758 



AMERICAN BEE lOURNAL 



Nov. 28, 1901. 



Pres. Root — I believe Mr. Alpaugh is 

 on the right track. In order to. put 

 pressure on the combs you have to get 

 it down to a thin sheet. The bulk of 

 it perhaps would be the depth of a bas- 

 ket, and when squeezed down should 

 not be more than an inch thick. Mr. 

 Alpaugh has the right idea of having 

 a wringer, or something of that kind, 

 that would yield enough so that this 

 slumgum could go through in thin 

 layers. 



Dr. Miller— I believe that Mr. Al- 

 paugh has a good thing and a bad 

 thing together. I believe he has the 

 right idea in the one respect, that you 

 vpant a thin layer: but here is the 

 trouble with the wringer business: 

 You attempt to put a towel through 

 a clothes wringer and you' get. the 

 least start the towel will go through: 

 but suppose it is torn in'two, only the 

 half of it will go through, and there is 

 nothing to catch the next particle, and 

 it will simply squeeze and pack, in or- 

 dinary, actual practice. I don't be- 

 lieve you could get the thing to go 

 through, but I believe Mr. Alpaugh 

 lias the right idea, that there should 

 be some kind of arrangement that will 

 get the thing through. 



D. H. Coggshall — I take a bran-sack 

 or a gunny-sack and re-sew them so 

 that they won't rip at the edges, and 

 put the wax or combs into that: then I 

 anake a pair of squeezers 3 feet long, 

 use a large caldron kettle and put the 

 sack of wax in, and keep the upper 

 ■one going, working back and forth, 

 through these squeezers — keep work- 

 ing it back and forth. Of course, if I 

 have black combs there is not so much 

 wax in them. I have tried every way, 

 boiling it under water. There are lots 

 of little particles of wax in the slum- 

 gum. You have to work it under 

 water while you are pressing it. I 

 keep two sacks, one heating while I 

 am squeezing the other. I get lots of 

 water in the can I am cooling it in. 

 Then draw the water off at the bottom 

 and take the wax out. I made a divi- 

 sion in the kettle and put in wax on one 

 side and boiled it and boiled it; put it 

 under a weight, thinking that I could 

 get the wax out that way and leave the 

 slumgum, but when I came to take the 

 slumgum out there were lots of parti- 

 cles of wax in it. To make the squeez- 

 ers I take a board a foot wide for the 

 bottom one, and the upper one not 

 quite so large. Take combs when cold 

 and pound them all up: put them under 

 hot water, and squeeze them in these 

 squeezers. I can get it that way. I 

 think that is the only correct way to 

 get it. 



Mr. Alpaugh — I understood you to 

 say there wasn't so much wax in black 

 combs? 



D. H. Coggshall — Of course; there 

 isn't much refuse in cappings; there 

 would be a little. 



Mr. Alpaugh — You mean to say a 

 comb that has been used several years 

 hasn't as much wax in it as one that 

 is used for a year or two? 



D. H. Coggshall — It seems as if there 

 wasn't so much. 



Mr. Gemmill — It is in the slumgum. 

 I would like you to send me a little of 

 that slumgum. I know a gentleman 

 who sent me 20 pounds of refuse, and 

 I got seven pounds of wax out of it. 



Mr. Baldridge — I would like to know 

 if there is any test to know when we 

 have all the wax out of the slumgum. 



Mr. Gemmill — The only way is to 

 keep pressing until you can't get any 

 more out of it. I don't care how much 

 you press it, if you throw it into the 

 fire you will see there is a little left 

 in it. 



The chairman was called from the 

 room, when Mr. Gemmill presided. 



Mr. Barb— I would like to know how 

 the wax is prepared after going 

 through the press? 



Mr. Gemmill — The way I have been 

 in the habit of doing, after I had all 

 the wax gathered together and wished 

 to remold it, I generally used the 

 steam extractor without the pressure, 

 just merely to melt the wax. In the 

 top of that I put a wire clothes-basket 

 sunk down, and inside of that I laid a 

 very fine piece of old cheese-cloth:then 

 I put this into the steamer, and in the 

 lower portion I put on the lid of an old 

 pot so as to keep the was from running 

 down into water, and I retained all the 

 refuse, and a lot of the propolis, too, 

 will remain in this cloth. There will 

 be very little pollen. The wax is 

 forced out of the pollen and the co- 

 coons. There will be a little propolis 

 and some particles of dust. 



W. L. Coggshall — To clarify wax, a 

 teaspoonful of sulphuric acid will do 

 for 100 pounds. Be careful not to put 

 in too much. 



Mr. Callbreath — What kind of a ves- 

 sel do you use? 



W. L(. Coggshall — Pour it into a tin 

 vessel. 



Mr. Callbreath — Won't the sulphuric 

 acid eat the tin off? 



