Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-11-21
FIG.
Fig. 2-comb.Ba Basket Rack for Holding
Sections in the Extractor.

made the attempt. / have always let
my bees do the extracting-that is, any
unfinished sections which I reserved
for next seasons bait-combs I set out
for the bees to help themselves. This
is an easy way to get these sections
cleaned out; but it has the disadvan-
tage that the colonies that don't need
any feeding get it all, or nearly all.
while those that are sorely in need Of
stores get very little if any.
We may take it for granted that no
bee-keeper would even think of ex-
tracing finished sections, or ever such
unfinished sections as could be profit
ably disposed of as chunk honey, or
used otherwise to advantage. But
some seasons produce a certain kind
of unfinished sections that seemed to
be made for the extractor. According
to. the peculiarities Of different sea-
sons honey-f1ows, we have two distinct
types of unfinished sections. One kind
Is partly built out, some not larger
than the inside of a hand, but all
drawn out, filled with honey, and every
cell capped over, while the other is
all built and drawn out, filled more
or less with honey, but little, if any,
capped. The past season produced in
this locality, with the exception of
very little finished honey (where bait
combs had been supplied) the latter
kind.
During the five days of white-clover
honey-fiow, lasting from the 26th until
the 30th of June, honey was gathered
In such quantities that the comb
builders had all they could do to fur
nish storage for the incoming nectar;
and when the combs were built and
drawn out they were also filled with
honey, and about ready to be capped.
1 Just then the h~oney-flow ceased; and
SO complete was the following failure
that not the least progress was made
in sections for the remainder of the
season, although enough was gathered
most of the time for bees to live on
and to store a little in the brood-cham-
Der. This explains why the largest
share of our crop consisted Of just
such unfinished sections as could be
extracted with very little trouble;
and as extracted honey was so very
scarce, the little that those sections
contained looked big in my eyes, which
induced me to try the extractor.
AS l said before, I had no convent
ent way to extract sections; but being
anxious to try the experiment, a few
minutes work solved the problem.
The accompanying drawing, Fig. 1,
represents a little adjustable shelf
that is suspended by wire hooks into
the upper part of the extractor-basket,
as shown at Fig. 2. 1t Is made of half.
inch lumber and fits loosely into the
comb-basket. The dotted lines show
the position Of the wires on the under
side Of the shelf, where they are
fastened by two little staples clinched
above. The shelf should not be hung
too low. If the sections project above
the basket enough for a hold, it will
make 1t all the more convenient. II
we use the %precaution of reversing
the basket twice, or, in other words
If we reverse the basket after part Of
the contents is thrown out from one
side by moderate speed, before trying
to make a clean sweep, it is almost i'm
possible to detach the combs FROM the
wood or even bend them out of shape
IL they are reasonably fastened to thu
sides.