508 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



HARVESTING THE HONEY CROP 



WHEN bee- 

 keeping 

 reached the 

 outyard stage it 

 did not occur to 

 us to bring back 

 heavy supers 

 and do our ex- 

 tracting at a 

 home plant. Most 



of us rigged up a small extractiug-house at 

 the new yard and did our work there. When 

 we had "several outyards a portable outfit, 

 constructed on either a trailer or the bed of 

 a truck, was found to be more suitable than 

 building extraeting-houses and duplicating 

 equipment. We soon discovered, however, 



Up-to-Date Equipment and Methods 

 Planned to Handle Large ^anti- 

 ties of Honey 



By M. C. Richter 



August, 1922 



ried on in the 

 presence of the 

 bees. Such a pro- 

 cedure is bound 

 to incite robbing 

 and lower colony 

 morale. A home 

 plant is justifi- 

 able if for no 

 other than the 



pjg 1 — Exterior view of extracting plant. The 

 front room contains four 7-tou tanks and faces 

 south permitting the sun further to ripen the 

 honey. Back of the tank room is a storage space, 

 and above this (upper story) is the extracting 

 room. Truck enters garage at right to permit un- 

 loading supers into the extracting room. 



that the home plant Avas by far the most 

 practical. In fact it marks an important 

 step forward in commercial beekeeping. 



Outyard extraeting-houses were dis- 

 pensed with, owing to the extra cost of 

 equipment, the loss through theft of equip- 

 ment and honey, the fact that it is cheaper 

 to rent than to buy outyards and hence a 

 disinclination to build on someone else's 

 land. Furthermore, good locations do not 

 generally remain so for any length of time. 

 Eentals are usually from year to year, the 

 farmers change their crops on cultivated 

 areas, and on natural ranges forest fires are 

 often a menace. 



The portable outfit overcame many of 

 the above objections, but with it came new 

 difficulties. Many yards were difficult to 

 reach, owing to their isolated positions. 

 Getting the trailers in and out, and setting 

 up, and the time expended on these opera- 

 tions cut short very materially the actual 

 time for extracting. Moreover, late in the 

 season, when the days grew shorter and 

 cooler the extracting work became more 

 burdensome. Perhaps the greatest objec- 

 tion to both a portable and an outyard ex- 

 tracting-outfit is that the extracting is car- 



above reason. 



The Home Plant. 



The home plant sliould be built where it 

 is most convenient. It should be centrally 

 located about j'ards and near a town where 

 supplies and the like may be readily pro- 

 cured. The central plant need not be located 

 at a yard. Often it is more convenient to 

 have it somewliere else. Most of us have 

 our plants adjoining our homes, and if our 

 dwellings are not on good beekeeping terri- 

 tory we can have, anyway, certain colonies 

 such as our breeder and a few cell builders. 

 Our queen-breeding colonies need constant 

 attention, and, when cells become ripe, nu- 

 clei can be brought in to take care of them. 

 Most of us look at our bees too often. We 

 learn to manipulate colonies less and less 

 as we enrich ourselves through experience. 

 The home extracting-plant fits in very well 

 with this idea. 



Taking Extracted Honey. 

 In the interior valleys where the weather 

 is dry and the alfalfa flow is slow, two to 

 three supers to the colony will liandle the 

 intake under ordinary conditions. Owing to 

 the slow flow and the dry weather, combs 

 may be removed while only partly capped; 

 but when the flows are rapid and especially 

 along coast regions where the climate is 

 moist, an entirely different procedure must 



Pig. -z. — View of extracting room looking through 

 doorway into the garage. A truckload of honey 

 is about to be unloaded into the extracting room. 



take place. A colony must have from five 

 to seven supers in such locations. Whether 

 few or many supers, dry or moist climate, 

 sloAV or rapid flows, the taking of tlie 

 honey is the same. We take off by means 

 of bee-escapes whenever the honey is ready, 

 and do not Avait till the end of tlie flow. 

 .When yards average a super of extractable 



