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Honey: Extracted from Sealed Combs (A B C of Bee Culture, 1910)
Extracted honey the way Root's 1910 bee encyclopedia teaches a small keeper: take the sealed combs from a movable-frame hive, shake and brush off the bees, slice off the cappings, and spin the honey out in a two-frame reversible extractor; strain it through cheese-cloth into a pail and pour it into kegs or cans.
The combs go back to the bees empty, to be filled again.
Source: A. I. and E. R. Root, The A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture (1910), pp. 173-188. Picture: the book's photo of an extractor raised on a hive-body over a pail.
Intermediate
Unknown
Instructions
1
1
Wait for sealed combs
Wait for sealed combs
Leave the honey in the hive until the combs are nicely sealed over, as they should be before extracting. Give the bees plenty of empty combs; if a second story is not room enough, add a third.
Tools needed:
Movable-Frame Beehive2
2
Take off the combs
Take off the combs
Open the hive, pull out one comb and shake it hard in front of the entrance. Hold it by one corner and brush the remaining bees off one side and then the other with a bee brush. Put the frame in an empty super on a cart or barrow. Shake the next combs inside the hive instead of in front of it, brush them the same way, and wheel the full supers to the extracting room.
Tools needed:
Movable-Frame Beehive
Bee Brush
Wheelbarrow3
3
Set up the extractor
Set up the extractor
Stand the extractor on a box or hive-body about as large as the bottom of the can and about as high as a water pail, so the honey-gate empties into a common pail. Anchor both box and extractor securely.
Tools needed:
Honey ExtractorMovable-Frame Beehive
Metal Bucket4
4
Uncap the combs
Uncap the combs
Keep the knife keen and sharpen it often. Rest the end of the comb on a nail point over the uncapping can, lean it forward, and cut off the cappings with a sawing movement starting at the bottom edge. When wax and honey clog the blade, scrape it on a wooden edge. Do both sides.
Tools needed:
Uncapping Knife
Uncapping Tray5
5
Extract
Extract
Put the uncapped combs in the wire-cloth pockets and turn the crank; one turn of the handle gives two or three turns of the baskets. When one side is extracted, slow up, catch the edge of each pocket with the left hand and swing it on its hinges to bring the other side out, then turn again.
Tools needed:
Honey Extractor6
6
Strain and store
Strain and store
Tie a cheese-cloth sack to the honey-gate as a strainer. Draw the honey off pailful after pailful into an open pail, where you can see its quality and any dead bees, and pour it into kegs, square cans or any large vat.
Tools needed:
CheeseclothMetal Bucket
Wooden BarrelTools Required
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Connected Blueprint Materials
10% Attribution
Honey Extractor: a Tinplate Cylinder Extractor (Hasluck, 1905)
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10% Attribution
Uncapping Knife: the Bingham Knife (Hasluck, 1905)
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10% Attribution
Uncapping Tray: McIntyre's Uncapping Box (A B C of Bee Culture, 1910)
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