The American Apiculturist. 



% Jfournal b^troitb ia pracfual ^ci^h^ping, 



ENTERED AT TIIK POST-OFFICE, WENHAM, AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



Publisheil MonUily. Henry Alley, Manager. 



VOL. IV. 



WENHAM, MASS., AUG. i, 1886. 



No. 



For the American Apiculturist. 



EXTRACTING HONEY 

 QUEENS, ETC. 



Bv C. W. Dayton. 



Of my 116 colonies of bees 

 (tlie same nuinber there was last 

 fall), 90 were ready for the har- 

 vest wlien it came, the other 26 

 having been made weak by sparing 

 brood to help the 90. In one day 

 I prepared, and placed upon tlie 

 hives, 60 stories of empty combs 

 for extracting. On another day 

 of ten hours, I transferred from 

 the hives into barrels 706 pounds 

 of extracted honey, not counting 

 that contained in the cappings ; 

 and I also hived three swarms of 

 bees during tiie time. 



Figuring 80 pounds to the col- 

 ony, for 60 colonies would equal 

 4,800 pounds and would require 

 about seven days for one man to 

 extract it ; one day to adjust sur- 

 l)lns stories and one day to take 

 tliem off, making nine days in all, 

 to run 60 colonies through tlie 

 honey harvest for extracted honey. 



Now, if 60 colonies can be man- 

 aged from the adjustment of the 

 sections to the hives until they are 

 neatly stored in the honey house 

 with less time and labor than that 

 I cannot imagine how it is done. 



To do a "■ big" day's work in 

 extracting, the combs should be 

 well filled with honey and about 

 one half capped to insure its ripe- 

 ness. It is a very good plan to 

 place the combs in the hives rather 

 21 



far apart to make them thick so as 

 to contain more honey. 



I have had combs 11|- inches 

 square that weighed 13 J- lbs. In 

 uncapping honey, the shavings 

 should be as thin as possible, and 

 a person who would not shave thinly 

 would waste many times his wages. 

 Just tiiink of it; 45 pounds of 

 honey it costs to produce a pound 

 of wax which only sells for 20 or 

 30 cents, and yet there are many 

 who allow the cappings to be one- 

 half of an inch or more in thick- 

 ness. 



One of the nicest features in 

 producing combs of honey for ex- 

 traction is to have them filled en- 

 tirely with honey and the brood 

 all remain in the brood-nest. There 

 seems to be a difference in queens 

 in this. While some will stay 

 closely in the brood-chamber, oth- 

 ers will run all over placing a little 

 patch of brood here and another 

 there and still others will imme- 

 diately move into the upper story 

 to stay. Of all the queens, the 

 first one mentioned is greatly pre- 

 ferred, and the difference is almost 

 enough to lietray happiness or dis- 

 gust in the beekeeper's counte- 

 nance. When the queen moves 

 about in more than one story, the 

 bees usually build queen cells in 

 the story that is the most neg- 

 lected. In this way I have known 

 several colonies to swarm taking 

 with them a virgin queen and the 

 old one also. 



Some will recommend queen-ex- 

 cluding honey-boards. This works 

 nicely until we come to a queen 



(173) 



