1374 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



the super is ready for the caser, no sections hav- 

 ing been loosened in the super in any manner. 



Now each caser places two cases in front of 

 her on the table, one for No. 1 honey, the other 

 for No. 2, and lifts a super up in front likewise. 

 The sections she loosens from the super with her 

 casing-knife, made especially for casing; and, 

 without changing her grip on it but once, she 

 scrapes all four sides and four edges clean of 

 propolis. Meanwhile she has determined its 

 grade; and just as soon as she has it clean she 

 places it in its proper case. In all our work a 

 section of honey is never handled, except this 

 one time, from the hive to the car. Does it look 

 impossible to handle b^i sections of honey in a 

 minute the way I have described .? and does not 

 this method look more sensible than putting 

 honey in curing-crates, or dumping a wheelbar- 

 row load out on a bench at once, as do our T-tin 

 friends .? 



After the cases are filled, the caser may nail 

 on the cover if the assistant is busy, but usually 

 the waiter does it. However, the caser gets her 

 own cases, and adjusts her own drip-sticks, some- 

 times even waiting a short time for cases to be 

 made. 



For the benefit of those who think 125 cases 

 can not be filled in a day if the honey is proper- 

 ly cleaned and graded, I will say that Mrs. Ful- 

 ler cuts a thin shaving off the edges of unusually 

 soiled sections, exposing a clean white wood. 

 Can they be cleaner? In handling empty su- 

 pers I have seen hundreds containing little shav- 

 ings, showing her handiwork. 



Concerning the grading, I have weighed doz- 

 ens of No. 2 cases that weighed up to the No. 1 

 standard, but never a No. 1 that fell below; and 

 I think any buyer of this honey will testify to 

 its quality. 



It seems to me very strange that any one who 

 lays claim to being a caser at all can not case 

 more than twenty cases a day. Mrs. Fuller, I 

 know, could easily average four times that many 

 daily, and still have time to attend to housework. 



Longmont, Colo. 



UNCAPPING-KNIVES. 



A Very Sharp Thin Knife Preferred With- 

 out Heat of Any Kind. 



BY T. P. ROBINSON. 



Referring to the discussion of uncapping-knives, 

 page 1126, I will say that I never used any but 

 the cold knife to any appreciable extent, and 

 would use no other kind. I have tried knives 

 from boiling water, and found them nuisances so 

 far as I am concerned. In any case, the edge 

 must be sharp and thin, and this would cool just 

 as soon as coming in contact with the cold, hon- 

 ey, and cut no better than a cold knife. Then 

 if the body is boiling hot it will melt the wax 

 and make a mess Then the operator is constant- 

 ly putting water into the honey from the knife, 

 as a freshly heated knife has to be used on each 

 frame. I don't want any foolishness like this in 

 my extracting-house. 



I never have any trouble with my cold knives 

 on any kind of honey that I produce, and I have 



uncapped it after frost when it was so thick that 

 I could not get over two-thirds of it out of the 

 combs. I keep the cutting edge as keen as a ra- 

 zor, while the other edge is kept moderately sharp 

 to clean burr combs from the top and bottom 

 bars. The knife is ground to a long keen edge. 

 If it is hard, the temper is drawn to a moderate 

 degree of hardness (this drawing of temper is easy, 

 as I am a steel-worker), and the edge kept sharp 

 by the edge of some other knife of a high de- 

 gree of hardness, usually a pocket-knife, or 

 steel made for the purpose. The sharpening is 

 done by a shoving process of the blade in the 

 same manner a boy smooths a stick, except 

 that the strokes are made in one direction. This 

 method puts an edge on the knife far superior for 

 uncapping to that made by any stone, since the 

 edge thus put on is in miniature waves, similar 

 to those on a bread-knife, and if the knife is 

 drawn at an angle over the comb it will do the 

 work so easily and smoothly that the operator 

 will wonder how any knife can do so well. I 

 have occasion to sharpen a knife only once for 

 each 1000 lbs. of honey, and sometimes we run 

 over a ton per knife at one sharpening. We did 

 that several times this summer. It takes about 

 30 seconds to sharpen a knife in this way. 



HONEY SOURING IN THE HIVES. 



We notice that the editor, page 1139, asks some 

 one to give a reason for honey souring in combs 

 as in the case of Mr. Henry Perkins, Calexico, 

 Cal. I have had trouble along this very line. It 

 is entirely due to bees gathering too much nectar 

 heavily charged with water. This is always 

 prominent in the first nectar secretions of plants, 

 and is greatly augmented by damp or wet weath- 

 er conditions. The fact is, the bees gather moie 

 nectar than they can evaporate into honey. I have 

 had my combs swell up and burst open for this 

 same reason. In my case the remedy is simple 

 and easy. Keep only the rousing big colonies 

 that are able, with their heat and fanning, to 

 cure the nectar into honey. Unite weak colo- 

 nies, or contract the bees on few combs. The 

 trouble is most pronounced in weak colonies and 

 those having too much comb space. I have had 

 no trouble along this line since I found out the 

 true reason. This manipulation is necessary only 

 when the weather is damp. Weak colonies will 

 not be affected with sour honey if the nectar is 

 well cured in the field. 



Bartlett, Texas. 



A SHARP COLD KNIFE PREFERRED. 



I have been using uncapping-knives for thirty 

 years. I never heated one in my life. I whet 

 them as sharp as a razor, then polish the rest of 

 the blade on a pine board. I have no trouble 

 from the knife mashing the cells down. I cut 

 both up and down. J. S. McFanick. 



Columbus, Kan., Sept. 27, 1908. 



[Several of our correspondents have of late 

 favored a cold uncapping-knife rather than one 

 that is hot. We have not had a large number of 

 reports on this point thus far. We should be 

 pleased to hear from many others. Let us know 

 the condition when a cold knife is better and 

 those under which a hot one gives better results. 

 Or is it possible that a keen-edged cold knife is 

 always better than any hot knife.' — Ed.] 



