701 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



neil sent, both on the hive and in the vicinity. T i 

 presume I could even now find instances which the I 

 summer's rains have failed to wash away. I re- | 

 member one hive last spring: (which was, however, j 

 exceptional), in front of which the ground for the 

 space of perhaps two square feet was covered so j 

 thickly that I am not sure but less ground than I 

 faeces was to be seen. It seemed as if the whole 

 colony had by one consent emptied themselves just 

 as soon as fairly away from the hive; and I doubt 

 if there was among their droppings a single one 

 that would have been called liquid. The cylindrical 

 form could be plainly seen. Without knowing what 

 may be elsewhere, my testimony for this locality 

 would be, that bees usually void ffpces in liquid j 

 form, but the dry form is very common. ! 



WA.X-EXTKACTOH. 



After 1 sent to Gle.\nings an account of my sun i 

 wax -extractor, there were cooler days, in which the I 

 wax utterly refused to run. and I adjourned the in- 

 side gearing to the kitchen stove, where it acted to 

 my entire satisfaction. To any who have not large 

 quantities (indeed, 1 am not sure but it will work 

 well with large quantities), and who are obliged to 

 use fire heat, I would recommend for ti-ial the fol- 

 lowing: 



Take something in the form of a dripping-pan, 

 with one corner torn open ; put it in the oven of 

 the cook stove, with a chip or bit of wood to raise 

 the back part of it. Let the open corner project 

 out of the oven, and place on the floor a vessel to 

 catch the drip; throw in the pan your wax to be ex- 

 tracted, and that's all. Don't be in a hurry; all the 

 better if it melts quite slowly; and if the fire be 

 pretty hot, one or both oven-doors can be wide 

 open. 



CI.EANING WAXED UTENSIF.S. 



In various ways it will happen that milk-pans, 

 crocks, etc.. will be more or less daubed with wax. 

 The attempt fo clean them as dishes are ordinarily 

 washed will bo an ignoble failure. Don't try to 

 wash them with hut water. Here is a dish in which 

 some honey has been melted, and a little wax has 

 been in it. If you attempt to wash il with water 

 hot enough to melt the wax, you will succeed only 

 in having the dish more thoroughly waxed. But 

 wash off first the honey with cold water, at least 

 cool enough so it will not affect the wax; then wipe 

 dry, and heat till the wax jnelts (if the dish is not 

 too large, a good place is in the stove oven), then 

 take pieces of newspaper, and, without allowing to 

 pet cold, simply wipe the dish clean of wa.x. 



CAN IlEE-fil.UE BE rTir.IZED'' 



.V gf)od deal of projiolis will be accumulated in 

 cleaning off sections. It makes good fuel, ("an any 

 better use be mad(^ of it? A year or two ago I con- 

 ceived the idea of melting it up and coating honey 

 sheets, or quilts, with it. Tlu^ attempt was an 

 utter failure; but in heating the bee-glue I found 

 a liquid settling on top, which, on carefully pour- 

 ing off, I found to be very nice beeswax. As 1 had 

 a large (luantity of bee-glue, I obtained, if 1 remem- 

 ber rightly, about T lbs. of wax. ('. ('. .Mii,i,ki(. 



Marengo, 111., Oct. 1, 18sr>. 



I hope tlie friends will excuse me I'oi- tak- 

 ing tliis matter uy) again, after once sayinjj; I 

 thought it best to say nothing more abont 

 the subject for tlie present. Friend Miller, 

 however, gives us some facts from experi- 

 ence that have not been given before. I 

 have felt sad to see tlie parties on both sides 



of this question talk so vehemently, and, I 

 must confess, a little stubbornly, soiiietimes, 

 when it seemed to me, as friend Miller ex- 

 presses it, it did not matter very much who 

 was right or who was wrong. 1 should like 

 to put in just a word, though, for our friend 

 Cook. Jf I am correct, tiie principal point 

 at issue was. Do bees drop dry ffeces on the 

 bottom-board of the hive while ui winter 

 quarters':* The friends on one side of the 

 questi(-»n insist that they do, and that that is 

 the healthy and normal way for bees to 

 winter. Even friend Miller does not claim 

 to have founddry fa'ces on the bottom-board 

 of the hive, although he has found considera- 

 blequantities in front of the hive. that might 

 almost be said to be dry faeces.— In regard to 

 wax-extractors working by tlie sun's rays or 

 by putting in the oven, on the ingenious plan 

 suggested above, do not all such arrange- 

 ments leave considerable nice wax among 

 the debris? 1 agree Avith friend Miller ex- 

 actly, in regard to cleaning wax from uten- 

 sils. Trying to scrape the wax off with a 

 knife is the poorest plan in the world, and it 

 annoys me greatly to see the women in our 

 wax-room undertake to work in this way. 1 

 have for some time been aware that Avhat is 

 called " bee - glue " contains considerable 

 nice wax. 



KILLED BY BEE-STINGS. 



WHAT WE CAN" DO TO .WEKT SUCH CAT ASTHOPHE.*. 



fllE following sad case seems to be au- 

 thentic, without question. An im- 

 portant thing for us as bee-keepers to 

 do is to decide upon the best course of 

 action when such things do happen, 

 although it is only once in a great while. 



SINGULAR DEATH OF MRS. FADER, A PENNSYLVA- 

 NIA BEE-KEEPERS WIFE. 



Thomas Fader, of this place, keeps several hives 

 of bees in his garden. Yesterday forenoon he was 

 at work among his bees. A man with whom he had 

 some business dealings called at his house to see 

 him. Mrs. Fader went out to call her husband into 

 the house. As she approached the bee-hives a num- 

 ber of bees Jiew into her face, and she was stung 

 several times. One of the liei^s stung her in one of 

 her nostrils, and another one stung herontheu)i- 

 per lip. at the base of the caiiihige dividing the two 

 nostrils. Mrs. Fader's ci-ies brought her husband 

 to the spot. He extracted the stings and applied 

 wet earth to the wounds. He went with his Wife 

 back to the house, and had no thought of any con- 

 sequences rf^sulting from the bee-stings more seri- 

 ous than the swelling and iiain. He left his wife in 

 the kitelun, api)lying anininnia to the wounds, and 

 entered a front room, where his visitor was. A few 

 minutes later he heard a heavv fall in the kitch<'n. 

 He ran out. and found his wife in convulsions on 

 the floor. Her nostrils were swollen slint. and her 

 lips were twice their natural size, and had turned 

 dark t)lue. She breathed short and <iuiek through 

 her mouth. }lvy face was so swollen that its identi- 

 ty was entirely lost. Mr. Fader hurried his visitor 

 after a doctor.'but hetore one arrived his wife died 

 in her husband's arms. The doctor said that the 

 stings in her lips and nostrils had sent a shock like 

 electricity to her brain, and from that to her lungs 

 and heart, so seven' that she mus unable to rally 

 from it. Mrs. I'ader was twenty-i'ight years old. 

 It was but forty-ttve minutes from the lime she was 

 stung until her death.— ^''l!(/(/rl7^■ (/'n.) S)>rrial In 

 yru'-Vorli .S'KM. 



At tirst thought it almost seems as though 

 no one was at fault in the above transaction, 

 and that there was no way of averting such 



