190 PRODUCTION OF EXTRACTED HONEY 



a support for the cloth. If a large basket, which may be hung 

 in the tank, is made of this coarse screen and lined with cheese- 

 cloth it makes a fairly satisfactory strainer. There is always 

 more or less bother with clogged strainers, unless the basket is 

 deep enough so that much of the refuse will come to the top 

 rather than fall directly on the strainer. 



Alexander Strainer. — The Alexander strainer is made of 

 fine wire screen, and is about the size and shape of a large bucket 

 with bail. This pail is hung in the tank or other receptacle, in 

 which the honey is stored and the honey run into it as extracted. 

 The bottom and all side surface permitting the passage of honey, 

 it does not clog readily and it is strong enough to sustain the 

 weight of a full pail of honey. All sediment is caught and held. 

 The strainer is easily cleaned with hot water after the refuse is 

 dumped out. 



Second-Hand Containers Not Desirable. — So much honey 

 goes to market in the square sixty-pound cans that there is always 

 an accumulation of them in all the large centers. These are 

 offered for sale at a very low price. So little is to be saved by 

 the use of these second-hand containers that the bee-keeper can 

 hardly afford to buy them. If they are rusted inside, the quality 

 of the honey will be injured, and if otherwise perfect there is 

 some danger of spreading disease by their use. 



As mentioned elsewhere the principal bee diseases are spread 

 from hive to hive in the honey. Second-hand containers brought 

 to the apiary are more or less daubed with the honey with which 

 they have previously been filled. This honey attradts the 

 workers, and if it came from a diseased colony there is great 

 danger in bringing it into the apiary. Disease is thus spread 

 to considerable extent. The author has had his attention offi- 

 cially called to this source of disease so many times that he is 

 inclined to favor restrictions on the use of containers for honey 

 a second time, unless it be in the same apiary where filled at first. 



If the honey is put up in bright new cans a better impression 

 is made on the buyer than if received in cans that are rusty and 



