1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



173 



difference. The boys went at it just the same. 

 With hands in pockets (to tell the truth, I did 

 not like to have them anywhere else), with a 

 heavy bicycle sweater on, knickerbockers and 

 golf stockings, I felt reasonably sting-proof. 



Now for the extracting, or, rather, getting 

 combs ready, preparatory to extracting. A 

 sort of hand-cart large enough to hold four su- 

 pers, each eight frame L. size, was stationed 

 just at our rear. In one corner of the hand- 

 cart was placed an empty super. Observe this 

 point, for I shall have occasion to refer to it 

 again. Next, the cover of the hive was re- 

 moved. The quilt was puHed up a little way, 

 and smoke blown under. The quilt was then 

 flopped up and down between each alternate 

 puff of smoke, in such a way as to suck or 

 draw the smoke down into the super, almost 

 to the brood-nest below. This ilip-flopact was 

 continued for a space of perhaps half a min- 

 ute, when I should judge that at least two- 

 thirds of the bees were driven into the brood- 

 nest below. I will remark, in passing, that 

 the bees can not be driven out with smoke 

 with the smoker alone nearly as well as when 

 the smoker and quilt or cloth are used in the 

 manner stated. As this method was described 

 on page 700 I will not go into it fuller now. 



Well, when two-thirds of the bees are out of 

 the super the first frame is taken out and shak- 

 en in front of the entrance. It is then put 

 into the super on the hand cart that I have al- 

 ready referred to. The next frame is grasped 

 by the two projections at the end ; and while 

 in a horizontal position, and before it is out of 

 the hive, it is given three or four rapid shakes 

 up and down in the hive. It is true, a bee or 

 two may be killed, but that makes no differ- 

 ence. The next frame is shaken in the same 

 way /;/ the hive ; and if there are a few bees 

 still clinging, they are brushed off from the 

 comb with a long whisk broom that is tied to 

 a short string around the waist of the operator. 

 One sweep with Coggshall's broom on a side 

 will usually finish up the job. This operation 

 is repeated with each frame, shaking it in the 

 super, not on the ground, until all the combs 

 are freed of bees, when it is placed in the su- 

 per on the hand-cart. During all this time 

 the op. rator will use the brusli perhaps once 

 or twice, as he seems to be able to remove 

 nearly all the bees by simply shaking. 



The super that is on the hive now empty of 

 combs is yanked off, sometimes kicked off,- 

 during which operation it is freed of all ad- 

 hering bees. It is then set on the hand-cart, 

 and the next hive is gone through with in the 

 same manner — that is to say, the combs are 

 taken out and put into the super that was on 

 the hive first opened, but now on the hand- 

 cart filled with combs from which the bees 

 were cleaned. The super now empty on hive 

 No. 2 is kicked off and set on the hand-cart, 

 and filled with combs from hive No. 3 in the 

 manner before described. In this way the 



* Mr. Coggshall does not believe in talcing tinie to 

 prj' the super off. K yatik or a kick removes it, and 

 clears it of bees beside-. Of course, it angers the bees ; 

 but Mr. C. considers that of small moment compared 

 with the time. He runs his bees, not for convenience, 

 but for the dollars and cents ; and if a kick will earn 

 another cent or two he "kicks," stings or no stings. 



operator goes through the whole yard. As 

 each hand cart is filled with supers it is drawn 

 over to the house where the boys are extract- 

 ing, unloaded, and set before the next hive to 

 be opened. The super that was kicked off 

 from the last hive opened is .set on the hand- 

 cart, and so on the work of smoking, flip-flop- 

 ping, and .shaking of the frame goes on. 



Well, by this time things got to be interest- 

 ing, if not exciting. My hands went deeper 

 into m}' pockets, while the stings went deeper 

 into my clothes. In the mean time Mr. Cogg- 

 shall had a kettle of rotten wood and rags, and 

 was making a most awful smudge at the door 

 of the honey-house. The smoke would rise 

 and curl up, and come out of the openings of 

 the building, the purpose of which was to keep 

 robbers from getting in. Mean time the rob- 

 bers were poking their noses into the combs 

 outside that had been set into the supers pre- 

 paratory to being extracted. But that made 

 no difference. The combs were rushed into 

 the houFe and extracted, bees and all. 



" Did the bees sting?" you ask. Sting? I 

 never saw them prod worse ; but the men 

 worked on just as though they were mere flies, 

 or bees without stings. Combs were taken 

 from the hives, rushed to the extracting-house 

 with a celerity that was simply astonishing. 

 I would not have supposed it possible to do 

 such work in an apiary where the air was lit- 

 erally full of buzzing, mad, stinging bees. 

 Mr. C. and his men are evidently used to this 

 plan, and certainly do get the honey out of 

 combs at a pace that is simply record-break- 

 ing. The men work so rapidly, flip-flopping 

 stnoke. shaking combs, that a bee scarcely 

 has time to land its sting on the hands. Did 

 you never notice that, to sting, a bee must take 

 time to get a "good holt." Coggshall's men, 

 for more reasons than one, don't give the bees 

 time to get much of a " holt." The man who 

 opened the hives worked bare-handed ; I 

 should have thought he would have had 

 them filled with stings; but I don't think he 

 received more than a dozen, all told, in his 

 hands; but that was nothing. 



I will not attempt now to tell you how many 

 thousand pounds two of their men will take 

 out in a half day or day. In the first place, I 

 have forgotten what the record was; and in the 

 second place, if I were to tell you I doubt 

 whether you would believe it; and I could hard- 

 ly credit the figures myself till I saw the men 

 work. 



In our next issue I will tell you something 

 of Mr. Coggshall's method of extracting; the 

 kind of extractor he uses, the sort of kegs he 

 finds best adapted for storage and marketing. 



The smaller engraving shows a view of one 

 of the tenement hives dissected, and as it is 

 prepared for winter. Each hive contains, I 

 believe, eight colonies. 



Harry Howe, one of Coggshall's "light- 

 ning operators," stands with smoker in hand. 

 When visiting at Mr. Coggshall's my photo- 

 graphic film gave out. After reaching home I 

 reloaded the camera and sent it back to Gro- 

 ton, and Harry pres,sed the button. These and 

 other views that I shall present in our next 

 issue are his " shots," not mine. 



