1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



763 



cross ; so here — you can take the Crane smo- 

 ker and I will push the car. You will notice, 

 first, here in this drawer in the end of the car 

 I keep iny record-book, smoker-fuel, note pa- 

 per, pencil, and a tack -hammer, pry, and such 

 things as are always needed on such occa- 

 sions. I use from six to ten hone3'-carrying 

 boxes. They are to put the frames in to 

 transfer them from the hives to the extract- 

 ing room. I simply take a super and tack a 

 tin bottom on it, as it is just the right length 

 as well as the right depth, and the tin bottom 

 serves to keep all drip from getting scattered 

 and daubed about and wasted. 



We will now proceed to the further end of 

 the apiary. It will take me about twenty 

 minutes to take off these eight boxes of hon- 

 ey. I very seldom use a brush, as they shake 

 off very readily. 



Now as we have the car loaded we will go to 

 the extracting-room. You will notice that I 

 here have what it would take to make about 

 four wheelbarrow loads ; and it is no harder to 

 handle, and much more convenient. Hold 

 on, friend ! you don't need to go ahead to 

 open the door, as you will see that it will open 

 of its own accord as the car approaches. It 

 opens to the outside ; and as the car passes in- 

 side it closes very fast ; and as there is no 

 stopping or slacking the speed of the car, the 

 bees that were following up in quest of their 

 goods are quickly cut ofT. Now I will unload, 

 and place the boxes of honey on this platform 

 that is elevated to the level of the top of the 

 car ; then another set of boxes is placed on 

 the car, and the man who takes off the honey 

 is sent back to the apiary while we attend to 

 this load that was just brought in. 



Elevated Floor. 



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nnnn 

 nana 



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If I only had and could operate one of those 

 " cameras " I would illustrate my extracting- 

 room ; but as it is I will only try to picture it 

 in your mind, with the aid of this sketch. 

 Fig. 7 shows the elevated floor, while No. 1 is 

 the boxes of honey that have just been un- 

 loaded. Between 1 and 2 stands Miss Hoover, 

 the one who wields the uncapping-knife with 

 great speed. Fig. 2 is an uncapping-tank, 

 which is made of wood sides, and ends with a 



tin bottom ; and just above, and resting on 

 the bottom is a frame that is the same size as 

 the inside of the tank, and on the frame is 

 fastened a wire screen, and the caps fall on 

 this screen as fast as they are clipped off. You 

 see they have a chance to drain all the time. 

 At one end of the tank, in the bottom, is an 

 opening that the honey runs out of into an 

 open-top five-gallon can as fast as it drains 

 from the caps. After they are uncapped they 

 are hung by the projections of the top-bars of 

 the frame in one end of the uncapping-tank, 

 as the width corresponds with the length of 

 the frame. 



Fig. 8 is a Cowan four-frame extractor. The 

 man who runs this machine stands between it 

 and the uncapping-tank, and can very easily 

 reach the uncapped frames from his position, 

 and pass them in to the extractor, where the 

 honey is extracted, and runs as fast" into the 

 strainer, Fig. 4. This is made of wood or 

 metal, a box 14x22 inches, and 10 inches deep. 

 It has two partitions which serve as a separa- 

 tor. The first partition is within 4 inches of 

 the end nearest to the extractor. It is made 

 fast to the bottom, but it lacks 2 inches of 

 coming to the top of the box. The honey falls 

 down into this small compartment, and then 

 it will rise up to the top and run over into the 

 middle room of the strainer. The second par- 

 tition is placed within 4 inches of the other 

 end of the box, and it will lack one inch of 

 coming down to the bottom. Thus the hon- 

 ey, in coming from the extractor, will plunge 

 down with force into the first part, and it will 

 then rise and bring all the wax with it to the 

 top in order to get over into the second space. 

 The wax and all foreign substances will re- 

 main to float on top in this large or middle 

 space, while the honey will be compelled to 

 run into the third or last space through under 

 the second partition, and then up to the level 

 of the honey in the middle space, where it 

 will find an exit into the tank Fig. 5, and 

 here it is to remain until ripe. Then I place a 

 five-gallon square can on the scales, Fig. 6, 

 under the faucet of the tank, and begin to 

 draw the honey ; so when the 



scale will tip at 60 lbs. net I 



1 I 1 I I I shut down and change the 



■ cans. Thus the honey is all 



weighed, and it will be ready 



to mark 120 net, which should be put on 



each case, and tlien this will do away with 



the unsatisfactory way of adjusting the tare. 



We will sell only the honey, and say nothing 



about the tare. 



Hanford, Cal. 



[In the earlier editions of our A B C of Bee 

 Culture we gave a view of a " railway apiary," 

 and at that time called attention to the fact 

 that, if the colonies could be arranged in long 

 rows, one on each side of the railway, with the 

 honey house and shop as one terminus and 

 the highway as the other terminus, conditions 

 would be very nearly ideal. I am sorry we 

 have not a photo of Mr. Brown's apiary ; but 

 it is substantially like what I have just de- 

 scribed. 



In our old original home apiary we had a 

 railway running from the honey-house to the 



