THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



235 



elbow upon the window sill, and looked 

 out upon the white hives bathed in a 

 flood of moonlig-ht. The stars glit- 

 tered over head; myriads of fire flies 

 twinkled over the low lands along- by the 

 brook; and away in the distance could be 



heard the weird, lonely call of the whip- 

 poor-will. These are all common things, 

 and yet, they filled my soul with thoughts 

 that are beyond expression. 



Flint, Mich,, July 29, 1907. 



Helpful Hints in Extensive 

 Bee-Keeping-. 



E. D. TOWNSEND. 



\J7HE hive stand we use and recommend 

 -i- is made of 2x4 material, four feet 

 long. We used to cut a piece 16 inches 

 long, and spike in between these 4-ft 

 pieces, at each end. This made a stand 

 four inches high. With the heavy loads 

 of honey they have to hold, with our sys- 

 tem of leaving all the honey on the hive 

 until after the season, before extracting, 

 these stands settle into the ground, so 

 they are no higher than some of the 

 four-feet pieces laid flat on the ground, 

 and that is the way we now use them. 

 This way saves the two 16-inch pieces, 

 nails and nailing; then, in moving, these 

 plain 2x4rs are far ahead of the bulky 

 nailed ones. When one begins to move 

 bee-yards, is when he appreciates these 

 conveniences. These four-feet stands are 

 about the right distance apart for a group 

 of two single-walled hives. They ought 

 to be a foot or so longer for chaff hives. 



GRADING EXTRACTED HONEY. 



For several years our extracted honey 

 has been graded; that is, our early, white 

 honey for table use, with our system of 

 giving additional upper stories on top, any 

 partly full upper stories are on top at the 

 close of the season, when we do our ex- 

 tracting. Of course, with this way of 

 managing, especially as we try to have 

 every upper story possible sealed, and 

 finished, still, with all the precaution one 



can take along this line, with these fifty- 

 pound-capacity upper stories, there will 

 be a good many partly full upper stories 

 at the close of the season, the best we 

 can do. The way we manage to get our 

 superior grade of honey that sells for one 

 or two cents above the market price, is to 

 take off all these partly full upper stories, 

 and extract them by themselves. As they 

 are all on top, this is not much additional 

 labor, and, in a good season, this first ex- 

 tracting will not amount to more than 

 one-fourth the crop. We call this grade 

 No. 1, as even this, our lowest grade, is 

 superior to the ordinary honey on the 

 market. Another way, where one has 

 two extractors, and a little more time, is 

 to set up two extractors, near together 

 for convenience, then run all the partly 

 sealed combs through an extractor before 

 uncapping. In this way, we get a larger 

 per cent of the superior grade of honey, 

 but it is some more work. With this lat- 

 ter plan the unsealed honey is not of as 

 good quality as our No. 1 mentioned 

 above, and ought to go for some other 

 purpose than table use. This plan of 

 using two extractors, originated with me, 

 and our whole crop at the Kalkaska Co. 

 yard was handled this way during the 

 season of 1905. The reason for using 

 two extractors is that the sealed combs 

 of honey would get so cold standing 



