470 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



be reopened since I said it must close in the 

 previous issue of Gleanings; but as Doolittle 

 received a shower of hot shot, and as there 

 was almost no one to defend him, I think it 

 no more than fair that I should print the fore- 

 going, especially as I believe it explains who 

 is responsible in the first place. In doing so I 

 do not in any sense indorse the practice 

 spoken of, whether by the producer or bee- 

 keeper. In speaking of Doolittle, another 

 correspondent, in a private letter, writes : 

 " Doolittle, in an unguarded moment, made 

 the statement that the horse was 16 feet high, 

 and being afflicted, like the most of us, with a 

 quality better known as stubbornness, still 

 sticks to his original statement. Now, not- 

 withstanding all this, I like him. He is not 

 at all what his name indicates. If he has 

 any thing to say, he says it ; and if he has 

 an)' thing to do, he does it. These are quali- 

 ties that make up representative men. I 

 should like to meet him, as well as the other 

 prominent bee-keepers whom I know only 

 through the bee-journals." — Ed.] 



ONE WAY OF UNCAPPING. 



How the Operation is Performed in the Apiaries of 



one of the Most Extensive Bee-keepers in the 



World; the Nuisance of Staples and Other 



Metal Spacers on Frames during the 



Uncapping Operation. 



BY HARRY S. HOWE. 



Mr. Editor: — The task you have set for me 

 is a rather hard one. It is very much easier 

 to show how to uncap than to tell how, and 

 showing does not always make it clear to the 

 beginner. 



It has fallen to my lot to try to teach several 

 "greenhorns" to use the uncapping-knife. 

 Some of them would "catch on" at once; 

 others never did, nor do I think they ever 

 would, even if they cut up all the comb in 

 three counties. 



When Mr. Coggshall and I work together 

 he usually "takes off" while I uncap and 

 extract — not so much because I can extract 

 faster than he can, as it is because he can 

 " take off " faster than I can. When I go out 

 with a green hand, the object is to make his 

 day's work bring the best returns. Working 

 upon this theory it does not pay to have the 

 green man uncap — at least not to any great 

 extent. 



There are few pieces of work among the 

 bees where an expert will beat a beginner by 

 a larger per cent than he will in uncapping, 

 which seems to call for more of the " slight of 

 hand ' ' than the other work ; yet the motion 

 of using the knife, like the motion used to 

 jerk the bees off the combs, once learned, 

 seems so easy that one wonders why every 

 one can not do as well at it. So much for the 

 preamble; now for the machinery. 



All of my honey-houses are arranged on the 

 same plan as nearly as possible. This plan is 

 arranged so that the work may be done with 

 as few motions and as little work as possible. 



Some people seem to work just for the fun of 

 it. I don't. Results are what pay the bills. 



The filled frames in the carry-alls are placed 

 on the stand, facing the operator. We will 

 assume that the honey is all capped — that 

 is, that all the combs have some capped honey 

 in them, ranging from the outside combs with 

 just a strip in the middle to combs that are 

 capped all over. The operator picks up the 

 first one by the top-bar, and places it on the 

 rest to the capping-can. The frame is stood 

 on one of the staples that are driven into the 

 end of the bottom-bar, and grasped by the 

 opposite end of the top-bar in such a way that 

 it may be put in any position; and when one 

 side is cut off it is whirled around the other 

 side to, without having to be lifted. 



Commencing at the bottom, the cappings 

 are cut with a quick drawing or slightly saw- 

 ing motion. About two sweeps lengthwise of 

 the frame will usually clean a side. Then a 

 slight twist whirls the comb around ready for 

 the other side. As the last cut is made, the 

 comb is brought down to a horizontal position 

 ready to go into the extractor. All of my 

 extractors take the frames in a horizontal 

 position. When the combs are uneven, of 

 course it takes some extra digging with the 

 point of the knife to clean them. After they 

 have been through the extractor a few times 

 they will be level. Where the combs are only 

 partially capped, one sweep of the knife does it. 



To cut nicely, give the knife a slight draw- 

 ing motion, about as a barber uses a razor. 

 Once in a while one strikes a batch that will 

 not cut nicely; then smaller cuts and more of 

 them are required. 



After trying all kinds of capping-knives I 

 have come to use only the Bingham, princi- 

 pally because they seem to stand better. To 

 do good work the knife must be kept very 

 sharp. I always use the knife cold, washing 

 it off only once in a while to sharpen it on a 

 fine grained stone. 



Wire staples for self-spacers and all that 

 sort of thing cost more time in uncapping 

 than they save in spacing, especially where 

 only nine frames are used in a ten-frame super. 



I uncap only as fast as the combs are ex- 

 tracted, and once in a while not so fast as the 

 extractor could be run. 



Uncapping is the most disagreeable part of 

 bee work to me, perhaps because it can not be 

 rushed. When the combs are all capped I 

 can not cut off the cappings as fast as a good 

 man can take off or extract, and it does not 

 pay to have two men stand and wait for one. 

 As a result 1 have given considerable thought 

 to rapid methods of uncapping. My last 

 capping-can is a 14qt. tin pail with a deep 

 dishpan punched full of holes that will just 

 go down into it. Across the top of the dish- 

 pan is a strip of wood three inches wide to 

 rest the frame on while working. The whole 

 outfit is put on a stand that brings it up just 

 so a man can stand up to work. 



There are several other styles of can that 

 are equally good. 



One thing to be considered is, how thick a 

 shaving to take off. This depends upon the 

 state of the honey. When it is cold, just tak- 



