Texas Beekeeping. 



51 



WHAT THE BEGINNER NEEDS. 



A vexing and erroneous notion of the average beginner, after pe- 

 rusing the pages of a bee supply catalog, is that almost all things 

 needed must be purchased when starting in beekeeping. This is not 

 necessary. The start should be made with only a few colonies of 



Supers of honey tiered up on the hives. 



bees, preferably two or three, and, outside of the hives and frames 

 actually required for these, and possibly one extra hive for each, 

 for the increase, or swarms, a good smoker, a veil, a honey extractor 

 and a good bee book are all that is necessary to buy at the beginning. 



If it is desired to produce extracted 

 honey, the honey extractor is needed to 

 remove the honey from the combs. This 

 is a large can in which wire baskets are 

 suspended on a reel that revolves rapidly 

 when turned. The combs of honey, from 

 which the cell caps have been removed, 

 are placed in these baskets and centri- 

 fugal force, or suction, farces the honey 

 out of the combs, and causes it to fly 

 against the walls of the can and accumu- 

 late below, where it may be drawn off. 

 As the honey flies out of only one side 

 of the combs, on account of the septum 

 or mid-rib forming a partition, it is neces- 

 sary to turn them around and revolve 

 again to get all the honey. Before re- 

 versible extractors were made, with which 

 the simple reversing of the baskets brings 

 the opposite side of the combs into place, it was necessary to entirely 

 remove the combs from the stationary baskets, turn them around and 

 replace them in the baskets. 



Two frame 

 honey extractor. 



