46K 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June 



better perhaps throw it away and buy a new 

 one, "Oh no!" said I, "don't throw it 

 away. I will iix it, and it shall not cost you 

 very much.' 1 If there was nothing else to 

 do, I would work a couple of hours at an 

 old coffee-mill, and charge only five cents. I 

 charged only five cents, because I did not 

 think the article was of enough value to 

 warrant more than live cents' charges. I 

 was bound to build up business, and most of 

 you know I did it. And you too, my 

 friends, no matter where you are, nor how 

 you are situated— I do not care if you are 

 lame or blind or deaf, or even if you are 

 sick, you can be helpful to those about you, 

 and begin the apprenticeship in that great 

 trade of helping others. " Not to be min- 

 istered unto, but to minister. 1 ' Let that be 

 the motto of your life, and Christ Jesus will 

 see that you are well paid. Yes, " Good 

 measure, pressed down, shaken together, 

 running over." Now go and look after 

 your wife's clothes-wringer this minute, 

 lest all the above talk simply go in one ear 

 and out of the other, without having accom- 

 plished any thing. 



Recent Deyelqpme]^ 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 

 THE NEW COMBINED CRATE. 



T HAVE never liked the combined crate ; 

 m but as we have sold a good many, it 

 M shows there is a demand for something 

 * of the kind. As the objectionable fea- 

 tures could be easily removed, we have 

 lately made the crate so "that it can be man- 

 ipulated in very much the same way as the 

 T super. Mention has already been made 

 on page 873, Gleanings for May 1, of the 

 changes made in the combined crate ; but 

 on account of the lack of engravings, no de- 

 tailed description was given. 



OUR NEAV COMBINED CRATE. 



The engraving above represents the crate 

 as we now manufacture it. In appearance 

 it represents the old one very closely. The 

 only difference noticeable is the removal, or, 

 rather, absence, of the projecting shoulder 

 at the bottom edge of each end. In the old 

 crate this shoulder was put on for the pur- 

 pose of filling up the spare left open by the 

 rabbets. The design was, of course, to pre- 

 vent the bees from passing up and around 

 the crate ; but as most practical apiarists 

 use their surplus crates in connection with 

 a honey-board, the projecting shoulder, 

 when so used, was an unnecessary feature ; 

 and, more than that, it prevented tiering up 

 inside of Simplicity bodies. In this con- 

 nection the feature of non-tiering up in the 

 old crate was a very objectionable one. 



The engraving above needs almost no ex- 

 planation. It is simply a shallow box, the 

 sides of which are so made as to receive a 

 strip of glass. The sections, instead of resting 

 upon T tins as in the T super, are supported 

 by slats having insets corresponding to the 

 sections and in number equal to the number 

 of rows of sections. These slats rest upon 

 a strip of tin nailed to the bottom inside 

 edge of each end, projecting far enough in- 

 side to catch the slats. That there are objec- 

 tions to supporting-slats which correspond 

 with the bottom of the sections, I am aware. 

 It is true, they will not always match 

 with the bottoms of the sections, either be- 

 cause of a slight displacement or because 

 of unequal shrinkage. There are a great 

 many, however, who seem to prefer such a 

 method of support in place of T tins. 



REMOVING SECTIONS FROM THE NEW COM- 

 BINED CRATE, EN MASSE. 



By the engraving you will see that the 

 combined crate can be emptied of its sec- 

 tions in the same way as the T super ; the 

 slats simply resting upon the strips of tin 

 are movable, and, like the T tins, are to be 

 removed with the sections en masse. While 

 the new crate retains many of the advan- 

 tages of the T super, it has some additional 

 ones. As explained on page 373, it may be 

 used with or without a honey- board, though 

 we would recommend that it be used in con- 

 nection with a honey-board. In the en- 

 graving in the opposite column it will be seen 

 that the bee- space is put above the sections. 

 Of course, when the honey-board is used, 

 the bee-space should be above rather than 

 below. If the honey -board is not used, 

 the bee-space should be put below the 

 sections. This is accomplished by putting 

 a little i-inch strip of wood between the 

 strips of tin that support the slats, and the 

 slats themselves. In all the combined 

 crates we send out, we always send 1-inch 

 strips of wood, so that the purchaser may 

 suit his own fancy about his bee-space. 



Another important feature that the crate 

 has, is that open-side sections can be used in 

 it, which can not be said of the T super. 

 Besides this, it will hold the sections a little 

 more nearly square. One-piece sections are 

 inclined to be a little diamond-shaped, and 

 with T tins this trouble is not materially im- 

 proved, unless another set of tins are used 

 above the sections. Now, we called the 

 crate " combined " because it can be used 

 both for a shipping package and as a sur- 

 plus arrangement while on the hive. Al- 

 though we do not exactly recommend ship- 

 ping honey in the same crate in which it 

 was produced on the hive, yet there are a 

 great many farmers and ethers who prefer 



