186 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



was from the single-story colonies. The dou- 

 ble and triple deckers kept right on minding 

 their business. Perhaps you add, " How do 

 you know the_y did not swarm ? '" In the first 

 place, I visited them often; and if there had 

 been any con.siderable reduction in strength 

 in any of these colonies, I am quite certain I 

 should have known it. In the second place, 

 the wings of the queens were clipped, or, if 

 not clipped, perforated zinc was placed over 

 the entrance. As the original queens were 

 with the big colonies at the close of the sea- 

 son, I am positive they did not swarm. 



I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that 

 the best solution of non-swarming at out-yards 

 is rousing big colonies and unlimited room for 

 the queen to lay in the brood-combs. 



But in order to get comb honey we shall have 

 to unlearn some of our old notions, and adapt 

 ourselves to new ones, I suspect. I should 

 very much like to hear from those who have 

 had experience " along these lines, "as Doo- 

 little would say. 



THE SEE-SAW SECTION-CLEANER. 

 On page 100 I said that I had a machine (in 

 mv head ) that embodied all the good points 

 of the other machines illustrated in our col- 

 umns, and that (in my head) it would clean 



As the usual forms of foot power of contin- 

 uous motion are somewhat expensive, I make 

 use of the principle adopted by our forefa- 

 thers in their old-fashioned turning-lathes. A 

 spiral spring is attached to the ceiling over- 



faster and better than either. Our departments 

 have been so very nuich rushed with orders 

 for regular goods that our men have not found 

 time to carry out my idea, but I finallj- had our 

 artist put it on paper, and here it is. 



It is almost self-explanatory. A shaft is 

 mounted in two boxes, and on the end of the 

 shaft is a flange. To this flange is secured a 

 wooden wheel. On the face of the wheel is a 

 circular piece of sandpaper held in position bj^ 

 an iron band that binds the sandpaper around 

 the periphery of the wheel. The view at the 

 top of the next column shows the section just 

 before the sand-wheel, and also how the sand- 

 paper is secured by the band. 



head. To this is attached a stoiit cord which 

 winds around the shaft of the mandrel a few 

 times. Another cord, running spirally around 

 the shaft in the opposite direction, is attached 

 to a foot lever. The pressure of the foot un- 

 winds one cord and winds up the other, caus- 

 ing rapid rotation back and forth. The meth- 

 od of operation is simply to put the section 

 against the wheel as the disk revolves one way 

 and the other. The thought occurred to me 

 that this reciprocal motion would permit the 

 propolis to get out of the way better than if 

 the wheel revolved in one direction only. 



Later. — S:nce 

 writing the pre- 

 ceding lines I 

 have been try- 

 ing a continu- 

 ously revolving 

 disk, somewhat 

 on the plan of 

 the one shown 

 above. I was 

 agreeably sur- 

 prised, both at 

 the rapidit}' and nicety 

 of the work ; and, con- 

 trary to what I suppos- 

 ed, the sandpaper does 

 not fill up with propo- 

 lis. It might in time, 

 probably would if the wea 

 er were warm and the propc 

 lis soft. The machine that 

 tried is shown herewith 

 is the emery grinder I spoke 

 of in our last issue, and which I thought, by 

 a .slight change, would make a section-cleaner 

 for a small amount of money. In the test 

 above mentioned we removed the emery wheel 

 and in its place put a wooden wheel of larger 

 diameter, and thick enough so the nut would 

 be below the surface of the wheel. Over the 

 face was stretched s mdpaper. 



In the test I used the dirtiest sections we 

 could find, smeared with propolis, and badly 

 stained. It removed both the propolis and 

 \.\\& stain, and will beat hand scraping with a 

 knife two to one. What is of importance is, it 

 does the work so much more thoroughly. For 

 prices, see Special Notices. 



