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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 5, 1906 



space between the section and separator, the light-weight sec- 

 tion would have much more space than usual. Now, the part- 

 full sections that we are going to feed to get finished for 

 market, are all the way from very little or none at all capped, 

 to nearly all capped ; and what openings there are, are some- 

 what travel-stained. 



Now, when we commence to feed, the unsealed portion 

 of the section is drawn out to the regular thickness, or a little 

 thicker than the 15-ounce section mentioned above. This 

 makes an ugly-looking, patched capping job. with part thin. 

 travel-stained surface, and part plump and flat, with brand new 

 mappings — an unsatisfactory job, and honev that will bring 

 only a little better than No. 2 price. 



Now the remedy is so simple that it is a wonder that all 

 haven't practiced it before. It is to uncap the sections we are 

 going to feed, and let the bees draw them out to the regular 

 thickness of comb, and cap them over anew. The results 

 were more than satisfactory, as the sections were the best 

 filled and the heaviest weight of any we produced last year. 

 But the main point is, it sold with our fancv and No. "l. at 

 15 cents on the car. while if fed in the usual way it must 

 have gone in a grade by itself at a lower price. 



Then if one produces comb-honey without separators, 

 this idea is even more valuable. You "simplv uncap the fat, 

 crooked surfaces deep; or, in other words, level up the sec- 

 tions with the uncapping knife before feeding, by thinning 

 up the thick combs, and uncapping the thin combs by just 

 taking barely the cappings off, then grading them as to 

 weight, etc., when putting them into the super, as I told above. 



Anyone who has never tried, cannot imagine what a job 

 it is to match up partly filled sections from different supers 

 to feed back, but in this new method the uncapping-knife 

 does the matching, as all are trimmed smooth and even, and 

 will fit in any place equally as well as if separators had 

 been used. E. D. Townsend. 



Uncapping Machine. 



A labor-saver which has long been desired seems now 

 to be an accomplished fact. Pres. Hutchinson read a letter 

 from a New York State bee-keeper asking how many mem- 

 bers would be willing to pay $35 for an uncapping ma- 

 chine. He was not at liberty to describe the machine, or 

 give the man's name. Then E. R. Root described a ma- 

 chine made and used by a California man, who has proved 

 it to be a success. In principle it is two rollers about 7 or 

 8 inches in diameter, which turn at a rate of 1,000 to 1,500 

 revolutions per minute. Thousands of fine points on these 

 rollers pick the cappings off the combs as it passes down 

 between the rollers. 



R. F. Holtermann said he was working on the same 

 idea independently, so we have the uncapping machine 

 coming from three different sources, and can feel assured 

 that it will be a sucess. 



Foul-Brood Inspection. 



A prolonged discussion on foul-brood inspection 

 brought out the views of many of the members on this 

 important question. It was agreed by all that the work of 

 controlling or doing anything towards eradicating the 

 disease was entirely too great for one inspector, and the 

 meager Government grant. 



Morley Pettit said the discussion reminded him of 

 similar discussions .n the Ontario convention. The same 

 conditions and the same needs prevail there. At the last 

 Ontario convention it was decided to divide the Province 

 into three divisions, with three inspectors. This was a 

 step in the right direction. 



Mr. Root moved that a committee of Mr. Hutchinson, 

 the present inspector, Mr. Hilton and Sec. E. M. Hunt, be 

 appointed to consult the Legislature and endeavor to get 

 a larger grant and more thorough inspection. Carried. 



Size of Sections. 



Mr. Root, when called upon to speak on this subject, 

 said at present in the United States sections sell in this 

 order: The l" s bee-way 4%x4H sections sell best; the 

 4^xi<; plain sections sell next in order; and the 4x5 plain 

 sections come last in the list. Plain sections do not grow- 

 in preference as rapidly as when they were first intro- 

 duced, but they are steadily making headway. 



Mr. Aspinwall showed a shipping-case for comb honey 

 without glass in the front, and with a new device for hold- 

 ing the slats in place in the bottom. 



