66 The Townsend Bee Book 
robbing; then a smoker was kept going, and the assistant would 
keep the smoke where it would do the most good. This yard of 
bees had not been handled, and the colonies had not learned the 
robbing habit, so they were not very bad to commence with. 
THE IDEAL HONEY-HOUSE 
The ideal honey-house for a hundred-colony bee-yard would 
be a building 18 x 24, lathed and plastered on the inside. It should 
be built at the lower edge of the bee-yard, to facilitate wheeling 
the honey from the yard. It would be better if the gentle slope 
of the ground were to the south or southeast. I would build the 
end of the building toward the bee-yard, with a good wide door 
at both ends. The ground at the back should be about six feet 
lower than the front, to allow a platform wagon to stand with the 
top on a level with the honey-floor for convenience in loading and 
unloading honey, supplies, ete. 
Two-thirds of the floor on the end toward the front or bee- 
yard should be built on a level with the ground at this point for 
convenience in wheeling in honey; then the third toward the back 
end would be built two or three feet lower than the front or main 
floor. The front floor would be the main workroom where the 
extractor, uncapping-box and combs are kept. The lower floor 
would be for the honey-tank, scales, honey-cans, etc., and the dis- 
tance this lower floor should be below the main floor would be 
determined by the height of the tank to be filled; for the extractor 
would be set at the edge of this upper floor, with the gate project- 
ing over so the honey could run direct from the extractor into the 
tank, then from the tank to the 60-lb. can on scales. The shallower 
the tank, the less difference there would have to be between the 
two floors. 
THE PROPER CARE OF EXTRACTING-COMBS; DOES IT PAY 
TO GIVE BEES COMBS WET WITH HONEY? 
I formerly practiced spacing our combs after the last extract- 
ing, and criss-crossing them out of doors for the bees to clean up, 
as this was the way some advised. In some cases a part of the 
combs would not be cleaned by the bees as usual. When these 
were given to the bees to be filled the next season, we never could 
see any difference in the quality of the honey, whether the combs 
were cleaned or not. Some of the honey left in the combs candies, 
while the rest apparently disappears; at any rate, none shows up 
in the honey at extracting time. I take the precaution to give 
combs, from which dark honey has been extracted, to the bees, 
