DECEMBER 1, 1914 



^MAPPING A MOW OF HIVES IN PAPER 



BY E. W. FOX 



I am sending a picture of my home and 

 home ajDiary. The building furthest back is 

 the honey-house. The front of tlie house is 

 at the right, and the bees are on tlie south 

 side. The trees are cottonwood, apple, and 

 walnut. 



The hives are all super-packed for win- 



tering. Those close together in the fore- 

 ground are all ready for papering. I am 

 placing about ten colonies together like tliis, 

 and jDapering around the outside. We now 

 have an auto truck. 

 Fruitdale, S. Da. 



HOME = MADE FOUNBATION SPLINTS 



BY JACOB ALPAUGH 



[The v/riter of the following article, Mr. Jacob Alpaugh, is one of the most successful beekeepers of 

 Canada and an all-around mechanical genius ! esides — one of the few inventors who is able to devise some- 

 thing that is practical and useful. A visit to liis yard, we are told, reveals many a clever contrivance. 



We have long cherishecl the hope that we might be able to visit him some time, but the opportunity has 

 never come. We have met him a time or two at conventions, and in the course of our interviews he has 

 dropped various hints of some new device that he is using. Among others was the wooden-splint method of 

 staying up foundation, originated by Dr. C. C. Miller. His method of making as well as applying the splints 

 to "the foundation itself we consider to be good, and in response to our request to describe it he sends in 

 the following: — Ed.] 



I make my own foundation-splints, but it 

 took me a year or two to find out how to 

 make them best. I first take a block of pine 

 from one to two inches thick, and with an 

 ordinary circular saw I slice the entire block 

 into pieces a little less than 1-16 inch thick. 

 I now make another block from 30 or 40 

 of these pieces, tie a string tightly around 

 each end (back an inch from the end), dip 

 each end into glue, and let dry. The block 

 is then turned on one side and sliced again, 

 thus making 30 or 40 splints each cut. The 

 glue hokis them together and keeps them 

 from flying all over the shop ; but as soon 

 as they are dropped into hot wax they all 

 separate. 



I don't use splints as Dr. Miller does. I 

 make them so that they reach about 2-3 of 

 the way down from the top-bar. I split the 

 foundation as nearly vertical as I can, in- 

 sert the splint, let the cut come together 

 again, which practically covers up the splint 

 on both sides — no sag, no spoiled row of 

 cells by the bees in drawing out the founda- 

 tion. The foundation is split down only 

 from the tojD-bar as far as the splints reach. 



[Not fully understanding just how Mr. 

 Alpaugh inserted the splints in the slits in 

 the foundation in such a way that it would 

 be completely covered, we asked him to 

 explain a little more fully. He has done so 

 as follows. — Ed.] 



I make the cut about two-thirds the way 

 down the foundation from the top-bar of 

 the frame. I do it with a very thin-bladed 

 knife; but I make a very beveling cut by 

 holding the handle of the knife toAvard the 

 end of the frame, and as near down to the 



foundation as I can. This makes a cut that 

 will completely cover up the splint when 

 inserted, and allows the cell walls of the 

 foundation to be on both sides of the splints ; 

 hence there will be no spoiled row of cells 

 on either side of the comb when drawn out 

 by the bees (I find this very often happened 

 by the Miller plan). After pressing the 

 foundation down firmly on to the splints 

 with the ends of my fingers, I brush a little 

 hot Avax on both sides of the foundation 

 directly over each cut. This strengthens the 

 foundation and makes a perfect job. The 

 splints are not quite as long as the cuts I 

 make, so that they are easily inserted. 



[Mr. Alpaugh, among his other accom- 

 plishments, appears to be a good fisherman 

 as Avell as a hunter. While what he writes 

 further is a little out of the ordinary bee- 

 lore, it is too good not to publish, even if it 

 is a fish-story. Here is what he writes fur- 

 tjier.— Ed.] 



FISHING FOR SALMON AND TROUT. 



I left Innerkip three weeks ago on a fish- 

 ing and hunting trip. I am now at Barrow 

 Bay, Ont., 20 miles above Wiaron, on the 

 Georgian Bay. For the last two weeks I 

 have been going out with a friend of mine 

 nearly every day trawling for salmon trout ; 

 but as the wind often springs up about noon 

 and makes the water a little too rough for 

 a row-boat we pull ashore, clean our fish, 

 take them to the dealer here, as we cannot 

 eat the twentieth part of what we catch; 

 then we get our dinner and go out in the 

 afternoon for partridge or hare, which are 

 also very plentiful here — some sport, believe 

 me. I want to tell you, when a fellow gets 



