HONEY CROP READY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 110, 3 February 1931, Page 16

HONEY CROP READY

February Apiary Notes HINTS ON EXTRACTING The major portion of the honey crop should be ready for extraction this montn (writes Mr. D. S. Robinson, apiary instructor for the Department of Agriculture Palmerston North). Beekeepeis should see that an adequate supply of containers of the various sizes are on hand. Extractors, uncapping cans, strainers and uncapping knives must be overhauled and made in readiness before removing the honey crop for extraction. It is usually advisable to make at leastwo extractions, but whatever method is adopted, care must be taken to give tne bees plenty of room in which to store the crop, and not compel them to fill tne brood super with honey and thus impede the work of the queen. Plenty of room should always be available for her to lay in Remember that every worker bee counts, and the stronger the hive is numerically, so will the resultant crop of honey be in weight. In removing boney from the hive foi extraction, beekeepers must remember not to take off any combs that have less than 75 per cent, of the cells capped, for the bees do not cap the honey till it is ripe. Unripe honey is liable to ferment, and too much unripe honey would be likely to cause ferriientation and spoil the rest or the honey with which it was mixed. The usual practice is for the beekeeper to remove all full combs, shake and brush off the bees, and place these combs in empty supers. These supers should be stood" in trays to catch the drips of honey as the combs are removed and placed In the supers. The super should be covered with a clean sack or cloth to prevent other bees gaining access to the honey. If bee escapes are used they should be placed in position the day before the honey is to be remov'ed. To the beekeeper that has only a limited amount - of time to spare each day, this method will be found a considerable advantage, as the excluders may be placed in position one day, and the following day the honey may be removed quickly without having to remove a lot of bees from the combs. . Hints in Uncapping. Uncapping knives: These are stiff-bladed, double-edged knives—several patterns are in uae —to remove the thin sheet of cappings. It is necessary to use a warm knife Some patterns are heated by being immersed in boiling water; some are hollow and are heated by generating steam in a small boiler; the steam being conveyed to the knife by. means of rubber tubing. Thirdly, there is an electrically-heated uncapping knife; this knife contains a heating element on the same principle as an electric iron, and although not in genera use, is steadily gaining in favour, being cleaner to handle, and there being no messy oil stove to be attended to to heat the boiler for generating the steam. The uncapping can or box should be provided with a centre bar through which is driven a screw projecting point upwards to form a pivot. In uncapping the' comb is held upward, resting on this pivot and a thin slice is taken off the face of comb with the uncapping knife working upward with a sawing-like motion. The eomb is turned on the pivot, and the opposite side treated in a like manner. The cappings should fall into the uncapping box, which is provided with material to strain the honey from the wax. The frames are next placed in the extractor, care being taken to balance the baskets by placing as near as possible combs of equal weight opposite each other. When the honey leaves the extractor it should be first passed over a wire cloth to remove the larger portions of wax, etc., and next over a cheese cloth to remove the finer particles. These strainers should be constantly washed in. cold water to prevent them clogging up, and must be thoroughly dried before again being used. The honey passes from these strainers to the settling tank where iDshould be allowed to stand for a few days to allow any very fine particles that have escaped the strainers to rise to the surface. These should be skimmed off. Straining of Honey. Too much emphasis cannot be placed on the need of careful straining of honey so that it reaches the consumer absolutely free from foreign matter. Insufficient care is often shown in assisting the honey granulating with a fine grain. To obtain honey of a fine grain, when the tank is. nearly full or the extracting is finished, a starter should be mixed with it to ensure the bulk settling with a fine grain. The' starter consists of a little granulated honey of a very fine grain mixed in a bucket with some liquid honey, then poured into the tank, and the lot stirred with a wooden paddle, taking care not to introduce too much air while stirring. Stir slightly each day until the honey begins to cloud. This will hasten granulation and result in a fine grain. Do not forget to run the honey off into the containers for the market before it gets too thick to run through the honey gate. For the beekeeper whose number of hives does not warrant the expense of an extractor, the combs should \be removed as explained, and while still 'warm from the hive, the honey should be removed by scraping, the honey from the 1 comb by means of a large spoon or broad-pointed knife, scraping down as far as the midrib or foundation put in the frame by the beekeeper; using a little care this foundation need not be damaged. The honey, once removed, the frames may be returned to the hives to be again refilled. The honey should be scraped into bags made of cheese cloth, these being hung up and the honey allowed to drain from the wax. Too much honey and wax should not be placed in each bag. The honey should be allowed to settle in the receptacles in which it has drained and treated by skimming and for grain as before described.

Things to Note. Receptacles in which honey is stored must have airtight lids, or the honey will absorb moisture from the air and fermentation takes place. The utmost cleanliness must be maintained in the honey house. All honey spilt should be at once wiped up and the extractor, extracting room, etc., cleaned down each day when extracting is finished. If any fuller information be required on extracting, etc., correspondence should be addressed to the Apiary Instructor, Department of Agriculture, P.O. Box 112, Palmerston North.

Disease must still be looked for when examining hives, and any frames removed from diseased hives must be marked to be sterilised and not returned to other hives or the disease will be spread. Treatment should be carried out for all infected hives.