EXTRACTED HONEY 57 



remove considerable honey with the cappings, the combs 

 are returned to the hives as flat as a board. A quantity 

 of honey drains from the top compartment of the 

 uncapping can, but a considerable amount remains in 

 the cappings. After they have drained for a while, they 

 should be removed and placed in the press illustrated in 

 Fig. 73. Gentle pressure should be applied for a 

 considerable space of time to secure reasonably dry wax. 

 In the busy season one cannot leave urgent and 

 important work to press cappings and afterwards melt 

 them into wax cakes, consequently the honey-house 

 becomes choked with tins of cappings waiting treatment. 

 In seasons when the honey candies quickly, the cappings 

 and the honey remaining in them must be attended to 

 at once, otherwise the honey and wax set into a hard 

 mass from which it is next to impossible to separate 

 them. 



UNCAPPING MACHINES AND DEVICES. 



To overcome the difficulties enumerated, a number of 

 apiarists have contrived various ingenious methods for 

 automatically separating the honey from the ca,ppings. 

 The author has used two of the machines invented in 

 Australia, and after three years' use can give them the 

 heartiest approval. The principle of the "Beuhne" 

 Cappings Device is illustrated in Fig. 30. It is composed 

 of a hollow tank on two sides and bottom. The "grid" — 

 a series of angular pipes separated from each other by 

 % of an inch — connects the sides at the top. The inside 

 of the tank under the grid is fitted with a drawer, on the 

 front of which are two tubes, one for honey and the other 

 for wax. The wax outlet is at the top of the drawer, 

 and that of the honey situated at the bottom. 



The positions of the outlet tubes are determined by 

 the difference in the specific gravity of honey, wax, and 

 "slumgum" or refuse. The wax is lightest, honey 

 heaviest, and the refuse strikes the happy mean. The 

 tube at the bottom of the drawer has an extra pipe, 

 shaped like an elbow, fitted rather tightly, yet capable of 



