BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
**755.**_2d._ By the production of extracted honey, the surplus eombs are saved, and given to the bees at the opening of the following harvest. This virtually does away with natural swarming, and enables the bee-keeper to control the increase of his colonies to suit his desires. One of the most successfulcomb-honey producers, Mr. Manum, of Vermont, who sold some 15 tons of comb-honey in 1885, acknowledged to us, that with his management in the production of comb-honey, it was nearly impossible to control swarming.
**756.** The farmer, or merchant, who keeps only a few hives, to produce honey for his own use, will find it much preferable to produce extracted honey. With three colonies of bees and an extractor, in a very ordinary location, from 150 to 300 lbs. of honey can be produced on an average, every season.
**757.** For the production of extracted honey, we use half stories or cases (fig. 204) with frames 6 inches deep, and of the same length as the frames of the lower story. We have also used full-story supers, but only on standard Langstroth hives, and we decidedly prefer the half-story supers, for several reasons, after having used both kinds on a large scale for years.
**758.** The frames of the half-story supers are more easily handled when full, and the combs are less apt to break down from heat or handling. The half-story super is better suited for the use of an average colony, and in cool weather is more easily kept warm by the bees, than a full-story. Very strong colonies, in extraordinary seasons, can be readily aeeommodated with two and even three of these cases successively.
With the full-story supers, the queen and the bees are more apt to desert the lower story altogether, in poor honey seasons, and establish their broad-nest in the upper story, especially when the combs of the lower or brood chamber are old, and those above are new. The sole advantage of the full-story super is that the frames in it are exactly of the same size as these below, and can be interchanged with them if necessary; but with large hives it will never be required to use upper story combs for feeding, and even if the queen should breed in these shallow cases, at times, she is soon crowded out of them by the surplus honey.
**759.** The upper story frames are filled with comb foundation (674), or even with old worker combs, and can be used indefinitely, since the honey is extracted from them, and they are returned unbroken to the bees. We have now several thousands of these combs, some of which have already passed thirty or forty times through the extractor and are now as good as at first, nay, even better; for some, which were very dark, are lighter in color now, on account of the dark cells having been shaved by the honey knife and mended, by the bees, with new wax. These supers are given to the bees, a few days previous to the opening of the honey crop.
The mat (353), and cloth (352), are removed and the upper story is placed immediately over the frames (fig. 72).
**760**. One great advantage of this style of supers, lies in the faeility, with which the bees can reach the upper story from any comb, or from any part of a comb, either to deposit their honey or for ventilation, during hot weather. Bees show their preference for these large receptacles very decidedly. For comparison, let two or three wide frames (721) -filled with sections which are of more difficult ventilation and access --be placed in the center of one of these supers with some extracting frames on each side, all equally filled with strips of foundation, and the small sections (722) will be filled last almost in every instance, even although placed nearest to the center of the brood-nest. '
Mr. Langstroth was the first to call the attention of Apiarists to the loss incurred by compelling bees to store the surplus honey in small receptacles. The bee-keeper cannot afford to sell honey stored in small sections, except at a considerable advance over its value in large frames. It is for this reason that some Apiarists have practiced producing comb honey in large frames, which has been sold in "clunks." They find it pays, in some markets, although sold at a less price than honey in sections.
For extracting, a super as shallow as that used for one-pound sections is not satisfactory. It requires too much handling, for the quantity of honey that may be stored in a
**763.**_To secure the greatest possible amount of extracted honey, the colony should never be left without some empty round._
As soon as the combs of one of these supers are about three-fourths full, we put another super under the first, and sometimes a third under the second. All this without waiting 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 _cntinely ripened._
Honey is evaporated, or ripened, by the forced circulation of air, caused by the fanning of the bees through the hive, in conneeiction 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.
Extracted Honey.
**764.** Some Apiarists extract the honey as fast as it is harvested by the bees, and afterwards ripen it artificially by exposing it to heat in open vessels. We do not like this method, and prefer to extract the whole crop at once. It is much more economical, for, with our system, one skilled man attends to as many as five or six apiaries during the honey crop, and extracts at leisure afterwards, with almost any kind of cheap help. Since honey now has to compete in price with the cheapest sweets, the question of _economical production_ is not to be disregarded.
