EXTRACTED HONEY.[1]
[1] For farther discussion of the production and care of extracted honey, see Bulletin 75, Part I, Bureau of Entomology.
Extracted honey is honey which has been removed by means of centrifugal force from the combs in which the bees stored it. While it is possible to adulterate extracted honey by the addition of cheap sirups, this is rarely done, perhaps largely on account of the possibility of detection. It may be said to the credit of bee keepers as a class that they have always opposed adulteration of honey.
In providing combs for the storage of honey to be extracted the usual practice is to add to the top of the brood chamber one or more hive bodies just like the one in which brood is reared, and fill these with frames. If preferred, shallower frames with bodies of proper size may be used, but most honey extractors are made for full-size frames. The surplus bodies should be put on in plenty of time to prevent the crowding of the brood chamber, and also to act as a preventive of swarming.
Honey for extracting should not be removed until it is well ripened and a large percentage of it capped. It is best, however, to remove the crop from each honey flow before another heavy producing plant comes into bloom, so that the different grades of honey may be kept separate. It is better to extract while honey is still coming in, so that the bees will not be apt to rob. The extracting should be done in a building, preferably one provided with wire-cloth at the windows (p. 9).
Fig. 22.—Honey extractor.
The frames containing honey to be extracted are removed from the hive, the cappings cut off with a sharp, warm knife ([fig. 21]) made specially for this purpose, and the frames are then put into the baskets of the honey extractor ([fig. 22]) . By revolving these rapidly the honey is thrown out of one side. The basket is then reversed and the honey from the other side is removed. The combs can then be returned to the bees to be refilled, or if the honey flow is over, they can be returned to the bees to be cleaned and then removed and stored until needed again. This method is much to be preferred to mashing the comb and straining out the honey, as was formerly done.