1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



311 



ly, but although I procured the purest arti- 

 cles, and used the utmost care, I have never 

 been able to get wax enough whiter to make 

 it any object, to say nothing of making 

 white wax of it. The sun bleaching is the 

 plan generally used, if I am not mistaken, 

 but as I have said before, we certainly do 

 not want white wax for uss in the apiary. 

 The plan of cleansing wax by the use of 

 acids or vinegar is well known, I believe, 

 but, as a general rule, I think, it is more 

 trouble than the plans I have given. Our 

 friend Doolittle sent us some remarkably 

 pretty wax, that he said was cleansed by the 

 following process, which is taken from Quin- 

 bifs Bee-Keeping, edition of 1866, page 283: 



By adding 1 an acid to the water in which the wax 

 is melted, it may be separated much more readily. 

 A quart of vinegar to a gallon of water, or a small 

 spoonful of nitric acid is sufficient. 



ADULTERATION OF WAX. 



The white wax of commerce, I am sorry 

 to say, is generally largely adulterated with 

 paraffine, which very much injures it for 

 making fdn., as I have before explained. 

 Within the past two years, another sub- 

 stance, called ceresin, has been imported in 

 large quantities, and bids fair to take the 

 place of wax to a great extent for many pur- 

 poses. It, however, like paraffine, when 

 used for combs, stretches so much, as to 

 make it worse than useless. Both of these 

 substances can readily be mixed with wax, 

 and the problem is to determine when there 

 is suchad mixture. My method has been 

 simply to chew a piece of the suspected wax ; 

 if adulterated, even slightly, with either, the 

 wax will chew like gum ; whereas, if pure, it 

 will soon crumble and break to pieces in the 

 mouth, and will not make gum at all. In 

 buying the ordinary cakes of wax of com- 

 merce, we are pretty safe from adulteration 

 with either of these, or at least we have been 

 up to this time (June 1879), but I am daily 

 expecting to find counterfeit cakes of dirty 

 wax, all sizes and colors. I am sorry to say, 

 that there is a species of fraud practiced by 

 the country people themselves, by adding 

 tallow to their cakes of beeswax, but, hap- 

 pily, this is not very common. The pres- 

 ence of tallow is detected, by both taste and 

 smell, and especially, by chewing, for a 

 very small per cent of tallow softens the wax- 

 quite perceptibly, and makes it like grafting 

 wax. Where we suspect a cake of wax, I 

 have sometimes made a little of it into a 

 piece of fdn., and hung it in a hive. If the 

 cells made are regular, and do not stretch 

 out so as to give the oblong appearance. I 



pronounce it pure wax ; for, so far as I 

 know, there is no other substance known 

 that will stand the heat of the hive, as will 

 wax, without bulging and stretching. 



HOW FRIEND BOLIN WINTERS AND 



"SPRINGS" HIS BEES BY 



THIS TIME. 



AND SOMETHING ABOUT NATURAL SWARMING. 



^JRTEND Novice:— Still upon the field of battle, I 

 JM am lying,— hut, hold ! that won't do; for we 

 have no time to lie around idle on the field of 

 battle, or anywhere else, just now. As that Arctic 

 wave that almost overwhelmed the apiaries of so 

 many of our bee-keeping friends, last winter and 

 spring, passed our "bee yards" without doing any 

 very great amount of damage, both myself and as- 

 sistants have our hands full, at present, in attend- 

 ing to the calls of the busy workers. 



In fact, friend N., I think my two bee houses 

 render Arctic waves, bee epidemics, &c, almost 

 proof against harm, where the bees have all been 

 properly prepared for wintering. I say almost, for 

 I lost a number of stocks, such as they were, during 

 the winter, and a few dwindled in the most approved 

 style, after they were taken out of winter quarters; 

 but the greater part of them came through in fair 

 condition. 



I sold my stock down to 183 colonies last fall. 

 Some 14 or 15 of these were made up of bees taken 

 out of my queen rearing hives, on the approach of 

 cold weather. The most of them were weak, and 

 several of them had queens that had not commenc- 

 ed laying when they were put into winter quarters, 

 and I do not know as they ever did. The 14 or 15 

 should have been doubled up into 4 or 5 swarms; 

 but, as the queens were young, I wished to save as 

 many of them as possible, and so concluded to let 

 them take their chances. I lost 13 of the above 

 weak stocks while they were in winter quarters (but 

 not one good colony), and 10 colonies more through 

 loss of queens, dwindling and doubling up after they 

 were put on the summer stands, thus leaving me 

 160 colonies with which to begin this season. 



Of the 183 colonies, I put 49 in the bee house at my 

 northern apiary, 129 in that at home, and 5 in double, 

 sawdust packed hives, were left on the summer 

 stand. One of the above five was among the 23 lost, 

 so that the percentage of loss was considerably 

 greater among them than it was with those wintered 

 indoors. 



Now, friend N., to sum this wintering business all 

 up: Do not you give the solution to the whole prob- 

 lem on page 162, May No. of Gleanings, when you 

 say as follows ? "The chaff hives were all right 

 when the others were dying off at a rapid rate, but 

 within the past week, they, too, have commenced 

 dying," &c, "while the house apiary seems almost 

 unaffected," &c. Now, the single hives, being cold- 

 est, died first; the chaff hives, being warmer, held 

 out longer; while the house apiary, being, perhaps, 

 almost or quite frost proof, was also almost epidem- 

 ic proof. 



Now, if there is any false reasoning in the above, 

 please point it out, friend N., for, like one of old, I 

 would rather be "right than be President;" especial- 

 ly, since I suppose the Asst. P. M. Gen. would not 

 let me keep bees at the white house, for fear they 

 might sting him. 



