1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



217 



tunate in securing this structure already 

 built and located just where we wanted to 

 place our bees at this point. The wood- 

 chopper was desirous of selling, because the 

 timber had been cut back so far that he ei- 

 ther had to sell or move. The partitions, 

 windows, and old doors were removed, and 

 our regular shop windows put in at each 

 side, and then a wide panel door was located 

 near one corner in the end, just to the left 

 of the extractor as it stands in the picture. 



After all the repairing was done, the in- 

 side walls were tar-papered as usual to keep 

 out robber bees. We have never been able 

 to find any other paper that the mice will 

 not gnaw, thus making it necessary to do 

 repairing each spring. The tar paper lasts 

 for years, and the only time it requires re- 

 pairing is when the building is taken down, 

 and moved and set up at a new location. 

 Then, of course, some of the paper is torn. 



In the foreground of the picture is one of 

 our Mclntyre uncapping-boxes. This tank 

 is one of the first ones purchased, and is 4 

 ft. long, 2 ft. wide, 2 ft. deep. We now buy 

 them the same width and depth, but 6 ft. 

 long, as the shorter ones do not have capac- 

 ity enough to drain the cappings thorough- 

 ly before they have to be emptied. The 

 tank is built of galvanized steel, and has a 

 honey-gate at the opposite end near the 

 bottom. 



A slatted bottom holds the cappings two 

 inches from the main bottom of the tank 

 for drainage. This is built of J^-inch-square 

 pieces running crosswise, % inch apart, and 

 nailed to two longitudinal pieces ^ X 2 inch- 



es, and yi inch shorter than the length of 

 the tank inside, so that the framework may 

 be easily lifted out to wash, etc. We build 

 these of white pine, as this is the best ma- 

 terial. 



At the top of the tank a framework is 

 built of % pine, the long pieces at either 

 side being 3 inches wide and a little longer 

 than the length of the tank, so they will 

 rest on the ends. Two cross-pieces of the 

 same material, but a little shorter than the 

 inside width of the tank, are nailed to these 

 long pieces, quite near each end, in such a 

 position that they will just fit up against the 

 ends of the tank inside. The open space 

 between these two long pieces is 18X inch- 

 es, this space being just right for a Lang- 

 stroth frame to hang as in a hive. 



The Ferguson uncapping -machine is 

 shown in position over the tank. This will 

 be discussed in a future article, as space for- 

 bids it in this. 



In order to secure good drainage of the 

 cappings, they should be chopped fine occa- 

 sionally, and spread out evenly over the 

 bottom. This should be done more partic- 

 ularly at night when the day's extracting is 

 over. Each morning, before beginning 

 another day's work, the dry cappings left 

 over from the day before are forked up to 

 one end of the tank, so that the new wet 

 cappings do not have to drain through those 

 already nearly dry. When the tank is so 

 full that good drainage is no longer possible, 

 it is emptied. For the nearly dried cap- 

 pings removed from the tank, a sugar-bar- 

 rel m prepared by boring holes in the bot- 



