102 Advanced Bee Culture 



capping a comb I simply laid the knife in the hot water, as it is just as 

 easy as to lay it down somewhere else. When I begin uncapping the 

 next comb, the knife was hot and wet. 



THE STEAM HEATED UNCAPPING KNIIJE A GREAT INVENTION. 



But I much prefer the steam heated uncapping knife that keeps hot 

 continuously. No bee-keeper who has much uncapping to do can afford 

 to be without one. Many bee-keepers know how a knife will slip through 



the comb when the knife is first taken from hot water, while it is still hot, 

 but they know that the knife soon cools, and must be again returned to 

 the hot water in order to regain its efficiency; well, the steam-heated 

 knife is hot all of the time; it stays hot — just as hot as steam can make 

 it — and it .does the work quickly, easily and perfectly. The steam is 

 generated in a tin can. The size does not matter. We used a gallon 

 can with a screw cap, having a long, slim tube soldered over a hole made 

 in the top of the cap. Over this tube is slipped a piece of small rubber 

 hose, the opposite end being slipped over a tube near the shank of the 

 knife. The knife is hollow. The steam enters the tube near the shank 

 and spurts out of a small opening near the point. A single-burner, blue- 

 flame oil stove, or a single-burner gasoline stove, or an oil burning lamp 

 stove with two wicks, may be used to generate the steam. The water 

 must boil considerably so that a good, generous supply of live steam is 

 constantly passing through the knife. You have no idea how easily it 

 cuts ; then the cappings don't stick to the knife. About how long will a 

 piece of butter stick to a hot knife? Just about as long as cappings 

 will stick to a steam-heated knife. How can they stick when the knife 

 is just as hot as steam can make it? One man with a steam-heated 

 knife can uncap honey faster than another can extract it with a four- 

 frame, automatic extractor. I tried uncapping for a while, and my 

 nephew couldn't keep up with me. Then I tried running the extractor, 

 and he soon had a lot of combs ahead of me. I think one man could 

 upcap the honey and take away the full cans and box them up and put 

 empty cans under the strainer gate, as fast as one man could extract 

 the honey. The steam-heated knife is a practical, efficient tool, and 

 leaves nothing to be desired in the way of an uncapping machine. If one 

 man can uncap as fast as the extractor can handle it, what more is 

 needed? 



WHAT SHALE WE DO WITH THE CAPPINGS? 



After the combs are uncapped, the next serious problem is what 

 to do with the cappings. Until very recently we have uncapped into 