W. L. Coggshall— It eats the dirt, 

 not the tin. That is what cleanses it. 



PREP.\KING BEES FOR WINTER. 



" What is the best method of prepar- 

 ing the brood-nest for wintering?" 



Mr. McEvoy — About October 1. I 

 like to bring the bees successfully 

 through the winter with the least con- 

 sumption of stores, and that is a thing 

 that I worked on for quite a while in 

 my early days of bee-keeping. To 

 make a success of that I found the 

 only way to do was to send them into 

 winter with sealed stores, confine them 

 to about five or six combs, according 

 to the strength of the colony, and if 

 there comes a warm spell in January 

 there isn't the chance for them to com- 

 mence much brood-rearing, but when 

 I wintered them on a full set of combs 

 and left an open center, and a warm 

 spell came in January, young queens 

 would start laying-, the cluster would 

 become broken, and spring dwindling 

 would take place. I try to send every 

 colony into winter with sealed stores, 

 crowded on the least number of combs, 

 and when I haven't sealed stores to do 

 it, I feed until they are filled. 



Mr. Callbreath — Beginning before 

 October 1 to feed? 



Mr. McEvoy — Sometimes before and 

 sometimes after, and where I didn't be- 

 gin to feed until after the nights got 

 cold, the bees wouldn't go up in the 

 feeder, but b_v placing the feeder un- 

 derneath so as to bring the food within 

 about ^s inch of the frames, a night in 

 October when the ground was covered 

 with white frost, they would go down 

 into this and take up perhaps seven, 

 eight or nine pounds some nights; 

 whereas, if I put it above they would 

 withdraw, and I would lose the colony 

 by not feeding early. I like the combs 

 all sealed. It is work, but it pays. 



Mr. Callbreath — Do you begin feed- 

 ing after brood-rearing has ceased? 



Mr. McEvoy — Yes; and if I find that 

 brood-rearing continues, I shut it off. 

 I give them sealed stores and shut it 

 off in that way. 



Mr. Callbreath — Won't the feeding 

 start brood-rearing? 



Mr. McEvoy — I do it so suddenly 

 that it won't. If I do it slowly it will 

 waste the stores, and start brood-rear- 

 ing. If I can feed them up in one or 

 two nights, I do it. The sooner you do 

 it the better. 



Mr. West — Is that for wintering out- 

 side or indoors? 



Mr. McEvoy — I have them out and 

 in, both. Of course, in the latitude 

 [Ontario] I am in I like outdoor win- 

 tering: but for indoors it will do equally 

 as well. 



Mr. Barb— Doesn't it make it too 

 cold in the hive to have the bees on so 

 few combs? 



Mr. McEvoy — No, the bees are 

 crowded on these, and when they get 

 any honey, instead of hunting all 

 through the hive, all they have to do is 

 simply to lean forward. 



Mr. Barb — How far apart do you 

 have the combs? 



Mr. McEvoy — The regular distance, 

 about lyi inches from center to center. 

 As soon as the honey is out of them in 

 the spring I want them ready for 

 breeding. 



E. R. Longnecker — Suppose there 

 are combs containing brood when you 

 begin to feed, what would you do with 

 them? 



Mr. McEvoy — At that season of the 

 year there is very little brood; but if 

 there is, I take the next weakest colony 

 and put it in that. 



Mr. Callbreath — I would like to ask 

 Mr. McEvoy if doubling up two col- 

 onies, one very strong, the bees could 

 not be left on the full set of combs 

 with plenty of honey. Will they com- 

 mence brood-rearing early in the 

 spring without any bad results? 



Mr. McEvoy — Some years I have 

 been caught with perhaps in a hun- 

 dred ten of them would be upon the 

 full set. I would find that I had sev- 

 eral that was nearly solid with honey. 

 I would let that one go to the last; but 

 taking all in all, from year to year. I 

 found that ten of them would not aver- 

 age up with ten of those that I pre- 

 pared. Some of them would be just as 

 good, but there wouldn't be an average 

 in ten that would equal ten that I had 

 prepared, so much so that I do not 

 want one colony in 100 on full stores, 

 I want them on less. 



Mr. Callbreath — I am not quite satis- 

 fied. My experience is that the colo- 

 nies that are heavy with honey in the 

 fall, without any feeding, without any 

 attention on the part of the bee-keeper, 

 are the colonies that have poor queens, 

 and not a very great many young bees; 

 and such, of course, would be likely to 

 drop out in the winter or the spring. 



Mr. McEvoy — Sometimes I find it so, 

 too. 



Mr. Callbreath — Such colonies would 

 be likely to make a poor showing the 

 next year. 



Mr. McEvoy — Do you winter bees 

 outside? 



Mr. Callbreath — Yes, sir. 



Dr. Mason — How many frames do 

 you put a good, fair colony on? 



Mr. McEvoy — Five or six, according 

 to the strength. 



