1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



819 



HOW TO PROLONG YOUR LIFE. 



Roat's Method of Fixing Cases, Lining, etc. 



BY JAMES ROAT. 



You will prick up your ears when you see 

 the above heading, and I shall have interest- 

 ed readers as far as this, any way. 



One of my professors used to say that any 

 method by which you could save a minute 

 would prolong your life by just that much. 

 Now, in this article I propose to show some 

 bee-keepers, at least, how to save, not min- 

 utes alone, but hours, and so prolong their 

 uncertain existence. 



During my 18 years' experience as a bee- 

 keeper I have learned to do things faster 

 and easier than I did at first, and in this 

 article will try to show the ABC class how 

 to make section-cases. 



In the first place, unless you are a skilled 

 mechanic and have a well-equipped planing- 

 mill at your disposal, don't try to get out 

 the stuff yourself. You will find it less vex- 

 atious, and in the long run cheaper, to buy 

 of a dealer. Don't buy of the first man who 

 comes along or because the price is lower 

 than that of any one else, but go to the chap 

 who has a reputation for selling honest goods 

 at an /iowesi price. Order early. Don't wait 

 until you need the goods, but have them on 

 hand. Make them up at odd spells, and 

 then they are ready for the first of your 

 honey crop and the early market. Having 

 provided yourself with the materials, place 

 a supply of each kind of boards and strips 

 at the back of your work-bench. At your 

 left (if you are right-handed) nail a shallow 

 box 6 or 8 inches square, and put in a small 

 handful of nails, scattered so that single 

 nails may be easily picked up. 



Next take a supply of pieces No. 1 and 

 No. 2, and start the nails in the ends, where 

 they will come in the finished case, allowing 

 them to stick through about | inch. Then, 

 taking No. 3 in your right hand and No. 1 in 



the left, you can stick them together so they 

 will not slip while the nails are being driven. 



The other end, front strips and bottom, 

 are put on in the order named, the projecting 

 nails holding the work in place until driven. 



It used to take me about as long to put a 

 paper tray into a case as it did to nail the 

 case together; but this last season we hit 



on a plan that I have never seen in print, so 

 I will try to give it, with the aid of the 

 illustration. 



Place the first finger of each hand 1 J inches 

 diagonally from two adjacent corners of the 

 paper, and push those corners right into the 

 corners of the case. Then, holding the 

 paper in place with the right hand, place the 

 left with outspread fingers in the center, 

 and with the now released right smooth the 

 paper from the center outward into the 

 corners. 



It's just fun to put in trays this way, but 

 it used to make me mad all over, "wras- 

 tlin' " with the "ornery" things. If you 

 nail in your cleats, spread 40 to 50 flat on 

 the bench, and start two nails in each. Do 

 not drive them quite through. Then drop 

 five of them into your case, and place on 

 top of them a board with a heavy mark 

 where each of the three central cleats should 

 go. Place a cleat under each mark, and at 

 either end, and a rap on each nail with the 

 end of the hammer-handle completes the 

 job. Now don't get mad and say you knew 

 all that long ago. Remember that some one 

 has to teach the primer class, and getting 

 mad is not the way to prolong your life. 



Canandaigua, N. Y., March 6. 



TR ANSFERRING-TOOLS . 



A Hook to be Used in Threading the String 

 Around Pieces of Comb. 



BY S. E. MILLER. 



In this article I shall not attempt to go 

 into the details of transferring, as the mo- 

 dus operandi is given in most of the text- 

 books for bee-keepers. It is also a fact 

 that, in most cases, the so-called short (or 

 Heddon) method is preferable; but there are 

 times and circumstances when we wish to 

 do the work at once, and have it done with; 

 and in such cases it is necessary to resort to 

 the old methods of cutting the combs out of 

 the old hive or box, and fitting them into 

 frames. Any one who has had experience 

 along this line knows what a job it is, and 

 it is for the purpose of aiding in this work 

 that I have devised a couple of tools which 

 I consider a great help, and will here de- 

 scribe and illustrate: 



Take a board ^ to g thick, and somewhat 

 larger than your frame. Nail across it from 

 six to ten cleats as long as the board is 

 broad, and about I inch square. This I will 

 call the trans f erring-board. The needle is 

 made of about No. 11 or 12 smooth galvan- 

 ized wire, and should be two to three inches 

 longer than the depth of your frames. The 

 eye of the needle is formed by bending one 

 end around until it nearly touches, and then 

 turning the extreme end slightly out from 

 the main shaft or body of the needle. The 

 other end is bent into a half- circle or ordi- 

 nary hook. You will see that this gives us a 

 self-threading needle with a hook where the 

 point is on a common needle. The illustra- 



