152 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



formed of the frames brought to- 

 gether, with a dummy at each end. 



In the American Bee Journal of 

 July, 1912, we gave on the cover page 

 a view of the apiary of A. B. An- 

 thony, of Sterling, Illinois. The hive 

 invented by Mr. Anthony opens like 

 a book, more literally than the Hu- 

 ber hive. It is a model of ingenuity, 

 for it is arranged to open in such a 

 way that not a single bee can be 

 crushed, the frames not touching 

 each other. But the exactness of the 

 requirements in such a hive has dis- 

 couraged most people from its use. 

 For popular use, hives must be sim- 

 ple enough to be put into the hands 

 of entirely unskilled workers. 



Apiary Buildings and Their 

 Equipment 



By Morley Pettit 

 (Concluded from April) 



I HAVE turned over in my mind 

 many ideas for the efficient rout- 

 ing of supers from the hives to 

 the extractor; but the completion of 

 the building in addition to apiary 

 work was all that spare time in 1917 

 would allow without permanently in- 

 stalling any machinery. So I think 

 I will postpone the publication of 

 definite plans further than to say 

 that the garage has a door in the end 



The observing hives (ruches 

 plates) of Huber were undoubtedly 

 the ones which permitted him to 

 make the numerous discoveries which 

 he brought to light. The writer 

 has often followed Huber's teachings 

 with one of these hives. A single- 

 comb observing hive, located within 

 a house, by a window, or outside on 

 a remote corner of the house porch 

 or veranda and filled with a comb 

 loaded with bees, is a source of end- 

 less study. There is no need of a 

 queen, provided the comb contains 

 brood less than three days old. You 

 can watch the rearing of a queen, the 

 destruction of the supernumerary 

 queen-cells by the first queen 

 hatched, often helped in this work by 

 the neuters. You may even have oc- 

 casion to notice the combat of 

 queens. There is no end to the 

 amount of experience that may be 

 derived from the use of these "flat 

 hives" with glass on both sides. Even 

 combs built crooked and fastened to 

 the glass will give you amusement 

 and information, by enabling you to 

 see how the bees work in the cells, 

 to deposit honey or pollen or to rear 

 brood. 



The life of F. Huber. published in 

 the "Biblii ithi que Universi II 

 February. 1832, and re-published in 

 1894 by Ed. Bertrand in the "Revue 

 Internationale DApiculture" is in- 

 teresting reading and we may trans- 

 late it for our readers some day. 



facing the apiary as well as in the 

 front. The hives in the apiary can 

 be arranged so that a motor truck 

 can be backed down the rows and 

 loaded with supers for extracting, as 

 a welcome substitute for the old 

 wheelbarrow. 



All supers are removed from the 

 hives with bee-escapes, so the load- 

 ing on the truck will be easy and 

 rapid. Loads of supers from out- 

 yards, of course, go immediately into 

 the garage at the front door to be 

 unloaded directly to the extracting 

 room. Here the supers can be 

 moved either in piles on small trucks 

 with castor wheels, as milady moves 

 her ilinner-wagon, or hung from trol- 

 leys "ii overhead tracks, as carcases 

 are moved in an abattoir. It might 

 be practical to run the overhead 

 track out into the apiary and along 

 over the rows of hives. A super- 

 lit tir for brood-chamber examina- 

 tipns might possibly be combined 

 with this; but so many have been 

 dreaming of super-lifters that I will 

 ^hut up for the present. 



In any ease, routing and machin- 

 ery must be arranged to avoid hack- 

 tracking as much as possible. With 

 this end in view the door from the 

 extracting room to the apiary is at 

 the opposite end from the garage. A 

 super-hoist may also be placed at 

 this end. Supers will then come in 

 from the garage, pass through the 

 extractor and rest near the far door, 



to be taken to the apiary at night, 

 or upstairs for storage, as the case 

 may be. Outapiary supers will, in the 

 spring, be handed down the trap door 

 to the motor truck in the garage. 

 Extracting Machinery 

 With good steam pressure and a 

 long-handled knife and well-built 

 combs, one man can uncap for an 8- 

 frame extractor, and a helper has too 

 easy a time tending it. Where ex- 

 tractors are allowed to do their work 

 thoroughly I believe there should be 

 16-frame or 18-frame capacity, with 

 one to attend them and two, or at 

 most three, uncappers. I am referr- 

 ing to Langstroth combs. This would 

 call for good large capping melter 

 capacity, a battery of four 4-framc 

 or three 6-frame extractors, a pump 

 and plenty of storage. I would heat 

 the knives and melters with steam 

 brought through well insulated pipes 

 from a boiler in another room. That 

 would remove the most objectionable 

 feature of this part of the extracting, 

 the over-heating and vitiating of the 

 air caused by oil stoves burning in 

 the room, and even steam from 

 knives and melters might be taken 

 care of to advantage by some sys- 

 tem of condensation. 



I do not know what the daily ca- 

 pacity of such an outfit would be. 

 but would guess at from 7,000 to 10,- 



000 pounds as a conservative esti- 

 mate. I know that under rather un- 

 favorable conditions, with one 8- 

 frame machine, I uncapped and the 

 helper extracted 3,500 pounds in one 

 day last fall, and he had an easy 

 time. If you say why such haste, 



1 will refer you to the shortness of 

 the time between light and dark 

 honey flows in many sections, the 

 importance of leaving honey on as 

 long as possible for ripening, and the 

 high cost of living. 



The knife is a sandwich-knife with 

 straight blade about \0]i in. long. A 

 tinsmith added the copper jacket for 



The Standing F 



of Quinby 



steam. The handle is straight with 

 the Made, eliminating the tiresome 

 side-pull of the stock knife, and I 

 wound it with tire tape for a better 

 grip. The next improvement will be 

 some sort of support for the other 

 end to give leverage and save the op- 

 erator's wrist. A modified bread- 

 cutting machine might answer. 

 A Revision of Extractor Construction 



While we are installing extractors 

 the stock machine of the manufac- 

 turer will stand some scrutiny. 



The idea of an extractor or battery 

 of extractors built in, as it were, or 

 permanently installed, has not to my 



