November, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



727 



with the idea of buying others there. They 

 wanted their own bees. So they shipped 

 them out to Colorado, several colonies, with- 

 out mishap; and the very day they reached 

 their beautiful new mountain ranch, every- 

 body promptly settled down to work — bees 

 and all. Don "t you suppose those bees open- 

 ed some of their compound eyes pretty wide 

 when they first saw the lofty mountain 

 ranges of Colorado after the friendly hills 

 of Tennessee? And do you think it was 

 hard to convince them that the alfalfa of 

 Colorado bore nectar, in spite of the fact 



that the alfalfa of Tennessee bore none? 

 * * * 



One evening Mr. Allen and I were in one 

 of Nashville 's good grocery stores, when we 

 noticed, across the store, a stack of what 

 looked like ten-pound buckets. The only 

 word on the labels that we could read from 

 where we stood was the one word, 

 "HONEY," in large, heavy, black letters. 

 Of course, we went right over to see whose 

 honey it was, and bless you it wasu 't honey 

 at all. It was sorghum molasses. Wasn 't 

 that a case of tying your string to some 

 one else's kite? This is how the label look- 

 ed, as well as I can show it on the type- 

 writer, the word "Honey" being far and 

 away the most conspicuous thing on it: 



The clerk assured us it was extra fine, and 

 we later heard so elsewhere. I don 't like 

 sorghum myself; but I tasted some of this 

 that a friend had bought and pronounced 

 good. XTgh! The producer says it is like 

 hone.y, but if honey were like that, I 'd 

 never eat any more honey. Yet, I suj^i^ose 

 it is good sorghum. Possibly we are not 

 justified, but we thoroly resent that label. 



opinion is perhaps to be explained by the 

 fact that the longer wax is kept hot, the 

 freer it is from impurities, as they thus 

 have longer opportunity to settle; but it is 

 liliely also to be darker. 



I took our wax as it had come from 

 the solar, and put it in pans directly 

 over a low gas flame. When it was all melt- 

 ed, I turned out the fire and let it stand un- 

 til it looked as tho it were about to begin 

 hardening across the top. Then I rubbed 

 honey in other pans, as Dr. Phillips advised 

 (some beekeepers use soap successfully), 

 and poured the wax into them most care- 

 fullj', being especially particular not to let 

 any of the sediment in. Later, the harden- 

 ed cakes turned out easily, and were beau- 

 tiful — receiving much praise and two blue 

 ribbons. One lot, tho, I put into the fire- 

 less cooker, experimenting on keeping it hot 

 longer; the objection was that when I took 

 it out later, about half of it had hardened, 

 which necessitated reheating. I was sorry 

 to do this, not only because of the extra 

 time involved, but also because I thought 

 the oftener it was melted, the darker it be- 

 came. But an old experienced beekeeper at 

 the Fair told me it would grow lighter with 

 each melting. How about this? 



One thing that several of us became much 

 interested in was the question which is 

 really the most desirable, and the most near- 

 ly perfect color for wax. Among my own 

 cakes, for instance, the two that attracted 

 most attention were of different shades; 

 they might be roughly described as lemon 

 and orange. Some of the exhibitors thought 

 the deeper yellow (it really wasn 't orange, 

 tho) the better shade, while others thought 

 the lighter the better. We would all like 

 to know what others think, or if there is a 

 recognized standard. [The lighter-colored 

 wax brings a higher price than the dark. 

 Long-continued heat results in darker wax, 

 whether there is sediment in the wax or not. 

 On the other hand, if one desires a perfect 

 cake, the wax should not cool too rapidly, 

 since this will cause cracks from the in- 

 ecjuality of the temperature on the inside 

 and outside of the cake. — Editor.] 



When I started to get our wax ready for 

 the State Fair, I thought I 'd read up a bit 

 first, to see if I might get any new ideas. 

 I was interested to see that while Dr. Phil- 

 lips in his book advised smearing honey on 

 the vessel in which the wax was to be mold- 

 ed, Geo. Emerson, page 76, 1918 Glean- 

 ings, warns beekeepers, if they use old five- 

 gallon honey cans, to be "particularly care- 

 ful that there be no honey on these cans, for 

 it seems to make the wax adhere to the tin 

 so strongly that it is almost impossible to 

 remove the cake without cutting the can 

 from it." Dr. Phillips and Mr. Emerson 

 both recommend keeping the wax hot a long 

 period, while the Editor, page 134, 1917 

 Gleanings, says, "it is desirable not to keep 

 it in a melted condition longer than neces- 

 sary. ' ' This second apparent conflict of 



We found a colony queenless last week; 

 as it was rather late to raise a queen, we 

 sent away for a Golden, having never tried 

 one before. Saturday afternoon, Mr. Allen 

 brought in the mail. "Here's your queen," 

 he said, laying the mailing cage on the table, 

 with the beautiful royal Golden inside. 

 "And here's another someone else has 

 sent," he added, producing another cage. 

 Before I could say one surprised word, he 

 had whistled. "There are two queens in 

 this one, ' ' he declared. And before I could 

 get one .surprised look — ' ' By George, are 

 they all queens?" They weren't; but there 

 were three queens in that cage — three beau- 

 ties from W. F. Morris of Henderson- 

 ville. Don't ask me how he did it, for I 

 don't know. He can do a lot of stunts, can 

 Mr. Morris. 



