NOVEMBER 1. 1015 



them witli tar paper to protect thera. In 

 tlio sjiring the hives are put all around, 

 cyclone style, again. 



My way of wintering bees for many years 

 has been by using sealed covers. It is the 

 only natural way, the way that God or 

 Iv'ature tauglit the bees to prepare for win- 

 ter. If it had been better any other way 



tiie bees would be carrying all kinds of 

 material into their hives to make a cushion 

 on top of the brood-nest. 



I am satisfied Ihex'e is no better way than 

 to let tlie bees seal everything up tight for 

 winter. Any colony that is strong and in 

 normal condition will come out all right. 



La Feria, Tex. 



NOTES FROM THE APIARY ; NEW APPLIANCE FOR UNCAPPING 



BY JOSEPH GRAY 



After a season's use of a butcher-saw, 

 weight 3 pounds and length 30 inches, I 

 have no hesitation in recommending it for 

 uncapping. It does away with the need and 

 expense of a fire and the attending danger. 

 It makes a clean cold cut, and is instantly 

 ready for use. A few changes are necessary 

 in the equipment. For instance, you need to 

 be back from the screen 30 inches to allow 

 for the sweep of the saAv; and the rest for 

 the comb must not be above 33 inches high. 

 This allows you to stand well over your 

 work. I space my combs wide and obtain 

 combs weighing 7 to 10 pounds. A frame 

 with a 1 1-16-ineh top-bar and 3/,-inch bot- 

 *ora-bar is ideal. The Hoffman side-bar 

 makes no difference. 



Grasping the com.b by the bottom-bar, set 

 the lug in the rest and make a clean sawcut 

 from one end of the frame to the other. 

 Reverse the frame so that you always cut 

 from top-bar to bottom-bar. A butcher- 

 knife with a fi-inch blade is a handy tool 

 to scrape top and bottom bar, and also lo 

 scrape the capping off. Do not cut those 

 tiiat sink below the sweep of the saw-blade. 

 Scrape them. 



In using the saw, just saw as a butcher 

 does. Awkward? Sure you Avill be so, and 

 verA' slow at fiist. You caimot so easily 

 unlearn the upward cut and use of the un- 

 capping-knife and relearn in a day the use 

 of a heaA^ saw. It takes a bntclier yeai's 

 to become expert in its use. When you see 

 the nice even combs that now weigh 

 i>ounds. and realize how easy and uniform 

 they are to extract, and how reciilar the 

 bees build the.«;e same combs after they have 

 been worked over once, you will see the 

 advantage of cutting off 3 pounds of weight 

 in the capping and throwing out with the 

 extractor 4V2 pounds weight, leaving l^o 

 pounds weight of empty comb, all uniform 

 and all equal. 



NEW WAV TO USE THE SOI.AR EXTRACTOR. 



After my cappings are drained, and the 

 honey piped away to the main tank. I grasp 

 the four corners of a piece of burlay>. which 



has previously been laid in the bottom of 

 the uncapping-tank, and carry the whole of 

 the capping-s to tiie solar. The arrange- 



T/A/ SOLAf? ,^ELTEf> 



ment in the solar consists of a removable 

 tin end and canvas. The tin end is cut from 

 the ever useful five-gallon can as shown. 

 The square of canvas is then over the tin, 

 and the capping dumped on to the canvas. 



The melting lioney and wax flows to the 

 edge and then over into the mold. The ref- 

 use is held by the canvas and the edge of 

 tin. Tlie mold is made from a lubricating 

 five-gallon can, side 

 cut out as shown in 

 the illustration, and 

 the spout turned up 

 to allow tJie honey 

 to escape after reach- 

 ing a certain point. 

 The honey is not 

 subiect to further heat, as it runs under a 

 covered part of the solar to be drawn off 

 later at the faucet. The mold, catch tin. and 

 canvas should be in duplicate to allow the 

 solar to be attended to at night, the wax 

 to cool, and the canvas to be cleaned dur- 

 ing the heat of he day. 



In case of remelting cakes of wax, use 

 an ordinary five-gallon can. Cut below the 



