EXTRACTED HONEY. 435 
at stated periods. On the eighteenth of May it gained 
eighteen pounds and a half. On the eighteenth of June, a 
swarm weighing seven pounds issued from it, and the follow- 
ing day it gained over six pounds in weight. Ten days of 
abundant pasturage would enable such a colony to gather a 
large surplus, while five times the number of equally favor- 
able opportunities would be of small avail to a feeble one. 
The largest yield of extracted honey, ever harvested by 
the colonies of one Apiary under our control, was 13,000 
pounds in about fifty days, the most protracted honey crop 
weever knew. This was harvested by eighty-seven colonies, 
making a daily average of three pounds a day per colony of 
evaporated honey. Such seasons are scarce. 
As some colonies harvest much more than others, they 
need more attention. ‘ 
763. To secure the greatest possible amount of extracted 
honey, the colony should never be left without some empty 
comb. 
As soon as the combs of one of these supers are about 
three-fourths full, we put another rack under the first, and 
sometimes a third under the second. All this without wait- 
ing for the honey to be sealed; but we never remove the 
honey, to extract it, until the crop is at an end, for we want 
to get our honey entirely ripened. 
Honey is evaporated, or ripened, by the forced circula- 
tion of air, caused by the fanning of the bees through the 
hive, in connection with the great heat generated by them. 
As honey evaporates, it diminishes in volume, and as long 
as the bees continue their harvest, they constantly bring in 
unripened, or watery honey, which they store in the partly 
filled cells that contain honey already evaporated. It is for 
this reason that unsealed honey, after the crop is over, is as 
ripe as honey sealed during the crop, and sometimes riper. 
If the crop is abundant, they often seal their combs too 
soon, and the honey thus sealed may afterwards ferment in 
the cell and burst the capping. 
