1884 



(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



737 



would have the best honey which can be produced 

 it becomes a necessity that we should extract thick 

 honey. When I received my first extractor it came 

 in mid-winter; and being- one of those who can not 

 wait lon^ to see a new invention woi-k, of course I 

 musttry it immediately; so I repaired to the shop, 

 took down some frames of honey I had stored away, 

 unoapped them, and tried the machine. As mig-ht 

 be expected, the thing was a failure, especially as 

 this extractor was one with no gearing, but whose 

 can and all revolved by means of a peg or handle 

 placed near the center of the can. Upon going to 

 bed that night I thought, of course, I could not suc- 

 ceed in throwing out frozen honey, for the extract- 

 or was made for use in the summer time when the 

 weather is hot. After some study and planning, the 

 next morning found me up bright and early, with 

 several combs hanging up near the ceiling of a 

 small room, with a good Are built and a thermome- 

 ter hanging close by the combs of honey. I soon 

 had the temperature of the room at the ceiling up 

 to 93°, where I kept it for 6 hours ; as I remembered of 

 reading in some of M. Quinby's writings, that, if a 

 comb of solid honey wei-e to be given to a colony 

 of bees in the winter, it should be left in a warm 

 room at least half a day before being set with the 

 bees, so as to get thoroughly warmed through. In 

 the afternoon I again tried the extractor, when I 

 could easily throw out 95 per cent of the honey the 

 comb contained. Even that which was partially 

 candied could nearly all be thrown out, and the 

 comb hung away so clean that no bees were needed 

 to clean them off. 



Since then I have often extracted partly filled sec- 

 tions in January and February by this plan, getting 

 out from 90 to 95 per cent of the honej', without in- 

 jury to the most fi-agile combs, while I have no 

 trouble at all in extracting from the brood-combs. 

 By hanging the combs near the ceiling of the room 

 it does not take an extremely hot Are to keep the 

 temperature at from 90 to 100°, or even higher, if 

 you have old tough combs. Keep the combs in just 

 so much heat as they will bear without breaking 

 down, for 6 hours, and no one need have one pound 

 of honey left in them after exti-acting, as brother 

 McNeill says he has. Another thing, the extracting 

 is done in this way when there is little else to do, as 

 fall and early winter is comparatively a time of 

 leisure with most bee-keepers; and by tiering up 

 and leaving the honey on the hives till fall, as friend 

 Dadant advises, the cares of the busy season are 

 not as great. 



But, how about this thick honey being thrown 

 over the top of the extractor? Well, if the person 

 extracting can stand it to go into a room and work 

 >vhen the temperature is 100°, he will have little 

 trouble; but if the extracting is done in a tempera- 

 ture of from 60 to 75°, there is not an extractor 

 which 1 ever saw, with a revolving reel and station- 

 ary can, but that would throw honey over the top. 

 Surely every Novice extractor will, that I have seen, 

 although friend Root says he " never expects to fur- 

 nish anybody with an extractor that throws over 

 the top of the can; " and I have seen a good many 

 such extractors. Friend Root, I would take back 

 that offer to remedy all such extractors, for I don't 

 believe you can do it shoi-t of a cover, and a cover 

 to each one you have sent out would be quite a cost- 

 ly affair. 1 have the Novice extractor made for the 

 Quinby frame, and use the Gallup frame in it, and 

 stiJI it throwis tblc£ honey over the top badly, when 



extracting in a temperate room. And how can It 

 help doing so? for anybody who has done any ex- 

 tracting knows that the motion of the reel causes 

 the air to come with a whirl out of the can on the 

 outside, while at the same time it is supplied by air 

 going in at the center. Thus we have a circular fan, 

 as it were. Now, this liquid always goes in the form 

 of drops, when separated from the main body, 

 while thkk liquid draws out into fine streams, like 

 strings or hairs; hence it will be seen that the drops 

 of thin honey leave the combs, during the process 

 of extracting, by the force given them by the ex- 

 tractor, and pass directly to the side of the can; 

 while the thick honey is drawn out by the same 

 force into strings, or fine hairs. Now, so soon as 

 the cool air caused by this circular fan sti-ikes these 

 hairs of honey, it causes them to draw out still finer, 

 till they become so light that they are wafted up 

 and out of the can, and there is no way to prevent 

 it short of a cover, that I can see. The harder the 

 combs are revolved, with the intention of extract- 

 ing the honey entirely clean, the worse the honey 

 flies; for by such an operation the little honey in 

 the comb becomes drawn out into fine strings, or 

 hairs, so that nearly all of it is floated over the top 

 of the can, on to the clothes of the bee-keeper, or 

 walls of the honey-house, as bi-other McNeill tells 

 us of. The remedy is a cover to the extractor, or a 

 room whose air is so wai-m that the honey will be so 

 thin that it leaves the combs in drops, instead of 

 streams or hairs. 



Now, friend Root, if you still insist on fixing all of 

 the extractors which throw honey over the top, In 

 any other way save by the hot-room process, there 

 ai-e several in this neighborhood which you can be- 

 gin on. . G. M. DOOLITTLK. 



Borodino, N. Y., Oct. 15, 1884. 



Fiiend D., your article is one of very great 

 value indeed, at the present crisis. Before 

 we received it I began to conjecture where 

 the trouble lay. It is a little singular, that 

 the matter has not come up before, especial- 

 ly while more than 3000 of our extractors are 

 in actual use. Another tiling, I have used 

 extractors of our make, for extracting late 

 in the fall, and I never saw any honey Hy up 

 over the top at all since those of our first 

 make, which had sheets of tin instead of 

 bars. These, of course, blew the air like a 

 fanning - mill. We have had a few com- 

 plaints in four or Ave years back, but all 

 were remedied by making a band of tin to 

 come about live inches higher than the top 

 of the extractor-can. I should object to a 

 cover, because it must be removed every 

 time the combs are lifted up and put back, 

 and tliat for me would be out of the ques- 

 tion. Perhaps a cover with a very large 

 opening— large enougli, in fact, to take out 

 and put in coml)s without any hindrance, 

 might do tlie business ; or perhaps a projec- 

 tion inward of about two or three inches 

 might serve to catch all the honey that 

 would be liable to get out of the top, and 

 this can be demonstrated only by experi- 

 ment. If any of our readers luive extracting 

 to do we will furnisli them such a cover free 

 of charge, and pay them for making the ex- 

 periment besides ; and when we discover the 

 best way of remedying the difficulty we will 

 furnish the covers free for every extractor 

 sold, Of course, every one who uses an ex- 



