1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



705 



honey ami wax receptacle F, which is :.' feel 

 square on top. taijei'ing to IS inches at tiie hot- 

 toin. and 13 inch(>s deep. The flaring sides will 

 allow the cake of wax to he lift(>d out easily, 

 and the honey is drawn o IV through the niol asses- 

 gate G. The" space marked I) will be tilled with 

 honey, and the space C with wax. E is the 

 glass cover over all. It should be hinged on. 

 and fit tight to invvenf the escajje of hot air. 



Fillmore. Cal.. Aug. IS. ,). F. McIxtvi!k. 



Your ideas on the construction of the solar 

 wax-extractor — that is. the iirinciple of it — are 

 correct. AVIkmi I visited G. M. Doolittle I found 

 he was using something on very much the same 

 princi))le. only, if any thing, it was on a siinpler 

 plan. As I took a photograph of It at the time. 

 I will, when an engraving is made, describe it. 

 Yes. the wax should, as fast as melted, run down 

 the inclined i)lane, and thence into a receptacle 

 also exposed to the direct rays of the sun after 

 thoroughly melting. We propose to modify our 

 solar wax-extractor, so as to combine the fea- 

 tures of the one illustrated above, and the one 

 used by Doolittle. IJoih of you have made some 

 very great imiiroveinents in the sun extractor. 

 over the one we have l)een selling. — E. II. 



EXPERIENCES OF T JE PAST SEASON. 



MI!S. AXTF,I,I, OIVKS US A GKEAT XT'MHKi; ol' 

 VAI.t AUM-:. IMtACTIfAL THOUGHTS. 



Our liees thus far this s(>ason have stored but 

 little surplus. Tlie winter being warm they 

 consumed the most of their stores, and came 

 out in the spring strong in uumhtM's: conse- 

 quently we had to feed largely. Tin- tir>t of 

 May found tluun almost wholh' dei)emlent 

 upon what was fed them. Then came three 

 weeks of cool cloudy weather, and thev Me\\' 

 but little: and as INIr. Axtell and I weri' both 

 feeling so poorly just then \\<' came neai' letting 

 sonu' colonies starve: and the consequence w as. 

 they dwindled instead of increased in numi)ers 

 just before the honey harvest: but by building 

 up the stronger with brood from the weaker 

 colonies, we had the larger part of our colonies 

 ready for the honey harvest in June. Such 

 colonies gathered from 10 to :i.") lbs. of surplus. 

 Those that we left nuaided gathered nosurplus. 



Some :]() colonies that bi'ood was taken irom 

 to btiild up others, have liafl to be fed sinc(^ 

 about the tirst of .July, anil will still n(^ed moic 

 feeding. 



The drouth has been so severe as to dry up 

 all honey-bearing plants, oi' nearly so. Ai)out 

 ten days ago we had a heavy rain, and two or 

 three lighter on(>s since, that have wondeifully 

 reviv(>d vegetation, causing the litth' heart's- 

 ease there was to branch and blossom oul. and 

 bees are gathei'iiig a living no\\'. ^^'e are hop- 

 ing our bees will gather enougli to winter upon. 



THl': DIBHKKN HKK-KSC'AI'K. 



When we take off our surplus honey, as usual, 

 tliei'e are some bees we can not get out very 

 readily. We genei'ally set them in the honey- 

 room on end ai'ound on tln' lloor. and let the bees 

 fly to the window, and then i)ile up aiteiwaid. 

 Sonu'times we pile them u)) one super ci'oss- 

 wise of tiu' other, and another huigthwise. and 

 so on: but this time we |)ut a Dibbern bee- 

 escap:' honey-board over a weak colon.x'. and 

 piled ui) sui)ers six oi- eight high, and in a few 

 days took tli"m off. and found llie bees all gone 

 out. or ne;irl\ so. and the colonies nicel.\ 



sti'engthened up. Some other weak colonies we 

 did not use bee-escapes upon, but i)artly covei'- 

 ed the colonies, and left on(> good passageway 

 at one side of each row of s<>ctions. and theii 

 l)iled the cases uj) as high as we could conven- 

 iently reach, and thought it was safe, and left 

 them on several days. Those colonies got both 

 bees and the unsealed honey. T\u' liees mostly 

 went out. but not so well as thos(> with the es- 

 capes: but it helped the colonies, and dul not 

 injure any capped honey. Although it was 

 done at the time of a honey-dearth. scarc<'ly 

 any bees were killed, and I think no (juimmis 

 were killed. I think the latter way of getting 

 out the bees an excellent one. especially if one 

 has weak colonies he desii'es to strengthen, es- 

 pecially if there are many bees left in the 

 supers. Some colonies .seem to cling to the 

 snpiM's more than othei'S. and it tak'es a long 

 time to get them all out. 



KAIT COMKS. 



Our bees this summer would have stored but 

 little honey in sections if they had not had bait 

 combs. Many coloni(>s tilled only such combs, 

 and put the remainder of theii- honey into tlu' 

 brootl-combs below. Wise little beesl they 

 knew bettei' than their owner what a long 

 drouth \\as before them. 



I certainly wo\ild never melt up clean combs 

 in sections, or even bits of new comb that can 

 be fitted into sections. 1 think there may be a 

 dilference in localities. Bees may more readily 

 enter tlie sup 'rs than in other places. It re- 

 tards swarming if they may be got to work 

 briskly in the sup.'rs bid'ore they get the swarm- 

 ing fever. 



ITAIJAXS AHKAI). 



This siniiig I noticed that the hybiids entered 

 thi^ surplus cases much more readily than the 

 pure colonii's: but the i)ure ones that did work 

 above, gathered much tlie mo .t honey. In the 

 body of the hive the pure colonies filled every 

 cell possible — chucked it full— while a few 

 black hybrid colonies were very light in stores. 

 For that one reason alone it pays to keep only 

 pure Italians as far as possible. I am afraid I 

 should feel like giving up bee-keeping if we 

 could get no better bee than the blacks for 

 these poor seasons. (Jood y(>ai"S it doesn't seem 

 to make so much dilfeience. exce|)t in handling. 

 They run provokingly just where one does not 

 want them, while the ijure ones stick to the 

 combs quietly: but the l)lacks must be eipuilly 

 hardy a race of bees as the Italians, or it would 

 not be so difficult to keep them pure. 



AHE Tirp:i{K TWO KINDS OF COMMON BKKS? 



It does seem to me there is a difference be- 

 tween the black and the brown bee. While 

 at the Aurora Cancer Hospital this spring 

 to have a small cancer taken out my left cheek, 

 the doctoi' brought home a small colony of 

 large brown bees. The bees cei'lainly did not 

 look so black and shiny as the blacks of our 

 neighbors at home. Tlie colony was so small 

 that I feared he would get no surplus from it 

 tills sumuKM'. and I never handled a colony of 

 Italians that was moi'e g<'ntle. When working 

 them, through transferring some of the combs 

 and str.'ngtheniiig others, 1 thrinv off my veil 

 and worked with both face and hands bare, 

 and got no vicious sting. Only one stung me, 

 ami that I mashed. I suppose one reason they 

 were so gentle is, I had good heavy smoke, 

 i told the doctor 1 wanted some smoke to 

 sulidue them willi. and he went and got a large 

 stove-kettle and Idled it half or two-thirds full 

 of coals aiwl chijis, and set it on the side of the 

 liive where the wind would carry the smoke 

 over the bees. We had the colony set on the 

 top of an easteiii veranda, close up to a w Indow 



