GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. 15. 



hinged on the other corner. These boxes open 

 or swing outward and back against the front 

 wheels, and are the borses' feed-boxes when in 

 camp, and places for a wrench, grease-box, hal- 

 ter, or any thing we wish to carry there when 

 traveling. 



You will wish to know why those side-boards 

 are scalloped so. The box is 4 feet wide— just 

 as wide as I thought I dared noake it, so that 

 mud and trash would not roll up and clog on 

 the wheels. Being so wide it was necessary 

 to have a " cut-under," somewhat like an ex- 

 press or delivery wagon in the city, else I could 

 not have turned in a 20-acre field. I did not 

 want a raised bottom up under the seat, as we 

 often see in family carriages, preferring to have 

 a smooth bottom from end to end; so 1 cut un- 

 der only part way across, making the floor be- 

 tween the froQt wheels in an oblong circular 

 form. The box directly between the fore wheels 

 is just as wide as any part; but back and for- 

 ward of the axle it is rounded in to allow the 

 wagon to turn in a reasonable space. The cir- 

 cular part of the side is made of ^ inch sheet 

 iron, back of the wheel being bent at a right 

 angle, and reaching out to the side board. 

 That scalloped board laps back over the lower 

 side-board, and is plated to it, and also has the 

 sheet iron fastened to it right between the 

 wheels, thus securing against any sag in the 

 box which would otherwise occur. 



That door in the back is hinged in the center 

 of the end, hence, when open, it lies against the 

 closed half. Just inside the closed half, and 

 built against the back from floor to roof, is a 

 cupboard with shelves and drawers. This 

 makes it so that one may reach it from either 

 outside or inside. Just forward of the cup- 

 board, and almost to the hind axle, is an open 

 space, to be used as needed. From the hind 

 axle to the cut-under back of the front wheels, 

 is a bed-spring and mattress. The bed is up 

 about 16 inches from the floor, on a sort of hing- 

 ed frame of slats, so arranged that the whole 

 thing can be turned up against one wail and 

 strapped there. The bed, being up so high, 

 gives a lot of room under for boxes or luggage. 

 The bed comes plump forward against the back 

 of the seat. The seat is laid across the bench 

 formed on either side by the cut-under, and the 

 seat-back is reversible like car-seats, and at 

 night the back is reversed or thrown forward, 

 forming a little bed for the baby, just at our 

 heads. 



The empty wagon weighs 800 lbs. Our load, 

 including ourselves, was 1000 to 12CX) pounds. 

 The wagon rides so easily that my wife says 

 she would rather ride in it than in any buggy 

 or carriage she was ever in. 



I have given quite a long description of the 

 construction of the wagon, and its arrangement 

 for traveling; and now I want to speak of its 

 use as an 



APIARIAN WAGON. 



For two or three years I have had some ideas 

 in regard to getting off honey and getting the 

 bees out rapidly. Gleanings readers who 

 have also been reading the Review and Pro- 

 gressive will remember that I have written 

 somewhat of the bee-escape. I was not then 

 and am not yet satisfied with the work of the 

 escape, they being too slow. I know that the 

 man who has only a few colonies for pleasure, 

 home honey, or even for prjflt, but in a small 

 way, may find the escape a very handy appli- 

 ance; but the man who makes the bee-business 

 a specialty and his dependence, especially if he 

 is producing extracted honey, can not afford to 

 wait for the action of the e-cape as now used. 

 Extracting-supers must be off and extracted 

 before cold. 



The plan I have had in mind for outapiaries 

 is to have a wagon that can be closed bee-tight, 

 wire-screen door or window, or even a cone 

 outlet so arranged that bees would find it easily. 

 Drive the wagon into or near the apiary; and 

 as fast as honey can be removed from hives, 

 put it into the wagon, and allow the bees to 

 escape while I continue my work removing 

 honey or otherwise. I thought that this would 

 beat the escape, and prove a very good thing. 

 The wagon would be a fine place to keep every 

 bit of honey from the bees where no house was 

 at the apiary. 



Let me tell why I thought this plan better 

 than the escape. I have found by repeated ex- 

 perience, that, if a super be removed and !>tood 

 on end near the hive— say a foot or more from 

 it— the bees would rapidly leave it, except a 

 few of the very young. This I have done— not 

 once only, but at least 75 or 100 times. The bees 

 would often leave a super in 15 or 20 minutes, 

 and, in the majority of cases, in less than two 

 hours. The same thing occurs if the super be 

 placed in a room before a window so that the 

 bees pass out through an escape at the top of 

 the window. This I know by an experience of 

 several years, ana in the production of many 

 tons of honey. From beginning to end I can 

 remove and extract honey much more rapidly 

 by carrying into a room to let the bees out than 

 by an escape. 



My experience with the wagon has been very 

 limited; but here is what I did with the wagon 

 here illustrated and described. Last August, 

 just before we starttsd on our trip, I had a few 

 full extracting-extras and a whole lot of partly 

 filled ones to remove at two out- apiaries, and 

 bring home two and thr-^e miles. This was 

 after the flow was over, and about the worst 

 kind of time for robbing. I drove the wagon 

 into the apiary close on one side. Myself and 

 an assistant began removing the extras. I 

 would take the cover off, at the same time ap- 

 plying the smoke, managing the smoke so as to 

 start the bees down, and closely following them 



