78 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
brood apartment early iu the morning of the day before the extracting 
is to be done, in case the bees are still gathering, otherwise the night 
before will do. The combs will then be free from bees, or nearly so, 
when the operator wishes to remove them, and will contain no honey 
gathered within twenty-four hours, the last day's gathering having also 
been ripened considerably during the night preceding the insertion of 
the escapes. When the queen has not been restricted in her laying to 
the lower story by means of excluders, this plan of freeing the combs 
of bees will fail in case the escapes are placed on lower stories above 
which the brood and the queen may be. The only way then will be to 
remove the combs one by one, after smoking the bees to quiet them, 
and shake or brush off the latter into the top story. Italians can not 
be shaken off unless their bodies are pretty well filled with honey, but 
they may be safely brushed off after smoking. For this a single large 
feather from the left wing of a turkey is best. Other races can be 
shaken off after smoking. Eastern bees should never be brushed from 
the combs when extracting, nor at any time unless they are gorged 
with honey. They can all be shaken off easily, and will need less smoke 
than the European races. 
When much extracting is to be done, top stories of hives or light 
cases with cloth covers, weighted with a rod sewed into the loose edge, 
may be used to hold the full combs as fast as taken from the hives, and 
these, placed on a wheelbarrow, cart, or car, can be easily transported to 
the extracting room. The uncapping knife, kept in hot water when 
not in use, is passed rapidly under the capping of the sealed combs, 
the point of it being used to reach depressed surfaces. The loosened 
cappings drop into a sieve resting over a pan, or into the upper part of 
a can specially designed to receive cappings. The small amount of 
honey removed with the cappings drains through the strainer and is 
drawn off below. The uncapped combs are placed in the extractor at 
once. As the cells generally slant upward more or less, especially 
those built for store cells outside the brood nest, the throwing out of 
the honey is facilitated by placing each comb in such a manner as to 
bring the top bar at tbe right hand, the basket being revolved in the 
most natural way — that is, from right to left. A little practice will 
enable the operator to note the speed required in order to free the combs 
entirely from honey, which will depend, of course, upon the consistency 
of the honey and the length of time combs are revolved. While it is, 
in general, best to avoid extracting from combs containing brood, cases 
will arise w T here it is necessary. If the brood is sealed, there will, be 
less liability of injuring it than when open cells containing larvae are 
placed in the extractor; but a moderate degree of speed continued 
somewhat longer will usually bring the honey out without disturbance 
to the immature bees. Three persons can work together very advan- 
tageously — one to remove the surplus cases or combs from the hives, 
free them of their bees, and bring them into the extracting room, where 
