THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



21? 



queens, nor rob yourself of a good excuse 

 to sit by a glowing hearth during a cold 

 or rainy spell in winter. 



Mr. Dayton has a wooden cross-arm 

 fastened to two shorter cross-arms that 

 are attached to the top of the can. On 

 the edge of this main cross-arm he has 

 fastened a strip of hard steel 2,'-2 inches 

 wide and 20 inches long, beveled on the 

 under side. This is to clean the honey 

 knife upon. 



To hold the comb in place while uncap- 

 ping it, a little cup is attached to the top 

 of each short cross-bar, near one end. 

 The end of the top-bar is thrust into this 

 cup, when the comb can be twirled about 

 in almost any direction. Continuing. Mr. 

 Dayton says: — 



After the uncapping is over, the frame 

 can be lifted off and placed inside the 

 can. Honey-knives and other small uten- 

 sils can also be put inside, where they 

 will remain until the next year rolls round, 

 and the whole outfit, 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 

 inside. 



I have also made a honey-knife. Its 

 length should be 10 '2 or 1 1 inches; two 

 inches wide near the shank, and tapering 

 down to J-s at the point. The Coggshall 

 flat handle is "straight goods,"' and do 

 not forget the nut on the handle. 1 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 advan- 

 tage. It nearly doubles the amount of 

 work done. I have tried every thing, and 

 charcoal seems to do best of anything 

 when a cast-iron tank is used; if thin 

 metal, then coal oil or gasoline. 1 can not 

 do the knife-heater justice in one para- 

 graph. In my opinion it is a very impor- 

 tant affair. While it is not a very large 

 thing, and one which can be got along 

 without, 1 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 experi- 

 ment still open to the inventively inclined 

 apiarist. 



Even this capping-can 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-apiaries, be- 

 cause 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. 1 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 cappings are stored outside the ex- 

 tracting-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. 



Instead of taking a mess of cappings 

 from the out-apiary home every night, 

 and scattering them around in promiscu- 

 ous 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 opera- 

 tions can be performed. The more work 

 there is that is arranged to be done out- 

 side the rush of the season, the more cer- 

 tain are we of success, because all of the 

 work is better and more deliberately per- 

 formed. More opportunities are discov- 

 ered, and better take advantage of them. 

 Success often hangs on very small threads 

 in any business. But success is success, 

 notwithstanding the narrow margin. Ex- 

 perience can make the margin wider. Do 

 not let one season's management be a 

 repetition of the season before it. Improve. 

 We enjoy life more when we learn to live 

 it that way. 



The Editor of Gleanings comments as 

 follows: — 



Our correspondent makes a good point 

 when he says an operator ought to be 

 able to get close enough to his work so 

 that his feet can be placed under the ma- 

 chine, thus allowing his body to come in 

 contact with the bench or table, or (as in 



