April 4, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



215 



and teeth of the harrow are crookt at the ends and filed 

 sharp; with them the cappings are sort of raked off, but 

 can not be removed so perfectly but what a liberal portion 

 of them will find their way into the honey and will have to 

 be strained out or skinned off. 



I have no doubt that Dr. Miller's uncapping--comb varies 

 somewhat in its construction from this one as well as mine ; 

 but we do not use ours to uncap for the extractor. 



Another very old uncapping' instrument is the spiked 

 uncapping-roller. It works easily and rapidly, and it suits 

 me to a dot. Of course it only mashes or destroys the cap- 



I. Spiked Udcappia? Roller. 



III. Single Tooth Harro 



II. Uncapping Comb _. .. 

 IV. Uncapping- Fork. 



pings and does not remove them, so they find their way into 

 the honey, even to a greater extent than was the case with 

 the harrow when the tool is used to fit the combs for 

 the extractor as some Germans do. In operating it 

 they run it over the combs several times and in various 

 directions. It would afford me little satisfaction to use the 

 roller in this fashion, but when I have sealed combs I wish 

 to have emptied by the bees, then the roller comes in play 

 and has no equal. It has come to stay with me. I have 

 made the roller part three inches long and about one inch in 

 diameter; in rows lengthwise of the roller >-inch wire 

 nails are partly driven in. then the heads pincht off with 

 nippers so as to have them protrude 's inch or a trille 

 more. This little roller is hung in a simple frame made of 

 3+ -inch hoop-iron as shown in the accompanying drawing 



[Fig. v.], with suitable small pieces of wood riveted on to 

 make the handle complete. 



Another uncapping instrument I see described as the 

 uncapping-plane ; but neither the illustration nor descrip- 

 tion is sufficient to give a clear idea of it, and as I do not 

 find it spoken of in the bee-periodicals I judge that it is not 

 a complete success. 



The bee-keeping world is now awaiting with anxiety 

 the forthcoming of Arthur Miller's uncapping machine. 



Ontario Co., N. Y. 



Working According to Locality— Killing the Queens 

 Eacli Summer. 



BY S. I). CHAI'JIAN. 



SITUATED as we are, just half way between the equator 

 and north pole, we have here in the northern part of 

 the lower peninsula of Michigan long, cold winters, 

 and usually it is late in the spring before we get warm 

 weather. We have deep snow, yet the ground never freezes 

 in the woods, and very little in the fields. The snow comes 

 early in the fall, and it is nearly the last of April before it 

 disappears in the forests. Several seasons my bees have 

 gathered their first pollen from elm and soft-maple while 

 there was yet a foot of old snow in the woods. A mile and 

 a half east of me we are nearly on the hight of the land, 

 and two miles west we are nearly on a level with the lakes. 

 In the winter it is from seven to ten degrees colder on the 

 higher land. Near the lakes we will find, usually, about 

 one foot of snow ; ten miles due east of there we will find 

 four feet on the level. Raspberry and basswood come in 

 bloom one week earlier on the low land. That part of the 

 Grand Traverse region bordering on the lake and bays is 

 not as frosty as southern Michigan or northern Indiana ; 

 but, just in my bee-range, we have early frosts, and the 

 nights become cool early in the season. For this reason I 

 believe in putting my bees in winter quarters quite early in 

 the season — about October 15th. Years ago I found that 

 my bees, if left on the summer-stands during our cold 

 and frosty nights, would consume more honey from Octo- 

 ber 15th to the middle of November, than they would if 

 put in the cellar October 15th and left till April 2Sth. I 

 find from 8, to 9 pounds of honey will carry a colony of bees 

 190 days in 'my cellar. In the last 18 years, 180 days is the 

 least time that my bees have been confined in the cellar — 

 211 days the longest time. 



At the present time I am using the ninth bee-cellar 

 since starting with bees in this vicinit)'. I do not know 

 as it is necessary for me to tell it. but I will say that in 

 some of these cellars about all I had left in the spring was 

 the cellar. The cellar that I now use is under my kitchen. 

 It is 16x24, and there about 200 colonies in it. Some sea- 

 sons there are a few more ; in others, less. It is perfectly 

 dry — so dry that you can not, at any time during the win- 

 ter, find a drop of moisture the size of a pinhead on the 

 under side of the cover that is right over the cluster of 

 bees. I use no quilts nor cushions at any time of the year ; 

 and I prefer this kind of a cellar. I can not winter bees in 

 a cold, damp cellar ; but in a zvarin, damp cellar I have had 

 them come thru seemingly in fair condition. They con- 

 sume rather more honey, however, and they have not the 

 vitality a colony has wintered in a warm and perfectly dry 

 cellar. If I could hold the temperature of my cellar the 

 latter part of spring to about 4,t degrees, I have no reason 

 to doubt that my bees would be in good condition, and not 

 show a sign of disease at the end of eight months of con- 

 finement. 



I use the eight-frame Langstroth hive. I have had 

 some experience with very large hives, but in our cold cli- 

 mate we can not build up a colony in a large hive so that it 

 can take advantage of the flow from raspberry. With us 

 it is necessary that our bees are confined in just as small a 

 space as possible, with plenty of stores, and just room 

 enough for their present needs. This applies from the 

 time of taking the bees out of the cellar, till the time sugar- 

 maple and fruit-trees come into bloom. From the 5th to the 

 10th of May, we usually get our first honey from this 

 source. In this vicinity there are a number of quite large 

 bee-keepers, and every one of them has come to the eight- 

 frame hive. We all work for extracted honey. With my 

 method of management, the eight-frame hive is large 

 enough for the need of any colony of bees I ever saw. 

 And I know my colonies are as populous as it is possible to 

 get with any style or size of hive. 



I pay very little attention to my bees early in the 



