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 
aLle 
Fig. 112._BLISS’ SUN 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 witi 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 
