108 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 



CARIilN'S FOiriVDATION CUTTER. 



INCE our article of last month, we have 

 ^^ made still another improvement in cut- 

 ' ting a great nimiber of pieces all alike, 

 such as the starters used for section boxes. 

 The cuts below, will illustrate the matter. 



Fig. 1. 



MACHINK FOR CUTTING STARTERS FOR 

 SECTIOK BOXES. 



Fig. 1, is composed of seven, i inch strips. 

 If inches wide by about 20 inches long. The 

 spaces are just wide enough to allow the tin 

 wheel to run between them. Fig. 2, is com- 

 posed of the same number of boards, but 

 they are 8| wide, by about 16 long. You 

 will observe that this allows one frame to be 

 placed over the other, each fitting in be- 

 tween the cleats of the other. To use the 

 machine, place a sheet of fdn. say 12 by 18, 

 on Fig. 1, and lay Fig. 2 over it. Run the 

 wlieel through all the spaces, and then turn 

 the whole machine over. Now run it throu' 

 as before, and your sheet is cut into oblong 

 squares, just such as we put in the 4i section 

 boxes when we ship them in complete hives. 

 We should perhaps use pieces somewhat 

 larger, Avere it not that there would be great- 

 er danger of their breaking out with the 

 rough handling they get wlien the liives are 

 sent by freight. The pieces, as made with 

 the above frames, are If, by 31 inches. 



To cut sheets 12 by 18, we have a frame 

 made as follows : 



FKA3JES FUR (JL'TTING SHEETS FOR BROOD 

 FRAMES. 



The diagonal piece, serves as a brace to 

 k( ej) it true and square, and also for a han- 

 dle to lift it by. The frame is placed over 

 the sheet so as to cut to the best advantage, 

 and the wheel is run around it. We use a 



frame instead of a board, because it is light- 

 er to handle, and because a board would be 

 liable to shrink and make it too narrow, A 

 similar frame. Fig. 2, is used to cut the 

 pieces for the L. frames, 8 by 16i. 



]ttOTH ^i^OKMS IN SECTION BOXES. 



^|RIEND Doolittle objects to the advice I 

 J^J" gave in regard to having your shipping 



' case beside the hive, and putting the 

 filled sections directly into it as fast as taken 

 from the hives, on the ground that they 

 would speedily become infested witli moth 

 worms. I fear he has forgotten that the 

 glass sides of the shipping case are movable ; 

 they can be slid up part way, and the honey 

 fumigated with brimstone, almost as readily 

 as if they were scattered all over the honey 

 house in imminent danger of being tumbled 

 over and punched into each other, as they 

 are very apt to be at our house. In employ- 

 ing boys and girls, and men and women too, 

 for that matter, the very worst trouble I have 

 had to contend with — worse than the moth 

 miller in bee-culture by far — has been the 

 disposition to scatter the honey as Avell as 

 tools, all about, in the most promiscuous 

 manner. It is something like this : 



''Have you shipped all the honey you could 

 scrape up, John V" 



'■•Yes every bit." 



Remembering former statements of a sim- 

 ilar kind, I take a look in the house. 



"•What is the matter with those sections 

 over in that corner, John V" 



"Oh I took tliein off last night just before I 

 quit, and meant to have taken care of them 

 this morning, but I forgot all about it." 



'T saw some stowed away carelessly in a 

 hive in the house apiary ; have you got 

 them V" 



"Oh no, I forgot about them, when this 

 lot went off." 



"Well where did all that broken comb 

 honey come from that I saAv covered up in 

 a pan V" 



"Oh I forgot to tell you about that; I set it 

 on a barrel, until I could get a shipping case, 

 and it got knocked off ; some of it was on 

 top of a hive, and the wind blew the ladder 

 against it, knocked it down and bruised it, 

 so I put it all in together." 



There it was, reduced in price from 2.5c. 

 to perhaps 15, and there it might have stood 

 imtU the next season, had I not poked round, 

 and Tound it. If I insist that every section 

 is placed in the ease, in regular order, Avhen 

 it is first lifted from the hive, Avithout set- 

 ting it down any where, and that the cases 

 are then put up in a square i)ile in the centre 

 of the honey house, when I come home, I 

 shall have a pleasant sight to contemplate, 

 instead of a scene of disorder, with leaking, 

 daubing and robbing. 



I know friend D. would say that he would 

 have no hired help, but would do all the work 

 himself; this would be, I think many times, 

 an easy task, but who then would" furnish 

 the boys and girls all about us, with some- 

 thing to d(^ ? Those that are careful and 

 skillful, usually have plenty to do, but who 

 will care for tlie careless and heedless ones, 

 and teach them to do differently V 



