306 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



September 



tension of all wires, I "cant" tlieni 

 over between the holes on ends of 

 frames, holding the wire in place witli 

 a No. 2}4 tack. I do not hesitate to 

 proclaim being the owner and pro- 

 ducer of as perfect combs, Jumbo, 

 standard and extracting sizes, as bees 

 can make, and I am only a back lotter 

 at that. I even use 2 horizontal wires 

 in the small super frames, as I have 

 the time, the money and the dispo'si- 

 tion to have everything just right. But 

 the old "bee man" told me ''It won't 

 work; it won't work." His father 

 "kept" bees, and likewise his grand- 

 father — gums, boxes and kegs were 

 the habitations for the bees — "it won't 

 work — won't work, these new-fangled 

 traps." I said to the old "bee man :" 

 "it was not so much the house as who 

 lives in the house," would apply to 

 man, but not to bees. The old "bee 

 man" laughed at my veil and gloves ; 

 he never used them, his father didn't, 

 either; they could gather the bees up 

 by the handful (of course they got 

 stung a little, he said), and novif this 

 old "bee man" hobbles about with a 

 cane, muscles contracted and joints 

 stifif. (His father got that way, too, 

 he said) poisoned to the core by bee 

 stings. No one is a coward and a 

 fool to use a veil and gloves, rather 

 will he be wise in the end. This old 

 "bee man" came up to see my nuclei 

 yard, and I gave him a chair beside 

 the observation hive and told him 

 that the bees therein were started 

 with a 3-frame nucleus about 30 days 

 ago. I showed him how they had 

 packed the chamber with brood and 

 honey from glass to glass, with the 

 "won't work" system. "Yes," said he, 

 "I have taken a lot of that kind of 

 honey from the gums when a boy." 

 Then the old "bee man" looked out of 

 the window and saw a bunch of 

 young bees that had come out of the 

 hive to frolic and get the "bee line" 

 and he said they were working fine. 



FINDING QUEENS 



To find queens I would suggest that 

 the beginner have two pieces of 



gunny sack a little longer than the 

 hive and wide enough to cover the 

 hive and bag down two or three 

 inches on each side. Nail a strip of 

 wood on each side of the sack to 

 keep it in place. Have an empty 

 hive convenient, place the combs in 

 empty as taken from the hive, and 

 keep covered with one of the sacks 

 to keep away robbers and to keep 

 the bees from flying too much. 

 Keep the other sack over the hive, 

 rolling back as frames are removed. 

 In this way far less smoke is re- 

 quired, hence bees are quieter and 

 the queen easier to find. 



J. M. CUTTS. 

 Montgomery, Ala. 



ANOTHER NEW EXTRACTOR 



There ha's been much interest mani- 

 fested in the extractor described in 

 the December issue of this journal, 

 last year. Another machine which 

 reverses in similar manner, but which 

 is controlled from the bottom instead 

 of from the top, has been built by G. 

 W. Markle, of Brantford, Ontario. 

 The Markle machine has been in use 

 in Canada for two seasons, and one 

 of the mo'st extensive producers of 

 that region is very enthusiastic about 

 it, after extracting something like 50 

 tons of honey. 



Our first illustration shows the ex- 

 tractor with a portion of the can cut 

 away to show the inside mechanism. 

 It will be seen that the entire top of 

 the machine is clear and that all ma- 

 chinery is liuder the bottom of the 

 can. The baskets are reversed auto- 

 matically by simply pressing the foot 

 lever. When they have turned half 

 way round, thus exposing the oppo- 

 site side of the comb, they stop with- 

 out attention on the part of the op- 

 erator. The second illustration 

 shows the construction of the revers- 

 ing mechanism, and also the support 

 of the baskets. The baskets revers- 

 ing on their centers, turn so smoothly 

 and quietly that one would hardly no- 

 tice the movement, and there is much 

 less breakage of combs than is the 



case with extractors in common use. 

 There is a great saving of time since 

 it is not necessary to stop the ma- 

 chine to reverse the baskets, and they 

 can be reversed as often as desired 

 without inconvenience. 



The honey when thrown from the 

 combs falls at once into the channel, 

 which can be seen surrounding the 

 machine, and does not come into con- 

 tact with the operating mechanism. 

 The whole i's easily gleaned, since ithe 

 baskets can be lifted off their sup- 

 ports and the can removed to be 

 washed. Side braces support the 

 baskets, one fastened to each top 

 corner and extending down to oppo- 

 site corner, as clearly shown in pic- 

 ture. 



The principal oljjection to the ma- 

 chine that is so far apparent is the 

 amount of machinery necessary, 

 which makes its cost rather high. 



We believe the planetary system of 

 reversing is the correct principle, 

 and that in time it will entirely re- 

 place the old style extractors now in 

 use. Several different inventors are 

 at work along similar lines, and 

 sooner or later the ideal will be 

 reached. Mr. Markle is apparently 

 well toward the head of the proces- 

 sion at present. 



Markle's new extractor, with side of can removed to show construction, 



AN OLD LETTER ABOUT BEES 



Editor American Bee Journal: 



The enclosed letter is from White's 

 "Natural History of Selbourne," a 

 book well known, no doubt, to a 

 good many of your readers, but per- 

 haps not to all. For the benefit of 

 these latter I have taken the trouble 

 to have the letter transcribed, be- 

 lieving you would think it sufficiently 

 interesting to give it space in the 

 Journal. 



Very truly yours, 



F. X. TIDDY, 

 Brooklyn, Md. 



Letter XXVII 

 Selborne, December 12. 1775. 

 To the Honorable Daines Barring- 

 ton : 



Dear Sir : We had in this village 

 more than twenty years ago an idiot 

 boy, whom I well remember, who, 

 from a child, showed a strong propen- 

 sity to bees ; they were his food, his 

 amusement, his sole object. And as 

 people of this cast have seldom more 

 than one point of view, so this lad 

 exerted all his few faculties on this 

 one pursuit. In the winter he dozed 

 away his time, within his father's 

 house, by the fireside, in a kind of 

 torpid state, seldom departing from 

 the chimney-corner; but in the sum- 

 mer he was all alert, and in quest of 

 his game in the fields, and on sunny 

 hanks. Honeybees, bumblebees and 

 wasps were his prey wherever he 

 found them. He had no apprehen- 

 sions from their sitings, but would 

 seize them nudis manibus, and at 

 once disarm them of their weapons 

 and suck their bodies for the sake of 

 their honey-bags. Sometimes he 

 would fill his bosom between his 

 shirt and his skin with a number of 

 these captives; and sometimes would 

 confine them in bottles. He was a 

 very merops apiaster, or bee-bird; 

 and very injurious to men that kept 



