1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



401 



about '4 -inch space between the cloth and 

 the bottom of the can. 



The second ilhistration shows a cake of 

 wax lifted out of the separatintj-can the next 

 nioi'iiiii^'. prai'tically free from refuse except 

 a small amount on the under side, which 

 may be scraped off. The wax is of very frond 

 color, almost ecjual to that comino- from the 

 solar extractor, since no injurious heat is 

 applied to it. There is no dan^rer of hurtinf>; 

 the wax in the separatino-can if no outside 

 heat reaches it and the impurities have a 

 chance to settle, since the wax keeps in a 

 melted condition for so loni>' a time. 



If the cappinii-melter is to be used consid- 

 erably it pays to have a stand somewhat 

 similar to the one shown in the first illustra- 

 tion, so that the heatiniv-stove can be slid 

 under the melter or taken out again at any 

 time. This takes the weight otr the stove 

 and makes it convenient in many ways. We 

 use a kerosene-sthve of the wickless blue- 

 flame pattern, and find that it is very eco- 

 nomical in the consumption of oil, and gives 

 a great amount of heat; in fact, the flame is 

 nearly as hot as that from a gasoline-burner, 

 and it is, of course, much more economical. 

 When the melter is full it is rather heavy, so 

 a good strong support is needed. We use 

 strap iron on edge, as shown, '4 inch thick, 

 and '4 inch wide. 



THE LATE W. BROUGHTON CARR. 

 His Life and Work. 



BV THOS. \VM. COWAN. 



[A short time auo we published a brief announce- 

 ment of the death of the late W. B. Carr, assistant ed- 

 itor of the British Bee Journal, and the inventor of the 

 " \V. B.C." hive and frame used so extensively in 

 Enirland. As .Mr. Carr was one of the leadintr author- 

 ities on bees in Entrland, one who has certainly left 

 his impress on the industry, we wrote to Mr. Thos. 

 Wm. Cowan, his associate on the British Bee Journal. 

 for a more extended sketch. This he very kindly con- 

 sented to irive. and we take pleasure in presentintr it 

 herewith. Later on we will give illustrations of the 

 '■\V. B. C." hive, with his special spacintr-device as 

 applied to the frame.— Ed. ; 



Mr. W. Broughton Carr was born in Feb- 

 ruary, 18.'^(), and was, therefore, just 7;^ years 

 of age when he died. He came of an old 

 stock of grazing farmers and cattle-breeders 

 in Yorksnire. He was apprenticed in \H^\ 

 to the trade of copper-{)late engraving in 

 Liverpool, and carried on the business in that 

 citv for 2H vears before he came to London 

 in ISIKJ to join the editorial staff of the Brit- 

 ish Bcc Journal. In 1861 he married; and two 

 years afterward, his business being of a sed- 

 entary nature, he resolved to live in the fresh 

 air of the country, and took up his residence 

 in Cheshire. Here at intervals, between bus- 

 iness, he entered into rural pursuits. It was 

 in ISHli that he first became interested in 

 bees, through reariing an article about them 

 in Cfuimhcr.s' Information for t/ie People, and 

 became fascinated with the idea of becoming 

 a bee-keeper himself. It is amusinf^ to read 

 the graphic description given by himself in 

 the Record for December, ISSi), of how he 

 first became possessed of a swarm. He had 



THE LATE W. BROUGHTON CARR. 



never seen a swarm before that time, and 

 took eight hotirs, with the help of a young 

 Swede, who was supposed to know some- 

 thing about bees, to hive these bees into a 

 straw skep. He thought surely there must 

 be a more expeditious way of hiving a swarm, 

 and therefore read all he could about bees 

 in the works of Huber, Bevan, Woodbury, 

 and Langstroth, with the result that ultimate- 

 ly he became a successful bee-keeper. He 

 then moved further into the country on ac- 

 count of the bees, and settled at Higher Be- 

 bington, where he ke|)t from twenty to forty 

 stocks of bees. He tried various hives with 

 both shallow and deep frames, finally adopt- 

 ing, in 1887, the one that now goes by the 

 name of the "W. B. C." hive, and which is 

 more generally used in this country than any 

 other. The hive takes the standard frame of 

 which Mr. Carr was a strenuous advocate 

 from the very first. His district being good 

 for extracted lioney he worked principally 

 for that, and advocated shallow-frame supers 

 for the purpose, six inches deep, in prefer- 

 ence to the standard frames used at that 

 time. He also introduced the use of the eke 

 to the frame hive, which, placed below the 

 hive during winter, gave the bees a three- 

 inch space under the frames. This eke put 

 under a shallow super is just right to make 



