THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



173 



E. A. Morgan of South Dakota (sec 

 American Bee Journal, page 48;i, last 

 volume), praises Caucasians highly, and 

 even thinks that they arc destined to 

 supersede the Italians. My experience 

 does not coincide with his. With me the 

 queens (only a few) ha\e not been as 

 prolific as those of the Italian race. 

 The Caucasians I possess are certainl} 

 poorer honey gatherers than the Ital- 

 ians. Their gentleness has been lauded 

 more than any other characteristic. I 

 can handle them without the use of 

 smoke, and not get stung, but I must be 

 careful. If they are handled roughly 

 they will "pepper" it to the operator as 

 do other bees. 



I will get rid of mine and will advise 

 others not to spend time and money 

 with the Caucasions. I did not spend 

 money for the queen, as I got her gratis 



Entrance contracted with propoli 

 by Caucasian bees. 



from the (iovernment apiaries at Wash- 

 ington ; ne\ ertheless. I am money out 

 (and experience ahead) for having 

 tried them. 

 -Metz. Wis. 



Melting Wax with Honey Gives the Latter a Flavor 

 and a Color. 



W, Z. HUTCHINSON. 



-■W' EARNING that my brother El- 



mL - mer had given the capping 



melter an extended trial last 



year, I wrote him for particulars. His 



reply is as follows : 



"You ask if I used the capping melter 

 last fall ; if the wooden jacket was any 

 help; if it injured the flavor or color 

 ■of the honey; and if I expect to con- 

 tinue its use in the future. 



Yes, we used it while we extracted 

 about 18,000 pounds of honey; enough 

 to give it a pretty fair test. The 

 wooden jacket was a help only in one 

 way: it didn't take so much oil to keep 

 up the necessary heat to run the thing. 

 But when you run so much honey and 

 wax through as we do, you have to 

 Iceep it so hot in order to keep the cap- 

 pings melted and out of the way, that 

 it colors the honey too much, even to 

 mix in a large tank full of honey. 



You take a water-white honey like the 

 willow-herb, or raspberry hone.v, and 

 it don't take very nnich to give a tinge 

 of color to it. Then the flavor is af- 

 fected, too. I never yet saw any honey 

 that wa.x was meited with it that it 

 didn't give the honey an off taste. 



I expect to make me a large un- 

 capping tank to use the coming sum- 

 mer. It will be about six feet long and 

 seventeen or eighteen inches wide. Then 

 I will get a shallow vat made of gal- 

 vanized iron to cover the bottom and 

 part way up the sides, and have a hole 

 and spout in one end to let the honey 

 drain off in a tub. Then I will have 

 a tray of coarse wire cloth, about a % 

 inch mesh of heavy wire, to hang in 

 three or four inches up from the bot- 

 tom, to let the cappings fall on. I can 

 then uncap the whole length of the 

 tank, and the cappings, not being very 



