1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



UoH 



also carry that gathered from the tield to 

 the sections, this causing the immediate 

 drawing-out of the foundation in the sections, 

 other than the Ijaits. so that there is a start 

 made all along the road toward success with- 

 in one hour after the bees are shaken from 

 their brood. Here is one of the great advan- 

 tages of this plan, and one of the things 

 original with it. 



Another thing, which I see I failed to 

 mention in any of the accounts given of the 

 different visits, which I consider a great 

 help in any apiary, is shade-boards. I am 

 convin«'ed that a colony of bees will do much 

 better work where the hive stands right out 



A DOOLITTLE SHADE-BOARD. 



in the sun during the whole season, except 

 as it is shielded during the middle of the day 

 by a shade-board. I make this Ijoard of 

 half-inch lumber. 20 inches long, nailed to 

 two strips I thick by 1^ wide h\ 28 inches 

 long, covering the whole with a sheet of 

 20x28 tin. Roofing-ijaper will answer near- 

 ly as well as the tin. if kept painted. Near 

 one end of this shade- board, and before put- 

 ting on the tin, I nail, on the under side, a 

 piece of ^ stutt' 6 inches wide by 20 long, 

 nailing down through the board into the 

 edge of this twenty-inch piece. When the 

 board is on the hive, this last-nameil piece 

 rests, by its lower edge, on the back part to 

 the cover to the hive, while the cleats x'est 

 on the front part to the cover. This gives 

 this shade-board a " pitch " toward the front, 

 or south side of the hive, so it will carry off 

 all rain, shade the hive mostlj- from 10 a.m. 

 to 2 P.M. each day, and allows the air to 

 circulate freely all over and about the top of 

 the hive, so that the ])ees are never driven 

 out of the sections through exti"eme heat, as 

 is often the case where hives stand in the 

 sun without any shade, even though the 

 cover is painted white. It matters little 

 what color these shade-lwards are painted, 

 on account of the circulation of air vmder 

 them; still, where I paint hives at all 1 pre- 

 fer the color to be white. 



I feel that I ought not to close this work 

 without saying a few words regarding the 

 automobile for the apiarist, inasmuch as I 

 have mentioned it several times when telling 

 of my visits to the out-apiary. At times I 

 think the one I have (an eight-horse-power 

 single-cylinder Pierce Stanhope, and I think 

 it as good as any, or I would not have pur- 

 chased it), an expensive luxury. At other 

 times I consider it the nicest thing in the 

 world t(j travel in, lioth for pleasure and prof- 

 it; and at other times I consider it almost a 

 necessity for me in my apicultural work. 

 The time when I consider it an expensive 



luxury is when the roads are in a condition 

 not suited for its use, on account of deep 

 mud and snow, which is fully six months in 

 the year in this locality. If 1 lived in a city 

 or a country where the travel on the roads 

 did not cut them up so the mud is from three 

 inches to a foot deep, or where the snow did 

 not fall or drift fi'om one to ten feet deep, 

 this "expensive luxury" would not play 

 such an important part. Then the auto 

 could be used nearly if not quite all the 

 time, thus saving the keeping of a horse, 

 wagons, and sleighs. But as it is, I must 

 keep these in addition to the auto, at an ex- 

 pense of from $200 to • $300 a year. The 

 times when I consider it l^oth pleasurable 

 and profitable is when the roads are good, 

 enabling me to go to and from the out-apiary, 

 and elsewhere, in less than half the time 

 consumed by the horse, with no trouble from 

 Hies tormenting, bees stinging, or fright 

 from any strange thing along the road, as is 

 very often the case where a horse is used as 

 a means of conveyance. And I can carry 

 as many supplies to the apiary, or bring 

 home as much honey \yith it, at a trip, as I 

 can when using the horse. 



In all of these hauling operations, blankets 

 are used to keep from marring and injuring 

 the auto. The times when I consider it a 

 necessity is when I wish to drive right up to 

 or into the apiary for loading or unloading 

 stuff; when 1 am short of time, and must get 

 to any place very quickly, and when I wish 

 power for running machinery, although I 

 have not so much need of this as formerly. 

 At no time d(^ I appreciate the auto more 

 thoroughly than when I drive it right into 

 the bee-yard for loading and unloading heavy 

 stuff. The auto is low down, so I do not 

 have to lift things so high in loading as with 

 a wagon. Then with the horse I must do a 

 lot of lugging and carrying myself, or else 

 get some one to help me ilraw the heavily 

 loaded wagon to a safe distance from the 

 bees, and, even at the best, have a i-onstaut 

 care not to get the horse stung. Nothing of 

 the kind with the auto, for 1 have never 

 known of a bee stinging it. 



Then if the washing-machine, grindstone, 

 churn, feed-cutter, emery-wheel, planer. 

 l>uzz-saw. etc., are to l)e used, just back the 

 auto up to the proper place, "jack up" one 

 of the hind or tiriving wheels, and " block" 

 the other, so as to make the auto stationary, 

 connecting by belt the jacked-up wheel and 

 the machine you wish turned, when every 

 thing is ready for "the start." Does the 

 machine need to be run slow? Set the spark- 

 lever at slo^v. or at the place you put it for 

 slow running when on the road. Do you 

 wish a 8000-a-minute gait of your buzz-saw 

 or planer".' Set the spark-lever at a 25-milc- 

 au-hour gait and you are at home in the 

 matter. 



The main thing in running machinery with 

 the auto is to know how to time the matter 

 of oiling the latter. The instruction-book 

 which comes with the auto will tell us how 

 many miles it is to be run to once oiling of 

 c-ertain parts. But the auto is not making 



