232 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



combs in after uncapping-. If placed 

 on top of two upper stories, it is about 

 the rig-ht heig^ht. 



A RACK FOR HOLDING UNCAPPED COMBS 



In place of this upper story for hold- 

 ing the combs of honey after they are 

 uncapped, it may be well to describe 

 an arrang-ement that we are having- 

 made for this purpose. Imagine a hive 

 body 20 inches wide, without sides, 

 with legs at each corner, made of ^x3 

 inch strips nailed on the outside of the 

 ends, even with the top, and long 

 enough so as to make it the right height 

 for convenience. We are making the 

 legs of ours a little long, and they will 

 be sawed off at the bottom when we 

 find the length we want them. The 

 ends, instead of being solid boards, 

 will be made of strips two inches wide, 

 twenty inches long and seven-eighths 

 of an inch thick, without rabbets ; then, 

 down on the legs, eleven inches from 

 the top, will be nailed more of the 

 strips, and, on top of these strips, four 

 more will be nailed, at equal distances 

 apart. These last are to set the drip- 

 ping pan on. More braces can be nail- 

 ed on lower down if necessary. Now 

 we have a box, without sides, 18 '4x20 

 inches and ten inches deep, furnished 

 with legs. 



We now go to the tinsmith and have 

 him make a dripping pan 19x20 inches 

 in size, one or two inches deep, with 

 an inch hole in the middle of the bot- 

 tom, into which is soldered an inch- 

 spout, projecting downwards, beneath 

 which a pail is to be set. 



UNCAPPING ONE SIDE OF A COMB AT 

 ONE CLIP. 



We now see that the Bingham uncap- 

 ping knife is sharp; take a frame of 

 honey with both hands in the usual 

 way, place it on end, resting it upon 

 the two sticks above the uncapping 

 tank. With the left hand near the top, 

 the frame is held in a convenient posi- 

 tion until we get our knife started at 

 the bottom end. We start in clear 



across the comb, as we expect to un - 

 cap at least 90 per cent, of it the first 

 time over. We hold the knife so the 

 bevel on the under side is in line with 

 the comb. This will throw the lower 

 edge of the knife ofif, away from the 

 comb, nearl)'^ an inch. Now, as we 

 start up, drawing the knife slightly 

 endwise, we begin to push the top of 

 the comb to the right, until it stands 

 perpendicular. We go clear through 

 the whole length of the comb at one 

 cut. If we do a good job, the uncap- 

 ping will be done, except some spots 

 in an uneven comb, as a little along 

 the bottom bar. If the comb is held 

 right, and the knife likewise, as has 

 been explained, the uncappings will 

 not touch the comb after being cut off, 

 but will go direct into the tank below; 

 and a few touches here and there fin- 

 ishes the work. 



ADVANTAGE OF THICK COMBS. 



If you have followed us thus far, 

 you will remember we use only eight 

 combs in a ten-frame upper story. 

 This is about 1 ^-inch spacing. With 

 this wide spacing we get great, fat 

 combs of honeys and then we run our 

 uncapping knife deep, cutting the comb 

 clear down even with the frame, and 

 there are hardly ever any combs so 

 uneven but what the knife will uncap 

 them the first time over. This makes 

 it possible to uncap much faster, and 

 there are less combs to handle. I do 

 not think it would be putting it too 

 strong to say that two, ten-frame upper 

 stories, with eight combs in, can be 

 uncapped as quickly as one with ten 

 combs in; and then the eight frames 

 can be extracted in one-fifth less time. 

 Besides this we get a good deal more 

 wax; and I can not see as it costs 

 anything extra, this drawing out of 

 the combs each year. I can not con- 

 ceive of a more puttering job, then try- 

 ing to uncap narrow-spaced combs 

 with thick top-bars. Before we began 

 to use wide-spacing in the upper stor- 

 ies, it took two of us most of the time 



