8^2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



FIG. 10.- ATTACHMENT WITH FPONT REMOVED, 

 READY TO REMOVE SECTIONS. 



tions to keep their tops clean. The bottom 

 slats rest on a piece of wood ixl inch, and 

 are securely nailed to the inside ends of the 

 attachment. 



i'ne sepitraiurrf are two pieces of wire 

 cloth 17 in. long by 3i wide, either two or 

 three mesh to the inch. I prefer as open a 

 mesh as possible so long as it keeps the 

 combs from bei'"g bulged. These separators, 

 illustrated in Figs. 9 and 10, are so open 

 that the bees realize no obstructions from 

 them; yet it accomp ishes the real object of 

 a separator without excluding both bees and 

 honey. The cross cleats to separator are 

 i^gXiXOi in. Thus all propolis is excluded 

 from sections except a line on top and bot 

 tom of the edge of the section, which may 

 be entirely removed by rubbing across a 

 wire screen horizontally. 



Madison, Wis. 



Continued. 



A NON-REVERSIBLE EXTRACTOR. 



FIG. 11.— THE ATTACHMENT AS PLACED IN SU- 

 PERS. 

 Top view showing position of combs of brood in a ten 

 and fourteen frame hive. Two tiers of sections and a 

 couple of top slats are removed from ten-frame super. 



One That Thrtws the Honey out of Both Sides 

 of the Comb at Once Without Reversing. 



[Some ten or twelve years ago Dr. Miller and myself 

 discussed the practicability of an extractor that would 

 not require the reversing of the combs. The idea was 

 by no means new, for it had already been tried to some 

 extent in Europe. The doctor, however, urged that we 

 try the principle at Medina. Accordingly we built a 

 special machine so constructed that when Langstroth 

 Irames were placed endwise down in the pockets the 

 end- bars would stand out from the center shaft of the 

 machine like the spokes of a wheel. In this position 

 the combs were fixed. We found that, when the honey 

 was not too thick, such a machine would throw it out 

 of the combs after a fashion. But the operation was 

 slow, for the reason that the honey had to creep over 

 the face of the comb from one cell to another until it 

 re^iched the top-bar, when it was thrown off against the 

 sides of the can; and after the combs were removed they 

 were not as clean of honey as we get from the machine 

 as now made. But the machine was especially slow and 

 unsatisfactory when combs containing thick honey were 

 tried. Even when greater speed, and consequently 

 more power, was employed, the work could not be done 

 as well nor as rapidly as with the ordinary style of ex- 

 tractor. 



The following letter from Dr. Miller draws attention 

 to another application of the same principle by Mr. E. 

 Blondet. As the matter is of some interest, we give 

 extracts from Dr. Miller's letttr and also a translation 

 of thp original, and a copy of the illustration, taken 

 from L' Apiculture Nouvelle. The following is the let- 

 ter from Dr. Miller —Ed.] 



Dear Ernest:— Yon may remember the 

 ettort you and 1 made to throw honey out of 

 ooih sides of the comb at the same time. 

 1 don't understand yet why it didn't work. 

 E. Blondet says he succeeds as in the en- 

 closed picture. 



I'd like to know how perfectly Blondet's 

 machine works. He says it works to his 

 entire satisfaction, but others might not be 

 so well satisfied. The principal parts of 

 his were made from a bicycle. 



Just as it is in the picture, there doesn't 

 seem much to it. Only three combs at a 

 time But here's something well worth 

 considering, if good work is made in emp- 

 tying the three. I don't mean that no re- 

 versing is needed, although of course that's 

 very important. You know that, with all the 

 kinds yet on the market, every comb added 

 adds greatly to the expense of the machine, 

 and 1 don't know that it has been considered 

 practicable to go beyond a six-frame ex- 

 tractor. But with Mr. Blondet's machine it 

 would be only a little more expense to have 



