818 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



boards, so made of thin lumber as to compel 

 the bees to go up into the super from the 

 sides of the brood-box, and thus prevent 

 their carrying up dirty wax from below when 

 finishing sections above old combs. Among 

 appliances I would include a good honey-ex- 

 tractor, as there is always more or less hon- 

 ey that should be extracted as unfinished 

 sections, etc. 



I have always made my own extractors; 

 but were I beginning anew I would buy a 

 first-class machine. A four- comb Cowan 

 will do the work very satisfactorily. 



Another appliance I would get as soon as 

 I had a few hives of bees; and that is, a good 

 wax-extractor. I made one of these a few 

 years ago, and am surprised at the amount 

 of wax they save; but after using it I was 

 chagrined to find out how many hundred 

 pounds of wax I had lost for lack of a good 

 press. I find my old combs average ^ lb. of 

 wax for each Langstroth frame emptied. 



I have never used drone traps and that 

 sort of thing, believing it much easier and 

 more economical to reduce the drone comb 

 in a hive, or cut off the heads of drones be- 

 fore they hatch than to rear great broods 

 of them and then catch and kill thtm after- 

 ward. 



Whether few or many colonies are kept, 

 I should want some conveniences for rearing 

 queens so as to rear them from my best col- 

 onies, both for the pleasure and profit. 



There is another matter I should speak of 



before closing; and that is, that whether 

 hives, frames, supers, sections, etc., are 

 made at home with a Barnes saw or at a 

 near-by factory or by a manufacturer of 

 bee-supplies, I would have them made as ac- 

 curately as possible, with good machinery 

 and by equally good mechanics. Few things 

 are more provoking and irritating than ill- 

 fitting hive fixtures. If you set a brood- 

 chamber on a smooth level table or fioor, 

 and have it stand on one end and side and have 

 the other end and side rise from the floor till 

 one corner rises from i to i inch, it makts 

 it unfit for use. 



Unless the supers are nroperly made they 

 too will be "on the wind," and putting the 

 two together leaves a space large enough 

 for bees to fill with propolis, or robbers to 

 enter in some unguarded moment, and, be 

 fore you are aware, ruin, perhaps, your best 

 stock. 



I would not stand a variation of more than 

 ;/o of an inch from the right size, and that 

 would be just s-- too much. 



I am not sure whether I would order from 

 supply- dealers or not, as I have sometimes 

 received samples I would not use if thfy 

 were given me, but rather order a single 

 sample, and, if it pleased me, and could be 

 duplicated with sufficient accuracy, order of 

 them; othewise get what I wanted near 

 home, where I could oversee the work, and 

 have it done right. 



Middlebury, Vt. 



FIG. 4.— THE TRANSFERRED BEE- YARD. 



