March, iQog. 



American l^m Journal 



more emerging brood may be added un- 

 til the critical stage of the colony is 

 passed and the queen enabled to deposit 

 tn her full capacity. Into the stronger 

 colonies from which emerging brood is 

 drawn off, empty brood-combs should 

 be inserted, giving the queen free room 

 to deposit more eggs. 



Sorting Out the Brood-Combs. 



In all of these manipulations there is 

 abundant opportunity to better the combs 

 for the brood-chamber of each colony, 

 gradually discarding the poorer, irregu- 

 lar or drone combs. Such combs should 

 be kept going toward the outside of the 

 hive, and finally removed as more good 

 worker-combs are added in the center 

 of the brood-nest. This same policy 

 may be profitably pursued at this season 

 of the year toward combs filled with 

 honey or excessively clogged with pollen, 

 such combs being either removed or re- 

 legated to the top stories. Such combs 

 clogged with honey may sometimes be 

 profitably freed from honey by simply 

 uncapping them, when the bees will re- 

 move the honey for more immediate 

 use. If such honey is granulated at 

 all it will be found to be much more 

 easily used by the bees if they have ac- 

 cess to water, which, fortunately, is 

 usually true in the spring of the year. 

 Combs of honey thus treated act as a 

 stimulant to the bees, but care should 

 be taken at all times to guard against 

 robbing, which is very easily incited in 

 the absence of a honey-flow. 



In all manipulations with bees early 

 in the year one must have an eye con- 

 stantly to the attitude of the bees toward 

 their queen ; for sometimes the bees 

 suddenly maliciously pitch upon their 

 queen, and, forming a ball, kill her. 

 Should any such inclination on the part 

 of the bees be noted, the hive should 

 be immediately closed. Should this in- 

 clination not be noticed until the bees 

 are actually balling the queen, and if 

 after thorough smoking the bees still 

 persist in troubling her, the safer plan 

 is to cage the queen for a day or two, 

 quietly releasing her toward night. 



Essential Principles in Spring Man- 

 agement. 

 By way of emphasis I will recapitul- 

 ate, then, briefly the essential principles 

 I deem of prime importance in the suc- 

 cessful building up of colonies for the 

 harvest : Successful wintering depends 

 upon — plenty of young bees reared late, 

 forming a cluster sufficient in size to 

 generate heat enough to live, and to rear 

 brood in the spring at a fairly rapid 

 rate ; a good young and vigorous queen ; 

 an abundance of good, well-ripened 

 • honey of easy access to the cluster ; sur- 

 rounding packing to retain the heat 

 generated, placed close to the cluster, 

 insuring the free absorption of mois- 

 ture ; free ventilation above the pack- 

 ing, to carry off the moisture absorbed; 

 and finally, but none the least, quiet and 

 undisturbed surroundings. 



Spring manipulations to enlarge the 

 brood-nest should be taken as soon as 

 the winter is broken, preferably some 

 10 to 12 weeks prior to the main honey- 

 flow. Such manipulations consist in — 

 the strengthening up of the weaker col- 

 onies with emerging brood ; an equali- 



zation of stores : and a judicious spread: 

 ing of the brood within the colony, fol- 

 lowed by the insertion into the brood- 

 nest, from time to time, of good, well- 

 drawn and preferably warmed, but 

 empty, worker brood-combs. These 

 manipulations are profitably accompan- 

 ied by regular stimulative feeding in 

 small quantities of thin syrup, to be con- 

 tinued until such a time as the bees be- 

 gin to gather regularly from an early 

 natural source of honey. 

 Berkeley, Cal. 



A New Automatic Honey- 

 Extractor 



BV T. W. LIVINGSTON. 



I have long had my own peculiar 

 ideas as to how a honey-extractor 

 should look and act, and I recently de- 

 cided not to keep them locked up in 

 my "knowledge bo.\" any longer, but re- 

 duce them to tangible form and let 

 the bee-keeping folks have a look at 

 them. 



In working out the details of this 

 machine, my plans were, of course, 



Fig. 3.— Showing Reversing Mechanism 



somewhat modified by my facilities, or 

 want of facilities, for making it, and 

 if I were manufacturing them. I would 

 make some parts a little different, though 

 the general plan would be the same. 



The machine reverses the combs when 

 desired while under full motion, and, 

 I think, is not more complicated or 

 e.Kpensive to make than the automatic 

 extractors now in use. This model 

 takes in the regular Langstroth frame, 

 weighs 88 pounds, and the can is only 

 26 inches in diameter. I will try to 

 explain how it works by reference to 

 Figs. I, 2 and 3 : 



Fig. 3 is a diagram of the gearing 

 that operates the reversing mechanism. 



Fig. 2 is the reel removed from the 

 can, and the friction disc B', which' is 

 fastened to the cogwheel B, is removed 

 from its place and inverted on top of 

 the reel. 



Fig. I is the complete machine ready 

 for operation. 



In Figs. 2 and 3, A is the upright 

 shaft that carries the reel. B is a cog- 

 wheel that turns on the shaft A and is 

 fastened to the friction disc B'. F is 

 the frame which is fastened to the shaft 

 A, and which carries the cog-wheels 

 CCCC, which are cast solid with the 



sprocket-wheels C'C'C'C, which by the 

 chains DDDD, operate thewheels EEEF. 

 which are constructed on the ends of 

 the comb pockets E'E'E'E'. The wheels 



Fig. 1.— Honey-Extractor Re.^dv for 

 Operation. 



E are held in their places by the chains 

 D, and the braces HHHH, and the low- 

 er ends of the comb-pockets E', are piv- 

 oted to arms fastened to the shaft A. 

 When the reel is revolved, all the parts 

 carried by it maintain their original po- 

 sitions with regard to it, but when the 

 brake P (Fig. i) is applied to the fric- 

 tion disc B', the cog-wheel B ceases to 

 revolve with the shaft A, and then 

 causes the wheels C. C, and E to re- 

 volve on their own axes until the brake 

 is released, when this rotation ceases. 

 Meanwhile the reel has been, and is. 

 steadily revolving. The operator can 

 easily see by the appearance of the reel 

 while revolving when the reversion is 

 complete, and releasing the brake, they 

 remain in that position until it is de- 

 sired to reverse them again. While the 

 reel is revolving the centrifugal force 

 draws the chains taut, and there is no 



Fig. 2.— Reel Removed from Extractor 

 Can. 



perceptible friction on the wheels E, 

 which revolve on their theoretical axes. 

 I used the A. I. Root Co.'s gearing, 

 which is heavier than is needed for this 

 machine, and I have arranged the dif- 



