THE BEE-KEEPERS- REVIEW 



337 



The Iicncli is ahmil five feet long and 

 just Iiigh enough to sit comfortalily 

 witli ilie knees under it. A hole is cut 

 through the center of the bench and 

 back eight inches from the front edge, 

 and a standard four inches wide, and 

 long enough to reach from the bench 

 to tlie floor and project about a foot 

 above the iiench. is nailed in this place. 



A block is nailed on this at just the 

 right i)lace. and when a frame is set 

 with end of the top liar on the block 

 the other end will be about four inches 

 higher than the top of the bench, or 

 just about the right height to nail com- 

 fortably. A notch is cut in the upper 

 end of the block to admit the projec- 

 tion on the end of the top bar, and 

 another smaller one for the end-spacing 

 staple. Strips are nailed at each side 

 just far enough so the top bar will 

 slide between them, and these strips are 

 notched at the bottom to admit of the 

 side-spacers of the Hoffman frames. 



The back and ends of the bench are 

 built up eight inches above the top, and- 

 a row of boxes for nails, staples, etc., 

 are ranged along the back, and a small 

 open shelf left at each end. At the 

 right a reel, B, is fastened to the bench 

 for wire, and blocks, C.C, are fastened 

 on the bench so that a frame set on 

 the top bar and leaning against the pro- 

 jecting end of the standard, A, will be 

 held from moving endwise. A nail is 

 driven through the standard and bent 

 on the end so that when the frame is 

 in place it can be turned down and hold 

 the frame firmly in place for wiring. 



To fasten the wires I use a very 

 small nail, which I pick up and crowd 

 to place with a horseshoe magnet. The 

 bench is shown with a frame in posi- 

 tion for wiring. 



A TOOL FOR SCRAPING PROPOLIS FROM COMP.- 

 HONEV .SIMPERS, FRAMES, ETC. 



The tool I use for this purpose is a 

 hoeshaped concern, the Ijlade of which 



is about two and a half inches across, 

 fitted with a wooden handle. If you 

 have never used a tool of this kind you 

 cannot realize what an improvement it 

 is over the narrow scrapers on the reg- 

 ular sized tools. 



I make a hive-tool similar to the Root 

 tool by cutting off the end of a file and 

 hammering both ends to an edge and 

 then bending the larger end at right 

 angles. They should be painted red to 

 make them easy to find if they drop in 

 the grass. 



My tool-box is a plain wooden box, 

 8x8x18 inches, fitted with handle for 

 carrying. The tools are slid into places 

 at the side of the box, and the box 

 proper is used to cut drone-comb or 

 scrape burr and brace-comlis into. 



For hive records I use broken pieces 

 of sections and drop them under the 

 cover. If you use quite a complete rec- 

 ord, abbreviate. My abbreviations would 

 quite often be absolutely unintelligible 

 to a stranger, but as I understand them 

 myself that is all that is necessary. As 

 a sample, U.6/27 means that the colony 

 was made queenless the twenty-seventh 

 day of June: T) d 6/1.5 means I took out 

 five frames from the broodnest on that 

 date and replaced them with dummies. 



Barryton, Mich. 



[This continually watching for "short- 

 cuts" means much to the success of any 

 business. There is generally an '"easier 

 way" of doing almost everything we 

 do, if we will only "think about it a 

 little." It is the little leaks that gen- 

 erally kill the business. The big leaks 

 are seen and remedied, but the little 

 ones, because small, are considered of 

 no importance, and thus their continual 

 drainage goes on. Every profitable 

 labor-saving device that you can add to 

 your equipment adds that much toward 

 vour success.] 



