1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUIIE. 



687 



A BRIDGE FOB CLEANING SECTIONS. 



A DESCKIPTION. 



T|p T the convention at Albany last winter I made 

 gfl^ mention of a bridge I invented for cleaning 

 ^K propolis from honey-sections. If 1 am not 

 •*^ mistaken you said you would make mention 

 of it through (ji-eaninos. As the time for 

 crating honey is near at hand, I am quite sure the 

 bee-fraternity, if they once use one, would consider 

 it indispensable : for myself, I would not do with- 

 out mine for ten dollars. It is n:ade as follows: 



Take a piece of heavy tinned wire cloth. It must 

 be heavy wire, so as not to bend down when the 

 sections of honey are put on it. Cut it about 1'^ or 

 13 inches square; turn every edge at right angles, 

 % inch. Make a frame that will fit nicely inside of 

 the folded edges, and tack fast. Get out for this 

 frame 4 strips, "4 x 1 inch, or about. This bridge is 

 then completed. Lay it on a table, or whatever you 

 wish to clean your sections on, and go to work. I 

 think you will exclaim " Eureka! " The propolis 

 goes shrough the meshes of the wire, as do also 

 the drips of honey from the unsealed cells around 

 the edges, and does not daub and muss up the sec- 

 tions. It does away with the bother of brushing 

 away the dirt, and wiping up drips of honey. When 

 the refuse accumulates under the bridge, raise it 

 up and clear it, and proceed again. 



The honey season here has been a very unsatis- 

 factory one. The yield is about half a crop. White 

 clover yielded very little. Basswood was in full 

 bloom, but yielded sparingly. Bees worked well on 

 sweet clover until the excessive rains set in in 

 July; since then it has been .too wet. They have 

 worked some on buckwheat, but now we are hav- 

 ing a flood of rain, and storing from that source is 

 at an end; and as buckwheat is the last source 

 from which bees store surplus, we shall have to be 

 contented with half a crop. G. J. Fi^ansbukg. 



So. Bethlehem, N. Y., Aug. 33, 1887. 



Friend F., since you mention it I remem- 

 ber quite well your little device, and I thank 

 you for calling my attention to it again. 

 Please excuse my carelessness. The simple 

 idea of itself, of placing your w^oik on a strip 

 of wire cloth, properly supported,;is one for 

 which we owe \ ou a vote of thanks. 



REPORT FROM E. FRANCE & SON. 



CONTINUED FROM PAGE 65.5, LAST ISSUE. 



OW 



about this year? We did not mind the 



MIoss of the 97 colonies that died, for we still 

 had fifteen more colonies than we had a year 

 ago; and by the time white clover should 

 have blossomed we had all our bees strong 

 and in good condition, ready for the harvest — 

 which did not come. The dry weather last year 

 killed out the clover; so when the time came 

 this year for it to blossom I discovered there was 

 none to blossom, except on low ground. The 

 drought of this year drove the stock on to the low 

 ground to got a living. They kept the clover crop- 

 ped so close that the blossoms were picked off be- 

 fore they had time to open. As a consequence, our 

 bees never got a taste of clover honey. We have 

 but very few fruit-trees here, but we had a good 

 crop of dandelion that helped a little. Our bees had 

 plenty of last year's honey and honey-dew to work 



on in their hives, and they used it to raise brood. 

 There was no hoTiey coming in. so the queens had 

 full swing and tilled all the empty combs with eggs. 

 These came right on, and were soon bees. 



There were a good many young queens of last 

 year's hatching which were not clipped. We were 

 very anxious to clip them, as the bees were getting 

 very strong, and would be very likely to swarm. 

 Those unclipped quecms would be sure to go to the 

 woods with their swarms. We could not open them, 

 as there was no honey coming in, without starting 

 robbers to work. We usually clip queens and start 

 a few new colonies when fruit-blossoms and dan- 

 delions are out; but we could not do it this year. 

 I managed to work in the home yard, some even- 

 ings; then we (in all, four men) went to one of the 

 other yards and worked each of us two colonies and 

 then had to (luit, as we could network any more. 

 Word began to come in from all the yards that the 

 bees were swarming and going off. W^e never had 

 such a time before. 



FRANCE'S BEE-TENT. 



We started for home, determined to make a tout. 

 1 told my son to build a tent while on the road home, 

 and I would do so myself, our two hired boys to do 

 the same thing— that is, build it in our minds. We 

 traveled about a mile as still as a Quaker meeting, 

 and then began to talk a little. We soon all decided 

 it should be eight feet square, to work one of our 

 quadruple hives, with four of us at work. It must 

 be as large at the top as at the bottom, and it must 

 be high enough to stand up iu. Having decided on 

 the general plan of it, we made one in detail as fol- 

 lows : 



We first got out four legs 7 feet 3 inches high, 3 

 inches square. Near the bottom end we dro\c in 

 two staples— one about 8 inches higher than the 

 other. We next had four iron pins made out of half- 

 inch round iron, and about 18 inches long. These 

 we slipped into the staples at the foot of the posts, 

 and drove them into the ground, to hold the foot of 

 the post in place. A head was providcil for on top 

 of the irons, by which to i)ull them out of the 

 ground. We bored a % hole down in the upper end 

 of the posts, 6 inches deep. We then got out four 

 straight-grained inch boards, each 3 inches wide, 

 and 7i4 feet long. These were for the top. One 

 inch from the end of each piece we bored a half- 

 inch hole, and rounded the ends so the square cor- 

 ners would not tciu- the cloth. For a covering w(! 

 used cheese-cloth costing 5 cents a yard. This was 

 made into a large sack so as to slip over the frame 

 easily when put together. 



The tent is now ready to put up. It takes four 

 men (boys will do) to handle it. Fjach one takes 

 a post and a top-board, and an 8 inch bolt, ^« of an 

 inch in size. Set up the posts; lay on the top-pieces, 

 and drop the bolt through the two boards at the 

 corner, down into the hole in the top of the posts. 

 Next, drive the iron i)ins itUo the ground, and you 

 are read.\- for the cover, which is theti slii>ped over 

 the frame. Kaise up one side and step inside. 



Wo are safe from outside bees; besides, those in- 

 side won't be likel.v to sting, for they soon find out 

 that they arc in a trap, and will only try to get out. 

 W'e found the tent was .iust the thing. „ We could 

 work the four colonies that were in the tent. Hav- 

 ing finished operations and closed up the hive, each 

 of the four hands takes a post and pulls up the pin. 

 At the words, " All ready!" they all raised up the 

 tent, bodily. The tent is carried and set over an- 



