1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



55t 



her wedding flight, and so become a drone- 

 layer, and the destruction of the colony will 

 be just as certain, although not so speedy, as 

 if it had been bi'imstoned. How is one to know 

 that swarais with clipped queens are so much 

 more naughty in their conduct than swarms 

 with queen-traps? Has some one learned it 

 by actually trying the two side by side? I 

 never had much experience with queen-traps, 

 but I've had quite a bit with caged queens, 

 and the trouble with their swarms was great- 

 er than with clipped queens allowed to hop 

 out of the hives. Possibly it was reasoned 

 out. Well, tell us the reason why a swarm 

 should act any worse with its queen hopping 

 about than with its queen in a trap. When 

 the swarm issues, do you really think the 

 bees know whether their queen is on the 

 ground or in a trap? Certainly they can't 

 know any thing about it without going back 

 to the hive; and in any case where a swarm 

 went back to its own hive 1 never knew it to 

 trouble further by going to other hives or 

 uniting with other swarms. 



How much ventilation, Mr. Editor, is shut 

 off when a queen-trap is applied? I suspect 

 that at least one-half is always shut off, and 

 in some cases four-fifths. Don't you believe 

 that loss of ventilation is a very serious ob- 

 jection to traps? On the whole, would you 

 advise a beginner that it is better to trust to 

 traps than to clipping? 



P. S. — A certain inquisitive person not far 

 from my elbow says: "Do you think Ernest 

 keeps traps on his hives? I wish you'd ask 

 him how many traps he keeps on them.'' 



Marengo, 111. 



[Dr. Miller asks us how much ventilation 

 is shut off when the queen-trap is applied. 

 We do not know; but not much, we suspect. 

 As we figure, the perforated metal or bars 

 in the trap have four times the area of pass- 

 age of the average f in. deep entrance, or 

 twice the area of | deep. The wire exclud- 

 er would form less of an obstruction to ven- 

 tilation than the perforated metal — how 

 much we do not believe any one can posi- 

 tively determine. 



In answer to his last question, we would 

 say that a good deal depends on conditions. 

 If we were running for the production of 

 honey — well, we will state our position after 

 our correspondents close the discussion. 

 Our own opinion at this time would be pre- 

 mature. Some, accepting the opinion of 

 the editor as final, might not give much 

 weight to the opinion of one or the other of 

 the correspondents. 



In answer to the postscript we may say 

 that we have traps on many of our hives in 

 all of our yards, not to catch swarms, but 

 to restrain and kill impure or undesirable 

 drones. As a matter of fact, in a queen- 

 breeding apiary one ought to use a great 

 many traps, leaving only drones from extra 

 select queens to have the freedom of fiight. 

 In this way we are enabled to bring about 

 a selection of drones, and, to a large extent, 

 the control of the male parentage of our 

 bees for business. — Ed.] 



HOT- WATER SYSTEMSIOF WAX REN- 

 DERING. 



Some Comments and Siiirirestions. 



BY OREL L. HKKSHISEK. 



I have noticed Mr. Holtermann's comments 

 on wax-presses, page 210 Having examined 

 the wax-extracting proposition in many re- 

 peated experiments, with a view of deter- 

 mining the efticiency of the various methods 

 employed in the production of wax, I re- 

 spectfully desire to file an exception to Mr. 

 Holtermann's statement that, "in a hot cli- 

 mate, or where wax-rendering can conven- 

 iently be left until hot weather, the method 

 of heating the wax in a vessel on the stove 

 and then pressing in a machine not on the 

 stove, is perhaps the cheapest machine and 

 the most rapid and economic method." Mr. 

 Holtermann's "perhaps " may imply a slight 

 doubt in his mind as to whether his state- 

 ment would exactly fit the facts. True 

 enough, the method will "answer well;" 

 there are many inferior methods. I have 

 profound respect for the opinions of my 

 friend, believing them to be the expression 

 of conscientious convictions; but sometimes 

 conclusions are reached without suflicient 

 data upon which to base them. Many and 

 repeated experiments enable me to make the 

 counter-statement that, all things considered, 

 there is a cheaper, more economic, and con- 

 venient method, not only for winter but also 

 for summer wax-extracting. 



Referring to^the 

 Hershiser wax- 

 press, Mr Holter- 

 mann states that 

 "it takes consider- 

 able time to heat 

 the machine and 

 its contents." If 

 it takes a given 

 time to heat a wax- 

 press and its con- 

 tents of cheeses of 

 comb or slumgum 

 submerged in wa- 

 ter, it is obvious Hershiser wax-press, 

 that, for the same capacity of tank, or vol- 

 ume for volume, it would take the same 

 time to heat the material in a separate boiler 

 where the slumgum must be dipped over 

 into the press-tank, cheeses formed, and 

 the same submerged in water. This fact is 

 so clear that "he who runs may read." 

 Besides the necessity of performing the 

 operation of dipping the slumgum from 

 the boiler into the press, enough hot water 

 to submerge the cheeses must be dipped into 

 the press-tank, which necessitates tbe rais- 

 ing to the boiling-point a like amount of cold 

 water to replenish the boiler for melting the 

 next batch of comb. Hence, if there is any 

 advantage in the time required to heat either 

 of such presses and their contents, volume 

 for volume, it lies with the press-and-boiler- 

 combined machine. 



My press is designed primarily to be used 

 over the fire; but if one really prefers to melt 



