Vol. X 



NOVEMBER, 1900 



No. 11 



THE OCTOBER BEE-KEEPER. 



Emphasizing the Good Things in the 

 Last Number. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



LEGS CUT OFF WITH A SAW. 



NOW, don't think some great cat- 

 astrophe has happened to some 

 poor, unfortunate human being, 

 or that even one of our pet queen bees 

 had her legs amputated when her owner 

 was trying to clip her wings, for 

 nothing of the kind has happened. No. 

 no! The kind of leg cutting which we 

 are about to emphasize is something 

 which will please everybody who tries 

 it. Did the reader notice, on page 184, 

 how friend Greiner cuts off the "legs'" 

 or brace-combs from the separator with 

 a thin-bladed compass saw? If not, go 

 right back to that page and read the 

 matter over again till it is thoroughly 

 stamped in the memory. It seerae so 

 very funny that so many little things 

 slip by us writers for years, we think- 

 ing that everybody must know of these 

 little "tricks of the trade," and so do 

 not speak about them. Almost ever 

 since I can remember I have been in the 

 habit of setting the tilled supers up on 

 end so turned that the sun could shine 

 in between the sections, so as to tell me 

 what proportion of the sections was 

 completed at the bottom, and to see if 

 any of the combs were attached to the 

 separators; but never thought of speak- 

 ing of the matter till I saw it in print 



(I think in TJie Review) a short time ago. 

 I then saw that I could have told long, 

 long years ago what might have been of 

 help to the fraternity, but had not 

 thought to do so. Then, like Brother 

 Greiner, I was not pleased witli the way 

 the knife had of crowding the brace- 

 combs into the honey while detaching 

 them from the separators, so conceived 

 the idea of taking an old long-bladed, 

 very thin bread-knife, and hurriedly 

 passing it over a coarse rasp, thus giv- 

 ing it what is called a very coarse sickle 

 edge which, if made coarse enough, 

 amounts to the same thing as a saw. 

 The bread-knife has the advantage over 

 the saw, in its being very much thinner. 

 But 1 had never thought to say a word 

 about this way of fixing a knife. Thanks, 

 Bro. Gi'einer, for calling attention to 

 the matter of these brace-combs a sec- 

 ond time and of being the first to tell 

 about the saw for removing "legs" of 

 comb. 



NONE BUT AN EXPERT. 



But there is an item on page. 184 that 

 1 wish to emphasize the other way from 

 what Bro. Greiner puts it. He says, "I 

 find it impracticable to impart my ideas 

 about this matter (grading honey) to 

 anyone not an expert."' Here is son?e- 

 thing I cannot understand. Will Bro. 

 Greiner please tell us how any one is to 

 become! an expert at grading honey if 

 nobody will ever tell him of such things 

 because he is a novice, or inexpiuMenced. 

 as Greiner .puts it? I do not think it 



