April, 1908. 



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American Hae Journal 



frame size. 



Please remember, dear reader, that I 

 have non-e of these things for sale. I 

 am not in the supply-business, neither 

 have I an axe to grind, and my harping 

 on this question was due only to the 

 many letters that were answered in this 

 way. The hive parts can be obtained 

 from any supply-manufacturers as regu- 

 lar goods, except the frames, which can 

 be ordered made after the dimensions 

 given, 



A Wind-Mill Hive-Plant in Texas. 



The matter of providing our bees 

 with a nice, pleasant home that will turn 

 water and wind, is of great importance 

 to the man who has hundreds of colo- 

 nies of bees to provide for, when we 

 consider the present ruling price for 

 manufactured hives. I found after my 

 bees were running into the hundreds of 

 colonies, and constantly increasing — a 

 feature I courted — that to buy ready- 

 made hives was a fearful drain on my 

 bank account — a much greater drain 

 than I was pleased with, or intended 

 to allow. I was a natural-born me- 

 chanic, studied the matter all day, and 

 dreamed of it at nights when a boy. 

 When I became m}' own man, I proceed- 

 ed to make applications of various char- 

 acters along mechanical lines. I straight- 

 way proceeded to make anything that I 

 chose to make, out of iron, steel, or wood. 

 Thus it will be seen that I had a store- 

 house of knowledge on which I could 

 draw at will. Therefore, to allow a little 

 problem like a bee-hive plant of a novel 

 and practical character bother me for a 

 moment was a matter I never stopped 

 to reflect upon, when the time came for 

 me to be in need of such an adjunct 

 to my apiarian equipment. 



I began to care for bees when I was 

 a boy 16 years old, and grew up in the 

 business, or with the bees, if you wish. 

 I never thought or intended to make a 

 bee-man. I became a bee-man by chance, 

 step by step, day by day, year by year, 

 until I found my bees running into the 

 hundreds of colonies, and my output of 

 honey running into tons annually. 



Furthermore, I found that orders for 

 honey sent me annually was twice that 

 of my output, therefore I resolved to 

 enlarge my apiaries, and install new ones 

 until I filled my orders for honey, or 

 had all the bees that I could manage. 



Finding myself in this sort of predica- 

 ment, of needing many hives and hive- 

 parts annually, I decided to manufacture 

 them, and proceeded to execute my de- 

 cision, as I could not afford, to my mind, 

 the price for hives and the freight. 



It was a matter of little consequence to 

 install a circular saw to make hives 

 and frames, but the power to pull or 

 operate the saw was quite another thing. 



It would cost something like $100 to 

 install a gasoline engine to operate the 

 saw. That wouldn't do — too much money 

 for the engine, then it eats fuel every 

 day, additional. I could put in a horse- 

 power for $30, to which I could hitch my 

 farm mules and do the work of running 

 the saw, but there would be a mule 

 driver needed— an additional $1.00 per 

 day for the driver ; $30.00 was too much 

 for power, with wear and tear on mules, 

 feeding, and a wage for a hired man. 

 None of these modes of power appealed 

 to me because of expense. 



I live on a big prairie of Texas, 40 

 miles from water, and to install water- 

 power was a "long shot at a buck in 

 Buncombe" — out of the question. I 

 knew that there were hundreds of thou- 

 sands of horse-power going to waste 

 over my farms some days, in the wind, 

 that if harnessed properly would pump 

 the St. Lawrence river dry, and make a 

 stepping stone of Niagara Falls. I de- 

 cided to harness about one billionth part 

 of it and have it make bce-hivcs for me. 



The wind-motor illustration shows the 

 simplicity and practicability of my de- 

 cisions. This outfit, for material, cost 



screws. A pin is put through the axle 

 for one of the spokes to hold to. At 

 the center a notch is cut in the center of 

 the scantling to fit around the axle. A 

 short piece of scantling is cut to fit the 

 other side of the axle, and two bolts 

 are put through to bind the scantling 

 to the axle. A strong wire goes around 

 the wheel, secured at the outer circum- 

 ference to each spoke, making all pull 

 on the one spoke secured by the pin. The 

 axle revolves on the bolsters of the 

 frame in iron boxings, with a pin on 

 each side of the boxes through the 

 axle. 



Courtesy of Gleanings. 



Home Made Windmill (or Sawing Hive Liimbc 



less than $10. Should I say it cost less 

 than $2 for what it is doing, it would 

 be hard to believe, would it not ? Such 

 is the case, however, when it is under- 

 stood that the whole affair is built out of 

 house-constructing material, and not at 

 all damaged for house-building purposes, 

 to which use I will put it as soon as I am 

 through making hives. All the loss there 

 is in the mill is the main axle, pulleys, 

 and cleats on the sail-spoke, clamps on 

 the spokes at the axle, and bolsters on 

 the post or frame. The mill is self- 

 explanatory. A 2}4-inch gas-pipe serves 

 as spokes to the wheel. The wind angles 

 for the sails are cut in the scantling 

 for the cleats, on which is secured the 

 corrugated sheet - steel roofing with 



The mill is set north and south. The 

 skeleton frame on which is rests is 

 braced fore and aft. To make it more 

 secure it is fastened to the ground with 

 strong wire. Power is transmitted to the 

 ground by means of a rope belt from the 

 pulley well in view. A i-inch gas-pipe 

 18 feet long serves as a line-shaft from 

 which the power is applied to the saw, 

 by a pulley put on the end of the shaft 

 under the saw-table. A friction-brake is 

 on the main axle, back out of view, 

 which gives the operator perfect control 

 of the mill at all times, to stop and start 

 it at will. 



The mill is geared 40 to i, which in a 

 moderate wind gives the saw a speed of 

 1-3 to 1-2 mile per minute. The saw- 



