1050 



American Hee Journal 



Dec. 27, 1906 



sible feat. What, then, is the reason 

 that such enormous difference can ex- 

 ist? And the next question is: What 

 is considered a clean and properly 

 scraped section? 

 San Diego Co., Calif. M. B. C. 



I imagine the difference in a day's 

 work is largely owing to the different 

 methods used in cleaning sections. You, 

 Mr. C, if I understand you rightly, 

 clean your sections singly, while I clean 

 the largest part of mine in the bulk, 

 or a whole superful at one time. That 

 is, I clean the tops, bottoms, and part 

 of the outside edges while the sections 

 are still in one solid block. We use 

 the T-super. which admits of dumping 

 the sections out in one solid block, 

 leaving them upside down on a board 

 or plain hive-cover. The T-tins are 

 lifted off, and the super replaced by a 

 box without top or bottom, that is, 

 it is much like the super, only it is 

 perhaps an inch longer, an inch wider, 

 and an inch shallower than a T-super, 

 the exact size not being important. A 

 piece of board is wedged into one side, 

 and another into one end. so as to 

 hold the sections solid. Now I am 

 ready to scrape. 



The best thing I have found for 

 scraping is a steel cabinet scraper, 3x6 

 inches. The bottoms of the sections 

 are first scraped, then sand-papered 

 with No. 2 sand-paper, and the edges 

 that are exposed are also scraped, as 

 it is much easier to clean them when 

 they are all wedged up tightly. A 

 board similar to the one under the 

 sections is now placed on top, and with 

 one hand under the other board, and 

 the other over the upper board, the 

 whole thing is turned over. Now the 

 tops of the sections are scraped and 

 sand-papered, as also all edges exposed. 

 Now the wedges are taken out, the 

 box removed, and the boardful of sec- 

 tions is slid along the table. I usually 

 get 5 or 6 boardfuls ready in this way, 

 then finish scraping the edges with 

 a knife, of course, taking the sections 

 separately for this purpose. But you 

 will see that this last finishing-up of 

 the edges is a small part. 



The important part is cleaning the 

 tops and bottoms, and you will easily 

 see what a great advantage there is 

 over cleaning section by section if one 

 can have a full chance at 24 at once, 

 for every sweep of the scraper takes 

 several sections. 



But there is a still greater gain in 

 another direction. When 24 sections 

 are wedged up in one solid block, 2 

 or 3 times as much strength can be put 

 into each stroke, making the work just 

 so much faster. The same amount of 

 force on a separate loose section would 

 smash it. 



Practice, of course, makes much dif- 

 ference. I have cleaned many thousand 

 sections. Dr. Miller thinks he could 

 not do half as many in a day, having 

 had little practice, and perhaps there 

 is something in his idea that a woman's 

 fingers are better fitted for the work. 



Another thing that makes a differ- 

 ence is the length of day's work. You 

 count on 4 hours' work in the forenoon 

 and the same in the afternoon. We 



don't exactly follow the plan of the 

 man who said he worked on the 8- 

 hour plan — 8 hours in the forenoon and 

 8 hours in the afternoon — but sometimes 

 we don't come so very much short of 

 it when getting the crop ready for mar- 

 ket, beginning as soon as breakfast is 

 over and stopping when daylight stops. 



No, you may rest assured that there 

 is no mistake in the figures given. 

 Neither is the work slighted, and this 

 has the reputation of being a gluey- 

 locality. Of course. I don't know how 

 much worse propolis may be ai your 

 home. From your description I thin* 

 your bees make worse work inside the 

 section than ours. Very rarely is any 

 inside cleaning needed. 



You ask what is considered a clean 

 and properly scraped section. I scrape 



until I get down to clean wood. Is 

 there any need to go deeper? 



Another point of difference is the 

 weather. You don't have as cool weath- 

 er as we do. We never get our sec- 

 tions ready for market until the weath- 

 er' is cool enough for the propolis to 

 be brittle, as a good job can scarcely 

 be done while the propolis is sticky. 

 Now say we have 'a crop of from 10,000 

 to 20,000 sections, and I alone have 

 the work to do. It would seem almost 

 hopeless if I could get ready . only 4 

 cases in one day. Our largest crops 

 have. I think, always been cleaned 

 ready for shipping inside of two weeks. 



Please try cleaning by the superful 

 as described, using the T-super, and 

 then say if you think 4 cases is a fair 

 dav's work. 



Mr /iasfyfc 



flffGrfhoudfitS 



The " Old Reliable " as seeD through New Rnd Unreliable Glasst«. 

 by E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



Size of Larva at Different Ages. 



Sure ! The importance of those little 

 paragraphs on page 877. Larva 3 days 

 old still extends only y$ the diameter 

 of the cell-bottom. Not till the fourth 

 day does it get to touch the cell-walls. 

 I needed this teaching as well as the 

 juniors. It some one had pumped me 

 on that point I should have guessed its 

 progress more rapid. 



Drones for Queen Fertilization. 



If Canada, on page 918, will look on 

 page 950 he will find one of the "whacks" 

 he was longing to have me take — against 

 the idea of devoting 10 colonies to the 

 rearing of drones and not much else. 

 Queens not fertilized by "little-behind- 

 hands," no matter how numerous they 

 may be. 



Mating Queens in the Mountains. 



It seems that not only islands and 

 deserts, but also some mountains, can 

 be utilized for the absolutely correct 

 mating of queens. Very interesting 

 trials are mentioned by C. P. Dadant, 

 on page 930. With both sexes reared 

 in the vale before going up, only 3 be- 

 came fertile out of 20. With both sexes 

 reared on the mountain, 11 became fer- 

 tile out of 13. And up there even queen- 

 less colonies killed off drones after 

 awhile. 



Starve Brood Rather than Uncap 



FIONEY. 



As weighty an authority as McEvoy 

 feels sure that bees will often starve 

 their brood rather than uncap stores if 

 they run out of unsealed honey when 

 the fields are yielding none. This is 



important, if true, and should be kept 

 in mind, at least. Page 953. 



Getting Combs Built to Bottom-Bars. 



Mr. Doolittle, after telling how to get 

 brood-combs built down to the bottom- 

 bar (putting them temporarily into a 

 super during a good honey-flow) says 

 we are rid of the nuisance of an open 

 space between comb and bar after that. 

 Seems to me that is a little too opti- 

 mistic. How long does it take the bees 

 to scrape it all open again? The clos- 

 ure might be permanent if the honey- 

 flow was permanent, and new wax be- 

 ing secreted during the entire breeding 

 season. Most of us lament that we 

 don't have that kind of a locality. It 

 takes a great deal of material to cap 

 even my 147.000 head of brood. If I 

 am right, bees have an inveterate habit 

 when no new scales are at hand, of go- 

 ing to the bottom of the comb and scrap- 

 ing up wax to use in the cappings. The 

 result is that the bottom space when 

 banished returns again in time — more 

 quickly in poor locations, probablv. Page 

 948. 



Wandering Swarms and Bee-Law- 

 Suits. 



I have a strong opinion, if not evi- 

 dence, that wandering swarms from else- 

 where often follow the lines of flight 

 which the bees of a big apian' take — and 

 on arriving at the apiary they alight near- 

 by. If this is right there is quite a shade 

 of possibility that it wasn't Morley Pet- 

 tit's bees at all that stung Mr. Lucas' 

 team to death. That jury seems to have 

 told the bee-keeper to pay $400 when 

 he had not done anything, or omitted 

 to do anything — and, further, didn't 



