THOUSAND ANSWERS 83 



reversible extractor? Is the Cowan rapid-reversible any better? 

 Is the 4-frame too big, or not? Does the reversing help any? 



A. It is generally well to make sure that your extractor is too 

 large rather than too small, taking into account the possibility of 

 increasing the number of your colonies. So, if you don't object 

 to the difference in price it may be well to get the 4-frame. The 

 reversing is a decided advantage, although one kind does as good 

 work as the other. 



Q. Would like to know the speed at which a honey extractor 

 must run to do good work. I have some cogwheels speeded 

 three turns of the smaller to one of the larger. Will that speed 

 enough to extract honey? 



A. Three to one will give you plenty of speed. Indeed, there 

 is no trouble about getting speed enough with no cogs at all. The 

 first extractor I knew anything about had none; each revolution 

 with the handle made a revolution with the baskets. 



Q. How long may an extractor remain without washing? 

 That is, how long may the extractings be apart without injuring 

 anything? 



A. I think in some cases harm might be done by leaving an 

 extractor daubed for. 24 hours. I know that in some cases a 

 week or more will do no harm. Perhaps the kind of honey or the 

 condition of the atmosphere makes a difference. 



Tin does not readily blacken the honey, but all iron parts do. 

 Better wash the extractor often. 



Eyes of Bees. — Q. How many eyes has a honeybee? 



A. They don't all have the same number. For the sake of 

 making the count easier, we may say the worker has three simple 

 and two compound eyes, each of the compound eyes being made 

 up of a number of facets; but really each facet is a separate eye. 

 Cowan says : "There is great variation in the number of facets in 

 the compound eyes of bees. In the worker the lowest is given as 

 3,500, whereas we have ourselves found as many as 5,000." Drones 

 have more than either queen or worker. Cheshire counted on 

 each side of the head — in a worker, 6,300; in a queen, 4,920; in a 

 drone, 13,090. 



Fanning of Bees. — Q. In warm weather, when the bees are 

 fanning, do they do that to get the water out of the honey, or to 

 cool the hives? 



A. Both; but perhaps more than either to get fresh air into 

 the hive. Bees seem to have a notion that pure air is a fine thing, 

 summer or winter. 



