278 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



nearly as high as a person; but I always 

 place the empty one underside. 



When I extract, if alone, I first remove 

 the supers, which are mostly shallow 

 {5}i X 175^ inches outside of frame) by 

 first smoking down the bees, then prying 

 off and shaking the rest of the bees back 

 into the hive, and set the supers upon a 

 wheel-barrow, and wheel the supers 

 directly into the honey house; putting 

 them crosswise of each other so as to 

 give the other bees a better chance to 

 leave; when they fly directly to the win- 

 dows which are covered with screens, 

 with a bee-escape at the top; and, in a 

 short time, all have left the house. 



The uncapping can is set close beside 

 the 6-frame Cowan extractor; combs are 

 uncapped, extractor filled, given a proper 

 speed and allowed to run of itself while 

 another batch of frames are uncapped to 

 again fill it; meanwhile occasionally giv- 

 ing the extractor a few turns to keep up 

 the motion. The honey is drawn off into 

 5-gallon cans, which cost me less laid 

 down at my station than the supply deal- 

 ers quote them; and I consider them 

 cheaper in the end than barrels. 



Toward evening the empty supers are 

 replaced on the hives, and by morning all 

 are clean and no robbing done. 



About October ist to loth the supers 

 are all removed from the hives and the 

 bees left a few days to quiet down to their 

 now much smaller hives, the chaff is then 

 replaced on top of frames, after having 

 first placed three cobs on top of the 

 frames, crosswise, for a Hill's device, 

 then a sheet of burlap, and, last, the 

 chaff. They are then left on their sum- 

 mer stands until the following spring 

 with no further care, unless it be to some- 

 times shovel away the snow from the en- 

 trances which are generally left full 

 width. 



Kach time I visit the apiary it takes 

 from half a day to a full day, seldom 

 more; although seven miles from home, 

 and the roads are sometimes fair, but 

 generally horrible — hills, rocks, ruts, 



ditches, sand and mire-holes, as we ap- 

 proach the river. 



Chaffing the hives in fall takes two of 

 us one day to fix 100 to 150 colonies. 



At the home-apiary two of us chaffed 

 50 colonies in two days; could do it in 

 less time if necessary. 



I sell most of the honey to go to the 

 Dakotas, or to cracker and candy factor- 

 ies, and generally get my pay in advance 

 or on delivery at the station, so I run but 

 little risk. 



I make all of my hives at my brother's 

 saw mill. I buy the lumber (pine) by 

 the c*-load, and get basswood for frames, 

 etc., of them direct, have it kiln-dried 

 and planed at the mill, thus I know what 

 I am getting and can make hives just as 

 good and much cheaper than to buy 

 ready made of dealers. I made 400, one- 

 story, chaff-hives with three shallow ex- 

 tracting supers, chaff-case, double, loose 

 bottom-board with Hoffman frames, com- 

 plete, in nine weeks; or a total of about 

 100,000 pieces. This includes planing 

 and kiln-drying the lumber, and counting 

 and bundling ready to haul over countrj' 

 roads to where I live. I had no special 

 hive-making machinery to work with, 

 but would not advise all people to try 

 making hives themselves; as, unless 

 used to machinery they are liable to make 

 mistakes that would be rather expensive; 

 besides, buzz saws are dangerous unless 

 care is used in working with them; but I 

 still have all my fingers, and thumbs too. 

 RetrkaT, Wis., Aug. lo, 1900. 



OME FEATURES OF BEE- 

 KEEPING THAT ARE AF- 

 FECTED BY LOCALITY. 

 BY E. S. MILES. 

 If asked to name the three most im- 

 portant factors in bee-keeping, I would 

 say: locality, the man and bees. I would 

 also place them in the order named. 

 Without the proper locality, that is, a 

 locality supplied with one or more 