Mr. E. D. Townsend read the following paper: 



THE HARVESTING OF EXTRACTED HONEY 



Our practice in producing extracted honey is to furnish 

 surplus combs enough to hold the whole crop of white honey, 

 being careful towards the close of the season not to give any 

 more room than is necessary to hold the crop, for it is just 

 as necessary that extracted honey should be sealed and fin- 

 ished, as it is that comb-honey should be sealed and finished 

 before taking from the hive. 



Then. 10 days or 2 weeks after the season closes, when the 

 bees ar t - all through capping and curing their honey, we are 

 ready to extract. 



At this stage, if we have made a good guess, and have 

 not given unnecessary room. 90 percent of all the honey in 

 the hives ought to be capped. 



Before getting to the kink I am about to explain, we 

 used to go over the 3'ard and select all the full, all-sealed 

 upper stories, and extract them by themselves ; then the part- 

 full and unsealed upper stories were extracted by themselves. 

 Then when drawing off from the tanks into 60-pound cans, 

 the last can or two drawn from the best grade — that is, the 

 thin honey that always rises to the top — was kept separate, 

 and went with the No. 2 mentioned above. 



Now with the ordinary way of supplying abundance of 

 store-combs, without any regard as to how they are sealed 

 and finished, it will be seen how easy it is to get as much as 

 one-third of one's crop of this No. 2 grade. This large 

 amount of No. 2 honey on our hands, that had to be sold 

 at quite a little less price, got to be a serious matter from a 

 financial standpoint. Then we take quite a good deal of 

 pride in producing a superior article of extracted honey, and 

 we did not quite relish the idea of having so large a percent 

 of this inferior honey to sell, that we had just as lief our 

 customers would think some one else produced. Similar ex- 

 periences as these set us to thinking, and we "got onto" the 

 kink I will explain. It is as follows: 



We set two extractors near together for convenience. 

 We use, for this method, a 2-frame and a 4-frame extractor. 

 Now as part of the combs to be extracted are brought in 

 from the hives, they are sorted over, and any that are not all 

 sealed, are run through one extractor before uncapping. Then 

 the combs go to the uncapping tank and are uncapped and 

 extracted in the other extractor. And right here is where 

 the benefit of the second machine comes in; and that is. 

 everything is finished, as we go, before the honey gets too 

 cool to extract well, as it surely would do if we should try 

 to do all the work with one extractor. 



This is the only practical way of getting nil-sealed ex- 

 tracted honey that we know of, and I assure you this best 

 grade is a fine article, and we get our pay in a ready market 

 at from 1 to 2 cents a pound above the market price for our 

 honey. 



This No. 2 honey is used to "feed back" to get the part- 

 full sections of comb-honey completed, that I told about yes- 

 terday. Those who feed bees honey for winter stores, can 

 use this thin honey to feed up light colonies for winter. We 

 sold what we had left at a less price than the better grade, 

 and bought sugar to feed our light colonies, as we like sugar 

 best for winter stores. While the best grade of honey pro- 

 duced with this system is of a rich, oily body, with a very fine 

 flavor and aroma, the No. 2 is thin, and "off" in everything 

 that goes to make good honey. I have a sample of each grade 

 at this convention, extracted at the same time, from the same 

 colonies, for inspection. E. D. Townsend. 



While honey can be ripened after it is extracted, the 

 general opinion was that it is better to have it practically 

 all capped in the comb and left with the bees as long as 

 possible before it is extracted. 



O. H. Townsend said that to ripen honey off the hive 

 it must be kept in a room at a temperature of 80 to 100 

 degrees. There are sometimes damp summers, with a 

 very slow flow, when bees do not ripen honey well. In 

 such circumstances artificial heat should be used. 



Mr. Holtermann suggested that Government tests 

 should be made to ascertain the best methods of ripening 

 honey. 



E. R. Root said this matter was tested last season at 

 the Medina yards, and it was found that the longer the 

 honey was on the hive the more it was chemically changed, 

 and even after it is capped this change goes on. 



Races of Bees. 



Mr. Aspinwall said, if the non-swarming hive is an 

 assured success, he prefers Carniolans. The Manleys, R. 

 F. Holtermann, Morley Pettit, and others, agreed with 

 this. 



