56 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Jan. 24, 1901. 



color of said chrysalis while in its first stages, to the pur- 

 ple color of its later stage. 



And now pardon a word regarding very early queen- 

 rearing. Mj' advice is, don't do it, unless you are willing 

 to treat the colony rearing them in a similar way to which 

 a king treats a new-born heir to the throne, for any neglect 

 on your part will almost surely result in very inferior 

 queens. Very early queen-rearing generally results very 

 unsatisfactorily in this locality, as the colonies used for 

 this purpose have to be petted and pampered, by way of 

 feeding, often in very unsuitable weather for the breeder 

 to be out in : carried indoor on cold nights, so as to keep up 

 the desired temperature, etc., while the colonies used for 

 this purpose are very much retarded, about building up, 

 and the queens do not come up to the standard of perfec- 

 tion, unless the care of an old veteran is used in seeing 

 that all the requisites of a perfect development are pres- 

 ent, which is well nigh-impossible, in this locality, during 

 March, April, and the first half of May. June, July and 

 August are the months, during which the rank and file can 

 rear good queens with the least trouble here at the North. 

 Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



What is Meant By "Cooling Beeswax Slowly?" 



BY F. GRKINER. 



IT will now seem as tho all the difl'erence that existed on 

 the matter of how to produce nice yellow wax will be 

 laid by, or at least as soon as we fully understand the 

 meanings of the terms used. I do not think there would 

 have been any difference at all had it been clearly defined 

 where the cooling is to commence and where to end. An 

 illustration of the status would be this: 



The little mountain stream passing by my house an- 

 swers many of the purposes of the city water-works. We 

 use this water for washing, rinsing, etc. When I catch a 

 pailful of this water I can notice particles of foreign mat- 

 ter, perhaps soil, vegetable matter, etc., in it, and I have 

 found out, by experiences, if I give the water a little time 

 all visible particles will settle down to the bottom of the 

 pail. Along comes a gentleman from another clime. 

 "Nonsense," he says ; "after the water has become solid, 

 no amount of cooling will cause any of those impurities to 

 settle. It will remain just as it is forever." And he is 

 right, perfectly right. All the difference is, I was experi- 

 menting with "liquid water, and the other gentleman had 

 the frozen article in his mind. As soon as we find out what 

 the other means we agree perfectly. 



Beeswax "freezes" at a much higher temperature than 

 water, but that does not alter the case any. Particles of 

 dirt or other substances can not settle any more after it has 

 become solid. I don't think any person of sense had ex- 

 pected it, even should the cooling process be carried to the 

 greatest extreme. In this respect frozen water and frozen 

 wax behave exactly alike. 



In my 25 years' experience as a bee-keeper it has hap- 

 pened at least several times that I have melted up wax. 

 With my facilities I never have been able to melt a batch 

 without its coming to the boiling-point. This is exactly 

 the point where the cooling commences, with me. I have 

 explained a number of times in other papers how this cool- 

 ing (slowly) should be managed. The impurities in the wax 

 must have time to settle while the latter is in a melted and 

 quiet state. I consider the cooling process ended when the 

 wax solidifies, altho my idea may not be exprest properly. 



Ontario Co., N. Y. 



Naturally Built Combs, vs. Comb Foundation 

 —A Reply. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



IT is only since my return home from Europe that I have 

 noticed the two articles of Mr. Deacon, of South Africa, 

 publisht August 16th and 23d, 1900, in reply to some ar- 

 ticles from me publisht in 1897. I had concluded to allow a 

 similar length of time to elapse, between his notes and my 

 next reply, as were put between our former discussions ; 

 but some of our friends seem to be impatient for a word 

 from me. 



I will leave aside the very important facts that the use 

 of comb foundation secures straight combs and worker- 

 combs exclusively, altho all who have tried these matters 

 know the importance of them, and Mr. B. A. Hodsell, on 

 page 630 (1900) has already fully covered these points. 



Mr. Deacon lays great stress on Simmins' experiments- 

 as to the cost of beeswax to the bees. I must acknowledge 

 that if I had ever read of these experiments I had forgotten 

 them. But they seem to me to be faulty from the start. 

