20 8 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



with H gasoline engine and outfit, and at- 

 tached it to one of our four-frame ma- 

 chines, and we found the power made 

 quite an addition to the capacity of the 

 machine. While I do not think the cap- 

 acity, even with the power, is sufficient 

 to keep two uncapping, I do think, judging 

 from what the four-frame did. that a six- 

 frame would keep two uncapping; then 

 one, not having the extractor to turn, 

 could attend the extractor and handle the 

 honey. This would call for two in the 

 yard, and would make a five-man team. 

 This would facilitate matters so that it 

 would be possible to do all our extracting 

 with one outfit and one crew; moving 

 from yard to yard instead of having an 

 outfit at each yard, as heretofore. There 

 is an essential point in favor of the power 

 driven extractor, and that is, the greater 

 speed leaves the combs much more dry_ 

 This not only gets more honey, but the 

 main point is, the combs are so dry that 

 it is much less work for the bees to clean 

 them when given back. Then, after the 

 last extracting for the season, there will 

 be no need of giving these almost dry 

 combs to the bees to be cleaned before 

 storing thsm away for winter. Another 

 saving of labor. 



It is likely that the most convenient 

 way to lay out a bee yard would be like 

 the spokes of a wheel, with the hub at the 

 honay house door; th3n we could goto the 

 farther end of the row with our wheel- 

 barrow and work towards the house. But 

 we have never been favored with a loca- 

 tion suitable for this way of laying out a 

 yard; as the ground would have to be 

 level or we would have to wheel some of 

 the honey up hill, a procedure that would 

 more than offset what advantage would 

 be gained by being able to wheel all our 

 honey directly toward the honey house. 

 The b3st we can usually do is to place 

 our bees in rows, then, when we get to 

 that part of the row oppooite the honey 

 house door, we leave a wide space be- 

 tween the hives thp' ;-. then when we 

 wheel our load d^ vn ; ' this opening, we 

 turn towards the honey house. This is a 



thoroughfare, so to speak, and is leveled 

 down into a smooth road for the wheel- 

 barrow; :-Jx, perhaps, every row of hives 

 in the yard leads to this path. 



YARD WORK AT FXTRACTING TIME. 



With two empty bodies, a four-inch 

 Bingham smoker, a Cogshall bee-brush, 

 a steel pry, made of a half a leaf of a 

 buggy spring, a robber-cloth and a good 

 wheel-barrow, we are ready to commence 

 taking off our combs to extract. For 

 smoker fuel, we use hard wood; maple 

 when we can get it. We saw it four or 

 five inches long, then split to one-half inch 

 square. This works best with a conical 

 cover, as the smoker is taller than the 

 very low covers some are selling. 



We see that the smoker is lighted in 

 good shape, for we use lots of smoke, as 

 we depend almost entirely on smoke and 

 the brush to free the combs of bees. If 

 you have followed us thus far, and 

 imagine this to be the last week of July, 

 you will understand that the lion's share 

 of the honey to be extracted is capped 

 over, and now it is possible to smoke al- 

 most all the bees out of the upper stories; 

 then what few there are left can be 

 brushed off, thus being able to do away 

 With th3 tadious, neck-breaking operation 

 of shaking. 



With our wheel-barrow and the afore- 

 said articles, we go to the farther end of 

 th3 front row of hives, for we want to 

 commence away from the honey house 

 and work back. In this way we work 

 towards the honey house with our load. 

 We commence at the front, that is, the 

 front row of hives as they face. By 

 working this front row first, then the 

 next back, we do not have to work in 

 front of any hives where bees have been 

 disturbed; this is important, especially if 

 there are robbers around to keep bothering 

 the colonies we have been extracting. If 

 there are robbers trying to get in any 

 where, these bees will be cross and it will 

 be more comfortable working where they 

 cannot see you from their entrance. 



"Necessity, the mother of invention." 



