American Hee Journal 



liended that it is entirely out of the 

 question to melt old black combs with 

 the solar extractor and expect any 

 adequate returns, while the use of 

 water in some sort of boiler will per- 

 mit the separation of nearly all the 

 wax from the slumgum of the ugliest 

 combs. 



When it comes to the rendering of 

 cappings, it is evident that the solar 

 may be used without loss. However, 

 unless we have a very small quantity, 

 we will find that we get a brighter lot, 

 though not so white, but cleaner, by 

 using the same water-melting process. 

 Whatever residue present usually sep- 

 arates very easily from the wa.x in soft 

 water, the wa.x rising to the top, and 

 the residue almost without exception 

 going to the bottom. 



The solar extractor has one advan- 

 tage, however — it will make the wax 

 lighter in color — more nearly white — 

 for the rays of the sun have a tendency 

 to bleach it. But if there is the least 

 trace of untinned iron in our solar ex- 

 tractor, its presence will reveal itself 

 by the existence of a black, rusty 

 streak wherever the wax touched it. 



One of the greatest disadvantages of 

 the solar extractor is that the combs 

 may be rendered by it at a temperature 

 very much below the boiling point of 

 water. 1 call this a disadvantage, be- 

 cause if by accident one is rendering 

 combs of a colony which has died of 

 some contagious disease, such as foul 

 brood, there is great danger of trans- 

 mitting the disease to the bees that 

 may come to it. I have sometimes seen 

 cakes of wax which had been rendered 

 with solar heat fairly dripping with 

 honey. Such cakes of wax need to be 

 Temeited with water and kept at the 

 boiling point of water for a while, to 

 make sure of destroying all possible 

 germs. 



Of course, the bee-keeper who ren- 

 ders his own combs generally knows 

 whether there is disease among his 

 bees or not, and he can take precau- 

 tions. But if he has wax from others, 

 or buys the combs of colonies that have 

 died, it is very much better for him to 

 take no chances, and melt all the wax 

 by the water process. 



When we melt up the cappings, it is 

 generally after having allowed them to 

 drain in the uncapping can for several 

 days, and even weeks. But they are 

 still sweet, and we always wash them 

 in water, and this water, after having 

 been tested as to its sweetness, is used 

 to make mead and vinegar. The Eu- 

 ropean apiarists, who are much more 

 prone to save every item more care- 

 fully than we do here, sometimes uses 

 the water in which wax has been melt- 

 ed, if it is at all sweet, for vinegar-mak- 

 ing or for distilling. In this case, they 

 first filter it or clarify it by some pro- 

 cess. In large apiaries where hun- 

 dreds of thousands of pounds of honey 

 are harvested, the cappings and the 

 ■water from them constitute quite an 

 item. 



We figure that for every 100 pounds 

 of extracted honey, we produce about 

 lyi pounds of capping wax, reckoned 

 after it has been purified. So for Sn.OUO 

 pounds of liquid honey, we would have 

 about 7ju pounds of net beeswax from 

 the cappings. It would take a long 

 time, or a large- number of wax extrac- 



tors, to render up this (luantity. What 

 is more important, the bulk of the ex- 

 tracting takes place at a time when the 

 heat of the sun is no longer adequate — 

 in late August, or September and Octo- 

 ber. With the water melting we can 

 render them whenever we are ready. 



Beeswax is so expensive and readily 

 selling an article that it is worth while 

 to use all possible means of saving 

 every particle. That is why the solar 

 extractor will always be a profitable 

 implement in a bee-yard. It should be 

 made of good material and shallow 

 enough to allow the sun's rays to shine 

 on every part of its inside early in the 

 day. If some sort of cheap clock-work 

 could be used to keep it facing the sun 

 all day long, it would be much more 

 active. But in our latitude a few hours 

 suffice for a small load of wax. Neither 

 bee-moths nor flies can withstand the 

 heat of the noon sun during the three 

 hottest months — May, June and July — 

 under the glass of the sun extractor, 

 and the wa.x rendered by this process 

 is at once made safe for cash returns. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Sting-Proof People— Comments 



BY E. G. H.\NX.\. 



On pages 7 and 48, the discussion of 

 " Sting-Proof People " is somewhat in- 

 teresting. Whether some people are 

 absolutely " sting-proof " I know not, 

 but I am well aware that the bees 

 actually make a difference in people. 



