May, 1908. 



American Hae Journal 



Mr. lliilicrniann usus. liail a double- 

 bottom in the extractor with water be- 

 tween. In this way the unstrained honey 

 at the bottom of the can became heated 

 and strained. 



The advantage of a strainer cone- 

 shaped (w-ith the top of the cone cut), 

 and allowing the unstrained honey to 

 rest on the bottom of the can, was that 

 more rapid work could bo done, the ma- 

 terial strained out settling largely on 

 the bottom of the can, and left the 

 cloth on the side of the cone clean. 

 This refuse could be collected by a 

 paddle with a straight end, and pushed 

 out of the extractor through a hole 

 generally covered with a screw-cap. Mr. 

 Coveyou stated that he never removed 

 the cloth from the cone. He could thor- 

 oughly clean it by means of water, 

 neither hot nor cold, and brushing it by 

 means of a whisk. 



COMB-HONEV SUPERS, HONEY-G.\TES, ETC. 



The question as to points desirable in 

 the best comb-honey supers brought out 

 a suggestion by E. D. Townsend, to 

 have one drawn comb at each side of 

 the super. This brought the bees up 

 and tended to uniformity in finish. 



Mr. Aspinwall pointed out that con- 

 tinuity of passages between brood-combs 

 and sections was essential for passage 

 ways for the bees to take up honey, also 

 for the best ventilation. In constructing 

 his non-swarming hive he made this a 

 feature. 



F. J. Miller, President of the Ontario 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, London, Ont., 

 also Mr. Coveyou, advocated in their 

 management for out-apiaries run for 

 extracted honey, hauling home the combs 

 of honey and then extracting, using a 

 power engine. Mr. Coveyou, backed by 

 others, mentioned the undesirable fea- 

 tures in honey extractor gates as made 

 at present. They would not stay where 

 wanted, and, when opened entirely, fell 

 entirely over and deflected the stream of 

 honey. 



Mr. Aspinwall exhibited a queen- 

 catcher. He had not caught a queen 

 with his hands for 5 years. It con- 

 sisted of a 14-gauge wire, beat at one 

 end into a circle 54 of an inch in dia- 

 meter inside the wire. This wire was 

 dipped into melted wax and- held about 

 the queen on the comb when she would 

 step on the wire and could be lifted 

 by it. 



T. F. Bingham thought bee-keepers' 

 conventions were not run right. There 

 was too much for specialists ; it should 

 be for the plain, small bee-keeper, and 

 there should be full reports in the bee- 

 papers. 



Mr. Bingham's remarks were not con- 

 sidered quite correct. Very little trans- 

 pired which could not be heard with 

 profit by the small bee-keeper, and bee- 

 papers could not reprint from year to 

 year acceptably to their readers long re- 

 ports of the nature that Mr. Bingham 

 advocated. 



Elmore M. Hunt, who has been work- 

 ing very hard to make the Michigan 

 State .\ssociation the banner bee-keep- 

 ers' association in the Union, and who 

 feels confident that Michigan has enough 

 bee-keepers to make it such, attributed 

 the small membership to unawakened 

 interest. It was decided to issue, as 

 was done last year, the "Year Book," 

 giving the name of each member, his 



postotlice address, number of colonies, 

 amount of .-omb and extracted honey 

 and beeswax for sale, number of col- 

 onies the member wants to purchase or 

 sell, etc. Such a book distributed had 

 been valuable in the past, and would be 

 particularly valuable in a season where 

 the honey crcjp would be larger. 



Mr. Aspinwall gave a new method he 

 had adopted of introducing queens. Late 

 in the fall lie made colonies queenless, 

 early in the morning when the colony 

 was lightly clustered he had opened up 

 the center of the cluster and dropped the 

 queen down between the combs. He 

 preferred introducing queens late, say 

 October, and did not want to do so 

 during the honey season. 



Mr. E. D. Townsend gave the fol- 

 lowing practical address on Clarifying 

 Beeswax : 



Clarifying Beeswax. 



It was about 25 years ago, that a pa- 

 tron brought in some beeswax that was 

 the finest I had ever seen at that time. 

 Since, I have seen some on exhibition 

 that was clarified equal to this sample, 

 or perhaps better. You may be sure I 

 pumped this individual for all I was 

 worth, until I knew, in theory, all about 

 rendering beeswax. This especial lot of 

 wax was in cakes the size, and shape of 

 a brick ; and about the first question I 

 asked was, "How did you get it out of 

 the tins, as there is no slope to the sides 

 of the cakes?" His reply was some- 

 thing as follows : 



This wax was not caked in tins at all, 

 but instead, five basswood boards, }i- 

 inch thick, cut in the following sizes, 

 were used. The base, or bottom of the 

 box, was cut about 8x10 inches, two end- 

 pieces 2x4 inches, (these should be cut 

 very accurately,) two side-pieces 2x10 

 inches. This completes the box, only 

 you will need a stop nailed on each side 

 of the base ; then a wedge, to wedge 

 up the box solid. Set the box up so 

 that the inside dimensions are 4x8 inches, 

 and two inches deep. The material 

 must be planed, and the joints made very 

 smooth. 



