FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX. 627 



To use the table sit on a stool, spring the wire about the waist and with 

 a super of filled sections, wrong side up, knock out the follower, loosen 

 the super from the holders, lift the super off and, with the scraping knife, 

 made as this one here, pry apart the sections, scraping them, also the sec- 

 tion holders and separators and place them back Into the super. 



The beauty of the arrangement of the aprons is to keep all the wax 

 and propolis off the clothes and floor and guides it down into the tray 

 below where it can be shoveled out when filled. All that is necessary to 

 remove the apron is to step away from the table. If two people are to 

 work at the table, duplicate the apron. 



Next is an arrangement for cleaning off the top bars of the brood 

 frames. Take a light box as high as the hive on one side and four or 

 five inches higher on the other, set it behind the hive, tight up against 

 the back end of it, and, with a common garden hoe (with a shortened 

 handle) hoe the propolis and wax off the top bars into the box behind. 

 Of course the bees must be driven down out of the way and the hoe 

 worked lively. 



You will be surprised at the amount of wax that will accumulate from 

 four or five hundred colonies and the comfort in handling the frames 

 after cleaning. The extracting frames of course will be cleaned with the 

 dull knife at extracting time. There are many other handy appliances 

 which can be used to advantage, but what might satisfy one, might not 

 meet with the approval of another, and, for that reason I will not take up 

 more of your time. 



I wish to give you a "season's trip" through my bee yards and get you 

 back in time for the evening train home, so I will have to hasten along 

 and stop only at important points of interest. Taking bees out of the 

 cellar — this may seem a very commonplace affair, but in reality it is an 

 important proceeding. I have about four hundred colonies in six yards. 

 Each yard has a wintering cellar over which there is a bee-tight building 

 in which the extracting is done and in which the supers are stored when 

 not in use. 



When the time comes to get the bees to the summer stands, with the 

 help of another man I spread four or five thicknesses of newspaper on the 

 quilt and place the cover over the papers, stuff the entrance with fine 

 blue grass or an entrance closer, except a small space, and with two hives 

 on a stretcher or "carry-all" it is but a short time until we have them all 

 on the summer stands. As we place them on the stands, if they appear too 

 light, or need any other attention, we place a stick of some kind on the 

 cover and, after all are out, those having been marked' with a stick on 

 the cover are given a comb of honey from the honey house, or adjusted 

 according to their needs, then we are ready to drive to the next yard. 



A few days later when the weather becomes suitable for opening up the 

 hives, all are examined for queens and fixed according to what seems to 

 be the best for them, not forgetting to keep a close watch for any signs of 

 disease, sticking a small peg (painted red) into the ground at the left 

 side of the entrance where we find suspicious cases and in front of the 

 left entrance for those found diseased. If treated, I move the peg to the 

 center of the entrance, and, if after a week or so, they show no disease. 



