March i, 1916 



GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE 



AN UNCAPPING-ROOM ARRANGED ON THE GRAVITY PLAN 



BY P. C. CHADWICK 



I have long thought of giving a plan of 

 my honey-house and extraeting-outfit ar- 

 rangement. This issue furnishes me the 

 opportunity. 



I am making no claim that I have an 

 arrangement superior to all others; but I 

 am sure I have one which is far superior to 

 many others. So I give my plans with the 

 idea that tliey may be of assistance to some, 

 and am looking. forward to the possibility 

 of gaining something from the ideas of 

 others. 



Gravity plays a prominent part in all the 

 work of getting the honey from the hive 



such a manner that when the wheelbarrow 

 strikes the door the weight begins to rise, 

 and allows the door to swing open. As soon 

 as the door is cleared the weight i^uUs the 

 door shut. The honey is now on the wheel- 

 barrow in the extracting-room ready for 

 work. Usually three supers of eight frames 

 each are wheeled in at a time — two in front 

 and one behind. The frames are taken from 

 the back super, uncapped and extracted, 

 and returned to the wheelbarrow Avithout 

 lemoving the super. The top super is then 

 extracted in the same manner and set back 

 on the firet sujier extracted, to make way to 



p. C. Chadvvick's apiary, showing how the ground slopes down toward the honey-house, and then falls away 

 abruptly behind the building — an ideal arrangement, considering general convenience. 



until it reaches the can. Let me first say 

 that my yard is located so that nearly every 

 hive is on higher ground than the honey- 

 house, making the work of wheeling the 

 honey a comparatively easy task. The floor 

 of the honey-house is on a level with the 

 ground at the entrance door, but at no other 

 point. The ground slopes rapidly under the 

 house, to the rear, where the fall has reach- 

 ed a point that will allow the honey-tank to 

 go under the rear of the building as shown 

 in the cut. The honey is wheeled direct on 

 to the floor of the honey-house, the door 

 being connected by a Aveight and pulley in 



the last super of the load. In this manner 

 the entire load is disposed of without lifting 

 a single filled super. If more than one per- 

 son is engaged in the extracting operations, 

 two wheelbarrows may be used to keep a 

 continual line of supers arriving and 

 departing. 



The interior view shown gives an idea of 

 the arrangement of the extracting equip- 

 ment. The extractor needs no explanation. 

 No. 3 is the uncapping-box, which, as may 

 be seen, has a V-shaped bottom, the drain- 

 ing-sci'een fitting down into the box to the 

 beginning of tlie V shape as shown by the 



