THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



79 



box three feet wide, six feet long, and one 

 foot deep, covered with ylass. The cappiuj^s 

 are held ui) near the glass by a screen 

 through which the melted wax runs. 



FiLLMOEE, Cal., 



April 14, 1«)0. 



A Low Grade of Honey can be Kaised More 



Cheaply ; Less Swarming if we Extract 



Often ; Large Hives a Help ; How to 



Extract ; Barrels Best for Storage. 



E. FBANCE. 



IRIEND HUTCHINSON.— After read- 

 ing over your leader in the April Re- 

 view, I don't feel very much like 

 writing on the subject of raising yood 

 extracted huiiey. We have, perhaps, more 

 bees than any other tirm in the state of Wis- 

 consin, have raised a great many tons of 

 extracted honey, and the more I work at the 

 business the more I am convinced that we 

 are not doing the l)usiness justice. We are 

 not as particular about the quality as we are 

 to get a large (juantity. But just how to go 

 to work to secure a good crop of No. 1 honey 

 and have the bt es behave themselves as they 

 should, or as I would like to have them, is 

 yet an unsettled question with me. Five to 

 eight years ago, we extracted once in ten 

 days, but we found that the bees would fill 

 their hives in about live days, during a good 

 flow. Then the bees would get uneasy, and 

 commence to swarm, and by the time we got 

 around to them the swarming fever was 

 running high. We would be informed by 

 tlie families where the bees were located 

 tliat the bees had been swarming for about 

 three days. We had the qaeens clipped ; so, 

 of course, no swarms went off. We would 

 extract and divide. But still the swarming 

 impulse was up, and it was not easily check- 

 ed. There was only one way to stop the 

 swarming, take away the queens and let 

 them raise another. Of course we were not 

 getting as much honey as we would if we 

 extracted sooner. So, for the last live years 

 we have extracted once a week, and we don't 

 have as much swarming. But, 1 don't think 

 the honey is quite as good, especially in wet 

 weather. If the weather is dry, as it has 

 been for the most part of the last three years, 

 then the honey will be good if taken once a 

 week. 



We have found that large hives help a 

 great deal. Extract a part of the combs ; 

 leave those in which the lioney is not ripe to 

 extract next time. With the L. hives worked 

 three or four tiers high, we cau manage m 

 this very nicely. We extract only those 

 that are nearly all sealed, putting the combs 

 that contain the thin honey, in the upper 

 story, and they will be ready next time. We 

 put u\e combs just emptied in the tier next 

 belo,v those containing the thin honey. 

 Now, as there are plenty of empty combs in 

 the tiive for the bees to till, ihey are satisfle I 

 and work like little heroes. As long as 

 there is plenty of empty eoinbs they won't 

 make much trouble by swarming. I mean 

 empty combs, not empty frames to build 

 combs in. 



For storing the honey we use barrels hold- 

 ing 3(J0 lbs. Last year we put up several 

 (]D lb., screw cap tin cans. I set a can into 

 the wash boiler over the stove, put a pail of 

 water into the boiler, took off the screw cap. 

 When the honey began to melt it would run 

 over the top and down into the boiler, 

 making a considerable of waste. If the cans 

 had been two or three pounds of being full 

 then there would not have been any trouble, 

 but I had to fill them full to get the (JO lbs. 

 into them. If the honey is in a barrel, when 

 candied a head can be taken out, the honey 

 put into a tin pail and melted, without loss 

 or muss, and a barrel is the safest thing to 

 ship. 



You say that one of the most tedious per- 

 formances attending the raising of extracted 

 honey, is the getting of the bees off the 

 combs. We make a quick job of that. We 

 use a brush made of tine broom corn, five or 

 six inches wide, made thin. Let two men or 

 boys stand facing each other. Set whatever 

 they are going to sweep the bees into be- 

 tween them. Now let each take hold of the 

 top end of the frame with the left hand, and, 

 with the right hand, use the brush ; and 

 don't be afraid to brush lively. Two or 

 three downward strokes, and the comb is 

 clear of bees. Now let one man set the 

 comb down while the other picks another 

 comb out of the hive. It will take, perhaps, 

 about two minutes to brush a set of combs. 

 In how much less time can a bee escape do 

 it? 



I have never seen a reversible extractor. 

 They would save time and labor if they 

 work well. If I had not been sick nearly all 

 winter I should have tried to make a rever- 

 sible extractor for eight frames. 



Before closing, let me ask if honey taken 

 out thin cannot be evaporated in tin vats by 

 the heat of the sun in something like a green 

 house? I have thought considerable about 

 the matter but have never done anything to 

 prove it. Does anybody know? 



Platteville, Wis,, April 28, 1890. 



Shallow Combs ; Tiering Up ; Bee Escapes ; 

 Extractors. 



O. S. COMPTON. 



Q^r NOTHER reason, besides the one 

 V) mentioned in the last Review, for 

 the storing of more extracted than 

 comb honey, is that the small colony 

 stores as much in proportion to its strength 

 as the large one, which is not the case in the 

 production of comb honey. 



For the production of extracted honey, it 

 is of importance that all frames are inter- 

 changable, and all combs drawn from good 

 foundation with frames wired ; also that the 

 combs are' attached to the bottom bar. 

 Then I would have the frames shallow and 

 at fixed distances apart ; also narrow top 

 and bottom bars. You who have never un- 

 capped a comb with a wide projecting top 

 bar cannot imagine the inconvenience. 



Another important point is to have at least 

 three sets of extracting combs for each 

 colony, and five would be better. Then 