"He who produces at maximum cost will fail. He who produces at minimum cost will sueeeed."-- (Jas. Heddon.)What proportion of water does fresh-gathered nectar contain? A number of observers have attempted to answer this question and have made experiments upon it. Great have been the differences and in some cases, persons who had made but one or two experiments attempted to make a positive assertion of a stated proportion. But no rule can be given. At times, the nectar is so very thin that it drops out of the cells like water if the combs are inverted or slightly inclined, when handled. At other times, the nectar has great consistency when first gathered. Some European Apiarists hold that leather honey can never be extracted, because of its density almost immediately after it is harvested. The greater or less density of honey at the time it is brought in from the field depends on the kind of blossom from which it is taken, on the condition of the soil at that time, whether dry or wet, and on atmospheric conditions. The most watery honey is perhaps harvested from such source as the basswood, after rainy weather and when the atmosphere is heavily laden with electricity and moisture; while plants which grow in dry sandy soils, like some varieties of heather or the mountain sage, will furnish, in dry weather, honey that is ripe almost as soon as gathered.
**765.** As some colonies do not begin work in the supers until very late, and do not fill all the space given them, the surplus of other colonies can be given them in such a manner that all will be equally filled. This can be done without brushing the bees off (**485**).
The equalizing of empty eonbs in the surplus stories of different colonies, towards the end of the crop, will save time in extracting, as the supers will be found more evenly full. The giving of a few eonbs of honey to a colony that has not yet begun work in the supers also aets as an induceement, and gives the bees new energy.
## Harvesting.
**766.** The extraeting, to be done swiftly, requires the work of four persons: three men and a boy. This work is done at a time when the bees have ceased to harvest honey, and the greatest care has to be exercised not to leave any honey within the reach of robber bees. The work of opening the hives, removing the combs and brushing off the bees, must be done quietly, but swiftly and carefully. The receptacles for eonbs should eaeh have a cover, and the hive should be closed and its entrance reduced, as promptly as possible. In this way, there is not the least danger of robbing; but if robbing is once begun, by some carelessness or forgetfulness of the operator, the work has to be stopped until it has subsided.
**767.** The utensils needed for neat extraeting on a large scale are: In the apiary\(-\)a good snoker (**3S2**), one or two brushes made of aspargus tops, or some other light fibrous material, a wood chisel to loosen the cases, two tin pans, described farther on (**770**), one eomb bucket, and two strong "robber cloths."
**76S.** The "robber cloths," so named by Dr. C. C. Miller,* 464 Honey production
are used to cover the cases to keep away robbers. They are made "I" very coarse cloth or gummy, about a yard square.
"Take two pieces of lath, each about as long as the hive, and lay one upon the other, with one edge of the cloth between them. The cloth is longer than the lath, allowing G inches or more of the cloth to project at each end of the lath. Now nail the laths together with 1': inch wire nails, clinching them.
* Scrvethe opposite end the same way, and the robber cloth
is complete. You can take hold of the lath with one hand, lift the cloth from a hive or super, and with a quick throw, instantly cover up again your hive or super perfectly bee tight." ("A Year Among the Bees," 1886.)
The operator opens a hive, removes the super, places it in a tin pan, and covers it with a robber cloth. He then examines the brood chamber, from which one or two cembs may be removed if advisable. We usually leave all the honey in the lower story, unless the bees are crowded out of breeding room, which will not happen, if they laid plenty of room above.
**769.** The removal of the bees from the supers, may be simplified by the bee-escape (fig. 207). This implement is placed in a board \(\nicefrac{{1}}{{2}}\) inch in thickness, \(\nicefrac{{e}}{{4}}\) of the size of the top of the brood-chamber and so cleared that, when placed between the brood chamber and the super, there will be a full bee-space both above and below it. The hole for the escape should be made near the center of the board by boring two \(1\nicefrac{{1}}{{2}}\) inch holes, \(2\nicefrac{{1}}{{2}}\) inches from center to center and cutting the wood between them. One escape to the board is sufficient. If there is no brood, or queen, in the super, and the escape is put on the day before, the bees will practically be all out the next morning, and sometimes within six hours after it has been placed on the hive.
The only objection to the bee escapes is that they must be placed on the hives the day previous, and this necessitates an extra trip, when the bees are located in an out-apiracy. Other-wise they are very useful, if not left on the hive through the heat of the day, when the exclusion of bees from the super might cause collapse of the combs, by lack of ventilation, in very hot weather.
**770.** In the honey house, there should be an extractor, a capping can (fig. 208), a honey knife, a funnel with sieve, a pail, a barrel, and two tin pans like those used in the apiary. Each person may be provided with a good enamel-cloth apro, and all the windows furnished with wire cloth netting, to allow the bees to escape (**586**). The tin pans above mentioned are shallow, in the shape of bread pans, large enough to receive one of the supers freely, to keep the leaking honey
Figure 207: Portern's bee-escape.
from daubing anything, or from attracting robbers (**666**).** They are supplied with strong handles.
**771.** We have said that we do not usually take honey from the brood chamber, but in an emergency we sometimes extract even from combs containing brood. Sealed brood is not injured by the rotation but one should abstain from taking combs containing unsealed larva.
