170 



TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Mr. Cyrenius — Everything we can 

 do that facilitates our labor of course 

 is a help to us, is a convenience; 

 everything we can do to make our 

 labor a pleasure is a comfort. 



Bee-keepers have learned very dear- 

 ly that to have good extracted honey 

 it must be thoroughly ripened. I am 

 not going to say anything on the sub- 

 ject only this, it carries us along after 

 the season where we have, if we are 

 not careful, a great many robber bees, 

 we can't extract the honey as nicely 

 at that time as at others. The fact 

 is, I have had much comfort in ex- 

 tracting my honey this fall out of 

 season; I am glad to bring you some 

 ideas; I only finished my extracting 

 last Saturday. 



First there is the matter of bee 

 tents. We have made these great big 

 bee tents that we could tip over, get 

 into and do all that sort of work. If 

 you are going to have a tent I will 

 show j-ou one I have had a great deal 

 of pleasure with. I bought a large 

 umbrella, one of those five feet across, 

 and then a piece of screen material 

 IS feet long and 6 feet wide fastened 

 to the edge of this large umbrella, and 

 that frilled a little as a ladys dress 

 would be, so that a man could step 

 all around under it. I have my hives 

 in pairs so that I have plenty of room. 

 I take in my comb baskets and get 

 my combs out ready to extract them 

 without any robbing. 



Now I have something better. 



The combs are taken from the hives, 

 then passed through between these 

 two brushes, sweeping olf all the bees 

 at one stroke, and passing the combs 

 on to the comb carrier box without 

 changing his position. The lid of the 

 comb carrier is hinged with a couple 

 of wire nails and adjusted so it is 

 opened or closed with the foot on the 

 lever. The brush can be fastened to 

 a stool, or hive body, or with a pointed 

 iron rod with a foot rest on side, 

 so the foot will easily fasten it where 

 wanted. The comb box made of berry 

 crate material, with good , handle to 

 the cover. I take two of these comb 

 carrier boxes at a time. This con- 

 venience saves much time, and posi- 

 tively no robbing. During extracting 

 days I have by the watch taken the 

 combs out of two hives, brushed off 

 all the bees and placed the combs in 

 the carriers .in only 4% minutes. 



My apiary has 3 long, double rows of 

 hivea, with a wooden track railroad 

 the entire length up to the bee house. 

 The car holds 6 hive bodies. It is a 

 pleasure to load this car and go 

 through the apiary. Try it. 



Honey Strainer. 



Now, another thing about extracted 

 honey. I am not here to discuss the 

 merits or demerits of ripened honey, 

 but there is one thing I do like. I 

 like to have my honey well ripened 

 and have it put up in cans the same 

 day it is extracted. The last extract- 

 ing I did I had a tub that would hold 

 half a barrel, and in that tub I laid 

 a cheese cloth across, and sunk it 

 down almost to the bottom, above that 

 I took a white mosquito bar and dou- 

 bled it, and put that down within 

 about four inches of the bottom of the 

 cheese cloth, then above that about 

 the same distance I put a single 

 cheese cloth, then above that I put 

 wire cloth, about four meshes to the 

 inch, and then above that only just a 

 little hollow I had coarse wire cloth, 

 two meshes to the inch; every one of 

 those strainers contributed their part 

 in taking everything out of the honey. 

 Then I had a gate in the bottom of 

 it, and I had this sitting up just abovp 

 the scaJes the right distance, and lean- 

 ing against the arm of the scales T 

 had this little bell striker and Avhen 

 I got just the weight i wanted that 

 told me my can was full of honey. 



Hive Indicator. 



Tomorrow on the subject of rearing 

 queens I want to show you a very 

 handy indicator for telling what my 

 queens are so that I can look from 

 the front of my bee yard to see what 

 I have got. I am- breeding from the 

 very' best queens I can buy or raise. 

 iHlere is a pointer made from a piece 

 of old broken section; when that 

 points right straight out it doesn't 

 mean anything. I give a queen credit 

 or demerit for every good or bad point 

 her hive possesses. If a hive winter* 

 better than any 'other hive I give them 

 a little credit by lifting up the pointer: 

 then a little later if I find they are 

 breeding up faster than the other 

 hives I give them a little more credit; 

 later, if I find they are gentle to 

 handle, th^y get a little more credit; 

 if they are the other way this pointer 



