926 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



up all of the drip and the box is ready for 

 removal. 



The saw and the hatchet were very neces- 

 sary tools in refitting frames and nailing the 

 rear door in place. 



The late Mr. Levering was, however, out- 

 growing the old style of management ; and, 

 although 75 years of age at his death, he had 

 introduced about 30 Langstroth hives, and 

 was using one and two pound sections. 



The present Mr. Levering decided to work 

 the apiary in a great measure for extracted 

 honey, and the hives were lengthened out at 

 the top by adding a rim of the proper deplh. 

 Our extractor was a small three-frame affair, 

 the first of the kind I ever saw, and I fervently 

 hope it is the last. A three-frame extractor is 

 never in balance except when empty; and in 

 order to use the machine with any degree of 

 comfort it had to be braced from the top in 

 three directions. Those out-of-shape frames 

 were a close fit in the extractor-baskets when 

 new; but now when loaded with propolis the}' 

 had to be scraped more or les-s ; and you can 

 scarcely imagine how agreeable it is, when 

 one is in a hurry to do a good day's work at 

 extracting, to have to stop and shave off the 

 side-bar of a frame ; then the frame has a 

 cross bar in the middle, and a nail sticks out 

 just where your knife must go ; result, a dull 

 knife and a nail that must be driven in. All 

 of these manipulations take time, and tons of 

 patience. I have about 100 pounds of patience, 

 and it would be exhausted in about an hour, 

 and I shall not reveal to the reader my nevr- 

 ous and mental condition in the late hours of 

 the day. 



There were two articles that were abundant- 

 ly satisfactory, and the first was my uncapping- 

 box. It was 5 feet in length by about IS 

 inches wide, 6 inches deep, with a wire-cloth 

 bottom. Set at an incline it would hold the 

 cappings for two days and drain them nicely. 

 I like "an uncapping box of this shape. It 

 does not require frequent removing of the 

 cappings. The cappings of to-day can be 

 spread out in the evening and drain all night; 

 then the next morning these cappings can be 

 crowded to one end of the box for further 

 draining through the day, and removed at 

 night to the sun extractor. 



The next article that was a real pleasure to 

 work with was our tank. The present Mr. 

 Levering had this made to order at Fort Jones. 

 It is made of galvanized iron, 5 feet in diame- 

 ter and 2 feet deep, and, according to my 

 ideas of such things, it is the very best size 

 and shape for a honey-tank. It will hold 

 about Ayi tons. It is more easily cleaned 

 than a deep tank. I improvised a wooden 

 wire-cloth cover, and, though the honey was 

 all strained through cheese-cloth, the cover 

 was removed and the tank carefully skimmed 

 before drawing off. As a result our honey 

 was strictly clean. 



A great many times I have noted in some 

 grades of honey small black specks. These 

 fine specks seem to elude several strainings, 

 and I trace them to the lower end of the 

 revolving spindle in the extractor. If this is 

 not properly cleaned, and often, the grinding 



process produces a black substance that cer- 

 tainly specks the honey. 



In planning to work this apiary for extract- 

 ed honey there were several little details that 

 had to be considered. In the first place, 

 extracting-combs were of prime consideration. 

 There were about 25 colonies that had died in 

 wintering. The combs in these were promptly 

 taken care of and fitted to the upper extract- 

 ing-chamber. Then there were a great many 

 of those old boxes that had empty comb in 

 them. These pieces were all saved, and fitted 

 into frames. When all available combs had 

 been used I lacked about 400 combs of having 

 a full complement. 



We had no foundation ; and Mr. Levering, 

 who always had the welfare of the heirs of the 

 estate in mind, had sold several hundred 

 pounds of wax, and it would be highly detri- 

 mental to said heirs to purchase foundation. 

 I disliked the idea of having the bees build 

 those combs all new in the upper story (and 

 using the green things for extracting); and in 

 order to get good old extracting-combs, and 

 give the bees the very best place for filling 

 empty frames, I pulled up two empty combs 

 from the brood- chamber and fitted them into 

 the extracting chamber. " And now," said I 

 to. the bees, as I put the empty frames below, 

 "you can have all summer to fill those combs 

 and keep thtm for your labor, while I will 

 make good use of these old combs above." 



Mr. Levering had quite a desire to increase 

 the 234 colonies to 300. He thought it would 

 please the heirs of the estate to know that 

 there were 300 colonies in their possession ; 

 but as I was to receive half of the proceeds 

 from the honey and wax, I could not become 

 interested in said heirs except to get as large 

 a crop of honey as possible and then divide 

 the net profits, and along that line I worked. 

 It was, however, a poor season for swarms. 

 W^e had not one, and our neighboring bee- 

 keepers who were producing comb honey had 

 but very few. 



Before closing this Ramble I wish to call 

 attention to our lawn-mower in the shape of 

 Doc. Wright's white horse. This horse pas- 

 tured all summer in the bee-yard. He walked 

 to that position of his own volition while I 

 was preparing to take the photo. The bees 

 seldom disturbed the horse on the outskirts of 

 the apiarj', and the night-time was reserved 

 for his operations between the rows of hives. 

 I would occa.sionally find a hive tipped over 

 in the morning; but as it would be a Harbison 

 hive there was no harm done. 



VISIT AMONG BEE-KEEPERS. 



Comb Honey Without Separators. 



BY H. R. BOARDMAN. 



At Owosso I had abundant opportunities 

 for looking through the markets, and I found 

 here, as everywhere else, much inferior honey 

 offered for sale that had been bi ought in by 

 the farmers and slipshod bee-keepers. 



The next morning I started out just for 

 adventure, going out west of Owosso ten miles 