**772.** In the extracting room, a man uncaps the combs,
as fast as they are brought. He stands before the _capping-can_ (fig. 208). The capping can is formed of a lower can B, 24 inches wide and 14 inches high with a slanting bottom, a faucet and a central pivot C. On this lower can is placed another can A, 23 inches wide and 22 inches high, with a coarse wire cloth bottom resting at the center on the pivot C. The upper can acts as a large sieve. On the top of it is placed a wooden frame D, notehed, so as to fit on the edges of the can. It is on this frame that the combs are uneapped, and the eappings fall in the sieve, where the honey drains out of them, into the lower can. Our capping can is meant to hold the eappings of two days' extracting.
Manufacturers generally call this implement "uneapping
can," because it is used when uneapping. We prefer to call it "eapping can," because it receives the eappings.
**773.** The all-metal extractors, of different makes, are the only ones now in use. Two-frame extractors are the most common, but we use four-frame extraetors altogether, one in each apiary. These extractors accommodate eight half-story frames.
**774.** In regard to the honey or unapping knife, justice compels us to say that, so far, to our knowledge, there is but one which is really praetical, the _Bingham honey knife_. This knife does away with the annoyance of having theappings stick to the comb again, after having been shaved off, because it is made with a bevel, which causes _the sharer_ to hold it in a slanting position, so that the cappings cannot stick to the comb again, unless purposely allowed to do so.
\(\Lambda\) maehine has been devised to perforate the cells instead of uneapping them. There are numerous objections to such an instrument. It does not always open the cells suffleiently to allow the honey to drain out, it wastes the cappings which would otherwise furnish beeswax enough to pay for the entire cost of extraeting and it causes the little bits of wax to float in the honey, increasing the amount of seam that may rise to the top. We warn our readers against any such contrivance. We discarded them years ago, after trial.
\(\Lambda\)s fast as the combs are uneapped on both sides, they are put into the extraetor, which may be turned by a boy. Care should be taken that the combs, that are placed opposite one another, be of nearly equal weight, as the unequal weight causes the extractor to swing right and left, fatiguing the boy and injuring the machine.
**775.** A quiet, regular motion is all that is necessary to throw the honey out, and, in warm weather, it fairly _rains_ against the sides of the can with a noise similar to that of a shower on a tin roof.
**776**. Now is the time to invite the neighbors and their children to come to see the fun, and taste the golden nectar. Aside from the pleasure of making everybody happy, the present of a few pounds of honey proves an inducement to its use, and an advertisement for the producer. Extracting-day should always be understood to mean "free honey to all visitors." Let them visit the honey-room, and if the ladies get their dresses a little daubed while peeping in the extractor, they will soon find out that honey does not stain like grease, but will _wash_ off in warm water.
**777**. After the eombs are extracted on one side, they are turned over and extraeted on the other. Mr. Stanley, of
New York, invented an extractor in which the eombs are turned over by simply reversing the motion of the gear. Similar extractors were introduced into England, by Mr. Cowan, several years ago.
The Cowan extractors, fig. 203, have been improved upon again and again, until now most of the machines are made so that the eombs may be reversed without slacking perceptibly or reversing the motion. The only fault of the reversing extractors is their large size, which renders them rather eumbersome.
**778**. The extractor is fastened on a high platform, so that the honey pail can be put under the faucet. A barrel is in readiness, with the large funnel and sieve over it. This
Figure 211: LARGE FUNNEL and sieve.
sieve should be large enough to take a painful of honey, so as to cause no delay.
A mark is made on the barrel, with a crayon, or chalk, as each painful is poured in. In this way we know when the barrel is full, without having to gauge it, and we avoid having the honey run over and waste.
The latest method is to have a large tank instead of a barrel to receive the honey. The tank is intended to ripen the honey and is usually made of galvanized iron. The writer has seen tanks of this kind out in the open air, in California, where it never rains during the summer season. Honey that is allowed to remain in an open tank with only a light cloth over it, in a hot room, will often ripen considerably by evaporation. It is a good method. But as we have a number of out-quiaries, we find it more convenient to barrel our honey, especially as we always wait till the bees have ripened the honey before extracting it. Not only have we barreled our honey for years, but very extensive apiarists around us have done the same, among whom we will cite E. J. Baxter of Nauvoo, Illinois, who produces a number of tons of extracted honey every season. The honey must be very ripen harvested and the barrels, if used in preference to tanks, must be of the proper kind and quality. (**S29**.)
**779**. We would advise beginners, who extract for the first time, to go slowly and carefully. A little care, besides saving time, will save the waste of several pounds of honey, and make things more comfortable; for a pound of honey wasted goes a great way towards making everything sticky and dirty. If a splendid crop and neat work are 'pleasurable, a daubed honey-room and cross bees in the apiary irrate both the.A 'pariist and his assistants, who soon become sick of the work. When things are rightly managed, the work is so delightful that more help can be found than is needed.
