)10 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, lOii'J 



underueath tlie other supers, otherwise, 

 they are placed above so that tliey may be 

 cleaned. Two meu usually do this work, 

 and it takes less time to take off honey in 

 tliis manner than it does to put on the es- 

 capes. One hour more or less at a time, and 

 on different days, for every ton of honey 

 ■ removed, certainly minimizes robbing, and 

 is by far the best way to remove the crop. 

 Is it not certainly better on the morale of 

 the bees than when we extract all day long 

 in the yard? 



Iioading. 

 The bed of our truck, which is covered 

 with galvanized iron and with l^/^-inch 

 angle iron running around the sides and 

 back, is built to accommodate 25 supers. 

 When the truck leaves the plant in the 

 morning, say with 50 supers of comb (piled 

 two high on truck bed), it proceeds to a 



View from south end of the tank room, showing 

 the location of the settling tank below the outlet 

 of the extractor yet high enough so that the honey 

 flows through the 0|)en pipe from the settling 

 tank into the 7-ton storage tanks below. 



yard which is usually arranged with double 

 rows of colonies on either side of the road- 

 way leading through the apiary. The truck 

 will stop at one end and unload the first 

 two rows (20 supers), over which a canVas 

 is thrown. It then proceeds to the other 

 end of the yard, turns around and com- 

 mences loading on the full supers, the men 

 on their return trip taking the empties from 

 the truck and placing them where needed. 

 When the 50 full ones are loaded the can- 

 vas is thrown over them, and the 20 empty 

 supers are put on the colonies from which 

 the last honey was removed. The escapes 

 are gathered up next, the load is roped and 

 the truck speeds off to the plant. 



The garage is part of the home plant (see 

 Fig. 1). When the truck is inside its doors, 

 they are closed in order to conserve warmth 

 and render the building bee-tight. A door 

 along the side of the garage opens into the 

 extractiiig-ronm through wlik'h tlic supers 



are transferred for extracting (Fig 2). 

 During extracting, the empty supers may 

 1)6 placed directly on the truck and thus 

 avoid their being handled a second time. 



Extracting-Room. 



We trust that Figure 3 will give some idea 

 of the arrangement of the extracting out- 

 fit. In the foreground directly in front of 

 the uncapping box are placed the full supers 

 of honey. When we are harvesting white 

 lioney we prefer a two-man uncapping box. 

 This box is large enough to take care of the 

 cappiugs of two to three tons of honey. The 

 cappiugs are allowed to drain till the next 

 extracting, when they are shoveled into a 

 large draining tank until the end of the 

 season when we have time to press out the 

 balance of the honey. For darker honeys 

 we make use of the capping-melter. 



We like the 8-f rame Buckeye extractor 

 for the reasons pointed out by E. E. Boot 

 in the July (1921) Gleanings. Its chief 

 asset in our minds is that it is a great time- 

 saver. When we are not rushed, we utilize 

 nearly four hours to extract one ton of 

 honey. In this manner combs are uncapped 

 carefully and there is time enough to ex- 

 tract clean, as well as mend any combs or 

 supers that might need it. On the other 

 hand, if we should be rushed during a heavy 

 honey flow, which, of course, means that 

 there are some colonies that need room, we 

 can then extract a ton of honey in two 

 hours with a three-man crew. Any colony, 

 during an excellent honey flow, that is 

 crowded for the want of storage cells, is 

 losing perliaps pounds of honey every so 

 many hours before the beekeeper can give 

 it relief. We believe that it is better to 

 uncap liurriedly and not extract clean, when 

 we know that our bees are suffering for 

 want of room and that we should give them 

 instant relief. — 



Super-spacing is for eight frames and we 

 do not uncap deeply until the season is over, 

 at which time we are very finical about the 

 way in which we trim up our combs so that 

 they may appear all the more attractive to 

 our young queens during the following 

 spring. 



A three-man crew during the extracting 

 season can handle a very nice crop of hon- 

 ey. With ample super room, 50 tons of 

 honey can be harvested by three fast and 

 energetic hands. The hours of extracting, 

 when no rush is on, are usually from nine 

 to five o'clock. From seven to nine in the 

 morning two men bring in the honey, while 

 tlie third man tunes up the three-horsepower 

 engine, touches up the knives, attends to 

 the uncapping box and the like. At four in 

 the afternoon one man puts under the es- 

 capes while the others finish extracting. 

 The flow of honey from the extractor and 

 the uncapping box into the settling tank, 

 and thence into the seven-ton storage 

 tanks, works automatically and needs no 

 attention whatever. 



Big Sur, Calif. 



