1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1327 



they were all boomers ; for, be it said to 

 Mr. Alexander's credit, he knows how to 

 get his colonies in prime condition for the 

 honey crop when it comes. He does it by 

 scientific feeding at the right time. Right 

 here is one very important secret of Mr. 

 Alexander's success, and why he has been 

 able to do things on such a mac^^'iccnt 

 scale. 



I would call attention to the long tin pipe 

 (lor carrying the honey) leading from the 

 little extracting-house in the center of the 

 yard; to another building containing immense 

 evaporating-tanks. 



It is with considerable pride that Glean- 

 ings is able to bring prominently before 

 the world this immense bee-yard ; and proud, 

 also, that we are permitted to lay before our 

 large circle of readers some of the secrets 

 of Mr. Alexander's success. 



The series of Alexander articles that we 

 shall be publishing from time to time will 

 be among the most valuable that it has 

 ever been our privilege to publish. — Ed.] 



THE PRODUCTION OF EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Cutting off the Corners in order to Save Time ; 

 Honey-tanks. 



BY E. W. ALEX.ANDER. 



In this article I hope to mention at least a 

 few of the essential things that should be 

 taken into consideration in the production of 

 honey. One very important thing is the grade 

 of the land where you. hives stand. A 

 gradual slope to the southeast, with a de- 

 scent of about a foot and a half to every ten 

 is the most desirable. This gives you a fine 

 chance to have your honey run from the ex- 

 tractor through a pipe into your storage- 

 tanks; and when the most of your colonies 

 are above the e.xtracting-building it is much 

 easier to bring in the heavy combs than it 

 would be if the ground were level. This, 

 when handling many tons of honey in a sea- 

 son, is of much importance. Every move our 

 honey makes from the hive where it is gath- 

 ered to our railroad station is all down hill. 

 There is not a place where it has to be raised 

 one foot. 



You will notice in one of the accompanying 

 photos one of our men in the act of shoving 

 into the extracting-building a carrier of 

 heavy combs to be extracted. As he comes 

 to the building with this carrier in his right 

 hand he raises a drop sliding-door with his 

 left. That is just large enough to nicely ad- 

 mit the carrier, he gives it a shove, and it 

 slides along a bench to the man at the extrac- 

 tor, then he drops the sliding-door, and takes 

 one step to the left, raises another door, and 

 pulls out a carrier of empty combs; this only 

 requires five seconds to put the heavy combs 

 of one carrier into the building and take out 

 the extracted combs of another. While thej 

 are in the building the man at the extractor 

 uncaps those that require it and puts them 



through a four-frame Cowan extractor; and 

 now comes the part where we have a great 

 advantage over many. We give this honey no 

 attention whatever. The gate of the extrac- 

 tor is wide open all the time; and as fast as 

 tiic honey leaves the combs it runs through a 

 pipe which has one end under the extractor- 

 gate, and the other end over the storage-tank 

 we wish to fill; and as these tanks hold about 

 4,500 lbs apiece we don't have to look at them 

 very often to see that they are not running 

 over. These tanks are in pairs, two of them 

 ill each of the small buildings you see in tht 

 photo. When one tank is full we simply add 

 on a short piece of pipe which will convey the 

 honey into the next tank. They have a large 

 gate at the bottom cf one end, and are resting 

 on large blocks, high enough from the floor 

 so we can set our scales with a barrel on 

 under the gate, then draw off the honey di- 

 rectly into the barrel, setting the scales at 

 whatever weight we wish it to hold ; then 

 when we have that weight we close the gate 

 of the tank and have not had to lift any 

 honey nor lose a drop in filling. 



Then when you want to ship your honey, 

 drive your wagon along the lower side of 

 ynur building, lay down a plank and roll out 

 the barrels on a level with your wagon. 



[When I visited Mr. Alexander during 

 the height of his buckwheat flow I took a 

 number of photos showing the men actually 

 at work, and also photos of appliances used. 

 The two half-tones showing the little ex- 

 tracting-building, and the method of putting 

 inside the filled combs and removing the 

 empty ones, are a part of this series. Mr. 

 Alexander, with the aid of these pictures, 

 will describe his methods more in detail in 

 future issues. 



One thing that struck me particularly was 

 the perfect system that our correspondent 

 has elaborated for saving labor in securing 

 his immense crop. The whole outfit, in- 

 cluding the building, but exclusive of hives, 

 bees, and the honey-tanks, would not cost 

 $50, and yet I could scarcely imagine any 

 thing more suitable than this little extract- 

 ing-house, just large enough to hold one 

 man, a four-frame reversible extractor, and 

 two or three comb-carriers. One man in- 

 side does the extracting while two others 

 take off the honej'. While one of the two 

 outside men is taking a carrier of combs 

 to the building, the other is putting in a set 

 of empty combs from which the filled ones 

 were taken, closing up the hive and open- 

 ing up another one. By this time the other 

 man has returned with a carrier of empty 

 combs. Roth of them shake and brush the 

 filled ones and put them in the carrier. When 

 full, one man, as before explained, takes 

 them to the extracting-house. So on the 

 operation is repeated with the whole 750 

 colonies. To relieve the monotony, all three 

 of the men change off. The man in the ex- 

 ti acting-house will come out while one of 

 the outside men will go inside. 



