222 



l^American Hee Journal 



July, 1913 



and occasionally even by the dejections 

 of worker-bees in long winter confine- 

 ments. No wonder that this comb 

 should soak up, in a solar extractor, 

 the slight amount of wax used in its 

 construction. 



Some bee-keepers hold that this 

 soaking of combs previous to render- 

 ing is useless. I do not agree with 

 them. If you dip your finger lightly 

 into water previous to dipping it into 

 liquid wax, it will stick to it less than 

 if the finger were dry, but if you soak 

 it thoroughly so that all the pores may 

 be thoroughly moistened, the wax will 

 not stick at all. Therefore, to render 

 your old combs it is important that 

 they should be moistened thoroughly. 



Another advantage of thoroughly 

 moistening the old combs is in remov- 

 ing a part of the coloring matter. After 

 two days of soaking your combs will 

 have colored the water very strongly, 

 and they will more readily return to 

 their original shade of very light 

 yellow. 



The residues removed from a solar 

 extractor are always zcaxy: those 

 which we remove from a boiler after 

 having followed the above instructions 

 are muddy, for the wax has become en- 

 tirely separated from the residues 



However, another requirement must 

 be fulfilled if we would secure as 

 much wax as possible. Each of the 

 cells of an old comb retains its shape 

 even after the wa.x has been melted, 

 because the cocoons of the hatched 

 bees keep their original shape. If any 

 of those cells are not filled with water, 

 they may become filled with wax, in 

 the process of rendering. To avoid 

 this possibility, we crush them before 

 rendering them. 



Presses, such as the Hershiser, are 

 useful but not indispensable. If you 

 have many. combs to render annually 

 you had best own a wax press. If the 

 quantity is limited, an ordinary wash 

 boiler is sufficient. Let the wax rise to 

 the top, using an ample supply of 

 water in which your combs will melt, 

 heat slowly and dip the wax from the 

 top as it rises, using a screen pocket, 

 made of a piece of wire-cloth such as 

 is used for fly screens. Dip from that 

 pocket, wax and water until all the 

 wax has been removed. This crude 

 wax poured into flaring vessels may be 

 rendered a second time to remove the 

 balance of the residue. 



colony of bees, in the early spring, 

 may be shipped 200 miles and be closed 

 for three or four days with only such 

 air as will pass through the cracks of 

 the cover and of a block nailed over 

 the entrance. The same colony in 

 warm weather would not have too 

 much ventilation in transit, if the en- 

 tire top were screened. 



How Much Air i.s Needed by the 

 Bees? 



On page 190, we quoted Bienen- 



Vater on this. But is there not a very 



great difiference in th"; amount of air 



needed ip summer and in winter? A 



What to Do AVith Queen-Cell.s 



A correspondent desires to know 

 what to do with queen-cells after they 

 have been produced according to the 

 plan given last August in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. That's easy. Just 

 slip them in anywhere where bees feel 

 the need of a queen. But perhaps it 

 may be well to go somewhat into par- 

 ticulars. 



Ten days after the comb containing 

 choice larvje has been given to a 

 queenless colony, the cells must be 

 cut out, for if left much after that 

 time there is danger that one of the 

 young queens will emerge and destroy 

 the rest. In reality, however, a queen 

 will rarely emerge before 12 days, but 

 to be entirely on the safe side the cells 

 should be cut 10 days after being re- 

 ceived by the queenless colony. 



In cutting the cells, or indeed at any 

 time of handling a frame with queen- 

 cells, they must never be shaken, lest 

 the inmates of the cells be injured, but 

 if the bees are to be gotten oflt they 

 must be carefully brushed off with soft 

 grass, asparagus tops, or something of 

 the kind. 



If you have a queenless colony, a 

 queen-cell may be given to it. If you 

 can give it a laying queen, that is better, 

 for if you have a cell you need not e.x- 

 pect eggs to be laid for perhaps two 

 weeks. 



Of course, when you cut the cell 

 from the comb you are careful to cut 

 away enough of the comb so there 

 shall be no possible danger of cutting 

 into the cell. If you want to give it to 

 a queenless colony, you must fasten it 

 to the center of a comb right over the 

 brood, if there is any brood present. 

 If you have cut away enough of the 

 comb at the base of the cell, you can 

 lay the cell flat against the comb, with 

 the point of the cell toward the bottom- 

 bar, and pin it to the comb by thrust- 

 ing through the base a very large pin 

 or a wire-nail l.'i inches long. But be 

 sure you don't thrust through the cell 

 itself. There is no harm in mashing 

 down the comb a little with the thumb 

 or finger, so as to make a bed where the 

 cell is to lie. Better than the pin or 

 nail is a hive-staple. Let one leg of 

 the staple be over the cell, and push 



the other leg down into the comb. 



Like enough the greater part of your 

 cells will be used in nuclei. So a word 

 about making nuclei. Take from any 

 colony two frames of brood with ad- 

 hering bees and put them in an empty 

 hive, and you have a nucleus. But you 

 will not have that nucleus very long, 

 at least so as to be worth anything, 

 unless you take some precautions. 



All the bees more than 16 days old, 

 and some of the others, the first time 

 they fly out, instead of returning to 

 their new home, will return to the old 

 one. Unless the weather be hot, there 

 will hardly be enough bees left in the 

 nucleus to keep the brood from chill- 

 ing and dying. At any rate, those that 

 are left may feel so discouraged that 

 they will all desert the hive. The case 

 will not be so bad if the colony from 

 which the bees were taken be queen- 

 less. They are used to being without 

 a queen, and so the new queenless 

 home does not seem so bad. and they 

 stay in it. In any case it may be well 

 to fasten them in the hive for a time. 

 A nucleus should have a small en- 

 trance, so as to make it safer from rob- 

 bers ; J4. of an inch square is large 

 enough. Plug up the hole when you 

 establish your nucleus, so that no bee 

 can get out or in the hive, and do not 

 open it for 3 days. If the weather is 

 fiot, keep it in the cellar. At the end 

 of that time few, if any, bees will re- 

 turn to their old home. They have 

 become reconciled to their new home, 

 and. beside that, an additional force of 

 young bees has hatched out during that 

 3 days. 



Some leave it to the bees to open the 

 entrance. It is a good thing if there 

 is any danger of forgetting, or if you 

 may not happen to be with the bees at 

 the proper time. And in any case it 

 works well. Close the entrance by 

 packing it pretty solidly with green 

 grass or leaves. The bees will try to 

 gnaw this, and between their gnawing 

 and the drying and shrinking of the 

 green leaves they will have a hole big 

 enough for the passage of a bee in 3 

 days or so, enlarging it later. There 

 is sornething about the passage being 

 so small in the first place, making the 

 bees squeeze their way through, that 

 makes the bees stay better than they 

 would if the whole crowd could rush 

 out at once. 



As a further precaution against the 

 nucleus being left with too few bees, 

 you may rush the bees from a third 

 comb into the nucleus, returning the 

 beeless comb to the old colony. 



Here is another way: Instead of tak- 

 ing only 2 combs with adhering bees 



