130 BEEHIVES AND BEE KEEPERS' APPLIANCES. 



About f in. of the sides will project beyond the 

 limits of the netting this, in the wider pair, 

 should be turned over, and a short bit of wire put 

 in it to afford a hold when drawing out the 

 baskets. In the narrower pair some may be 

 clipped off, and about \ in. turned down, so as to 

 have a nice round edge at the top. 



To use these baskets, the comb is uncapped at 

 both sides and laid on one half of the basket ; the 

 other half is then placed over the first, which it 

 fits, like the lid of a pasteboard box, and the 

 entire basket and comb is slipped down the slides 

 of the extractor, another comb being put into the 

 other basket and slides. The whole is then 

 whirled rapidly until the honey from one side of 

 the comb is extracted ; the baskets are then with- 

 drawn, and the other sides of the combs turned 

 outwards arid extracted in like manner. 



It is unfortunate that a hole must be cut out 

 of the end of each half of the comb basket, 

 so as to let the long top bar of the frames pass 

 through. This could be avoided, however, by 

 making slides and baskets an inch or so longer. 



The spindle is not made until its exact 

 length is known (not until the case is made) yet 

 it is convenient here to describe its construction. 

 Any one of three kinds of spindle may be used ; 

 the most workmanlike would probably be J-in. 

 round iron or steel, tinned all over, or covered 

 with tinplate soldered on, or it might be a tinplate 

 tube, though this is nob recommended. In any 

 case, it passes through the bridges at their middle 

 points, or nearly so, in such a position as to make 

 the cages revolve truly and evenly. The lower 

 end is brought to a long cone, and works in metal 

 bearings soldered to the centre of the bottom of 

 the can. The top of the spindle takes either a 

 cranked handle or a toothed pinion, with which 

 it is driven. The tops of the cages should be 2 in. 

 lower than the top of the can. 



