634 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1.5 



ing an object much less than a ra.Uionth of a 

 pound. Upon these I weighed each of the ten 

 bees separately, and from these weights it was 

 a simple problem in arithmetic to determine 

 how many of the same size as each it would 

 require to make a pound of bees. The follow- 

 ing are the results: 

 No. 1—4141 bees in lb. No. 6—486(5 bees in lb. 



" 2—4335 " " " 7—4936 



" 3—4420 " " " 8—5291 



" 4—4476 " " " 9—5551 



" 5—4670 " " " 10—5669 



From the above you will see that, of the 

 largest bee, it would require 4141 to make a 

 pound; and of the smallest, 5669; and an aver- 

 age of all these ten would require 4832, which, 

 perhaps, it is safe to say is a fair average of 

 bees in general. I should be glad to get the 

 extremes. If any have very large or very small 

 bees, and will send me a dozen, I will weigh 

 and report upon them. B. F. Koons. 



Connecticut Ag'l College, Storrs, Ct., July 28. 



[We are greatly obliged to Prof. Koons— not 

 so much because he has given us any new facts, 

 but because he has corroborated with accurate 

 instruments the estimates that have heretofore 

 been made; namely, that a pound of bees, on 

 an average, contains about .5000 bees; and this, 

 we believe, is the number we gave in answer to 

 our correspondent. Some eleven years ago 

 E. E. Hasty, with scales of his own devising, 

 verified these results very closely. See Glean- 

 ings (Juvenile), page 61, 1882. We do not now 

 sell bees by the pound; but knowing the num- 

 ber in a pound, and knowing the average num- 

 ber of pounds in a colony, we can approximate 

 very closely the numberof bees that go to make 

 up that colony. We have bought swarms that 

 weighed 9 lbs. ; but the average of good swarms, 

 such as we used to buy of the farmers when 

 they brought them in (for we always bought 

 by the pound), weighed about 4 lbs.; so that 

 there may be anywhere from 20.000 to 25,000 

 bees in a fair colony. Perhaps Prof. Koons 

 would be interested in ascertaining the average 

 weight of a bee-load. Mr. Hasty found that 

 one bee could carry of honey considerably more 

 than its own weight. His scales showed that, 

 of unloaded bees, there were 4666 to the pound; 

 and of those loaded, there were only 1832.] 



A NEW SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOR. 



B. TAYLOR TELLS HOW HE USES ARTIFICIAL 

 HEAT TO HELP. 



What a nice thing it would be for every bee- 

 keeper if he could have a solar wax-extractor 

 for turning waste scraps of combs, and big 

 pieces too, for that matter, into nice yellow wax, 

 provided it would really do the work in good 

 shape! I have tried nearly all the machines in 

 the books, mentioned for that purpose. We 

 always had lying around large quantities of 

 big and little pieces of waste combs that were 

 either melting in the sun, or, what was still 

 worse, furnishing breeding-places for the bee- 

 moth, that disgusting nuisance of the bee- 

 keeper, and which we may well name "the 

 bee-keeper's plague." But none of said ma- 

 chines gave entire satisfaction. They were 

 slow and uncertain in operation. We made 

 one on a large scale that took a glass 2x5 feet to 

 cover it, the machine costing $10.00; but it did 

 not prove to be what we needed, and I gave it 

 to my daughter to set in the cellar to keep 

 bread and other foods secure from mice and 

 roaches. All the machines tried would work to 

 some degree, under favorable conditions, but 



they all had one radical fault — lack of sufficient 

 heat at the bottom. 



This summer we went to work to conquer 

 this " Petersburgh." even if it took the whole 

 season; and after lying awake some time, for 

 several nights, studying over the problem, we 

 went to work. We procured a large tin dish- 

 pan; made a hole in the bottom near the edge; 

 soldered in a half-inch tube two inches long to 

 convey the wax into a dish below. We next 

 cut a circular piece of tin a little larger than 

 the inside of the bottom of the pan; cut a piece 

 out of one side, running to a sharp point at the 

 center; drew these edges together, riveted them 

 so as to have the center raised, in pail-cover 

 fashion; trimmed down the edge to stiffen it, 

 and laid it in the bottom of the pan. This cir- 

 lar piece is to keep the waste from the bottom 

 of the pan. and to prevent choking the flow of 

 wax. 



We next took a glass as large as the top of the 

 pan; put a sash around it, said sash being just 

 large enough to go over the top of the pan and 

 let the glass rest tightly on top of the pan. 

 The extractor proper was now complete. We 

 next made a can out of galvanized iron, some- 

 thing like an extractor-can without bottom, 

 two feet high, and large enough in circum- 

 ference so the extractor-pan would go into it 

 half up its sloping sides. We wired the bottom 

 end of the galvanized can. but left the top end 

 sharp so it would tit the extractor-pan tightly. 

 When pushed down properly inside of the gal- 

 vanized can we cut a square hole, 6x8 inches, 

 6 inches from the bottom, and covered it with a 

 movable slide. We next set the bottom can on 

 a suitable board bottom and screwed it fast as 

 you do your extractors. This can we now set in 

 a protected corner on the smith side of our 

 shop, where the sun would shine most of the 

 day. and set the extractor-can in the top of it, 

 with the hole for the escape of wax at the 

 south side, with a suitable vessel in the lower 

 can for catching the wax. We set the lower 

 can level, but the round sloping sides of the 

 extractor-pan allowed it to beset at any needed 

 angle to face the sun properly at different times 

 of day. and the circular sloping sides of the pan 

 keep it constantly in focus as the sun moves 

 around. We next took a small hand oil-stove, 

 that costs 75 cents h<>re, and. lighting it. un- 

 covered thp square hole in the lower can, and 

 -et it in boside our pan for catching wax. leav- 

 ing the door half open to give the stove needed 

 air: filled the extractor with a quantity of 

 combs, replaced the glass, and went into the 

 shop to await the new birth. After a little 

 time we returned to examined the new babe. 

 Eureka! a bee-keeper's savior is surely born I 

 Carry the news to Medina! The old black 

 combs were gone, and the dish below was filled 

 with splendid yellow wax. You can change 

 the pitch of the pan to any needed angle in a 

 moment by tilting the extractor-pan in the top 

 of the open can below. This extractor will do 

 the work certainly, and to perfection; can 

 remain stationary for all time; is cheaply 

 made; will not get out of order. Good-by. old 

 carts. You have served your time. Adieu, 

 old rheumatic friend. I shall make one of the 

 new extractors on a large scale, mount it on 

 our abandoned revolving hive-stand, where it 

 will remain as a permanent fixture, and where 

 itcanbekepr, facing the sun at all hours by 

 turning tlio hive stand by a touch of the hand. 



Before closing, let me say that the honey 

 crop here is fair. We put 24 colonies into our 

 new house last spring, but four proved queen- 

 less, leaving 20 colonies. We made new colo- 

 nies from the.se to fill the house, and it now 

 contains 38 colonies. On these hives we have 

 used to date 105 supers of 24 sections, and 90 



