210 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



lye-water. Add lye to the boiling water 

 until all adhering propolis comes off, 

 leaving the wood bright and clean. That 

 is the strength test. But you will need 

 to add lye from time to time to keep 

 it at the right notch. The lye doubtless 

 eats through the spaces, and in com- 

 bination with boiling water kiils all 

 germ life. The hives, lids and bottom- 

 boards were treated in the same man- 

 ner. It was necessary to invert the 

 hives to get the liquid entirely over the 

 wood. 



Let me say in conclusion that this 

 method of treating frames is not an 

 experiment. I have used it successfully 

 for eight years, and the disease has 

 never re-appeared where these frames 

 were used. When inspector of this 

 (Santa Barbara) county in 1905, I used 

 to tier up the hive bodies and char them 

 out with fire, as apiarists here will tes- 

 tify. During the past four years, how- 

 ever, I have practiced boiling them in 

 lye-water, also, and while it thoroughly 

 sterilizes the hives it does not leave 

 them like charred-out shells, as the fire 



method sometimes did. It loosens the 

 paint but otherwise the hives are good 

 as ever. 



Lompac, California, March 4, 1911. 



[If I understand the above plan cor- 

 rectly, it is, simmered down, simply 

 shaking the bees from their combs at 

 night, moving them in screened supers 

 to their new location, several miles 

 away, letting these supers of bees stand 

 until in a nearh^ starving condition, and 

 then hiving them in new hives. Later on, 

 I suppose, combs of brood and honey 

 were given them. At least such a course 

 would be necessary in the northern 

 states. At first thought it seems to me 

 that the above plan would be rather 

 risky for the novice, and yet if proper 

 care is taken I can see no reason why it 

 should not be successful. Mr. Parker's 

 success with the method goes a long 

 ways to knock out any arguments to the 

 contrary, for, after all, it is the results 

 which count. There is one feature that 

 cspeciaMy appeals to me, and that is in 

 disinfecting the hives with lye instead 

 of with fire. Personally I never liked 

 the looks of those charred hive bodies. 

 They always looked too much to me like 

 a standing advertisement saying "We've 

 had foul brood."] 



Foster's Comb Honey Scraping and Casing Table. 



WESLEY FOSTER 



^^^ HIS table shown is the result of 

 i^_J ten years' experience with many 

 different tables, benches, etc. for 

 use in scraping and casing a honey 

 crop. The supers are opened up on one 

 of the platforms by turning upside 

 down and driving out the follower 

 board. The sections are then easily re- 

 moved. 



These platforms are covered with tin 

 as is also the bottom of the box which 

 holds the scrapings. A worker can stand 

 on each side and both scrape from the 

 same super or each have a super to 

 work from as the platform is large 

 enough to hold two supers. The 

 scraped sections are piled up on the 

 platform at the other side of the 



scraping box and from here they are 

 cased by a third party who also carries 

 the supers to the scrapers. 



We generally hire women to scrape 

 our honey and the scraping table is 

 made low so that the work may be 

 done in a sitting position. Stools are 

 what we use. I generally do the grad- 

 ing and casing myself and carry the 

 supers to the scrapers, also opening up 

 the supers if the women are not ex- 

 perienced. My experience has been 

 that more honey is injured in opening 

 the super than in scraping the sections. 

 Two strips of sheet iron are nailed on 

 the sides of the scraping box to clean 

 the scraping knives off on. These are 

 shown in the cut. The cleats on the 



