Bee-keeping for profit

by W. S. Morley

Uncapping.—When uncapping the cells, care should be taken to collect all the cappings in a tray or basket as they are removed, and they should be melted down as soon as possible after the extracting is completed.

Working the Extractor.—The side of the comb which contains most honey should be dealt with first, and in placing the frame in the extractor it should be seen that the bottom bar faces the direction in which the spindle revolves. The cells of the comb are usually built on an angle, and the honey will be thrown out of them quicker in this way than if they were placed to catch the air.

Great care is needed when extracting honey from new combs, for they are exceedingly brittle. It is generally advisable, therefore, to turn the handle very slowly at first, and, unless it runs very freely, not to extract all the honey from a comb at the first operation. By partially emptying the one side and then reversing the comb the pressure on it is relieved gradually and the risk of breakage avoided. When the greater part of the honey has been extracted, the speed of the revolutions of the cages can be increased without any danger to the combs.

All honey should be extracted from the combs as soon as possible after they are taken from the hive, for it will run more freely then than after it has been allowed to stand and thicken, while its flavour will be better retained.

When a large amount of honey has to be extracted, the cleanest combs with the lightest honey should first be dealt with, and before the darker honey is taken the other should be run through the strainer and put to ripen, so that each kind shall be kept absolutely separate.

Ripening Honey.—After extraction, the honey should be placed in a suitable vessel in a warm room to ripen. After it has stood for a few days the surface will be seen to be covered with a white scum—particles of wax and pollen—which should be removed as it forms. The honey immediately below is thin and watery. This is due to the proportion of water it contains, and measures must be taken to get rid of this by evaporation, or it will spoil the keeping property of the whole. To seal up any of this thin honey is to ensure fermentation and disaster.

The very best vessels in which to ripen honey are the large earthenware cream pots that are glazed inside. Being to a certain extent porous they allow for the evaporation of excessive moisture. They are, too, easy to clean and free from any possibility of metallic influence on the honey.

Straining Honey.—Strainers may be made of many variable materials from wire to muslin, according to the preference of the bee-keeper. Personally I have found that the most serviceable and effectual strainer material is soft linen cheese-cloth, and I would recommend that a good supply of it, ranging from coarse to fine in quality, should be kept by every apiarist for straining purposes, when broken comb has become mixed with the honey.

When the operation is necessary and a considerable quantity of comb has to be removed, the following method will be found to be both simple and effectual:

A piece of coarse cheese-cloth, about four feet long, with the ends gathered and tied, should be held by two persons. The honey is poured into the middle of the cloth, under which is the vessel into which the honey is to drain. As the thin honey escapes, the cloth should be gently raised and lowered alternately at each end. This movement causes the comb and wax to move first in one direction and then the other and accumulate into a ball which constantly gathers up the particles of wax that in the ordinary way clog the strainer. By its weight and movement, too, it forces the honey through the cloth.