1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



249 



amusing to see them jump when they would forget 

 the pail a few minutes, for fear it would be running- 

 over. They have sold their apiary to me since then. 

 I presume the wear and tear of having to watch 

 that pail, and work at the same time, was too much 

 for them, so they sold out. 



We have had a yard of rain this winter, up to 

 date, and consequently expect a good honey sea- 

 eon. J. F. McIntyre. 



Fillmore, Cal., Jan. 27. 



Priend M., you have given us just exactly 

 what I wanted in regard to arrangements 

 for handling honey rapidly, as you do in 

 California. I have tried running it into a 

 pail, and I assure you I never want any 

 more of it. I hope some of the friends in 

 Wisconsin whom I visited will profit by 

 your little bit of pleasantry. When I re- 

 monstrated with them for running honey 

 into a pail, ever so many objections were 

 brought up against doing otherwise, such 

 as havinsr to lift the honey in combs if you 

 do not lift it in the pail. My friends, you 

 do not need to do either. Every extracling- 

 hoiise should have a basement. If you can 

 not locate your honey-house on a side hill, 

 I would make an artificial side hill, some- 

 thing as farmers do with their bank barns. 

 Wheel your combs of honey up an inclined 

 plane to the upper room, where the extract- 

 or is ; or, if you choose, have your honey- 

 tank in H sort of cellar below the floor on 

 which the extractor stands ; or have some 

 equivalent arrangement so that j'our honey 

 will run by gravity out of your way, and let 

 it take its own time to strain and settle. 

 The arrangement desciibed by friend M. 

 seems to me to be about as good as any 

 thing we can get. Our extractors are ar- 

 ranged — especially the shorter ones — for 

 running the honey directly into barrels. I 

 feel quite satisfied, however, that a better 

 way is to run it into a large tank first. Our 

 cheap and simple arrangement of the cheese- 

 cloth bag answers the purpose nicely so far 

 as straining is concerned. The dead bees 

 and bits of comb, etc., fall to the bottom of 

 the bag, and the honey pushes its way 

 through along the sides above the debris. 

 Have several bags; and when one gets full 

 of trash, set it away to drain while a new 

 one is put in the bung of the barrel. If you 

 are taking out honey in great quantities, a 

 larger bag will be needed — possibly wire 

 cloth will be required to give the requisite 

 strength. I am inclined to think, however, 

 that the honey will be clearer and nicer 

 when strained through cheese cloth than 

 through wire cloth. 



FASTENING HIVES TOGETHER FOR 

 HAULING. 



some method of fastening bees in the hives, and 

 fastening the parts of the hive together that is 

 cheap, simple, reliable, and easily and quickly ap- 

 plied and removed. I hope I may be pardoned for 

 thinking my way better than any that has yet been 

 given. 



Let me say, at the start, that I would rather 

 move bees in hives with plain square joints, if prop- 

 erly fastened together, than in any kind of hive in 

 which the parts telescope together. In the square- 

 joint hives, if there are any cracks that will let bees 

 out they may be easily seen and stopped up, while 

 in those with telescoping joints I have frequently 

 found, after getting under way with a load of bees, 

 that a crack that seemed tight allowed the bees free 

 passage. 



Tour Dovetailed hive is nearly enough like mine 

 for the same description of fastening appliances to 

 apply to both. 



Into each edge of the bottom board, just below 

 the middle of the hive, drive an 8-penny wire nail 

 until there is about an eighth of an inch between the 

 head and the wood. Drive two more into the cover 

 to correspond. With these in every cover and bot- 

 tom board, every hive in the yard is ready to be 

 fastenedtogether securely at the rate of about half 

 a minute to each hive. 



Make a loop of stout wire— 1 use steel bale wire. 

 No. 14— so that it will just slip over the nail-heads 

 from bottom-board to cover. The wire should be 

 spliced with a "telegraph splice; " that is, the ends 

 should not be twisted together, or returned on 

 themselves, but each end should pass the other and 

 then be twisted around it. 



Now take two sticks, two or three inches long, 

 with the ends notched. Place these sticks between 

 the wires on one side, and spread them apart until 

 the wires are perfectly tight. If the wire is a little 

 rusty, the sticks, or "keys," will hold better, 

 though I have never known one to slip if properly 

 arranged. 



FRIEND .1. A. r.KEEN TEr,r,S ITS HOW TO FIX THEM, SO 



IF YOU TIP THE WAOON OVER THE BEKS DON'T 



GET OUT. 



As the season is approaching when many bee- 

 keepers, especially those running out-apiaries, will 

 have considerable hauling of bees to do, it may be 

 in order to add a few words to what has already 

 been said on the subject. 



To any one running out-apiaries, or who expects 

 to move his bees to some other locality to catch a 

 honey-flow. It is of the greatest importance to have 



This makes a fastening that is entirely reliable 

 for any ordinary handling or hauling, and by the 

 use of a couple of nails or screws to hold the wires 

 apart, or to keep the keys from slipping, will stand 

 the roughest handling in shipping. Last fall I up- 

 set with a load of bees I was hauling down a steep 

 side-hill road, the wagon turning completely upside 

 down, and piling the hives in a miscellaneous heap. 

 No damage was done, except the splitting of the 

 cleats to some of the cover-boards. The frames 

 were at fixed distances, and not a comb was broken. 



Tn moving bees in hot weather, instrad of the 

 regular cover I use a frame covered with wire 

 cloth. This frame is made of strips 71 square, with 

 a cross-bar in the middle, into which the nails are 



