236 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



May 



worth to hive them. Early May cherry-trees have 

 been the most popular clustering-place for our be£S, 

 and they are low. 



Persons have to be governed by their surroundings 

 in keeping bees. If I lived in the country, I should 

 manage quite differently than I do here in the city, 

 where I have to guard against ranking them cross. 

 I should not be writing this moment, if workingmen 

 were not laying pavement near, for it is a warm still 

 day, and I want to open hives. I've noticed that 

 beer-drinkers, and those who use tobacco, are more 

 apt to be stung than other persons. 



HONEY VINEG.A.R. 



Will some of the sisters "Bee" give their expe- 

 rience in making honey vinegar? What I've made 

 has a peculiar taste. I can not disguise it ia any 

 shape, so that my family will not know it. "More 

 of that honey vinegar, hey? wish you would throw 

 it out. Plenty of apples in Illinois to make vinegar 

 out of." Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Peoria, 111., April, 18S3. 



Thank you, Mrs. H. There is certainly 

 much truth in what you say about occupa- 

 tions for women. I don't know about silk- 

 worms, and they may be all right ; but I do 

 know that many of our feminine friends 

 keep bees, and make money at it ; and the 

 best part of it is, that theyenjoy excellent 

 health, and are happy in their work. Any 

 work may be hard work ; and especially is 

 the work hai'd when the heart is not in it. 

 You have given us something on honey vin- 

 egar a little on the other side, my friend. 

 Has any one else had any such experience ? 



FASTENING FDN. INTO THE WIBED 

 FKAMES. 



STILL ANOTHER WAY. 



^E have just had a very pleasant visit 

 from friend McGee, of Marblehead 

 Point, O. A little sketch of his bee- 

 keeping is mentioned on page 259. Well, 

 among other things that we learned from 

 friend McGee was a plan for putting fdn. 

 Into the wired frames, which we think is 

 going. to do entirely away with the button- 

 hook, or soldering-iron arrangement. It is 

 simply a common carpet-stretcher, as shown 

 in the accompanying cut. 



IMPLEMENT FOR FASTENING FDN. INTO THE WIRED 

 FRAMES. 



No lamp or heating is required. The fdn. 

 is laid on the wires, with the wax at ordina- 

 ry temperature. Of coiu'se, the work should 

 be done in a room ordinarily warm. To im- 

 bed the wires into the wax, you have only to 

 lay the points of the carpet-stretcher on the 

 wire, and press it down firmly, the fdn., of 

 course, being supported on a board in the 



usual way. The width of the carpet-stretch- 

 er is such that pressing down tvpice fastens 

 the wire the whole length, and one who is a 

 little accustomed to the work Avill do it even 

 more rapidly than with the heated copper, as 

 we have been doing it. A short handle on 

 it, not shown in the cut, is used. These car- 

 pet-stretchers can be furnished for 15 cts. 

 each, handle and all. If sent by mail. 25 

 cts. Many thanks to friend McGee. The 

 wire is so thin tliat the pressure makes it 

 cut its way clear down to the center of the 

 sheet of wax. The points touch it at short 

 intervals in such a way that few if any of 

 the walls of the cells are injured ; and friend 

 McGee assiu-es us that drone-cells are never 

 bull ton the wires,which is sometimes the case 

 with almost all other methods of imbedding 

 the wires into the wax sheets. We think 

 frames of fdn. put up in this way will ship 

 even more safely than the way we "have been 

 doing it. 



►"•♦^ 



HO^V TO ITIAKE A CUT-OFF SATV-TABIiE. 



ALSO SOMETHING IN REGARD TO THE MATTER IN 

 GENERAL OF CUTTING OFF BOARDS. 



fT Avill be remembered that in the ABC 

 book we described minutely buzz-saws 

 "' and buzz-saw tables for ripping lumber. 

 We also told how saws were made, and filed 

 for cutting off lumber. Now, where the 

 bee-keeper has but little to do in the way of 

 hive-making he may cut boards on the same 

 table that he uses for ripping. The usual 

 method for doing this is to place the board 

 on the figure 4, according to A B C, and as 

 seen on page 58S of Gt^eanings for Dec, 

 1882. But in order to work this way, he 

 must have somebody to bold the end of the 

 long boards while he cuts them up, or have 

 some sort of a support on which they will 

 slide over easily. 



When I used to make all my own hives 

 with a single saw-table, and my saws were 

 run by a windmill, as some of you may re- 

 member, I used to have the further end of the 

 board slide on a smooth rest made of a piece 

 of hard wood. With this I could take a 16- 

 foot board, and, without any assistance, cut 

 it up into pieces long enough for hives or 

 covers, and have them so exact that, when 

 piled up, no difference in the length could be 

 told by passing the fingers over the ends. 

 Now, while I could do this day after day, 

 and really enjoy the work, I could not find 

 any one who would do it for me. If I set a 

 couple of boys at it, the one with the other 

 end of the board would move it too fast or 

 too slow, or by jerks, in such a way as to 

 have the pieces, when cut off, of unequal 

 lengths. Then we tried cutting the board 

 up first into pieces long enough for two or 

 three lengths for hives ; and then as these 

 pieces were short enough to handle, it was 

 an easy matter to cut them up into exact 

 lengths. This, of course, took a great deal 

 more time ; and even then the boards would 

 not be cut squarely across The reason was, 

 that although the edge of the board might 

 be held closely up against the figure four, 

 unless at least one side of the board was per- 

 fectly straight, like a straight-edge, before 



