December, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN 1>EE CULTURE 



749 



cept Taylor seemed to be much interested 

 in the device, and it dropped out of sight 

 entirely, altho a somewhat similar but less 

 efficient device has been used by certain 

 comb-honey producers for years. 



In regard to the speed of fastening foun- 

 dation with this device Mr. Taylor wrote as 

 follows: "With two or more boards and 

 sufficient help to put on and take off the 

 sections, one person may fill 1500 sections 

 per hour and the foundation is fastened in 

 such a manner as to leave nothing to be de- 

 sired in that respect. ' ' Perhaps many who 

 read this article thought, as I did, that the 

 printer must have made a mistake in setting 

 up these figures, adding an extra cipher on 

 the end. Fifteen hundred sections per hour 

 seemed to be entirely too great a claim for 

 such a simple apparatus when 200 per hour 

 is about all a good operator could expect to 

 do when using any of the ordinary hot-plate 

 machines, tho by using a combined machine, 

 sections can be folded and the foundation 

 fastened in them at the rate of about 200 

 sections per hour. The figures given by Mr. 

 Taylor were for fastening the foundation 

 only, the folding and liandling of the sec- 

 tions, as well as handling the foundation, 

 being done by helpers. 



Statement Stood Unchallenged 28 Years. 



Every time I have run across this article 

 in looking up references in this particular 

 volume of the Beekeepers' Eeview the state- 

 ment that one man could fasten sheets of 

 foundation in sections at the rate of 1500 

 per hour has stood out as a sort of chal- 

 lenge, but partly on the supposition that 

 there was an error in the figures I did not 

 build an apparatus to test it out until last 

 spring. The one I built improved on the de- 

 vice described by Taylor, to adapt it to pres- 

 ent-day construction of comb-honey supers, 

 the modification fortunately making much 

 greater speed possible in putting the sec- 

 tions into the supers, since they are handled 

 in groups of four instead of individually. 



The device was tried out in putting up 

 the sections for this season's crop in my 

 own apiaries, and I was greatly surprised 

 to find that without previous experience one 

 person can easily fasten foundation in the 

 sections neatly and securely at the rate of 

 1500 an hour without any special effort to 

 attain speed; but, as stated above, this does 

 not include folding the sections and putting 

 them into the supers nor the handling of 

 the foundation. The actual fastening of the 

 foundation, after all, takes much less time 

 than folding the sections, putting them into 

 the supers and piling the supers away. This 

 foundation-fastener worked out so well in 

 this season's test that it well deserves a 

 description of its construction and opera- 

 tion in this journal. 



How It Is Constructed, 



The apparatus consists of a series of 

 blocks mounted on a board, the number of 



blocks being not less than the number of 

 sections required to fill a comb-honey super. 

 Tlie lower portion or base of each block for 

 the 41/4x4^x1% sections is 3% inches 

 across the grain of the wood, 3% inches 

 with the grain of the wood, and about % 

 inch in thickness. On the upper side of 

 each block is a groove % x ^4 inch, run- 

 ning with the grain of the wood in the mid- 

 dle of the block. Another block 3%x3% 

 X ^4 inch has nailed to the lower side a 

 piece % X % inch by 3% inches, this small 

 piece being nailed in the middle of the 

 block to correspond with the groove in the 

 lower block into which it fits loosely. When 

 the upper block is in place it becomes a 

 sliding platform, the % x i/4-inch piece on 

 the under side of the upper block sliding in 

 the groove in the lower block as a guide. 

 Small pieces of tin i/4 x % inch nailed across 

 the grooves at the ends of the lower blocks 

 act as stops so that the sliding platform can 



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The blocks, each with its sliding platform, are 

 mounted on a board in a horizontal position, so 

 that the section-holders can be slipped in place over 

 the rows of sections. Three of the sliding platforms 

 in the farther row are turned over to show the con- 

 struction. 



be moved back and forth only % inch, the 

 % x 14 -inch guide being Yi inch shorter 

 than the block. 



These blocks are mounted on a board, 

 four in a row, the grooves for the sliding 

 platforms being crosswise of the row. Six 

 such rows are needed for supers for 8-frame 

 hives, seven for supers for 10-frame hives 

 when 41/4 x 4^/4 sections are used, and 

 eight rows when 4x5x1% sections are used 

 in supers for 10-frame hives. The blocks 

 are so spaced in each row that when the 

 sections are dropped in place over them, 

 they will touch each other, and the section- 

 holder or wide frame, whichever is used, 

 can be slipped in place over the four sec- 

 tions in each row. The apparatus shown in 

 the illustration was made up by fastening 



