188,5 



GLEANINGS IN liEE CULTURE. 



591 



SOME EXCELLENT DEVICES OP D. A. 

 MC CORD'S. 



BV Ti. li. LANGSTROTH. 



'HEN extracting- 1 always rested the frame 

 upon the portico roof of uiy hive, brushing 

 off the bees from one side of tlie comb, and, 

 without Uftatfi, swingiftgthe frame around 

 so as to brush them off from the other side. 

 My friend Mr. D. A. McCord has devised what he 

 calls McCord's comb-rest, which may be applied to 

 any style ofhive. Any one who has practiced hold- 

 ing the dead weight of heavy combs, while brushing 

 off the bees, will appreciate this labor-saving device. 

 With the cut, the inventor gives the following de- 

 scription : 



MCCOKU'S COMn-UEST. 



This is the simplest and cheapest device to rest 

 the combs upon while brushing off the bees. It 

 consists of one piece of board ul)out ''sXex 1.5 inch- 

 es; one piece ■'eX4x i;, niiilcd one or two inches be- 

 low the top of the ti-iiuli piece, mid two leys \X2X 

 about 31 inches long, nulled as shown in tlic cut, and 

 it can be made in tlftccn Miinutcs, Lean the rest 

 against the front of hive. Set the lidttoin collier of 

 the frame on the pointed nail, lioliliiiK the opposjif 

 top corner in the left liaiul; bnisli tlie bees oil with 

 the manilla brush held in the right hand. It can be 

 used with the upper story on or off. 



dlt 



M(:coni>s MANii.L.v imisii. 



This brush should be fasteiieii into the ha 

 with shellac instead of f<bic; and while using it, it 

 should have the ends dipiic<l in water oltcn cnou^li 

 to keep them soft.* 1 iiave used a brush of this 

 kind for two seasons, and brush off the bees without 

 any protection, and sometimes will not be stung in 

 a whole day.+ 



Mr. McCord also tells how to use the Root chaff 

 hive with reversible frames, so that the bottom 

 frames may be taken out without removing all the 

 top ones. 



Take off the upper tin rests and nail a strip to fill 

 the crack. Tack the tin rests on the same sides as 

 the bottom ones, with strips 'iX'^ nailed under 

 them to support them firmly. The top frames will 

 now hang from front to rear, same as bottom ones. 

 Now shove the reversible ivires about half way off at 



' Always have a pail of water handy when taking out th^ 

 ..umbs tor extracting— not merely to wet the brush, out to til. 

 an end eouib when returned, and save, in the height of the 



combs for extracting— not merely to wet the brush, out to till 

 an end comb when returned, and save, in tli 

 honey season, the labor of many bees.— L. L. L 

 ItCord brush 

 both sides, and in the righ 



t 1 can strongly indorse the .McCord brush. With its long 

 handle and the manilla put on both sides, and in the right 

 position, it works admirably. When Mr. McCord used a small 



each end, and the frames will hang in the upper sto- 

 ry; and in a moment the wires can be pressed in 

 when they are to be put in the lower story.* 



When common frames are used, make the top 

 part single g and fasten in rests ^4, inch by 2. mad« 

 of hard wood, with a sharp upper edge for the 

 frames to rest on. The spaces on the sides will 

 not be filled by the bees when fdn. and extracting 

 are properly attended to. I have tried hives with 

 this space for a number of years, to my satisfaction. 

 Oxford, O. D. A. McCoru. 



In closing this article I will simply say, that the 

 plan given by me four years ago— the same now de- 

 scribed by Mr. McCord— may very easily be applied 

 to any of the thousands of Root's chaff hives now 

 in use. To be under the necessity of taking out all 

 of the upper frames when perhaps you want to ex- 

 amine only a single one below, as, for instance, a 

 central one, to see if a young queen has begun to 

 lay, is, in my opinion, an insuperable objection to 

 the present style of this hive, and should never be 

 tolerated by one who can avail himself of the bet- 

 ter way. 



Friend Root, if I could only get you to alter a sin- 

 gle hive in your apiary, you would see the point. I 

 have always tried to make all the improvements in 

 my hives such that, if possible, they could be applied 

 to all hives already in use. 



Two years ago I saw at the apiary of our friend 

 Hill, at Mount Healthy, O., what he considered the 

 best plan for wiring frames— only two wires very 

 tight. He said they answered all the purposes of 

 wires. If so (and he is not 

 the man to say a thing 

 will do when it will not), 

 how much better his plan 

 than the way you have 

 adopted in your reversible 

 frames: Too much complication is the bane of bee- 

 keeping, and into that all supply-dealers naturally 

 fall, unless they set their faces against it all the 

 time. Vou are wisely opposed to multiplying loose 

 fixtures, going even to the opposite extreme. Can 

 you not, in this mutter of wiring frames, keep near- 

 er to the "simplicity " idea with which you started? 

 I shall be glad to hear what success attends the re- 

 versible frames. I attach little importance to them 

 for securing combs built completely down to the 

 bottom rail of the frame. As soon as a comb be- 

 comes a little old, the bees put an extra amount of 

 wax at its lower edge. Cut off about half an inch 

 of this for the wax-extractor, and put in a nice strip 

 of worker comb, and you have what you want. It 

 pays, I think, to do this with all old combs; you can 

 do it if you wire no more than Hill does. 

 Oxford, O., Aug. 4, 1885. L. L. Lanostroth. 



1 have often thought of a comb-rest, simi- 

 lar to the one our friend McCord describes ; 

 but as it requires an additional piece of fur- 

 niture, to be carried around from hive to 

 hive, I have decided it would be more trou- 

 ble than value ; however, there may be oth- 

 ers who think differently.— When using a 

 portico hive, my favorite place has been for 

 resting one corner of tlie comb on the porti- 

 co, and swinging it around on the corner.— 

 The manilla brush is quite similar to brushes 

 that have been submitted several times. If 

 1 am not mistaken, we have before illustrat- 



t The bees will not fill in back of the frames when fdn. is giv- 

 en, or the extractor is seasonably used.— L. L. L. 



SThis is what I recommended four years ago. To make the 

 top story double is worse than wasting room and material, 

 for in «intei it tends to keep the cushion damp, acting like a 

 cellar.-I.. L. L. 



