first 

 crop may be "removed from the hives 

 to make room for the yellow honey of 

 fall blossoms. 



After the extracting is over, the 

 first thing that requires attention is 

 the capping can. We usually leave 

 the cappings in it, for a week or two. 



If more than one canful have been 

 taken, they are kept in barrel with 

 one head taken out, and after the last 

 batch has been well drained, those in 

 the barrel may be drained again, until 

 they are neai-ly dry. After this we 

 wash these cappings in hot water, to 

 remove the last particles of honey 

 that may remain. It is a mistake to 

 render up the capping into wax with- 

 out first washing them, as the honey 

 is lost, and this is very useful to make 

 vinegar or wine, metheglin or mead. 

 If neither vinegar is nor wine is want- 

 ed, they may be kept until cider mak- 

 ing time, and then wash, and the 

 water may be added to the cider with 

 profit. To make a fair article of 

 either cider or vinegar, an egg should 

 float at the top, part of the egg, about 

 the size of a nickle showing above the 

 water. 



The water in which we wash the 



