JULY 15, 1916 



597 



eased with American foul brood it is a good 

 plan to use such a colony for cleaning the 

 cappings, for the disease exists in the 

 combs anyway, and it can be treated in tha 

 late fall after the work is over. The combs 

 above the excluder may be combs that have 

 been above an excluder over a diseased 

 colony, so nothing is wasted. 



The box may be any size to fit require- 

 ments, but one should be careful to get it 

 large enough. I used the plan last season 

 with a small box, and it worked so well 

 that I feel safe in recommending beekeep- 

 ers to use a large one. My new box is 4 

 feet square and 3 deep. 



One would naturally ask what is to pre- 

 vent honey dripping from the wet cappings 

 above the screen down on to dry cappings 

 below? I have had no such trouble, because 

 I chop up my cappings at the end of the 

 day and allow tliem to drain all night in the 

 uncapping-tank, so that by morning there 

 is not enough honey left in them to drip. 



Furthermore, the bees take all the drip that 

 comes their way before it has a chance to 

 fall down on the dry cappings. I have had 

 colonies that would take 30 pounds of 

 syrup from a feeder in one night, so I feel 

 confident that one colony will take all of 

 the driji from my large box. 



The galvanized screen that the cappings 

 rest on should be % or V2 inch mesh. The 

 bees, being on the under side of the sci'een, 

 stick their tongues in between the chopped- 

 up pieces of cappings and take out all the 

 honey they can reach.- Then I suppose they 

 clear away the dry particles so as to reach 

 the honey further in. At any rate the dry 

 cappings fall to the bottom of the box. 



I use a glass tube to connect the hive with 

 the cleaning-box. This causes the bees to 

 enter the box quickly, and also enables them 

 to find their way back into the hive readily, 

 as the tube permits a little light to get into 

 the box. 



Woodbridge, Ont. 



LET THE BEES DO THE WORK 



A Plan for Cleaning Honey from Combs after Extracting, or from Partly Filled 

 Sections. A New Way of Finishing them 



BY G. A. DEADMAN 



Before putting away our extracting- 

 combs in the fall or at the close of the 

 honey harvest we much prefer having them 

 clear of honey, as they are certainly nicer 

 to handle, apart from the possible souring 

 of honey adhering to the cells when put 

 away direct from the extractor. 



There are different ways' of doing this. 

 The common way, probably, is to place 

 them indiscriminately on the hives. Apart 

 from the possibility of having a cluster of 

 bees in the super next the brood, which havi' 

 to be gotten rid of when removing, there is 

 more danger of spreading disease that may 

 exist in the apiary. I am inclined to the 

 belief that the little honey in each super is 

 as good as lost when divided up among so 

 many. It does more harm by the excite- 

 ment caused than good. 



The plan we have been using for many 

 years, and described at the Ontario bee- 

 keepers' convention in Toronto, is as fol- 

 lows: 



A stand or platform is made that Avill be 

 large enough, not only for the colony of 

 bees that is to do the cleaning up, but for 

 five tiers of supers; viz., one tier on each of 

 the four corners and one directly behind 

 this colony. This stand should be large 

 enough so that, when the supers are in 

 place, there will be sufficient space between 



each tier of suiters to allow the covers to be 

 placed on each tier. This space between the 

 tier is covered so that no bees can enter 

 from without. It is better to allow a little 

 extra, so if the stand should sag somewhat 

 in the center there will still be room enough 

 for the covers. As will be seen in the illus- 

 trations a lath is nailed around the outer 

 part of the bottom of this platform on 

 which to rest the supers. A piece of lath 

 two inches or so long is also nailed in the 

 center corners for this same purpose. Now, 

 when the hive containing the colony of bees 

 is in place there will be a bee-space below, 

 giving access to every super in each tier. 



When making this platform, which, of 

 course, varies in size, depending upon the 

 size of the frame you use, a simple plan is 

 to take an empty hive which is to represent 

 the colony that does the cleaning up, and 

 place it on a level place or floor. Next 

 place a super on each side of it, one at each 

 back corner, and one behind. Put covers 

 on each, and allow half an inch or more 

 between them. The spaee between the hive 

 and supers is the width of the strip you 

 will require to go between, which rests on 

 the lath that provides the bee-space below. 

 Now you can either m.ake the platform a 

 little larger and nail on a strip to keep the 

 supers in place, or can make it the same 



