1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



67 



and myself tried to retain the patent for the purpose 

 of griving it to the bee-keeping world, but we could not 

 succeed, and we dropped the thing. We use it our- 

 selves. It beats wiring. I have not used wire for 

 years. It is a very simple thing indeed. I have now 

 in use something very similar to the old Given press. 

 I had one in the apiary when I went to Cuba, and in 

 using that I would make a double dip of the top of 

 each sheet — that is, dip sidewise instead of endwise, 

 and by doing it that way and pressing it I got sheets 

 that would not stretch, having the upper half very 

 heavy and the lower half very thin. I tried to interest 

 the Roots, but they said there was some mechanical 

 difficulty in running foundation by that method. 

 Then I tried again a few years ago to interest them, 

 but they were then working on another scheme, and 

 did not take it up. This process is simply forcing the 

 wax to any part of the section that you want it by 

 brushing melted wax over the surface. It also adds 

 wax to the edges of the cells, and in some way or oth- 

 er strengthens them. I think that also solves the 

 question of feeding wax to the bees for them to use. 

 I take my comb, and I have a little dish over a small 

 kerosene-stove so as to keep the wax melted. I use an 

 ordinary three-inch flat varnish-brush. I take up all 

 the wax I can, and just rub it over the upper half un- 

 til that wax will press out over the edges of the cells. 

 It adds wax to the cells in the upper part, and I have 

 no trouble. I use a quarter-inch-deep foundation. I 

 have the finest combs I have ever had in my life. It 

 solves the entire problem of stretching combs. The 

 gentleman who has patented this process lives in 

 Southern California, and his name is Henry Vogeler. 

 It was patented in 1900. I would no more think of go- 

 ing back to wires or doing without it than I would of 

 trying to keep bees that would not rob. <; u 



A patent was issued to Mr. Henry Vogeler, 

 New Castle, Pa., April 17, 1900. The specific 

 claim covering the process reads as follows: 



"As an improved article of manufacture, the artifi- 

 cial comb foundation having its cells constructed with 

 thick beads extending around and constituting their 

 rims or edges, as and for the purpose specified." 



Any person who desires to use this process 

 should make arrangements with Mr. Voge- 

 ler. 



RENDERING COMBS INTO WAX. 



On this subject Mr. C. P. Dadant, who, as 

 everybody knows, is an authority on the 

 subject, had this to say: 



Beeswax can be overheated with water by overboil- 

 ing. The water, in boiling through the beeswax, will 

 beat it into a grainy substance which looks like pulp. 

 Vou can change your cakes into powder from one 

 end to the other by overboiling — by allowing the wa- 

 ter to beat your wax into a grainy mass. If you have 

 seen something like corn meal at the bottom of your 

 cakes it is beeswax; and the only way in which you 

 can return that is by dry melting. There are several 

 things about the rendering of combs that are of some 

 importance to know. Do not melt your beeswax with 

 water in pans that contain any iron. Iron will turn 

 your wax black. There are several little points that 

 should be considered. Do not use any acids in ren- 

 dering wax. Most people, when they do use acid, use 

 twenty times as much as they need. It takes the 

 smell of the bees out of the beeswax. Our friend Mr. 

 Kretchmer said, "Soak your combs a long time." 

 That is right. Take the old cocoons and crush them 

 as much as you can, so that they will not take in the 

 beeswax. Those cocoons have the shape of a honey- 

 cell, and they remain there after they are crushed, 

 and there is no chancefor the beeswax toget into them. 

 Put your combs in clean water and melt them. It is 

 not necessary to use a press until you have taken the 

 best of your wax out. We never do use a press with 

 cappings, but we use a press for the residue. A gen- 

 tleman asked me a question. The boiling must be 

 with water; and if you spoil the beeswax and get it 

 grainy, that part which is grainy, and which is more 

 or less dirty, and which contains a good deal of water, 

 must be returned to good shape by dry heat. Then 

 you will not have as good beeswax as you would oth- 

 erwise have. I have had shipments of beeswax that 

 were so badly beaten with water that they would lose 

 one-fifth. It would not look very much like beeswax. 

 It would look like a cake made of ground corn. I had 

 a long discussion in regard to pollen in beeswax. I 

 did not know at first that there was any such thing; 

 but I found it out when we were making foundation. 



