THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



133 



foundation. Only a moderate amount of 

 honey was being gathered, and but a few 

 colonies were making any progress in the 

 supers, so that I was surprised, a couple of 

 weeks later, to find most of those new sec- 

 tions built out and finished, while in some 

 cases the old foundation, right alongside in 

 the same supers, had not been touched." 



Carniolans Good Workers.— Care of Combs. 



From an excellent article contributed by 

 E. France, to Gleanings, I make the follow- 

 ing extracts : 



" What kind of bees is best ? JNow, to tell 

 the truth, I don't know. I commenced with 

 the blacks, and I must say ihey are hard to 

 beat. I have tried several strains of Italians, 

 some of which have done pretty fair work. 

 But I think the hybrids are better workers 

 than the pure Italians. I am now trying the 

 Carniolans — the dark-colored ones. They 

 have done first-rate for me the last two years. 

 In fact, they have done the best of any bees 

 that I have. My home yard of 100 colonies 

 consists of Carniolans." 



" Another important item in producing ex- 

 tracted honey is to have plenty of extra 

 empty combs, so when the honey-tiow comes 

 we can tier up and give the bees plenty of 

 room to store honey. We work our L. hives 

 three stories during the honey season. In the 

 fall we take off one set and store them away 

 until wanted the next year. In this latitude 

 I take them off in October, and pack them 

 away in the third stories, piled one on the 

 other in our comli-room. If they were 

 taken away from the bees much sooner than 

 October, the moths would destroy them, un- 

 less we smoked them with sulphur. Combs 

 packed away in a tight room where they 

 will freeze hard are safe from the moths. 

 I have kept them all summer with no signs 

 of worms about them." 



Imbedding Wires with Electricity a Success. 



Imbedding wires in the foundation put in- 

 to frames, by heating the wires with electric- 

 ity, is a new "wrinkle," and we wish to 

 know as much as possible in regard to it, 

 hence, I am glad to be able to copy the fol- 

 lowing from the last number of Gleanings. 



" Some two months ago a correspondent 

 of the American Bee Journal stated that he 

 had succeded in imbedding wires into 

 foundation by means of electricity from a 

 battery. This set us to thinking and experi- 

 menting, although we had entertained the 

 same ideas some eight or ten years previous- 

 ly : but on account of the intersecting wires 

 by the old way of wiring, the plan was not 

 feasible. But since we are beginning to use 

 the horizontal plan, no wires intersecting, 

 so that a current can be run from one end of 

 the wire to the other, the matter has assumed 

 a new aspect. In our last issue we stated 

 the progress of our experiments. Since that 

 time we have been imbedding the wires to a 

 lot of frames by electricity. The form of 



battery that we now employ is three cells of 

 bichromate of potash, each of a gallon capa- 

 city, with the carbons in the large cell, and 

 the zinc in the usual porous cup. Since Mr. 

 Golden's article api)eared in type, as given 

 in another column, we began experimenting 

 anew ; and the result is, that we find that we 

 can imbed the foundation on the wires per- 

 fectly. After the job is done, the wire lies 

 nicely imbedded in the center of the wax : 

 and, more than all, it is covered with a very 

 thin transparent coating of wax. Sometimes 

 bees are inclined to gnaw around the wires ; 

 but we imagine that, if the wires were cover- 

 ed with a film of wax, the bees would be less 

 inclined to do so. However, experiment will 

 decide this point. At present it looks as if 

 imbedding by means of electricity might 

 not be so very expensive after all, and 

 especially so if we consider the nicety of the 

 work. We imbedded this morning the wires 

 of about 50 frames into foundation by elec- 

 tricity, and the work is beautiful. By tim- 

 ing ourselves we found that we could put 

 foundation on the wires at the rate of three 

 frames per minute : so we think that the im- 

 bedding could easily be done at the rate of 

 IjjO per hour. In our next we will try to give 

 you a picture of the apparatus, and how to 

 make it. 



We ought to say right here that it probably 

 would not pay the small bee-keeper to imbed 

 his wires by electricity ; but it looks now as 

 if it would be quite a saving in time for the 

 large bee-keeper and all supply dealers." 



Paint for Bee Hives; How to Detect 



Adulteration in Paint, etc. 



In Gleanings for April 15, E. R. Root 

 gives a most excellent article on the subject 

 of paints. Lack of room prevents my giv- 

 ing all of the whys and wherefores, but the 

 conclusion is that pure lead, zinc and French 

 ocher, in equal parts, mixed with raw lin- 

 seed oil, make the ideal paint. All these 

 substances combine perfectly, and form a 

 smooth, hard, durable surface of light straw- 

 color, that will neither peel, crack, nor rub 

 off. It is so nearly white that it is not an 

 objectionable color for bee hives. The 

 detection of adulturations may be accom- 

 plished as follows : — 



"Any thing but linseed oil can'usually be 

 detected by the smell. Fish oil has a very 

 sickening odor. Barytes and lime can 

 usually be detected in the following way : 

 Buy a small can of lead that you propose us- 

 ing with your ocher or zinc, as the case may 

 be. Scoop out a little of it and put it in an 

 empty tin can : pour on top turpentine. 

 Mix thoroughly by stiring, and then allow 

 this to stand for twenty-four or fourty-eight 

 hours. At the expiration of this time, pour 

 off the top : and if barytes or lime is used 

 you will find a sort of dry powder in the 

 bottom of the can, that has failed to unite 

 with the oil. This lime or barytes is a pos- 



