318 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



bell to let the operator know that the can 

 was full and needed to be replaced by an 

 empty one — something he could do at any 

 time most convenient to himself. 



I have two of the automatic can-fillers, for 

 60-lb. cans, that have been in use about fif- 

 teen years, and are now good for many 

 years to come. They have had from one to 

 three cars of honey filled on them nearly 

 every season; and so simple are they in con- 

 struction, and so faithfully have they per- 

 formed their duty, that many times I have 

 sent them to outyards with hired help unac- 

 quainted with them, and no trouble has re- 

 sulted. On the other hand, my hired help 

 have often left cans running when quitting, 

 and gone home for the night, trusting to the 

 machine to shut the gate at the proper time 

 and prevent many gallons of honey from 

 running over on to the honey-house floor. 



Filler 



AN AUTOMATIC SQUARE-CAN FILLER. 



By looking at the illustrations, the plan 

 will be understood. The operation is simple. 

 When the weight of the honey running into 

 the can becomes such that the weight S is 

 overbalanced, the platform holding the can 

 sinks down. This movement trips the slid- 

 ing stick B by means of the wire C, and it is 

 jerked down by the rubbers, pulling the 

 cord E and thus shutting the gate T. If it is 

 desired, an alarm may be added by arrang- 

 ing the little bell as shown, to ring when 

 the gate shuts. 



Fig. 1 shows my method of arranging a 

 honey-house for extracting. I proceed as 

 follows: Two men work with one outfit — one 

 out in the yard and the other in the honey- 

 house. The outside man arms himself with 

 a Daisy spring wheelbarrow, four or five 

 hauling-boxes, which are made the same 

 size as a ten-frame Langstroth body, only a 

 little deeper, and having a metal bottom to 

 catch the drips from the extracting-combs; 

 two Coggshall bee-brooms; one smoker; one 

 hive-tool to loosen the frames; one bucket of 

 water to soak brooms in; and, if robbers are 

 bad, two robber-cloths to keep the combs 

 covered. 



He proceeds by taking two hauling-boxes 



on his wheelbarrow, and wheels them into a 

 convenient position at the back of a hive; re- 

 moves the cover; blows some smoke down 

 between the combs, and, while the bees are 

 running down, loosens the frames with his 

 prying- tool; then, before the bees have time 

 to get back up again, he lifts out the frames, 

 shaking or brushing off the remaining bees, 

 and sets them in the box on the wheelbarrow, 

 then proceeds to fill the other box in the 

 same way. He then wheels them into the 

 honey-house and sets them on to the skele- 

 ton stand, seen at 1 in Fig. 1, in exchange 

 for two boxes of empty combs which the man 

 at the extractor has ready for him. He then 

 returns to the yard, exchanges the empty 

 combs that have been extracted for full ones, 

 and so on. When the bee-broom becomes 

 sticky it is placed in the bucket of water in 

 exchange for a clean one. 



The man inside stands in the 

 space between stand No. 1. Fig. 



1, the large uncapping-box No. 



2, and extractor No. 3. These 

 are so set that a man can reach 



]f the combs in the hauling-boxes 

 'M on stand No. 1, set them on the 

 i revolving rest on the uncapping- 

 box, and, when uncapped, set 

 ,i them into the extractor by bare- 



jjj ly moving out of his tracks. He 

 ;j' uncaps enough combs to fill the 

 ^ extractor; sets them in it as un- 

 ^ capped, then turns the machine 

 ="" at a good speed for a few rounds 

 imtil the honey is mostly out, 

 then leaves the machine running 

 to finish cleaning the combs, and 

 goes on uncapping. After un- 

 capping one, two, or three 

 combs, as the case may be, the 

 reel of the extractor has lost 

 most of its speed, and is quickly 

 stopped and the combs reversed; the motion 

 is again accelerated, and held for a moment, 

 then let run of its own accord, while the 

 operator uncaps enough more combs to fill 

 the extractor again. He now empties a 

 bucket of honey, which has run out of the 

 extractor into one of the strainers in strain- 

 ei--box No. 4 of Fig. 1, or sets an empty can 

 in place of a full one on the weighing-ma- 

 chine at No. 5, Fig. 1. 



He next grasps the extractor-crank with 

 the right hand and almost instantly stops 

 the machine, and at the same time raises the 

 left hand, grasping one of the empty combs 

 as soon as he can safely do so, which is very 

 soon after the right hand catches the crank. 

 The left hand turns the revolving frame 

 slightly as it raises the comb, so that the 

 right hand can catch the next comb, bring- 

 ing the two out almost simultaneously. The 

 operation is repeated where a four or six- 

 frame extractor is used. The empty combs 

 are placed in the hauling-boxes from which 

 the full combs were taken, and are then 

 ready to go out to the hives. 



The extractor is immediately filled \v ith 

 uncapped combs which have been set corner- 

 wise into the end of the uncapping-box near- 



