190 



MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



can should be stationary, so that only a light frame shall 

 revolve with the comb. It is desirable that the machine 

 should run with gearing, not ohly for ease, but also 

 to insure or allow an even motion, so that we need not throw 

 even drone larvae from the brood-cells. The arrangement for 

 ^exit of the honey should permit a speedy and perfect shut- 

 off. A molasses gate is excellent to serve for a faucet. I also 

 prefer that the can should hold 30 or 40 pounds of honey be- 

 fore it would be necessary to let the honey flow from it. 



In case of small frames, like the ones I have described as 

 most desirable to my mind, I should prefer that the comb bas- 

 ket might hold four frames. The comb basket should be 

 placed so low in the can that no honey will be thrown over 

 the top to daub the person using the extractor. I think that 

 Fig. 59. 



a wire attachment with a tin bottom (Fig. 59, a, b) and made 

 to hook on to the comb basket, which will hold pieces of comb 

 not in frames, a desirable improvement to an extractor. 



I have tried machines where the sides of the comb basket 

 inclined down and in, for the purpose of holding pieces of 

 comb, but found them unsatisfactory. The combs would not 

 be sustained. Yet, if the frames were long and narrow, so 

 that the end of the frame would have to rest on the bottom 

 of the comb basket, instead of hanging as it does in the hive, 

 such an incline might be of use to prevent the top of the 

 frame from falling in, before we commence to turn the ma- 

 chine. Of course, with such comb baskets, there would be 

 less centrifugal force at the bottom than at the top of the 

 comb, making it more difficult to avoid throwing out the larval 

 bees, in extracting from combs containing uncapped brood. 



The inside, if metal, which is lighter and to be preferred 

 to wood, as it does not sour or absorb the honey, should be 



