BEE MANUAL. 



239 



of the boxes should be scraped off, and the boxes placed for a 

 day or two on shelves in the honey room, which must be dry 

 and well ventilated, after which they can be crated for market. 

 Any unfinished sections at the end of the season should have 

 the honey extracted from them, and be put away for next 

 season's use. 



Frames of honey for extracting may be removed as soon as 

 about one-third capped. Some prefer to leave the combs in 

 the hives until the whole of the cells are sealed, while others, 

 again, remove them as soon as they are full, whether sealed or 

 not, and ripen the honey after it is extracted. There is cer- 

 tainly a great saving of labour by the latter method, little or 

 no uncapping to be done, and the honey can be thrown from 

 the combs with much less trouble. I prefer to see combs 

 partly capped, but I think there is no necessity to wait till 

 they are sealed all over, if proper precautions are afterwards 

 taken to finish the ripening of the honey before putting it up 

 for market. 



RIPENING HONEY. 



In California, where they have no rain during the height of 

 the honey harvest, some of the bee-keepers ripen their 

 honey in what is termed a " sun evaporator." This is a 



Fig. 112.— BLISS' STTN EVAPORATOR, 



wooden tank lined with tin, one side of the cover being fitted 

 with sheets of glass (a a, Fig. 112); and to allow surplus 

 moisture to evaporate, there is a space two inches wide, the length 

 of the tank immediately under the ridge, covered with wire-cloth. 

 The tank is exposed to the sun, and a pipe is led into it from 

 the extractor. When full, the honey is allowed to remain for 

 two or three days to ripen before being tinned. However, if 



