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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



of leisure time, and good fires in the kitchen- 

 stove in winter, and there are plenty of bee 

 journals and books to be read. Don't fuss 

 with such things when there is plenty of out- 

 side apiary work, such as extracting honey 

 or rearing queens, nor rob yourself of a good 

 excuse to sit by a glowing hearth during a 

 cold or rainy spell in winter. 



F F are hooked i%-inch iron rods to hold 

 the can in position. Smaller-sized rods are 

 sometimes used, but -£\- is found to be as small 

 as will give satisfaction. The nut at E should 

 be provided with a good-sized washer, which 

 is not shown. The upper ends, F F, are 

 flattened. 



G, G, G is a wood frame to support the 

 screen that drainathecappings. It has eight 

 "wings " instead of four. The screen is held 

 up 3 inches from the bottom of the can. 



The same sort of foundation is used under 

 the extractor, but four of the rods are used, 

 instead of two, as on the capping-can. 



I would not be annoyed by having the ex- 

 tractor traveling about the room for one day, 

 for the cost of these iron rods. 



You can not realize the advantage of pro- 

 jecting a pair of long shoes permitting you 

 to get close to your woi'k under the extract- 

 or and capping-can until you try it. It re- 

 duces the labor about one-fourth, seemingly. 



After the uncapping is over, the frame can 

 be lifted off and placed inside the can. Hon- 

 ey-knives and other small utensils can also 

 be put inside, where they will remain until 

 the next year, rolls round, and the whole out- 

 fit, with the cover on, can be set out of doors 

 or in any out-of-the-way place. If it is to be 

 set in the wood or wagon shed, corncrib, or 

 granary, it is advisable to set it out in the 

 apiary with the cover off, for then the bees 

 will clean it of honey very tidily. Then no 

 dust or dirt will stick fast and dry to the in- 

 side. 



I have also made a honey-knife. Its length 

 should be 10^ or 11 inches; two inches wide 

 near the shank, and tapering down to | at 

 the point. The Coggshall flat handle is 

 "straight goods," and do not forget the nvit 

 on the handle. I can not find any one about 

 here who uses more than the one bevel of 

 the blade, so the other side would be more 

 useful left square. 



It will need a tank to heat the blade. This 

 knife is for the professional uncapper, and 

 heat is always of very great advantage. It 

 nearly doubles the amount of work done. I 

 have tried every thing, and chai'coal seems 

 to do best of anything when a cast-iron tank 

 is used: if thin metal, then coal oil or gaso- 

 line. I can not do the knife-heater justice 

 in one paragraph. In my opinion it is a very 

 important affair. While it is not a very large 

 thing, and one which can be got along with- 

 out, I know from experience that the bee- 

 keeper can putter along day after day with 

 a cold or dull knife, and waste enough time 

 and patience to afford a dozen heaters, or 

 which time, if turned into smooth running 

 apiary work, would amount to hundreds of 

 dollars. There is room for a world of study 



and experiment still open to the inventively 

 inclined apiarist. 



Even this capping-can I have illustrated 

 can be set in a wagonload of bees on top of 

 the hives of bees, or on the top of the hives 

 of bees on a wagon to be hauled to out-apia- 

 ries, because the bottom is flat and smooth, 

 while its height compared to its width makes 

 it not top-heavy but steady, and it weighs 

 but 30 lbs. I know of capping-boxes two 

 feet wide and ten feet long that make two 

 men a good lift, and yet these big boxes are 

 not as facilitating in work as where the cap- 

 pings are stored outside the extracting-house 

 in another receptacle. 



For the cappings, I use tanks holding 50 

 gallons. They weigh about 15 pounds, empty, 

 and will hold the cappings from ten tons of 

 honey. 



HOW TO HEAT UNCAPPING-KNIVE8. 



Instead of taking a mess of cappings from 

 the out-apiary home every night, and scatter- 

 ing them around in promiscuous receptacles 

 where moths and dirt will be likely to get 

 into them when the tank is used and the caps 

 pounded down solid, the tank can be rolled 

 into the wagon on a pair of skids, or even 

 "ended " into the wagon and taken home all 

 at once with the load of other out-apiary 

 utensils and trappage. 



The swarms and queens and main work of 

 taking the crop is enough to think about at 

 the time. It is work which can be done at no 

 other time of the year. It is where all the 

 profits accrue. If our minds are ever clear 

 and untrammeled it should be at the time of 

 the harvest. The more we consolidate our 

 thoughts on single operations the better those 

 operations can be -performed. The more 

 work there is that is arranged to be done 

 outside the rush of the season, the moi'e cer- 

 tain are we of success, because all of the 

 work is better and more deliberately per- 

 formed. More oppoi-tunities are discovered, 

 and better take advantage of them. Success 

 often hangs on very small thi'eads in any bus- 

 iness. But success is success, notwithstand- 

 ing the narrow margin. Experience can 



