1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



759 



ANOTHER TUB FOR UNCAPPING; HOW TO 

 MAKE, ETC. 



Ever since I saw and read about the 

 Starkey uncapping-- frame holdei , Jan. 15, 

 I have been thinkint,^ of giving- you a de- 

 scription of the one that I use, for I think 

 it beats any other that I have ever seen. 

 To make it, take a common new wash-tub; 

 put a faucet in near the bottom to draw off 

 the dripping's. Make a frame of slats about 

 one inch by half an inch thick, the cross- 

 pieces about one inch thick so as to give at 

 least an inch of space for honey that has 

 dripped through. The frame is for cap- 



^^^S FOR HOLD,^^ 



pings lo fall on to. Next get one wide 

 board that will cover more than half the 

 top of the tub, then a narrower one. Cut 

 them round and large enough so that the 

 two side bj' side will more than cover the 

 top of the tub. Screw the narrowest one on 

 to the top of the tub; call that the back side 

 of the tub, for j'ou want your faucet in the 

 front. Attach the wide top board to the 

 other top board, where the two boards come 

 togethf r, with hinges. Take another hinge 

 and attach a shoit stick to the top of the 

 back top board. Make notches in the top 

 of the wide top board for the prop to catch 

 in. When you have a prop just the right 

 length to let the wide board lean back at 

 the right slope to suit you, lay an L. 

 frame on the slanting board which is up 

 when laid back against the prop. Now 

 you can see just where to nail or screw on 

 a couple of blocks to hang the frame on. 

 The slanting board serves as a lid to the 

 tub when not in use, and as a rest to hang 

 a frame of honey on when opened back. 



When all is readj' I take my honey knife 

 in my right hand, start at the top right- 

 hand corner; run across to the other end of 

 top bar down across the end; then cut up 

 and down as I come back to where I start- 

 ed, and one side is very nearly all oft"; the 

 cappings drop on to the grate in the tub, 

 and are draining while I am working. 

 Then I draw off a bucket occasionally from 



the tub; and when the tub gets full of cap- 

 pings I have a large barrel handy that is 

 coated on the inside with paraffine. Into 

 this I dump the cappings until I have spare 

 time to render the wax out. You can tell 

 what size of tub you want by measuring 

 with the frame that you want to use, so that 

 all the drippings will fall into the tub. Of 

 course, when one side is uncapped the 

 frame has to be turned over; but I would 

 rather do that than to have something that 

 I would have to hold on to with my left 

 hand all the time. J. M. Woodhouse. 

 Durango, Iowa, March 28. 



BROOD-FRAMES WITH THINNER TOP-BARS. 



THE MATING OF QUEENS ; ARE THEY 



FOLLOWED BY SWARMS OF DRONES ? 



If you can make brood -frames as men- 

 tioned in your footnote to Mr. S. T. Pettit's 

 article, p. 645, by all means let's have 

 them. I, for one, do not like the Js square 

 top-bar. A bar '2 inch thick will never 

 sag; then they are lighter, and ought to be 

 cheaper, and perhaps freight would be a 

 little less, all of which counts. I should 

 like a little information. I find (through 

 bee literature) that there is an idea among 

 bee-keepers that a whole crowd of drones 

 gets after a queen when she takes her wed- 

 ding flight. Wh}' is this? 1 had always 

 supposed she mated with the first one she 

 happened to meet. If there is a race after 

 her, the drones from black bees must bede 

 cidedly swifter than those from the Ital- 

 ians, judging from the number of mismated 

 queens we have. 



My bees are doing the best this year of 

 any since I have been keeping them. Some 

 have almost finished their second super, 

 and cotton is just beginning to yield. 

 Never before have I got any thing only from 

 cotton. L. C. Rousseau. 



Waxahachie, Tex., July 12. 



[There have been many reports to show 

 that c rones fl v in schools during the middle 

 of the day. When a queen sallies forth 

 the}' are attracted at once, and then there 

 is a race — the survival of the fittest — with 

 the result that the strongest is the success- 

 ful suitor. But I should question very much 

 whether the black drones were the strong- 

 er. There are probrbly more of them in 

 your vicinity than you suppose, notwith- 

 standing the Italian drones are so plentiful 

 in your yard. — Ed.] 



DISCOURAGING FOR CANADA, 



In Canada the winter has been the most 

 disastrous known to bee keepers during my 

 24 years of bee-keeping. Almost without 

 exception bees wintered outside came 

 through in a verj' much weakened condi- 

 tion, and with the death of many stocks 

 Even those wintered in the cellar did not 

 fare as well as usual, owing to low outside 

 temperature; the cellar temperature was 

 lower. The bees consumed more honey 



On the summer stands, owing to the cold 



