20 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



The season of 1911 my bee-keeping neighbor, Mr. V. V. Dexter, 

 and myself combined our forces at extracting time and planned a 

 portable outfit on wheels. The wagon used was a medium low 

 wheel farm wagon with bolster springs. The floor space being 7 x 12 

 feet, a frame work of light material was built on this and the whole 

 covered with canvas, except screens about two feet wide the whole 

 length on each side for ventilation and light, the door being placed 

 at the front end the machinery all placed as far to the rear as pos- 

 sible leaving room in the front to pile in loaded and empty supers. 

 It is fitted up with a four frame power extractor, a combined cap- 

 pings melter and honey heater, a steam heated honey knife, and a 

 storage tank holding 1,200 pounds of honey. The tank is swung 

 under the floor. The machinery is so arranged that one man can do 

 the work of uncapping, tending the extractor and putting the empty 

 combs into the super ready to ])e returned to the bees without the 

 necessity of taking but few steps. 



Where the honey is very thick and requires lots of time in the 

 extractor to empty the combs, one man can do all the work of oper- 

 ation, but when it is thin enough to be easily thro\vri out two men 

 are required as one man would be kept busy uncapping while the 

 other tended the extractor and other work. As the honey leaves the 

 extractor it enters the heating pan which is made on the same prin- 

 cipal as the pans used for making maple and cane syrup, only on a 

 much smaller scale — the honey entering one end flows from side to 

 side between partitions until it reaches the other end. By this time 

 it is heated to the proper temperature and runs through a tube to 

 the tank under the floor. 



The partitions in the pan are so arranged that no wax or other 

 matter can flow with the honey, the impurities rise to the top and 

 can be removed at pleasure. The operation is automatic, honey 

 from the extractor entering one end, heating and clarifying itself as 

 it flows to the other end. entering the tank below, where it can be 

 drawn into five gallon cans or other packages ready for the market. 



The cappings are melted in another part of the pan and the 

 honey from this can be kept separate or run in with the other as 

 desired. For this outfit we used four gasoline burners to heat the 

 honey and melt the cappings. This outfit while it does good work 

 can be greatly improved. The cappings melter is combined with the 

 heater. This idea I think is wrong, as the operation of one interferes 

 more or less with the working of the other. The expense for fuel is 

 far less than if the honey was allowed to granulate before heating. 



If by short cuts and proper methods of management we can 

 cheapen production, we at the same time increase our profits without 

 raising the prices of honey, which has a tendency to curtail con- 

 sumption. 