**780**. Of all manipulations, extraeting is that which requires the greatest precautions against robbing (**661**). Carefully avoid all unnecessary exposure of conb or honey. Rob bers not only annoy the Apiarist, but cause the bees to get angry, and to sting.. **781.** All the cases, when extracted, are piled up on an oil-cloth carpet, till the day's work is done. The combs are not put Baek into the live before evening, at sandown; to prevent too much excitement in the apiary. In half an hour, every hand helping, the whole number is distributed on the hives; though we may have extracted as much as three thousand pounds in a day. There are seasons, in which a continuation of the honey crop, permits returning the combs, as fast as they are extracted. In such seasons it causes no excitement, and is much more convenient. **782.** Within two or three days after extracting, the bees have cleaned the combs, and repaired them. But, to prevent the mohhs from injuring them, we keep them on the hives during the whole summer; the bees take care of them, and in the Winter, we pile up the cases, carefully closed, in cold rooms where the cold of Winter destroys the eggs of the moth (**802**). In localities, where there are two or more distinct crops of honey, each crop should be harvested separately. Thus, we always extract the June crop in July, and the Fail crop in September. Honey production, with the above methods, is so successful that the problem for practical Apiarists is no longer, how to produce large crops of honey, but _how to sell it_ (**S39**). Extracted honey can certainly be produced, at very low cost, and it can be truly said, that in the last fifty years, there has been more progress in bee-culture, than in any other branch of rural economy. **783.** As the wax of the eappings amounts to a little more than one per cent. of the weight of the honey extracted, and as these eappings even after they are well drained, contain a large amount of honey fit to be converted into vinegar when separated from the eappings by washing, the expense of extracting is more than compensated.
weather is not the originating cause. The disease is not commonly dangerous, and does not seem to propagate itself from one colony to another, but in some seasons, during the month of May, it has caused great ravages in some apiaries. In the province of Ancone, Italy, during the years 1901-05, entire apiaries were depopulated just at the opening of the honey harvest by this strange malady. This is a disease of the adult bees and not of the brood.
Mr. O. O. Poppleton of Florida recommends the sprinkling of the bees and echols in the diseased hives, with powdered sulphur. But as this seems to stop the disease mainly by destroying all the sick bees, and as it also destroys the unsealed brood unless this be removed, we do not recommend it. An Italian, Mr. A. Belluei of the province of Ancone, succeeded in entirely preventing the disease in his apiary, while his neighbors' bees were suffering heavily, by feeding then a preparation made by boiling lavelander, garden ginger, rose-mary, savory and other aromatic plants and flowers in wine mixed with honey. Since the wine was evidently added as a tonic but lost all its alcohol by boiling, we judge that it did but little good, unless it be from the tonic properties of the grape. He also added a very small quantity of salieylie acid, about one per thousand, which would be ample. Until more positive experiments are made, we would recommend the use of a similar preparation, for the eure or prevention of this disease, which is not usually injurious.
Foil-Brood.
**786.** There are other unimportant diseases, which have not yet been studied, but all are nothing, when compared to the dreadful contagious malady, already known thousands of years ago* and commonly called _foul-brood_, because it showsits effects mainly by the dying of the brood, but the denomination is improper, for the brood is not alone diseased.
"When we remember that bees live in the closest contact in very numerous colonies; that their usual system of inter-ecmmunication is by actual touch; that they habitually pass food from one stomach to another, while all the food they have has been carried either within or upon the bodies of their fellows; that their very home is formed of one of their secretions, and that their beds, crawles and larder are all interchangeable, we shall admit that the circumstances are such as would appear to favor the development of contagious diseases."--(Cheshire.)
**787.** The scientific and indeed the true name of found-broad is _bacillus+ alvei, "small stick of bee-lives"_ because it is composed of living organisms resembling small stieks. It develops very rapidly, and has been found, by Schonfeld and by Cheshire and Cheyne, not only in the brood, but in the bees and queens. The rapid depopulating of the colonies infested, coupled with the fact that Mr. Bertrand has known several queens to die in diseased colonies, leaves no doubt as to the accuracy of the microscopical experiments made by Cheshire, on queens who were found with bacilli, not only in their organs, but also in the half developed eggs of their ovaries. According to the English microscopists, there are two kinds of foul-brood, the major and the minor, the larger and the smaller (_British Bee-Journal_), but are they equally to be feared+ We believe it, for in the U. S. also there are two different descriptions of the disease and they are called respectively, foul-brood and black-brood, both seemingly equally dangerous, while a third (**S01**) is benign and readily eured.
Footnote : _Bacillus, plural bacilli_, from the Latin, \(n\)_stick_.