August, 1913. 



275 



American l^ee Journal 



court, by his decree, showed that he 

 also shared in that opinion. 



The National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, after investigation, recommended 

 an amicable settlement beforehand, if 

 possible. But the bee-keeper was ob- 

 stinate, and determined to fight it out. 

 He called as a witness Mr. M. E. Darby, 

 of Springfield, State Inspector of Api- 

 aries, but Mr. Darby was not permitted 

 to testify, because he had no personal 

 knowledge of the facts in this particu- 

 lar case, and the court precluded any 

 testimony as to other people living 

 close to bees without being disturbed. 



The evidence disclosed that the bee- 

 keeper had established his bees at the 

 outskirts of town, which 'had gradually 

 grown up to his bee-yard. 



It used lo be the law that if a certain 

 noxious or objectionable trade was 

 already established in a place remote 

 from habitations, and persons after- 

 wards came and built houses within 

 the reach of its noxious efifects ; or if 

 a public road was made so near to it 

 that the carrying on of the trade be- 

 came a nuisance to the person using 

 the road : in those cases the party was 

 held entitled to continue his trade, be- 

 cause it was legal before the erection 

 of the houses, or the making of the 

 road. That was on the supposition 

 that persons who erect ^nd occupy 

 dwellings where they may be affected 

 by a nuisance already erected and 

 maintained, have no legal right to com- 

 plain of the annoyance it may occasion 

 them. 



But that is not the law of modern 

 civilization. The law broadens with 

 education and experience, and the 

 modern broad-minded rule, as now laid 

 down by the courts, is that such a doc- 

 trine would render the property of 

 others subordinate to the purposes of 

 him who might, before they had erected 

 their dwellings, have devoted his own 

 property to an offensive and unwhole- 

 some business. Bee-keepers, as a 

 whole, are the most law-abiding citi- 

 zens in the universe, but there is no 

 sound principle of law that will pro- 

 tect any man in depriving others of the 

 substantial use and enjoyment of his 

 property. In other words, the individ- 

 iial should submit himself lo the conven- 

 ienee of the eioiud. 



Kansas City, Mo. 



[It seems to us rather strange that 

 any one should feed bees all summer, 

 since it would be a very expensive out- 

 lay. But there is nothing strange in 

 the annoyance that may be caused to 

 near-by neighbors by an ill-managed 

 apiary. We had a friend once who was 

 in the habit of opening his hives with- 

 out smoke. The bees rarely stung him, 

 but they would sting the neighbors, 

 when disturbed. It was with difficulty 

 that he was prevailed upon to use more 

 caution, when all trouble was brought 

 to an end. 



In the above case, we are under the 

 impression that an investigation would 

 have shown that the bees were short of 

 stores, instead of being "fat and lazy." 

 — Editor.] 



Original Color of Wax 



BY C. P. D.\D.'VNT. 



IN the April number, page 131, one 

 of our correspondents says that 

 "the darker the honey, the darker 

 the wax will be." We reserved 

 this question for a special discus- 

 sion, for we felt that this statement 

 needed correction. 



The color of wax produced by the 

 bees ought not to be difficult to ascer- 

 tain. Yet if we look back among au- 

 thorities, we find that there are a num- 

 ber of statements leading to the idea 

 that wax is not always white at the 

 moment of its production. Quite a 

 discussion was elicited, in L'Apicul- 

 teur, years ago, by the statement made 

 in that magazine, by an observer, Mr. 

 Gaurichon, that the color of combs de- 

 pended upon the temperature at the 

 time they were built. He held that wax 

 produced when the temperature is 9li 

 degrees is yellow, while that produced 

 at lower degrees is whiter and whiter, 

 as the temperature lowers. At the very 

 time when we read his statements, our 

 bees were producing the whitest kind 

 of combs at a temperature which was 

 fully blood heat. In fact, I do not be- 

 lieve that it is possible for them to 

 manipulate wax unless the warmth of 

 the hive is normal. But every large 

 producer knows that during the pro- 

 duction of white honey, whether white 

 clover, alfalfa or other plants, the wax 

 is white whether the temperature be 

 hot or cold. 



Some writers assert that wax is origi- 

 nally pale yellow. Cowan says, "Wax, 

 when pure, is pale yellow, but some- 

 times nearly white, and the coloring is 

 due, as Dr. Planta has pointed out, to 

 pollen consumed by the bees." (The 

 Honey-Bee.) 



