1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



939 



super. An empty super is taken out on a 

 barrow and filled. If two supers are on the 

 hive the first super will then be empty, and 

 it can be placed on top of the first upon the 

 barrow. We often (one man) wheel a bar- 

 row with two twelve- frame supers from the 

 apiary to the house. By means of a plank 

 or other device the barrow is wheeled direct- 

 ly into the extracting- house, and this meth- 

 od is much easier and more rapid than car- 

 rying in buckets. 

 Brantford, Canada. 



STRAINING HONEY. 



How to Arrange the Uncapping-tank, Strainer, 

 and Extractor. 



BY T. ARCHIBAT D. 



I have read with pleasure R. F. Holter- 

 mann's method of straining honey in your 

 issue of Feb. 1. I have not the least doubt 

 that it works well. The readers of Glean- 

 ings are legion. They live in every part of 

 the country where lives the honey-bee. It 

 looks quite reasonable then that a method of 

 manipulating bees or honey in one locality 

 might not be suited to another in which the 

 climate is altogether different. The apiarist 

 who reads the up-to-date bee journals has 

 access to a fountain of knowledge he can 

 not afford to be without in these days of 

 competition. 



The method of straining honey is not one 

 of much interest to the bee-men of this cli- 

 mate. Honey deposited in the large tanks 

 used here settles at once. In a few hours 

 every foreign substance is on the surface, 

 where it can be skimmed off. Straining 

 through cloth is out of the question. 



I will give a method of my own, which 

 some of my neighbors are adopting. The 

 following sketch will be its best explana- 

 tion. 



A is the uncapping-box. It is one of Mc- 

 Intyre's make. B is the extractor. -- C is a 

 pan which receives the honey from both A 

 and B. Inside of this pan is the strainer. 

 The pan is 14 by 20 inches and 5 deep. The 

 strainer is made by tacking wire cloth on to 

 four strips of wood i by 1 and the length and 

 breadth of the receptacle. This strainer is 

 raised from the bottom 2^ inches. Four 

 blocks of wood, iXl and 2^ long, stand in 

 each corner as its support. From this pan 



the honey flows through a two inch pipe to 

 the tank. 



This method is simple, cheap, and easily 

 kept clean. You can have a number of 

 these strainers. They make good covers for 

 hives at the time of moving bees. The size, 

 14 by 20, just suits an L. hive. I change the 

 sieve every half-day. 



Mr. Holtermann is opposed to exposing 

 honey to the air. "The aroma is lost," he 

 says. It may be; but here our best honey 

 is that which lies in the tank exposed to the 

 sun's rays for the longest time. Had I 

 tanks enough I would leave it all out until 

 the close of the extracting season, simply 

 covering the tank with a white sheet. Aft- 

 er a week or so of exposure a scum resem- 

 bling the white of an egg covers the surface 

 one-fourth inch thick. I want this out of 

 the honey before I can it up. 



Los Angeles, Cal. 



[It is my opinion that the arrangement 

 here shown has something of more than or- 

 dinary merit It is simple and cheap. Con- 

 ceding that the Holtermann inside of the 

 extractor strainer is good, it requires an 

 extra-deep can and a special strainer, one 

 that is not easily get-at-able, and therefore 

 not easily cleaned.— Ed.] 



IF I WERE TO START ANEW, WHAT 

 STYLE OF FRAMES, SUPERS, AND AP- 

 PLIANCES WOULD I ADOPT? 



Prefer 8-f rame Langstroth Hive and Nail-spaced 

 Frames with a Special Bottom-board. 



BY DR. C. C MILLER. 



To tell what contraptions I would use if I 

 were to begin bee keeping all over again is 

 very nearly equivalent to telling what I am 

 using now; for in nearly all cases I have not 

 hesitated to change, no matter what the 

 cost, whenever I have learned of something 

 better. Certain ly I would not begin with 

 bees in a sugar-barrel, as I did 45 years ago. 



But to begin at the foundation, if I were 

 to begin anew I would have at least the 

 home apiary paved with Portland cement, 

 with slight elevations at the proper places to 

 serve as stands, so that the stands would be 

 part of the pavement, always ready in place. 

 This latter for two reasons: Because in the 

 long run it would be cheaper than even the 

 cheapest wooden stands; and also because 

 bottom- boards would probably rot less on 

 cement than on wood. 



But the first cost of the cement paving 

 would be considerable, and I should have a 

 strong desire to have the feeling that any 

 investment in that, as well as in buildings, 

 etc., would be a safe investment, without 

 any fear that, in the years to come, others 

 might locate so close, and in such numbers, 

 as to drive me out of that location. So I 

 think if I were to begin again I would do my 

 utmost to start a crusade for legislation that 

 would in some way give me a legal right to 

 a given territory, even if I had to pay heavi- 



