MAY 1, 1914 



351 



THE HONEY=EXTlRACTOR A§ A NECESSITY Td 



PMODUCEM 



THE COMB = HONEY 



Some Timely Himtts on Spreadliig Brood 



BY THE OUTLAW 



One of my first impressions in comb- 

 honey production was that the extractor 

 was unnecessary; that extractors were only 

 for those who make a business of producing 

 extracted honey. That idea is sometliing, 

 liowever, I have since disproved. In every 

 locality with which I am fa- 

 miliar, and for the benefit of 

 the skeptic, I will state that I 

 am somewhat familiar with 

 comb-honey production from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 

 from the northern to the 

 southern boundaries of the 

 United States; that I consider 

 that all the comb-honey pro- 

 ducers should own and m.ake 

 use of an extractor; for there 

 are times in almost every sea- 

 son in every locality when an 

 extractor is necessary to get 

 the best results from an api- 

 ary. The matter that brought 

 this subject to mind was when 

 I overhauled my colonies of 

 bees on the roof. They had 

 received no attention since 

 about November 1, at which 

 time I removed the super, 

 thereby reducing them one story. On 

 examining them about March 1st I discov- 

 ered that they had filled every cell possible 

 with honey, and that the brood space Avas 

 confined to four frames, each of which was 



about half brood. I immediately added 

 the super, took out all the frames of honey, 

 and iDlaced empty frames in the brood- 

 nest, thereby giving the queen an oi^portu- 

 nity to lay, of which opportunity she imme- 

 diately took advantage. The empty combs 



Inside of the super. 



Tlie scheme of frames in tlie Hake octagon liive. 



that were j^laced above, and part of the 

 frames placed below, were immediately filled 

 with honey, so again I found myself in need 

 of empty combs. As these I did not have, 

 and having an extractor, I proceeded to 

 place emjity frames in the 

 brood-nest, one at a time, wait- 

 ing until each frame had been 

 filled with comb before giving 

 another one. Following this 

 procedure, in three weeks' time 

 my colony, in place of four 

 frames of brood, had seven — 

 something that would have been 

 impossible had the brood-nest 

 l)een left in the condition in 

 which I found it on March 1. 

 Two of these combs of new 

 brood were new comb built in 

 the empty frames. 



The clogging of the brood- 

 nest with honey is something 

 which very seldom occurs in 

 the spring in the central States ; 

 but it does occur later in the 

 season, especially with colonies 



