374 



GLEANINGS IN BE IS CULTURE 



June, 1922 



WHEN at- 

 tempting to 

 get accur- 

 ate figures in re- 

 gard to the ex- 

 tracting of hon- 

 ey, it is impossi- 

 ble to deny that 

 locality has an 

 important bear- 

 ing. Figures that represent an average of 

 conditions in one locality many ndt be accur- 

 ate for another locality where the honey may 

 be different in density and where other con- 

 ditions may be greatly changed. Extracted- 

 honey producers can well afford to give some 

 earnest attention to some of the problems 

 of efficiency in extracting. The figures that 

 I present here I hope will serve to bring this 

 'matter to the attention of the producers, 

 and will, perhaps, be a surprise to many. 



From our Krause apiary of 65 colonies we 

 brought in 157 supers of honey. The combs, 

 most of them, had been recently drawn from 

 full sheets of foundation; therefore, the 

 frames were spaced close. We secured a 

 total of 6,748 pounds of honey, about 43 

 pounds to the super, or 4.3 pounds to the 

 comb. Next year we shall put in only eight 

 combs in a ten-frame super, so the extractor 

 will take a full super at a load. Our aver- 

 age per colony was about 103 pounds, which 

 was close to the average of our other honey- 

 producing yards. Besides this we saved two 

 full combs per colony for feeding this spring. 

 It must be remembered that Medina County 

 is not a particularly good location for honey. 

 Next year, however, we hope to increase the 

 per colony yield as we shall not need to have 

 so many combs built. 



Percentage of Honey in Cappings. 

 Of the 6748 pounds of honey from this 

 one yard, 5572 pounds came from the ex- 

 tractor, and 1176 pounds from the capping- 

 melter. Therefore, 17.4 per cent of the total 

 amount came from the cappings. Had we 

 spaced wide, this percentage would have 

 been much higher. We got 74 pounds of 

 wax from the cappings; therefore, 1.08 per 

 cent of the total weight of honey and cap- 

 pings was wax; or, 5.92 per cent of the 

 weight of honey and wax cut off the combs 

 was wax. 



In a former article I referred to the fact 

 that E. F. Atwater of Meridian, Idaho, had 

 discovered that even after draining the cap- 

 pings thoroughly 4 per cent of his original 

 entire crop was left in such cappings. This 

 is a startling percentage, but it must be re- 

 membered that the western honey is very 

 thick and that it drains very slowly from 

 cappings. However, be that as it may, Mr. 

 Atwater 's figures, based not on a small lot 

 but on an entire crop, convince me that 

 cappings drained until they appear to be 

 nearly dry are, as a matter of fact, very far 

 from being dry. 



Efficiency in Extracting. 

 For the sake of getting accurate statistics 



SURPRISES IN EXTRACTING 



Speed, Time and Temperature De- 

 termine the oAmount of Honey 

 Left in the Combs 



By H. H. Root 



on tlie amount 

 of lioney left in 

 the combs after 

 extra cting we 

 sacrificed a num- 

 ber of supers of 

 good combs, 

 melting them up 

 after extracting, 

 separating the 

 honey thus secured from the melted combs 

 and carefully comparing the weight of such 

 honey with the weight of the honey orig- 

 inally in the combs. In this way we have 

 obtained some very interesting figures. 

 Test No. 1. 

 The first experiment we made was at a 

 temperature of 75 degrees. The eight combs 

 that we selected, including the frames, 

 weighed 50% pounds. After uncapping, 

 they weighed 37% pounds. After three 

 minutes in the Buckeye extractor, including 

 the time of speeding up and with the ex- 

 tractor turning at 300 revolutions per min- 

 ute, the eight frames of extracting combs 

 weighed 7% pounds. The frames empty, 

 after cutting out the combs, weighed 4 

 pounds. The cappings and honey cut from 

 the eight combs weighed 13 pounds. The 

 honey in these cappings weighed 12.33 

 pounds. Therefore the wax in the cappings 

 Aveighed .77 pounds. The empty combs after 

 extracting and after being cut out of the 

 frames weighed 3.25 pounds. After melting 

 up and separating the honey and wax we 

 had 1.375 pounds of honey and 1.88 pounds 

 of wax. 



From the above figures it will be seen 

 that we extracted 30.5 pounds of honey. In 

 the cappings there were 12.33 pounds. After 

 melting up the combs we had 1.375 pounds 

 of honey left. Therefore the total weight 

 of the honey in the eight combs originally 

 was 44.105; 1.375, the weight of the honey 

 left in the combs after extracting, is there- 

 fore 3.1 per cent of the total lioney original- 

 ly in the eight combs. 



Test No. 2. 

 This test was made with combs left in a 

 hot room long enough for the lioney to reach 

 a temperature of 100 degrees. The extractor 

 speed was 350 revolutions per minute, and 

 the time in the extractor, including the 

 speeding up, was 2i/> minutes. 



Keeping careful account of all the weights 

 as nientioiu'd in the first experiment, we 

 found that 31/2 per cent of the total honey 

 was left in the combs. Tlie increase in tem- 

 perature to 100 degrees did not, therefore, 

 have quite the effect that we supposed it 

 would. This experiment also shows, if one 

 may judge from one set of combs, that 2V^ 

 minutes at 350 revolutions per minute is not 

 quite equal to three full minutes at 300 

 revolutions per minute. To be on the safe 

 side in our subsequent work throughout the 

 season, we used a speed of 350 revolutions 

 per minute and the time of three minutes. 

 At a speed of only 250 revolutions per 



