MARCH 1, 1915 



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¥ig. G shows the apitriiek. To use it, the 

 brood-chamber is first lowered. Tlie side 

 toward the camera is removable, wliieh 

 makes it possible to roll up the apitruck 

 and suiTound three sides of a tier of supers. 

 The fourth side is now replaced, thus sur- 

 rounding the supers entirely. The levers, a 

 pair on each side, take hold under the 

 supers. Each pair works in unison. A 

 pressure of about one-tenth or less of the 

 weight of the supers is needed to lift them. 



Tlie apitram is supposed to be extended 

 into the extracting-room directly to the 

 uncapping-tank. The photograph shows the 

 apitruck in the center of the apitram with a 

 tier of supers on the way. In actual use 

 the tier of supers nearest tlie extracting- 

 room is run in first. This leaves the track 

 clear for the second tier. Thus one tier 

 after the other is taken in. The wheels in 

 the apitruck are roller-bearing. 



No doubt the reader will gaze at the 

 apitram in despair, and remark mentally, 

 " It must have cost a lot of money." Bui 

 such is not the case. One lessertrani, one 

 apitruck, and 160 fret of ai)itram cost with 

 freight, cartage, labor, money orders, iron. 

 bolls, etc., included, $46.60.' The cost is 

 thus less tlian i^O cts. per colony. Of course 

 my own labor was not included. 



Are we justified in making an outlay of 

 50 cts. on a colony? Let us see. With the 

 apitram, only brood-diambsrs are handled 

 during the honey-flow. The time and labor 

 thus saved can be used to handle a great 

 many more colonies. In my own case I 

 think it will be double the number. But 

 this is not all. If the hard work is eliminat- 

 ed, the period of productivity is lengthened. 



Man's power to (h) hard 

 work decreases as his 

 age increases, after a 

 certain point is readied. 

 If the apitram enables a 

 m.an to produce even 

 five more crops than he 

 otherwise would, has not 

 the apitram ]iaid for 

 itself? 



Some may say that 

 _ facing two colonies the 

 — same way, with only two 

 inches between them, 

 will cause the bees to 

 mix and will result in 

 the loss of young queens. 

 I have watched this 

 closely during the sea- 

 son and have j'et to find 

 a single lost virgin al- 

 though several nuclei 

 were placed on the apitram for the purpose 

 of having virgin queens fertilized. Now as 

 to bees mixing. 



In August a colony of black bees on the 

 apitram was examined; and, strange as it 

 may seem, the colony had not a single yellow 

 bee, although the bees two inches from it. 



ChinntlTTis 



Uppfr strips 

 of u/ood. 



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Strip. 



Iron ■ 



in a hive facing the same way, were hybrids 

 with yellow strongly predominating. In 

 fact, an entrance close by enables a bee to 

 mark more certainly its own. How do I 

 know this? When a brood-chamber is rolled 



