112 



GLEANINGS I:N^ BEE CULTURE. 



Apbil 



ting saw, and each board is split into two 

 pieces; or for very light packages, say 3 or 5 

 lbs., they are cut into three pieces each. Af- 

 ter splitting, they are all put through the 

 Lilliputian^planer and made smooth, and of 

 an even thickness. They are now turned 

 over to the boys in the wax room, for we 

 have a wax room now, where there is noth- 

 ing but wax and fdn., and one Of the boards 

 is placed under the pile of sheets, which 

 may be 3, 5. 10 or 25 lbs., then when the 

 sheets of paper are put between all the 

 sheets of wax, the boards are pressed down 

 and a piece of the same stuff is put on for 

 ends. The box is. tinished with three six- 

 teenths stuff. This makes a strong cheap box. 

 and it is always an exact fit. for the quantity 

 of fdn. ordered. The lumber costs but Ac, 

 per square fo6t — if split in 3 pieces, only i — 

 and if a lot are done at once, the cost of the 

 labor is but a tritle. It is just fun to work 

 with nice machinerj*, but it is "orfur' to try 

 to work with machinery that "aint nice," as 

 we OKf/ht to know, after all the trials and 

 troubles we have had in figuring all these 

 little items out, one step at a time. 



HOW TO 3IAKE S310KER BELLOWS-'^ES'' BY 

 THE QUAXTITY. 



Get a pile of nice inch basswood boards, 

 ciit them in two in the middle, as before, 

 and rip the pieces by the hand ripper, into 

 strips 4 inches wide : since our improvement 

 in bellows, we can get a better blast from a 

 4 by 5i pair of boards, than we could before, 

 with boards 6 by 6. After the boards are 

 split up, split them edgewise, and plane 

 tliem nicely. Xow put 50 of the strips in the 

 clamps, just as we did section boxes, and 

 eut off bolts. 5* inches long. When they are 

 all cut up— by the way our liands said I 

 could not cut off boards'4 inches wide bim- 

 dled lip in that way, but before I got 

 through, I cut off some that wei'e 5 inches 

 wide, for the extra large smokers — you are 

 to run the whole bolts along a beveled plat- 

 form, in such a way as to take off a corner 

 on one end of the ooards, leaving each 

 smoker board something like this. 



BOARDS FOB SMOKER BELLOWS. 



Now plane and sand paper the bolt, so as 

 to have the edges finished nicely, and bore a 

 ij hole into the end of each bolt I as shown in 

 the cut. This hole should be bored 'deep 

 enoxigh to go through i of all the boards ; if 

 bored in at each end, we have holes in half 

 orf all the pieces, just as we want them. In 

 this way. it takes but a short time to get the 

 boards ready for a thousand smokers, for 

 thev are never handled singlv at all. 



BOX HITE DEPARTMENT. 



^ ASKED how I could get my surplus honey from 

 H my old fashioned hives, in 1 lb. section boxes. 

 ~ Tn reply you kindly send me Gleaniscs, and say 

 that it gives me the desired information. 1 am sorrv 



to say it does not. You say "Pry off the top of the 

 hive." Now with my hives having- no movable 

 frames, and the combs all fastened to the top of the 

 hive, it will be impossible to carry out this plan. 



Charles Coutant. 

 Kifton Glen, N. Y., Feb. 19th, 18T8. 



You can take the top off your box hive 

 without doing any injury to the comb, by 

 splitting it and taking off a piece at a time, 

 unless it is a new swarm ; and I took it for 

 granted that no one would put a new swarm 

 into a box hive. If there are no cross sticks 

 to support the combs, perhaps you will have 

 to content yourself by cutting several large 

 holes in the top, but you will get better re- 

 sults by taking the top off entirely. Old and 

 tough combs will be in no danger of break- 

 ing down, even if the whole top is taken off. 



SCRE^fr DRIVERS. 



S PRESUME you all know how handy 

 these implements are about the apiarj'. 

 — ' especially, those of you who use the all 

 wood frames. When I used the closed top 

 Am. frames, I carried a small screw driver 

 in my vest pocket all the time, and it proved 

 handy for a great variety of purposes. 



Well, did you ever feel 

 annoyed by having your 

 screw driver come loose, 

 or "wiggle"' in the han- 

 dle ? ^Nothing makes me 

 feel much more impa- 

 tient, than to have tools 

 that are loose in the han- 

 dles, and wheii, a tool 

 comes entirely out of the 

 handle, and sticks fast 

 in the work, I always feel 

 ready for a "'fight"" if I 

 could only find the man 

 who made it so careless- 

 ly. Now. this screw dri- 

 ver, the picture of which 

 is right ''along side"' of 

 what I am ■UTiting, can 

 never come out of the 

 handle, for the handle 

 and blade are all one. If 

 you get out of cold chis- 

 els, you can take a ham- 

 mer, drive on the end 

 of yoiu". screw driver, 

 and there is nothing that 

 will break ; and you can 

 use them for chiseling 

 wood, or anything else, 

 if they are ground sharp. 

 But they are patented ! 

 Well I don't care if they 

 are. so long as they only 

 cost 10c. , and by the way, 

 just to show you how 

 nice they are, I will send , 

 you one,' and pay postage j 

 too, for just 10c. , or a| 

 size larger if you wish,' 

 for 15c. I almost forgot 

 to say that in the handle, 

 is a WTench, very con- 

 venient for many purpo- 

 ses. 





