41fi 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



.Tl'IA-. 1921. 



most dry at a liigh speed. There 

 is no slowing nor stopping two 

 times in order to reverse, as in 

 the older styles of machines. 



Where American foul brood is 

 present in the locality the bee- 

 keeper may be compelled to melt 

 up his old combs and rely largely 

 on new ones built from founda- 

 tion. It is these new first-year 

 combs that are favored in the 

 new machine, reversing on a cen- 

 tral pivot. See what Richter says 

 in this issue, page 4'A:\. 



The wire baskets for holding 

 the combs in this machine ai;e re- 

 movable — a feature that will be 

 appreciated by those who like to 

 clean or sterilize the extractor 

 after extracting combs having a 

 look suspicious of foul brood. 



It is built very strong to stand 

 the heavy strains that come from 

 high speed. Tlie difficulty of sujJ- 

 porting the tops of the pockets 

 of the central-pivot extractor 

 here shown from the enormous 

 strain of centrifugal force and 

 yet leave it possible to insert the 

 combs, has been solved by the 

 use of the internal gears which 

 also accomplish the reversing. 



The time is coming when bee- 

 keepers will wake up to the fact 

 that they are not extracting their 

 combs clean enough. To do tliis 

 as it should be done, the combs 

 should be thoroly wired, and the 

 extractor should be built to stand 

 a higher speed than has ever be- 

 fore been thought necessary. Tlic 

 machine here shown was construct ( 

 this end in view. 



It is a mistake to think that all the honey 

 from very wet combs, because the ex- 

 tractor could not do a cleaner job, will be 



Fig. 5. — A pressure on the reversiug-lever as shown hy the up- 

 right handle slows down the reversing-drum very sligh'ly. This 

 action causes every one of the sprockets and the comb pockets to 

 revolve half way, even the the reel may lie running at full speed. 

 In this picture the comb-pockets are seen in the act of leversins. 

 In the .space of a second all of tlie eight combs will be reversed, 

 even the the extracting reel is revolving at full speed. The 

 usual plan of procedure is to extract most of the honey from 

 one side of the comb at a relatively slow speed, reverse with- 

 out stopping or slowing down the extractor, clean all the honey 

 out from the second side (still at slow speed) when the reversing- 

 lever is pulled, thus causing the first side to come back to its 

 tirst position while the honey is cleaned out at full speed. One 

 more reversing at full speed cleans the second side. There is 

 no loss of time in reversing, which can lie done as often as de- 

 .sired, at full or slow speed. The reversal on a central axis is 

 much easier on the combs, causes almost no breakage, and at 

 the same time the work is done much more thoroly than in the 

 machine illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. 



with 



saved. The dryer the combs, the more hon- 

 ey and the less gorging on the part of the 

 bees. It is here that pDirrr extractors have 

 an immense advantage ovei' those driven by 

 hand. 



QUEEN INTRODUCTION 



CONSIDERA- 

 BL?: inter- 

 est has been 

 manifested in 

 our Push-in 

 c a g e. Several 

 questions h a v e 

 been asked, siu-h 

 as, ' ' How has it 

 functioned since 



it has been in use another year? 

 smother fad that will quietly retire into ob- 

 livion, or is it a real feature of beekeeping 

 that will last!" I will try in the follow- 

 ing article to give a plain statement of the 

 success this cage has had, and also mention 

 several new uses that can.be made with it. 

 In the August number of Gleanings, 1919, 

 this cage was described. In the same issue, 



A Combination of the Push-in-the 

 Comb Principle and the Chantry 

 Principle 



By Jay Smith 

 Is it 



till' q u e e n-e x- 

 cluding device 

 was also describ 

 ed by Mr. At- 

 water and Mr. 

 T h o m p s n. It 

 does not seem to 

 be clear just who 

 was first to use 

 this device; but 

 ;it least credit is due these gentlemen for 

 again calling attention to it, as most of us 

 never before heard of it, or if we had, we 

 had foigotten about it. I wall admit that 

 when I read the article, I did not think there 

 was much merit in the device; but, later 

 when introducing many queens with my orig- 

 inal Push-in cage during a robbing season, I 

 would find that once in a verv great while a 



