20 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Jan. 10, 1901. 



nies become very strong— it is possible that the very strong 

 may be made to help the weak so that the total harvest 

 may be increast. With regard to weak colonies, Wm. 

 McEvoy has struck a new thought, which he gives in the 

 Canadian Bee Journal. He says that larva? in weak colo- 

 nies are not fed as well as they should be — a thing not so 

 hard to believe by those who are familiar with the fact that 

 larv;t? are not always fed alike. So he has thought out a 

 plan by which he kills two birds with one stone — he secures 

 the feeding of a part of the larva; in strong colonies that 

 left to themselves would have been fed in the weaklings, 

 and at the same time gets the weak ones strengthened. 

 Here is his plan : 



Just as soon as the strongest colonies are in shape to 

 put the extracting-corabs on, I lift up a comb full of brood 

 that is about ready to be capt, and place it above the queen- 

 excluder, and leave it there for nine days. I do this with 

 every strong colony. 



During the nine days the bees in these strong colonies 

 will feed the larvre extra well, and all that was in the egg 

 form when I placed the combs above the queen-excluder 

 will be capt brood at the close. 



At the end of nine days I take all the combs out of the 

 brood-chambers of the weak colonies and fill up every 

 brood-chamber with capt brood from these top stories, and 

 in a few days after this is done the capt brood will be 

 hatcht out, and these weak colonies will be full of bees. 

 The combs that I take out of the brood-chambers of the 

 weak colonies I put in the top stories where I took the capt 

 brood out of, and let them have that in place of the brood I 

 took from them. The bees in the strong colonies feed the 

 larva; given them from the weak colonies well as before. 



Locating and Starting an Apiary. — Mr. G. M. Doolit- 

 tle works up some, very interesting and profitable apiarian 

 conversations with himself in each number of Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture. In the issue of Dec. 1st, it happens to be 

 about locating and starting an apiary. His responses to 

 questions may be summed up something like this : 



Unless a prospective bee-keeper has some knowledge of 

 the business, 25 colonies would be too many to start with. 

 He recommends reading one or two of the standard bee- 

 books, and the taking of one or more of the best bee-papers. 

 So much for necessary literature on the subject. 



As to placing hives, Mr. Doolittle would have them 

 level from side to side, and slanting just a little toward the 

 front, providing the frames run the usual way of the hive — 

 from front to rear. If the frames run from side to side, 

 then the hive should stand level both ways. 



Mr. Doolittle recommends placing the hives three 

 inches from the ground — to prevent the bottom-board from 

 warping, and also to give the bees a better chance to get in 

 on cool, windy days in early spring, thus preventing loss of 

 bees at a time when one is of more value than a hundred 

 after the honey harvest. 



On the nearness hives should be together, Mr. Doolittle 

 says his apiary is laid out on the hexagonal plan, the hives 

 being ten feet apart in the rows from center to center, and 

 the rows ten feet apart. This is how he would proceed to 

 arrange the hives as suggested, supposing the apiary 

 finally to contain 100 colonies : 



"To get the hives arranged in the hexagonal form, get 

 a line 100 feet long, having a pointed stake tied on each 

 end. Five feet from the stake at one end tie to the line a 

 white thread or string, four or five inches long. Five feet 

 from this white thread, tie a red thread or string, and then 

 a white one five feet from the red, and so on until you have 

 red and white threads alternating at five feet from each 

 other the whole length of the line. 



"The line isto be stretcht where you wish the first 

 row of ten hives to stand, then you are to stick a little stake 

 at every white thread. Now move the line ahead ten feet, 

 when you will stick the little stakes at the red threads. 

 Then move ahead ten feet again, sticking the stakes at the 

 white threads, and so on until you have stuck the 100 stakes 



for the stands for your 100 hives or colonies you expect to 

 have in time. Having your stakes all stuck, level olf the 

 ground about each stake until you have a nice broad 

 level place ready to set a hive on at a moment's notice at 

 any time. Having it completed, and each stand occupied 

 with a hive of bees, if you are like me you will consider that 

 for convenience and beautiful appearance this plan is supe- 

 rior to any other." 



On the facing of the hives, he prefers to have them 

 toward the south, tho some of the best bee-keepers in New 

 York State advise southeast, for then the morning sun will 

 cause the bees to gather earlier in the day. He comes out 

 very strong against facing hives to the north in a cold 

 latitude. 



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Next— A Machine For Incappins Honey. 



BY "old grimes." 



THERE seems to be some stir in the busy world of bee- 

 keepers, and the ingenious fellows are determined to 

 place obstacles in the path that has been beaten by us 

 old fellows. We must needs use them, stumble over them, 

 or make new paths around them. 



Just now the uncapping-machine is racking the brains 

 of these geniuses and Old Grimes wants to have his say 

 about the matter. Off and on for a number of years I have 

 wielded the Bingham knife, and quite successfully, too, and 

 I expect still to wield it for an indefinite period, but if we 

 are to have a new-fangled way of uncapping, the Grimes 

 family wants a practical, up-to-date machine. 



The first idea that enters the brain of the uncapper in- 

 ventor is to shave off both sides of the comb at once ; but 

 looking at such a machine from a practical point of view, 

 how much time will be gained ? For a slicing machine to 

 work nicely the combs should be quite uniform in thickness 

 and with a smooth surface, but the average bees will make 

 more or less hills and hollows upon the combs, and these de- 

 fects are more or less according as the season is a good or 

 poor one, or as the honey-flow is slow or rapid. With many 

 combs the machine would have to be set to take oft' all down 

 to within a quarter of an inch of the septum, and that would 

 never do, for it would be taking away too much of our good 

 combs, and the tank would have to be placed under the un- 

 capping-box instead of under the extractor. 



If we try hard to get really nice combs for the machine, 

 they are equally nice for rapid work with the knife. To 

 get nice, fat combs for extracting, the Grimeses use 8 

 combs in a 10-frame super. It does not take an expert long 

 to uncap nice combs; then we save much uncapping by ex- 

 tracting when the comb is one-half or two-thirds capt — two 

 strokes to a side usually finishes it. From actual timing a 

 comb can be uncapt in from five to fifteen seconds, or an av- 

 erage of five combs per minute. 



We must take into consideration the time for adjusting 

 the machine, and the time to change the knives for a water- 

 bath, for no form of knife will run long without getting 

 that gummy edge ; then there is bee-bread to clog- 

 the machine, and more or less brood in the way. Perfor- 

 ated metal would prevent the latter. 



But let us figure a little. A machine wou}d necessarily 

 cost from S15 to $20. There are but few of our extensive 

 bee-keepers who use perforated metal. In order to use the 

 !t20 machine a hundred dollars or more will need to be spent 

 for excluders. The large apiarist would be the one having 

 the most interest, and a machine to become a success with 

 him should be a very radical improvement. 



In a paper which was read before the California Bee- 

 Keepers' Association by "Rambler", and afterward pub- 

 lisht in this journal, he seems to set the pace for a machine 

 to uncap several combs at once. That is a radical improve- 

 ment in the right direction, and while we are inclined to 

 say that it can't be done, it is very unsafe to say it, for 

 more wonderful things than that are being done every day 

 in this age of improvements. 



I hope inventors will not take the above comments in 

 the nature of a wet blanket. Thev are intended to lead 



