1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



287 



RAMBLE 1S4 



Portable Honey-Houses : Wiring Frames; Revolv- 

 ing Stand for I*ainting Hives ; Carl wheel 

 Sun W'ax-exiractor, etc 



BY RAMKLER. 



Riding across the fields from the out-apiary 

 one day with Mr. McCir)bin he called my at- 

 tention to a small whi.e building about two 

 miles south, and said, "That is Mr. P'ray's 

 portable honey-house, and he must be at woik. 

 in his apiary below the McL'lanaban ranch." 



I was immediately interested in this feature 

 of bee-keeping, and the next afternoon fourd 

 me mounted on my wheel with my large cam- 

 era strapped to the handle bars, and headed 

 for the Fray apiary. I was fortunate enough 

 to find Mr. Fray and his wife extracting hon- 

 ey. I had never met him, and had heard only 

 a few days previous that he was an extensive 

 bee-keeper. Some -way I bad imbibed the 

 idea that he was an out-of-date, a sort of way- 



A two-frame Cowan extractor occupied a 

 central position in the house, and the occu- 

 pants were uncapping combs. That is what 

 the work is ordinarily called ; but Mr. Fray 

 had a brand-new term, up-to-date, and very 

 appropriate. He said they were skinning the 

 combs; and there is no getting around the 

 fact that, when we get through using the knife 

 on a comb, it does look as though it was skin- 

 ned ; but I have an idea that bee-keepers will 

 persist in using the unwieldy term " uncap- 

 ping." 



The photo shows the construction of the 

 house. The open sides are covered with wire 

 cloth ; and the blinds, when elevated, form a 

 protection from the sun's rays. The honey 

 runs from the extractor into the can shown at 

 the side of the house. This has the appear- 

 ance of being a double can. The upper por- 

 tion is the strainer. Common wire cloth is 

 used. Sometimes attention is so intense upon 

 "skinning" combs and extracting that the 

 s'rainer and can are forgotten, and the streaks 



R. 11. FRAYS APIARY AND PORT.A.BLE HON KY-HOUSE. 



back bee-keeper — had not even improved up 

 to the point of nailing hives together with a 

 hirrow-tooth ; but when I approached his 

 neatly painted honey-house on wheels, I saw 

 stenciled in various places on the sides cf the 

 house these words, "Grand View Apiary," 

 " Queen of the Valley," and other names ap- 

 propriate to bee-keeping (I didn't think to ask 

 Mr. Fray if he applied "Queen of the Val- 

 ley " to his house or to his wife. As the lat- 

 ter was putting in some good licks with the 

 uncapping knife I am sure she deserved the 

 name). 



Putting these items together, as I approach- 

 ed the house I came to the conclusion that 

 there was an up-to date bee-man inside. The 

 bees were a little inquisitive, and I made haste 

 to get inside the building. I calmly and con- 

 secutively introduced myself as the fellow 

 who was slinging honey in the McCubbin api- 

 aries, and we forthwith commenced discuss- 

 ing the probabilities of the honey crop, 

 prices, etc. 



down the sides of the can t.hovv where sweet- 

 ness is wasted. 



I suggested that a larger tank would save 

 this waste, and also allow the honey to clear 

 before being drawn into cans ; " and," said I, 

 "that is the way we do down south. We 

 have tanks that hold all the way from one to 

 ten tons." 



" Oh ! you are from the south, then? " said 

 Mr. Fray. " They have had a hard time down 

 there I hear, owing to dry seasons." 



"Yes, Mr. Fray, they have, that's sure — no 

 honey, and a great loss of bees." 



"Oh! by the way," said Mr. Fray, "do 

 you know that fellow down there they call the 

 Rambler? " 



"Why, yes, Mr. Fray ; I have seen him at 

 the conventions, and a regular old duffer he 

 is too." 



" Just as I expected," said Mr. Fray; "and 

 these chaps that are always writing, and snap- 

 ping their cameras at everybody, don't know 

 any more about bees than you and I do ! " 



