1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



519 



culties I succeeded in so whitening' the 

 darkest end of my crop of honey that, when 

 sent to market, it sold for the highest mar- 

 ket price, and was, I believe, the whitest, 

 to look at, of any hone}' I sent to market 

 that year. 



That I might be able to judge more ac- 

 curately as to results, I had eight sections 

 photographed, both before and after bleach- 

 ing-, which I send herewith all numbered. 



The results as photographed do not appear 

 as great as I had expected, as I found that 

 the camera, that can find stars in the heav- 

 ens that the eye with the aid of the most 

 powerful telescopes can not see, had not 

 only caught all the stain left on the face of 

 the combs after bleaching, but more or less 

 below the surface, as the photograph of the 

 bleached combs does not appear nearly so 

 white as the combs did. 



No. 1 was a perfect comb without bleach- 

 ing. No. 2 was stained with yellow wax, 

 I presume from foundation. Nos. 5 and 6 

 were stained with propolis so thick in some 

 places as to be readily seen by the naked 

 eye. In others it appeared only as stain. 

 These bleached so as to appear mostly 

 white and very attractive. Where the pro- 

 polis was thickest it was a pinkish shade. 



Nos. 7 and 9 were about the worst-look- 

 ing combs I had — stained, as I thought, 

 with old dark wax brought up from the 

 brood-chamber ; and after three weeks of 

 bleaching they still looked unattractive al- 

 though somewhat improved. 



I have spoken of having met with some 

 unlooked-for difficulties in bleaching. The 

 first was in the use of sulphur. The writ- 

 ers above referred to say the sulphur smoke 

 should be cold, and they use or recommend 

 burning it some distance from the combs, 

 and carrying it in a pipe through the 

 g^round and then setting clamps over where 

 it comes up. I found it, in our colder cli- 

 mate, very difficult to get a draft through 

 such a pipe, and at times impossible, as 

 the pipes would be colder than the atmos- 

 phere, when the draft would be downward 

 and not upward, and no amount of coaxing 

 would make it do the work or go where I 

 wanted it to. 



Another difficulty I quickly ran against 

 was the dampness of our climate, with 

 more or less storms, when I found my lean- 

 to of cotton cloth was far from satisfactory. 

 At one time there was a heavy storm of 

 rain and wind, which, flapping the wet 

 cloth ag"ainst my honey, g"ave some of it 

 quite a soaking-, even upsetting one shelf 

 with the honej' on it. If such a structure 

 were to be used, either the honey must be 

 carried in to a warm dry room every night, 

 and set out again in the morning, or we 

 must expect more or less of the combs will 

 be injured or ruined with dampness, and 

 the extra labor would cost all the gain in 

 the price of the bleached honey. 



Notwithstanding these difficulties I was 

 so well pleased with results I determined 

 to put up a more substantial structure and 

 overcome some of the difficulties referred to; 



so, after my work was out of the way and 

 my bees packed for winter, I went to work 

 and ran a wing- out from my honey-house, 

 some 10 X 13 feet, with gable roof, with 

 mostly glass sides, as will be seen by the 

 photo. There are six sets of shelves that 

 extend completely around three sides, and 

 will accommodate 1056 4'i X 41^ sections. 

 I place one row of sections on top of anoth- 

 er — or, rather, two rows of sections on each 

 shelf, as, after some experience, one can 

 handle two sections about as fast as one, 

 and thus save time. I have ceiled this room 

 overhead, with matched lumber, with a 

 door in the ceiling- at the opposite end from 

 which I enter, with a cord attached, and 

 extending overhead on puUej's and coming- 

 down into my honey-room. This door is 

 for a ventilating--flue to get rid of my sul- 

 phur smoke when I fumig-ate or give my 

 combs a sulphur bath. As my room is less 

 than seven feet to the ceiling- it contains 

 about 875 cubic feet of space. As sulphur 

 is cheap I much prefer to burn enough to 

 fill this room full of smoke than to take the 

 roundabout waj' of burning a little and 

 forcing it up through a few clamps of hon- 

 ey. With the experience of the past sum- 

 mer I find I can burn six ounces of sulphur 

 at a time in the room, and let it remairf for 

 twenty minutes from the time it begins to 

 burn till I open my door overhead, and 

 throw open m}' door from my honey- room 

 to the bleaching- - room, when in two min- 

 utes the smoke will so far have left that we 

 may enter without any trouble, and in a few 

 moments more the room will be almost en- 

 tirely free of smoke. 



The most satisfactory way of burning the 

 sulphur was to place it in an old spider 

 and set it over a two-wick Florence oil- 

 stove. The sulphur will soon melt, and, 

 after a little, thicken, when a match will 

 set it on fire, and the whole burn quickly. 

 As soon as I set it on fire I close the room, 

 and in twenty minutes open the door and 

 ventilator, and the job is complete. I find 

 that sunlight will bleach faster than the 

 lig-ht without the sun; yet the sun through 

 glass during the summer is so hot at times 

 it is necessary to cover the outside of the 

 glass during- hot weather with muslin or 

 cheese-cloth, and remove it on the approach 

 of cool autumn weather. 



The eftect of sulphur smoke on combs is 

 very interesting, and well worth some study 

 by those interested. The effect of the smoke 

 in bleaching combs appears to be much the 

 same as dilute sulphuric acid on wax; and 

 as both are somewhat alike, or composed 

 of sulphur united with oxygen and water 

 in a little different proportions, the one di- 

 luted with the air and the other with wa- 

 ter, we might perhaps expect that such 

 would be the case. 



The eftect of sulphur smoke in turning- 

 some combs — or, rather, some of the cap- 

 pings of some combs — green while it does 

 not affect others equally exposed is very 

 curious. Indeed, the cappings of one comb 

 will stand, I should say, two or three, and 