Huber, in making experiments (Un- 

 edited Letters), made a triple test of 

 comb production with colonies fed 

 with honey, dark brown sugar and 

 white refined sugar. Those fed with 

 the white sugar "produced comb less 

 white than those fed with either brown 

 sugar or honey." 



Reaumur, who published his work on 

 insects in 1740, was one of the most 

 capable scientists of his time, and a 

 member of the Royal academies of 

 France and St. Petersburg, and of the 

 Royal Society of London. No one 

 then knew that bees produced wax by 

 consuming honey. He, however, sur- 

 mised that it was made by digestion, 

 but thought pollen was the crude mate- 

 rial from which it was made. So he 

 called the pollen " crude wax." To 

 prove that it was not real wax, he made 

 several interesting experiments, such 

 as kneading it with the fingers, trying 

 to melt it by the heat of the lamp, or 

 throwing it in water, where it sank in- 

 stead of floating as wax does. 



Although unable to detect how the 

 wax was produced, he readily ascer- 

 tained and proved in his Memoires, 

 Vol. v., page 428, that "any new comb 

 is white, differing only by its greater 

 or less whiteness. I have seen some- 

 times that the white of the newly con- 

 structed combs yielded in no way to 

 that of the finest candles near which I 

 had placed them. 

 " Among the newly made, those which 



appeared the least white, might be com- 

 pared to inferior white candle, or to 

 such as, having been kept too long, 

 has turned yellow. As they grow old 

 they turn yellow, the oldest becoming 

 of a brown color which approaches the 



black of soot The art of bleaching 



wax appears to be thus only that of re- 

 moving the foreign matter which has 

 penetrated it." 



Bevan, page 300: " At first the combs 

 are delicately white, semi-transparent, 

 and exceedingly fragile; in a short 

 time their surfaces become stronger, 

 and assume more or less of a yellow 

 tint." 



Prof. A.J.Cook, in his " Bee-Keep- 

 er's Guide," says: "In the transforma- 

 tion into comb the wax may become 

 colored. Dr. Planta has shown that 

 this is due to a slight admixture of 

 pollen. It is almost sure to do this if 

 the new comb is formed adjacent to 

 old, dark colored comb. In such cases 

 chippings from the old soiled comb are 

 used." 



Dzierzon says in "Rational Bee- 

 Keeping :" " In continuing their struc- 

 ture, the bees often bite off old 



wax and use it in making cells. When, 

 therefore, bees build new cells in the 

 hive in continuation of old ones, these 

 new cells are of a darkish color at their 

 commencement, and only gradually as- 

 sume the white color which new wax 

 possesses. Queen-cells are generally 

 of the color of the comb on which they 

 appear, because the bees take the wax 

 ior royal cells chiefly from cells in the 

 neighborhood." 



Girard, in " Les Abeilles," says that 

 " the little scales of wax which one may 

 remove from the wax-secreting organs 

 with a needle, are more brittle and less 

 white than those of fresh built cells." 

 He ascribes this to a modification 

 caused by the saliva of the bee. The 

 fact is that the manipulation by the bee 

 kneads the wax and changes its " pearly 

 whiteness" into a dead white color. 

 The same change may be made by the 

 apiarist in chewing a piece of wax. He 

 will render it less transparent but 

 lighter in appearance. 



Cheshire, Langstroth and others 

 agree that the combs are white when 

 first built. Root speaks of new wax as 

 "of pearly whiteness which soon be- 

 comes vellowish."— A B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture. 



Whether or not the bees color the 

 wax by consuming pollen, there is no 

 doubt that the gathering of pollen of 

 bright color has some influence upon 

 the color of the wax shortly after the 

 comb is built. Some flowers, such as 

 the Spanish-needle (Bidens), yield 

 bright yellow pollen in profuse amounts. 

 The bees which visit the blossoms ap- 

 pear to have rolled in it. This bright 

 color is promptly imparted to every- 

 thing about the hive, the combs of 

 course becoming tainted quickly. 



In a conversation which I once had 

 with an experienced wa.x bleacher 

 (long ago deceased), Mr. Merkle, of St. 

 Louis, I was informed by him that the 

 wax produced along the low lands of 

 the Mississippi and Missouri rivers re- 

 tained its bright, deep yellow color so 

 persistently that they never succeeded 

 in making it perfectly white by the or- 

 dinarv bleaching methods. 

 Mr. Wilder, to whom this subject 