 Mr. Simmins experimented with a swarm weighing three 

 pounds, but does not seem to have taken into account the 

 quantity of honey those bees had in their honey-sacks 

 when hived. Bees that swarm, or that are disturbed and 

 transferred from one hive to another, always gorge them- 

 selves with honey to the utmost, and in the case of this ex- 

 periment must have been so loaded. He figures that it 

 took 12 4-S pounds of honey for one pound of wax, and then 

 goes on and deducts the quantity of honey that was con- 

 sumed by the bees. I can not see the wisdom of this. 

 Surely, bees must live while they build combs, and the cost 

 of their board should be reckoned in the total cost. 



If we figure up the cost of an article that we produce, 

 we should count up our board while we are producing it, 

 together with other expenses. So, in my mind, the 12 4-5- 

 pounds is nearer the right amount than the 6 2-S which he 

 gives as correct, while still estimating the actual amount 

 at even less. 



Mr. Simmins is not the only man who has made experi- 

 ments concerning the cost of wax. Huber, a Swiss, found 

 that nearly 20 pounds were needed. Berlepsch. a German, 

 made it from 11 to 20 pounds, according to circumstances. 

 Since that time experiments have been tried over and over, 

 and the lowest report I remember, made on a practical test, 

 with bees in freedom, was made by Mr- Viallon, an Ameri- 

 can, with two swarms of equal weight ; but he forgot ta 

 take into account the amount of honey spent for the brood 

 reared by the hive to which full combs were given, when 

 comparing with the swarm that had to build the combs, 

 and yet he put the amount at 7 to 8 pounds. The quantity 

 would probably have been raised to the general average of 

 11 or 12 pounds had he taken the brood-rearing into consid- 

 eration. 



Authorities confirm the high cost of comb. Prof. Cook 

 says that his own experiments confirm Huber's test of 20' 

 pounds being needed. T. W. Cowan (English) puts it at 

 13 to 20. Cheshire (English) says it takes "many pounds." 



The assertion that wax secreted is wasted when foun- 

 dation is furnisht, does not hold together. Bees do secrete 

 a little wax when the crop is abundant, and they always 

 have good use for it, for no one ever can furnish them foun- 

 dation in such shape that they can fill every part of every 

 comb. Any bee-keeper who uses foundation has seen where 

 they put the wax secreted, for it is whiter than the other. 

 There are always plenty of nooks and corners to fill, and 

 combs to seal. But when there are no combs at all, we all 

 know that they have to hang in festoons and remain idle, 

 probably because they must wait till the honey is digested 

 and the wax is secreted, and because there is no room for 

 more honey till some comb is built. So does the queen lose 

 time, when they are hived upon empty frames, and they 

 have to build combs before she can lay. 



Mr. D. makes a play on words about the expression 

 "drawing out" the foundation. He implies that we mean 

 that the bees get behind each other, and, pulling at each 

 other's jacket, thus stretch the foundation, by pulling on it. 

 But he surely knows what we all understand by these 

 words. I use them because everybody does, and we all 

 know that the bees manipulate the wax with their man- 

 dibles, and that it is quickly done. A comb of foundation 

 given to a strong colony in the evening will often be all 

 drawn out and eggs laid in it by morning. Are they not 

 also always remodeling their naturally built combs? 

 When combs are whitened, at the beginning of a harvest, 

 it is very difficult to tell just where the bees began, and we 

 can see that they have remodeled a portion of the old comb 

 to mix the new wax with it. 



Mr. Deacon denies my assertion of the Americans being 

 practical, and says that they "take an amazingly long 

 time to realize the uselessness of a thing." I must say 

 that in the matter of comb foundation even the all-wise 

 Britishers are also apparently deluding themselves, for, be- 

 sides what they make, they import thousands of pounds of 

 this useless foundation into Great Britain. They are badly 

 in need of a few arguments from our South African friend. 



But this manner of denying the correctness of progress, 

 after so long a time, reminds me of the French editor 

 Hamet, who, 20 years after the invention of the movable- 

 frame hive, still persisted in calling it "a puppet show," 

 and the honey-extractor "a useless toy." 



And as to the practical tact of our Americans, I feel 



