JriFTY YfeARS aMONG THE BEES 61 



Miss Wilson was a seliool-teacher with health run down, 

 and in 1882 she stopped a year for the outdoor life of bee- 

 keeping. She is still stopping. Although never rugged in 

 health, I think she has never missed a day's work in the apiary 

 during all the years since, when there was work to be done. 

 Small of stature and frail of build, she yet has a remarkable 

 capacity for work, perhaps owing to the fact that she is full- 

 blooded Scotch, and she will go through more colonies in a day 

 than I can, do my best. I think, however, that the bees prefer 

 just a little to have me work with them. They have more time 

 to get out of the way, and not so many of them get killed. 



T-SUPEB SEAT. 



Well, I started in for a digression, but I didn't mean to 

 write a history. We were talking about seats. Another kind 

 of seat is made of an old T super. A piece of lath is nailed to 

 opposite diagonal corners, and another piece nailed to the other 

 two corners. That stiffens and strengthens it, so it makes a 

 good seat for one who doesn't like a low seat. 



HIVE-TOOLS. 



Of all the hive-tools I have tried, I like best the Muench 

 tool (Fig. 20). Its broad, semi-circular end with sharp edge 

 can hardly be excelled for the purpose of raising covers and 

 supers, and when the other end is thrust between two frames, 

 a quarter turn sepa?ates the frames with the least possible ef- 

 fort. Miss Wilson has a liking for the Root tool. I have not 

 used it much, but it has the special advantage that it is a fine 

 scraper. Besides the hive-tool for opening the hive and start- 

 ing the frames, if the hives are to be cleaned out, another tool 

 is needed. 



After trying a number of different things for hive-clean- 

 ers, I have been best satisfied with a hatchet, the handle sawed 

 short, so that it will not be in the way when working in the 

 bottom of the hive, the edge dull and a perfectly straight line 

 and the outside part of the blade also ground to a straignt line 

 ■ and at right angles with the edge. The right-angled corner is 

 to clean out the comers of the hive. In cleaning, the hatchet 

 is moved rapidly back and forth, or rather from side to side, 



