THE HONEY-EXTRACTOR OR SLINGER. 123 



The machine requires a little practice before the greatest 

 amount of skill is acquired, after which it will be found 

 to do wonders. Experience soon teaches how to give 

 just that amount of speed which will throw out the 

 honey and not the brood, should any be there, and by a 

 little contrivance, pieces of combs out of frames can be 

 emptied. The acquisition of this appliance is a step in 

 the right direction to get the greatest possible amount 

 of profit from the Bees, at the smallest possible ex- 

 penditure of Bee labour ; and I will now show how 

 the extractor helps us here. In the midst of honey- 

 gathering it is often found that the Bees will not 

 work in the super, charm we ever so well ; therefore, 

 they hang out idle. We remedy this by taking out 

 a few combs, emptying and returning them, when a 

 general ardour is created to fill them again. In the 

 midst of summer and a good honey season. Bees will some- 

 times gather so much that every available cell is filled. 



The poor Queen cannot find a place to lay her eggs, 

 so suffers in her health, and the contingencies of Bee life 

 being many in the busy season, the stock absolutely 

 dwindles, and perhaps dies subsequently, from nothing 

 else than over prosperity. The danger of such a state 

 of things being discovered, the extractor provides an 

 immediate remedy as in the former case. If the 

 emptied combs are placed in the middle of the brood 

 nest, the Queen immediately fills them with eggs at an 

 astonishing rate. Thus also breeding may be at any 

 time encouraged by empty combs placed in the centre 

 of the hive, as will be further explained. I heard a very 

 practical Bee-keeper remark that he deprived his Bees 

 of all their stores, for which he could get i j. or \s. 6d. 

 per pound, and returned his labourers for their winter 

 sustenance, sugar syrup, which cost him not more 



