1910 



GLEANINGS IN BKP: CULTURE 



657 



and 4 show 

 the amount 

 of "fall" of 

 the pipe and 

 the general 

 arrangement 

 of the build- 

 ings. A set- 

 t ling- tank 

 arranged aft- 

 er the plan 

 described by 

 E. D. Town- 

 send in the 

 Bee-keepers' 

 Review, and 

 mentioned in 

 the July 1st 

 number of 

 Gleanings, 

 ])age 402, is 

 located so as 

 to catch the 

 stream of 

 honey from 

 the pipe. Mr. 

 Fowls be- 

 lieves that 

 this settling- 

 t a n k will 

 serve in lieu 

 of a strainer, 

 although he 

 is not quite 

 certain as to 

 the results as 

 yet, since he 

 gets the bees 

 out of his su- 

 persbymeans 

 of bee-es- 

 cai^es, so that 

 the honey, 

 by the time 



he extracts it, is no longer warm. Mr. Town- 

 send brushes the bees from the combs, and 

 extracts while the honey is still warm. LTn- 

 til using this settling-tank Mr. Fowls had 

 considered the Alexander strainer ahead of 

 any thing that he had ever tried before. 

 Xo one, who has never tried conveying 

 honey away from the extractor by means 

 of a pipe, can realize what a convenience it 

 is. It is almost like extracting honey with- 

 out having the honey to bother with. 



THE STEAM UNCAPPING-KNIFE. 



If new combs are uncapped, the steam- 

 knife is certainly a great advantage. Mr. 

 Fowls, however, does not extract to any ex- 

 tent from combs until some brood has been 

 reared in them to stiffen them. When a set 

 of extracting-combs are thus used over and 

 over, the midrib, or main part of the comb 

 untouched by the uncapping-knife, becomes 

 hard and tough, and the new fresh comb 

 outside and the cappings are then very easy 

 to remove with a cold knife. Under such 

 ideal conditions there is probably no great 

 advantage in the steam-heated knife. 



Kig 4.— Another view of the honey-pipe. The distance is about 40 feet, and the 

 pipe, Ijeing made of galvanized iron, cost about S^4.00. 



A NEW BEE- VEIL. 



Sometimes an old veteran in bee-keeping 

 boasts of the fact that he never notices 

 whether he gets stung or not; but Mr. Fowls 

 says that the more he works with bees the 

 less he likes to be stung. He has never been 

 entirely satisfied with any of the bee-veils 

 that he has tried, and accordingly he con- 

 structed one that suits his own particular 

 requirements. Fig. 5 shows the construc- 

 tion of the veil. A shirt is first put on, 

 which is made of common denim, and this 

 is worn over the ordinary shirt in place of a 

 coat. As will be seen, it is gathered about 

 the waist with a string, and a stout wire 

 hoop is firmly sewed into the material 

 around the neck to take the place of a col- 

 lar. The veil has a rubber cord around the 

 bottom; and when this is pulled down over 

 the wire hoop, the tension of the cord keeps 

 it tight enough so that there is not the 

 slightest possibility for a bee to get in. An- 

 other rubber cord keeps the top of the veil 

 tight around the crown of the hat. 



There are a number of advantages in this 

 veil, which do not appear at first sight. 



