THE BEE-KEEPERS* REVIEW 



43 



our certificates froin the lowest grade 

 issued in our State, to the highest— the 

 Teacher's Life State Certificate, good in 

 any school in the State, and in force dur- 

 ing the life of the holder. During these 

 school years I also was employed as a 

 conductor of Teachers' Institutes four 

 summers, and also conducted a private 

 summer school for teachers two summers. 

 My wife and 1 both loved the work of the 

 class-room, and poured out the best in 

 our lives to the young people who were 

 under our charge, among them we have 

 many of our staunchest friends. 



But. how about the bees? Well, the 

 first year after we began teaching, we 

 rented the bees, moving them 30 miles 

 on a wagon with a four-horse team. 

 The season was rather poor, and owing 

 to insufficient ventilation the next winter 

 all the H5 colonies died, except three col- 

 onies which I sold to a farmer. The 

 combs were rendered into wax, which 

 was shipped to R. A. Burnett of Chica- 

 go, and for which we received 30 cents 



per pound. The hives were stacked up, 

 and for a time bee-keeping was forgotten. 

 But the infection was in the blood, and 

 every time an apiary was seen, the school- 

 master went for a brief season to enjoy 

 once more that sweetest of music— the 

 hum of the busy bee. Every summer 

 the clover, the lindens, the fields of buck- 

 wheat, the autumnal goldenrod, all called 

 once and again to him to renew the old 

 time friendship; and so he became again 

 the happy owner of a little apiary, and, 

 though the love for the school-room has 

 passed, and likewise four years in one of 

 the great medical schools, and now a 

 busy practice fills the days and often the 

 nights, still the old love endures and the 

 busy bees and the nectar-bloom entice him 

 away from the perplexities of professional 

 life to that simpler life where the responsi- 

 bilities are not so grave, where the human 

 life is not so frequently dependent upon 

 the decision of the. moment. 

 This, I believe, tells the story. 



A Home-Made Machine for Boring End- 

 Bars for Wiring. 



L. C. WHEELER. 



©HERE is no room for doubt in the 

 minds of practical bee keepers of 

 today, that it pays to use full 

 sheets of foundation in the brood ' nest. 

 It will save its cost the first year, in labor 

 saved for the bees, and in the fact that 

 we get good, straight, worker rombs, 

 instead of half drone comb, as so much 

 of it will be if starters alone are used. 

 These combs are a source of joy and 

 profit for the apiarist as long as he uses 

 them. 



But, if he uses full sheets, it is a fore- 

 gone conclusion that he must also use 

 some means of staying them to keep 



them from sagging, or tearing loose from 

 the top bars. A few use wood splints for 

 this purpose, but the majority use wire, 

 and the writer is among this number. 



As 1 build all my own hives and frames, 

 I was forced to find some practical 

 means of punching the end-bars for 

 wiring. I tried punching them with an 

 awl, but was far from satisfied with that 

 method. Boring them by hand was 

 entirely too slow to be tolerated, so I 

 devised the machine illustrated herewith. 



The machine is designed to bolt to the 

 table of a wood-working machine, with 

 the belt running to the balance wheel. 



