180 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



I Don't believe in using- one-half of a 

 journal to tell how good is the other 

 half, but, once in a while, some sub- 

 scriber says something that I can't 

 resist repeating- it. Recently, one man 

 wrote that it made him "feel good all 

 over" when the Review came, as he 

 would now ha\ 3 something good to read. 



Mr. Lyon tells us, in his new book, to 

 let a newly hived swarm stand where it 

 is hived until evening, then place it upon 

 its permanent stand. Better carry the 

 colony to its permanent stand just as 

 soon as the bees are in the hive, other- 

 wise the workers that leave the hive dur- 

 ing the day will mark the location to 

 which they will return the next day, and 

 find the hive gone. 



Scraping the honey knife across the 

 rack to clean it of cappings is not neces- 

 sary when uncapping honey. I have 

 frequently watched bee keepers when 

 uncapping honey, and some of them will 

 stop and scrape the knife clean between 

 each stroke. This is simply so much 

 time wasted, as each succeeding stroke 

 will force from the knife its load of 

 cappings. By the way, the cappings 

 never adhere in this manner to a steam 

 heated knife. 



Migratory Bee Keeping has always had 

 a charm for some of us uneasy mortals. 

 It might not be migratory bee keeping 

 exactly, but Mr. H. C. Ahlers has been 

 in Loiusana the past spring, and gathered 

 up 300 colonies of bees. On April 18th 

 he wrote me that he had taken over 

 6,000 pounds of honey, and on the 22nd 

 of the same month expected to ship the 

 bees to Wisconsin. They were to go in 

 an iced, ventilated refrigerator car. 

 Bees to be well-watered when they 

 start, but no watering on the route. They 

 are to be shut in Thursday night, loaded 

 Friday, and, barring accidents, unloaded 

 in West Bend the next Tuesday. 



The Townsend separating tank is in 

 reality a gravity strainer; that is, it de- 

 pends for its effectiveness upon the fact 

 that particles of wax are lighter than hon- 

 ey. A tank of honey allowed to stand, will 

 clear itself of wax by the particles rising 

 to the surface, but if we pour a pail of 

 unstrained honey into a tank of honey the 

 force of the falling honey will carry down 

 the particles of wax. By the use of a 

 float this force of the honey is broken, 

 and it slowly finds its way below the 

 float via. the crack around the edge. 

 By keeping the can nearly full of honey, 

 the particles of wax never reach the 

 bottom, from whence honey free from 

 wax may be drawn off as often as the 

 can is nearly full. The simplicity of the 

 plan is only equaled by its effectiveness. 



Shall Burr Combs be Scraped from 

 Top Bars? 



In a late issue of Gleanings there is 

 illustrated a rack for holding frames while 

 the burr combs are scraped from the top 

 bars. Accompanying the cut is a short 

 article from which I copy the closing 

 paragraph, which reads as follows: 



With it we scraped all of the frames 

 from 20 colonies last spring, and intend 

 to do the same this spring. We do not 

 know how many bee keepers make a 

 practice of "spring cleaning" of frames; 

 but we do know that too much of it 

 can not be done, and that it can be much 

 more easily done with some such device. 



In all sincerity, I would like to ask why 

 scrape burr combs off top bars? It is 

 something that I have never done; and 

 if there is anything to be gained by it I 

 would like to know it. 



Bees Work where they can do best. 

 Mr. Lyon, in his new book, says that they 

 seem willing- to extract nectar from any 

 available source, but there are times 

 when they will notice scarcely any other 

 flower if they have access to basswood. 

 I doubt if basswood is any exception in 

 this respect. If buckwheat is yielding 

 copiously, I think they will desert other 

 blossoms that are yielding less, and work 