We were throwing away our residue containing that 

 grainy substance. In the course of time it melted in 

 the sun, and after a while we took up this residue and 

 got 100 lbs. of beeswax from it. 



USING HONEY AGAIN FROM FOUL- BROODY 

 HIVES, EVEN AFTER IT HAS BEEN BOILED. 



On this subject Mr. N. E. France, General 

 Manager of the National Bee-keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, and official foul brood inspector for 

 Wisconsin, has some decided ideas. 



Mr. President, the care of honey from infected hives 

 has been one of the greatest hobbies of my work in 

 our State. About five or six weeks ago I received no- 

 tice that a whole apiary was to be moved from Wis- 

 consin to Iowa, and that there was infection in that 

 yard. I was not aware of it. I went there and found 

 infection; and in order to hold the man I put a printed 

 quarantine card upon the yard, and said, "You dare 

 not move one thing. It must be treated right here." 

 But he said, " I am away from home on expense, and I 

 can not afford to stay." I replied, "Sir, if you were 

 sick with the smallpox you would stay. This is not 

 smallpox, but to the bees it is equal to it" 



He had four colonies of bees all ready for shipment, 

 but they never left the city. The honey was extracted 

 from those combs with the understanding that it 

 should all be used as a food consumption in two fami- 

 lies who knew what they were using, and that the 

 dishes or cans in which it came were at my mercy, and 

 they were disposed of. Infected honey, I have not 

 been able to say positively, is injurious to human 

 health, but I can not for one moment recommend it. 

 I have used some of that honey purposely from some 

 badly infected combs myself, and I fancy I have re- 

 ceived some ill effects temporarily. One man in one 

 county extracted honey where the brown ropy matter 

 was in some combs, and went into the honey visible 

 to the naked eye, and that honey he himself used, and 

 his family, and he is still living and in good health. 

 To go back to the point of what we were going to al- 

 low with regard to this honey, in two cases where 

 they had considerable of it I allowed them to ship it to 

 bakers, marking the barrels and notifying them that it 

 was infected honey, and that those barrels must be 

 burned. Otherwise I have not allowed any one, where 

 I have known of infected honey in the State, to do any 

 thing with that honey but either to destroy it totally or 

 boil it, after which it is not of any value; because if 

 you boil it enough you have blackened your honey 

 till there is no commercial value in it. 



Mr. Ramer.— Would it do to feed to the bees again 

 after boiling? 



Mr. France.— Don't take the chance. I believe it is 

 possible that that honey can be boiled and used again, 

 from the fact that I made a desperate effort twelve 

 years ago to save every thing in a yard of over 200 in- 

 fected colonies. We took the hives, cleansed them, 

 and put the bees back into the same hives, extracted 

 and boiled the honey, and, having a foundation outfit 

 on the farm, we made some infected wax into comb 

 foundation, put the bees on to that, and fed them with 

 boiled infected honey. That was twelve years ago, 

 and no disease has shown up since; but I would not 

 want that to become a general public statement, from 

 the fact that any one else might not be as thorough. 

 We boiled that honey to a finish. I have seen honey 

 that has been called boiled in which the germs of the 

 disease were plentiful and alive. There have been in 

 my State and in adjoining ones, not giving names, 

 nine instances where honey from an unknown source 

 has been used as a means of feeding bees for winter 

 stores, and in those cases it has brought the disease to 

 their yards. Do not for one moment buy honey to 

 feed to your bees unless you know positively the 

 source it comes from. Sugar syrup is better than to 

 take those chances. 



Dr. Bohrer.—l have some at home canned up, but I 

 will not sell it. I am too good a Christian to sell it I 

 would as soon go into my neighbor's bam and steal 

 his horses. As to extracting it, when it reaches the 

 stage Mr. France has spoken of, that is, with a large 

 number of diseased larvae, and decomposed and ropy, 

 I never extracted any honey from a frame of that kind. 

 I simply take the frames that have no brood in them 

 and extract the honey from them. If I use that at all, 

 I use it on my own table in the winter time. Where 

 Mr. Poppleton lives he had better not use it at all, be- 

 cause lie lives in a warmer climate and bees get out 

 every day in the year, and they may get at that honey. 

 You must not take any chances. If you can not use it 

 during the cold winter weather it is better to dig a 

 hole and bury it. 



