Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-04-24
BEES AND HONEY.
The Life Of the Honey Bee Explained by
DR.. Lyon.
To nc robacco Leaf-ChronlcIe. |


discussion of "Bees and Honey"
Honey in the comb is very hand
some, and always, when IN good
shape, commands a higher price than
liquid honey, though if we eat honey
for honey and not for the wax, we get
more in buying a pound of liquid
honey and can generally get it for
less money.
People in this region generally call
liquid strained honey" but what |
am about to describe is properly
called "extracted honey" Extract
ed honey is preferable to Strained"
as will appear when we look at the
mode of handling in the two cases.
The old style way of taking
strained honey is about as follows :
After driving or killing your bees
the comb is cut out, the best o. it
laid aside to sell as comb honey, and
the refuse comb with the drippings,
often containing "bpe-bread," and, If
we are not careful, even larval bees,
is put into a strainer cloth and
squeezed by human hands, as the la
dies squeeze a Jelly bag. This is a
sticky mess, ! can assure you,
What runs through is strained honey
and very often has the disigreeabe
taste of "bee- dread"
Now let us look at the process of
extracting, AS we have stated, the
simplicity or Langstroth hive is an
oblong box about 20Xl4 inches and 10
inches deep. We generally allow the
bees to fill one of these, which we
will call the lower story, with
brood bee bread and honey,
and then when the poplar and
clover begin to bloom, early in
May usually, we put a second story of
exactly the same size on top Of this,
and later as they ill up, we may add
a third or even fourth story. The
second story is filled with empty
frames, or if we have them on hand
from the past season, with empty
combs. Tue bees proceed to fill these
with honey. From time to time we
examine them, by taking off the top
of the hive and lifting out a comb.
When we find they have about filled
the second story we may add a third
or we may "eXtract." If it is pretty
well filled we may expect to get from
forty to fifty pounds Of pure honey.
We put on our bec-mH load up our
"smOkor' with old rags, rotor and
dry wood, corn cobs chopped fine, or
anything to make smoke, light it so
that we can puff out the smoke in
good volume and we are ready for
the attack. We go to the colony,
puff little smoke in at the entrance
lift off the cover and puff a good dea
of smoke down among the combs,
This drives most of the bees
into the lower story. We lift out the
frames containing The honey, giving
each a sudden shake, which knocks
off most Of the bees, brush off the rest
of them with a little brush made for
the purpose or IA bunch of grass or
lelvcs, and take them to the sex
tractcr.' For this purpose il is con
Vcnient to have a "comb-bucket"
made to hold four or five full combs
which is about as much as we can
conveniently carry at once.
The extractor is large and
strong tin car, usually painted
or "Japannei" on outside, say
two feet high and /! feet in
diameter. In the center it has
square basket made of tin and wire
gauze or netting, such as is used to
make fly screens, only heavier ard
with larger meshes. This basket
stands vertically and can be revolvcd
with great rapidity by cog-wheel
gearing and handle at the top. If
the honey is "ctppCd," i e, if the
little cells are covered with a little
wax lid, as is seen in a piece of fin
Ished honey comb, we must, before
lay the comb down on
'lean board or sheet of oil cloth and
with a sharp knife cut off the cap
pings. With practice this can bel
lone very rapidly.
Having prepared two combs Of
loncy in this way, we set them in
he wire basket which is made to fit
hem so that they lie flat against the
wire, and then by turning the ham
lie we Whirl them very rapidly for
perhaps half minute. This Whirl. |.
ny motion sings the honey out of
he cells by centrifugal force. 1t pat
ers against the inside of the can like .
ain drops, runs down to the bottom
# the can, whence it is drawn off 10y .
faucet. We can attach a little .
trainer bag to the faucet and run the .
,ure honey into jars, buckets or cans,
nd it is ready for market without
ur having touched a drop OF it.
After singing the honey out Of one