GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



^ • (if sV 



Fig. 2. — Eleven colonies that produced 1320 pounds of milkweed honey in eleven days. 



read}' to load. I first close the eutrauce, 

 then fasten the bottom of the super, and 

 finally the screen, using the crate staples to 

 do this. I load the bees in the evening and 

 move them the following day. 



rig. 3 shows my wagon built especially 

 for hauling bees. Not many beekeepers use 

 sj^ring wagons, but I use no other. The 

 load shown in this illustration was drawn 

 seven miles; and when I was within a few 

 miles of my destination I was so unfortu- 

 nate as to throw from the Avagon eleven 

 colonies. I am a lover of the camera, and 

 carry one with me nearly every time, and 

 I brought it into play at once, as shown in 

 Fig. 4. This was in hard-timber stubble 

 land where the red raspberry flourishes. 



Fig. 5 shows a load of supers. A %-inch 

 rope is passed around the load a few times 

 and made fast by tying the two ends to- 

 gether. The slack is then taken up by draw- 

 ing the rope down at one point and upAvard 

 at another, forming a zig-zag line which is 

 held in place by nails driven above and be- 

 low. 



RADISH HONEY 



Ijarly in the season of 1911 I learned 

 that an agent, sent out by a seed company, 

 had contracted with the farmers in an ad- 

 joining township to gi'ow radishes for seed, 

 300 acres being grown within an area of 



nine square miles. Wishing to know wheth- 

 er the radish is a honey-plant I moved 32 

 colonies to this location. Owing to the ear- 

 ly and lale planting, the blossoming began 

 in July and continued until frost. I made 

 three visits to this apiary during the season,, 

 and each time found many bees working on 

 the radish bloom. It is a good pollen-pro- 

 ducer, but I fear it does not amount to much 

 for honey. I extracted some honey and 

 found it of good body and fair flavor, 

 though a bit spicy, and the color was light 

 cherrv red. 



Rapid City, Mich. 



DRAINING OUT MOST OF THE HONEY BEFORE 

 MELTING THE CAPPINGS 



A Combined Uncapping-box and Capping-Melter 



BY E. L. SECHRIST 



Honey, in tliis locality, granulates so 

 quickly that ca]5pings become one solid 

 mass in a very few da.ys if allowed to stand 

 and drain, so some kind of capping-melter 

 seems necessary. 



The two I have used this season were 

 very satisfactory, both being of the same 

 design, one 5 feet, the other 6 feet long. 

 Seven or eight feet might be even better if 

 there Avere space in the extracting-room for 



