THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



189 



[For tho Amoricau Boo Joarual.] 



Honoy-Emptying Machine. 



We, last year, made the following announce- 

 ment in our circulars : 



"A plan lias been devised in Germany for 

 emptying honey from the comb, without injur- 

 ing the comb, or removing the bee-bread or any 

 other impurities. Bj^ retuining the emptied 

 comb to the bees, the jield of honey, in favora- 

 ble seasons, may be largely increased. An im- 

 provement on the German machine for effecting 

 this object, has been devised and patented bj^ L. 

 L. Langstroth and Samuel Wagner, Avhich will 

 soon be thoroughly tested, so that the machine 

 can be offered for sale the coming season " 



Owing to constant demands on our time in 

 other directions, the first machine was not ready 

 for use, until the middle of June. We had sent 

 to pui chasers about the first of JMay, a large 

 number of queens reared the previous season, 

 and as the yield of honey from the fruit-trees 

 and the locust blossoms had been very abun- 

 dant, the combs, in many of the hives, were so 

 filled with honey that the young queens had 

 very few cells in which to deposit their eggs. 

 in this state of affairs the machine was at once 

 called into play ; four, and even six, of the 

 heaviest combs were taken out, the uncapped 

 cells emptied, and the combs returned. 



During the course of this work, we found that 

 sealed brood in the combs was uninjured by 

 the process of emptying, that the eggs in the 

 cells were undislurbed, and that pollen, freshly 

 deposited, remained in place; hut tbat all the 

 hone}^ uncapped, and all the young lurvm in the 

 cells uncapped, made haste to quit the comb 

 when once the machine commenced to work. 



An apiarian friend, whose articles have often 

 added interest to the columns of the Journal, 

 being soon after on a visit to our apiary, saw 

 the machine and devised a plan for making it 

 lighter, simpler, and cheaper, and at the same 

 time equally adapted to most of the ends sought 



to be attained. Our original machine, of which 

 a cut is annexed, which will serve to give an 

 idea of the principle on which we work, (viz : 

 centrifugal force), had two ends in view : one 

 to allow of the reception of comb frames of dif- 

 ferent sizes, the other, to allow of the use of dif- 

 ferent sized barrels or receptacles. To accom- 

 plish these ends, it had been made of iron, with 

 numerous bolts, pillars, screws, &c. In the 

 modified machine, the patented features are dis- 

 pensed with, a barrel being furnished with each 

 apparatus, and the comb-holder of wood, being 

 made large enough to hold the Langstroth 

 frames used in hives not over ten inches deep. 

 Smaller frames, or pieces of broken comb, can as 

 readily be emptied. 



This modified style we have thoroughly tes- 

 ted, and found to work to our satisfaction. 

 With it, two full combs, in our frames, can be 

 emptied dry and clean, in less than three min- 

 utes after the cells are uncapped. This uncap- 

 ping was at first a very difficult process, until wc 

 had a knife made expressly for the work ; this 

 knife needs to be frequently dipped in boiling 

 water, to prevent clogging of the edge. 



After a little practice nearly every cell can be 

 readily uncapped by this knife, without materi- 

 ally injuring tlie comb, which can at once be re- 

 turned to the bees. 



Having already made this communication 

 longer than was intended, we will only add that 

 since the first day of December, we have emp- 

 tied successfully all our full combs secured as 

 surplus, and that the hone}' obtained from these 

 combs, many of them black from long breeding 

 in, and more or less stored with bee-bread, was 

 of good color, and possessed the peculiar, deli- 

 cate flavor which would have been destroyed if 

 the comb had been subjected to either heat or 

 pressure. We have found no difficulty in sel- 

 ling this honey at wholesale, put up in "glass 

 screw-top fruit cans," side by side with the 

 finest box honej^ for only a few cents less per 

 pound. For table use, in all except the mere 

 show made b}'^ white comb, it is far preferable 

 to honey in the comb. 



As we are continually in receipt of letters of 

 inquiry in regard to this apparatus, price of ma- 

 chine, directions for making, «&c., allow ns to 

 add that we have made arrangements for the 

 supply of such machines as may be ordered, in- 

 cluding knife and barrel, at an advance over 

 cost barely sufticient to pay for our time in 

 attending to the matter. 



Any one is, of course, free to make them. 

 For fui ther particulars, we refer to our Circular 

 and Price-list for 1868. 



L. L. Langstroth «& Son. 



Oxford, Butler Co., O., Feb. 1868. 



If worker bees are to perform any service of 

 much account in the year in which they are 

 bred, they must be hatched at latest on the 15th 

 of June, in districts where there is no fall pas- 

 turage. — Berlepsch. 



A northern man, who recently emigrated to 

 Jefferson county, in the lower valley of Virginia, 

 made 1,500 pounds of honey from fifty hives of 

 bees last summer, which he sold for |450. 



