824 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



ing a careful, sharp eye about our gardens 

 and our bee-hives, to see whether an enemy 

 be lurking. My friend, it is a thousand 

 times more important that you keep a sharp 

 eye about the house, to see what kinds of 

 books and papers are being brought in ; and 

 especially is this keen scrutiny needed in a 

 family of many children. I would not de- 

 prive these little minds of books and papers; 

 but whenever one book is taken away, or 

 sent home, or back to the library, bring 

 three or four good ones to occupy its place. 

 Books and papers are cheap and plentiful ; 

 but do not admit them solely because they 

 are cheap. Our stenographer just now asks 

 for a list of good books. In the way of fic- 

 tion, I know of nothing better in English 

 print than Tansy's entire series. And. to 

 cut the matter short, I would recommend 

 the Sunday school library in any of our es- 

 tablished churches. 1 can not remember 

 that I have ever read one (and I have read a 

 good many purposely to decide whether 

 they were tit mental food for our children) 

 without feeling that it had brought me near- 

 er to Christ Jesus. 



NOTES OF TRAVEL. 



SOMETHING ABOUT ARTIFICIAL HONEY-COMB. 



Y last visit among the bee-keepers 

 was at Bell Branch, near Detroit, 

 where friend M. H. Hunt hails from. 

 The picture of Mr. Hunt's pretty 

 apiary will be found on page 625 of 

 our issue f>>r Aug. 1. The picture, how- 

 ever, does not do justice at all. The hives 

 are located in groups under large branching 

 apple-trees. The trees are trimmed so as 

 to be out of the way of one's head when 

 working among the hives. By the way, 

 when wearing a bee-veil you can not afford 

 to have brush or limbs of trees catching on 

 to jour veil, tearing it or pulling it off from 

 your face. If you do not fix things con- 

 veniently for rapid and uninterrupted work, 

 when you get a big honey-crop you will be 

 sorry. 



Friend II. has two children— a boy and a 

 girl. The girl is about the age of Blue 

 Eyes ; and as Blue Eyes was with me on my 

 return trip, they two very soon became 

 quite sociable. I think it is no more than 

 fair to state that friend Hunt is one of our 

 " gilt-edged " business men. Nobody ever 

 has to ask him for money when he is owing ; 

 and, in fact, I do not believe we have ever 

 sent him even a statement by way of re- 

 minder. He is also so prompt, careful, and 

 accurate in filling orders that I can not re- 

 member of having ever received so much 

 as a breath of complaint against him. 



The horse-power, which we described and 

 illustrated, which he first used for hive- 

 making, has been laid aside, and a neat lit- 

 tle steam-engine takes its place. I believe, 

 however, he buys most of his hives and sec- 

 tions from larger manufacturers, using his 

 engine only for filling special orders, and 

 for making odd-sized hives, or to fill out 

 some order that is wanted in a great hurry. 

 He has a nice stock of lumber, accurately 

 planed at a planing-mill, piled up ready for 



emergencies; and with his help and his 

 machinery he can very quickly supply any 

 thing unusual or in immediate want. Near 

 his factory is a buckwheat field, so uniform 

 and of such wonderful luxuriance that I 

 snapped the Kodak on it once or twice ; but 

 it did not work up so as to be worthy of a 

 place in print. Friend Hunt is only eight 

 miles from Detroit, therefore he has ample 

 facilities for getting lumber at low prices, 

 or any thing else he may need for the sup- 

 ply business ; but as he is three or four miles 

 from a railroad station, he contemplates 

 moving up nearer by. 



One inducement to call on friend Hunt 

 was the promise that he would go with me 

 to visit the Eureka Supply Co., in Detroit. 

 This company is arranging to manufac- 

 ture artificial honey - comb, under friend 

 Weed's patent. This has been frequently 

 mentioned in years past, friend Weed hav- 

 ing, some time ago, an advertisement in 

 Gleanings, of small pieces of artificial 

 honey-comb. This was while he was locat- 

 ed in Cincinnati. We were very kindly re- 

 ceived, and even hospitably treated. We 

 saw the machinery for making the comb, 

 and it was all very kindly explained. By a 

 powerful hydraulic press, cakes of wax, 

 warmed to just the right temperature, are 

 forced through proper dies, so as to form 

 cells of honey-comb, not only deep enough 

 for worker-bees, but two or three feet deep, 

 if you choose. In fact, a great big stick, or 

 log, of cells of honey-comb, reminded me 

 very much of^a split chestnut fence-post, 

 the cells looking like the pores of the wood, 

 only being ever so much larger. Now, in 

 order to ^make honey-comb, all you have to 

 do is to cut off a slice I inch thick. The 

 slices are cut off like cutting slices from a 

 loaf of bread. Of course, this is not honey- 

 comb, because the cells have no bottom half 

 way through, and here is the great problem- 

 how shall we make a bottom to this honey- 

 comb V I suggested at once that sheets of 

 comb, with holes clear through, be given 

 the bees, and let them see what they can do 

 with it.* I was surprised to learn, how- 

 ever, that the Weed brothers had never 

 tried it. I agreed to make the test in less 

 than a week if they would send me a piece ; 

 but it has not come yet. 



Just a word about slicing off the comb. 

 How do you suppose they do it— saw it off V 

 Not much, where the cell-walls are about as 

 thin as natural comb. Cut it off with a 

 knife V Not much better. The only thing 

 is a hot wire. But the melted beeswax- 

 cools the wire off so quickly that nothing 

 but an electric current can supply the heat 

 fast enough ; and accordingly they had just 

 put in expensive electrical machinery, and 

 an incandescent platinum wire capable of 

 melting off slices big enough to fill a Lang- 

 stroth frame. May be you would like to 

 know how the die is made that produces the 

 cells. As it is fully secured by patents, I 

 obtained permission to describe it. Even if 



* If the bees will fill comb with cells reaching 

 clear through, when extracting we shall need to 

 uncap only one side. Then conies the question. 

 Will the bees fill the comb again, having- access to 

 only one side? 