Now were we to fill this box with wax 

 as it is, the wax would stick, and be hard 

 to get out, even w^ith this knock-down 

 box. To prevent this, soak the box in 

 water for 2 or 3 hours before using, 

 and the wax will come out smooth and 

 nice. 



Handled as I am about to describe, 

 there will be no cracking of the cakes 

 in cooling. The process of clarifying 

 is as follows: The wa.x is melted in a 

 common No. 9 wash-boiler first putting 

 in a pail of water ; then filling the boiler 

 with the wax to be clarified, until the 

 wax is within 2 inches of the top of the 

 boiler, when melted. 



A tub the size of the boiler, or a little 

 larger, is placed under the wax-press; 

 and the whole contents of the boiler 

 is put through the press. .\s many tubs 

 are used as w-e have meltings of wax, or, 

 rather, the number of meltings we put 

 through in one day. The next morning 

 the wax is cool in the tubs, and is re- 

 moved, and all the dirt rinsed off the 

 wax that we can conveniently, and the 

 wax stored away until all the wax has 

 been rendered, and treated this way. 



Now we are ready to clarify the wax. 

 Procure a large wooden box, the larg- 



er the better (although you may be 

 able to get along with a moderate- 

 sized one). This is to chop the wax up 

 into small pieces in. Now put 2 pails 

 of clean water into the boiler and fill up 

 with wax, to be clarified. When melted, 

 set in the warmest place you have, but 

 not on the back of the stove, or where 

 there is any fire, for this would keep 

 the sediment stirred up — the very thing 

 you must avoid ; now wrap the boiler 

 of melted wax in blankets, to keep 

 warm, for it must be kept in the liquid 

 form for about 6 hours, to be sure of 

 the sediment being all precipitated. 



.At the end of this time there will be 

 a black scum on top of the wax, which 

 must be removed; then you are ready 

 to cake the wax. For commercial pur- 

 poses, we cake in lo-quart tin pails, 

 being sure that they are perfectly clean 

 before using. Do not make the com- 

 mon mistake of putting water in the 

 pail before filling with wax; if you 

 do, the cake will be rough on the bot- 

 tom, and will not appear well. 



Procure a quart tin dipper; and as 

 soon as the wax is skimmed proceed to 

 dipping it into pails, to cake for mar- 

 ket. 



There is a little knack in dipping, so 

 as not to roil the liquid. Let the bot- 

 tom of the dipper go down into the 

 wax first. That is not quite the idea, 

 either ; it is more like this : Dip the 

 dipper into tjie wax as if you were 

 going to dip out a dipper full, but do 

 not let the lip, or rather the top of 

 the dipper, sink into the wax more than 

 a half, or three-fourths of an inch, 

 then carefully let the bottom of the dip- 

 per sink down, until you have a full 

 dipper; then lift the dipper out care- 

 fully, so as not to roil the liquid; as 

 I mentioned above. 



You can usually dip 3 cakes from 

 each melting, before the sediment be- 

 gins to show. That part of the wax 

 that is left in the boiler is removed 

 when cool, and the bottom of the cake 

 washed in clean water, and is then 

 ready to be melted with the next melt- 

 ing. 



Only one lot is melted a day. This 

 gives plenty of time for the sediment 

 to fall to the bottom of the melted wax, 

 and for the cakes to cool. 



Handled this way, the wax is so cool 

 that the cakes do not crack in cool- 

 ing. 



I shipped between 300 and 400 pounds 

 of beeswax clarified this way, last win- 

 ter. This is what the buyer said 

 about it : 



"This is one of the very finest lots 

 of beeswax that we have ever received, 

 and we compliment you on the neat- 

 ness and skill in which it was rendered, 

 and packed." 



E. D. Townsend. 



LOSSES OP BEES IN WINTER. 



W. J. Manley, of Sandusky, gave a 

 profitable and entertaining address on 

 the subject of "Winter Losses." Mr. 

 Manley thought he should be able to 

 speak with authority on the subject. 

 Last winter he had lost all but one col- 

 ony out of 125. During the winter 

 of 1903 and 1904 he had lost all out 

 of 225. and yet he made money out of 

 bees by buying again in the spring and 

 carefully rendering the old comb. He 