A good many years ago, when I lived 

 in the Southland, I had a yard with 

 about 2.^ colonies of bees in it, dis- 

 tributed all over the yard under native 

 trees. Our well was in this yard, and 

 a path ran through it, both to the gar- 

 den and the public road. One after- 

 noon, about -5 of the family were seated 

 about the middle of the yard pealing 

 peaches, and the bees were flying every- 

 where, and we sat there for hours and 

 not one of the family got a sting ; but 

 during the time three negroes came in 

 the yard, one at a time, and sat down 

 with us, and each of the three was 

 stung before being able to get away. 

 Can some scribe account for this un- 

 less bees make a difference ^ 



Self-Spacing Frames. 



On page .54, an enquirer wants to 

 know if metal-spaced frames are better 

 than staple-spaced frames, and Dr. 

 Miller says he prefers galvanized shin- 

 gle-nails to either. Now, if there is 

 anything this scribe detests about an 

 apiary it is a self-spacing frame of any 

 kind. I used to cut out all my own 

 frames with a buzz-saw, and I never 

 made self-spacing frames. Then, I have 

 bought a good many bees, and always 

 with self-spacing frames, and they were 

 always the hardest things on my tem- 

 per of anything about the bee-yard. 



If you have no propolis in your 

 locality, and use a division-board in 

 place of one frame, you get along ; but 

 otherwise, I have torn up many a frame 

 in trying to get at the center of a hive. 

 I like to have frames I can pry each 

 way from the center of the hive, and 

 can then slip out a frame with all ease. 



Repression of Swarming. 



On page 39, Chas. Reynders, in quot- 



ing from his German pamphlet, tells 

 how to let bees rear their queen-cells, 

 and of course you have to leave it to 

 the bees as to how many they will 

 start. My experience has been that as 

 a rule they do not start as many as we 

 want, and, besides, they are so light 

 that we often spoil them in cutting out 

 and handling. So this scribe long 

 since quit letting the bees have their 

 own way about it. I let them start the 

 cells so as to get a supply of royal jelly, 

 and then I make cells for them, and 

 good, heavy ones, so I can break them 

 off, or stick them on a frame at will, 

 without any danger of spoiling them. 

 Doolittle's " Scientific Queen-Rearing " 

 will tell you how. I do not like the 

 method here given. 



Loss OF Bees in 10 Years. 



A decrease of 800,000 colonies of 

 bees in 10 years does not look very 

 good for the bee-business of this coun- 

 try. The fact is that when foul brood 

 becomes as prevalent as it now seems 

 to be, the average farmer will prefer to 

 quit keeping the bees rather than go to 

 the trouble necessary to eradicate the 

 disease. In fact, the majority of farm- 

 ers do not care for their bees enough 

 to make a success with a few colonies. 



Poor Surplus Honey. 



I got about 50 pounds of surplus 

 honey here last year from 11 colonies 

 of bees, and most of it was the black- 

 est, nastiest mixture I ever took from a 

 bee-hive. As bees did nothing, I got 

 so busy farming I neglected them, and 

 did not " fi.x " them for winter, so I ex- 

 pect to lose most or all of them on ac- 

 count of the severe winter. 



Spring Feeding and Spreading Brood. 



By the time this is printed you would 

 better see if your bees all have suffi- 

 cient stores, and, if not, borrow a 

 frame of honey from some hive which 

 has a surplus, and exchange frames 

 with the needy colony. You can help 

 your bees to build up by spreading the 

 brood, if you use good care and judg- 

 ment not to spread faster than they 

 can keep it warm. I have always got- 

 ten good results from spreading brood. 



Good Resolutions. 



"Making and Keeping Good Resolu- 

 tions," on page 4.j, is worth re-reading. 

 We ought always to remember that 

 there can be no failure upon the Lord's 

 part, but we may fail by failing to com- 

 piv with our part of it. 



Atwood, 111., Feb. 14. 



Handling Bees— How to Do It 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



From my multitudinous correspond- 

 ence, and from what I have seen when 

 visiting many ditTerent apiaries, I have 

 come to the conclusion that there is a 

 right and wrong way of opening a hive 

 containing a colony of bees. The sea- 

 son when we must look after our bees 

 will soon be here, and I thought per- 

 haps I could do no better at this time 

 than to give a few words on the sub- 

 ject of opening hives and handling bees. 



Stings are sometimes dreaded by all, 

 and if we are careless in our operations 

 about the bees we are liable to be told 



