106 



AMERICAN BEE JOUkNAL 



Feb. 15, 1900. 



Separators and Fences. — The idea that sections are 

 better filled without separators than with them is a mere 

 notion, says F. L. Thompson, in the Prog-ressive Bee- 

 Keeper. He quotes Heddon and Doolittle as agreeing with 

 him in this. If entirely free communication is no better 

 than separators, how can fences be better than separators ? 

 A number of times Mr. Thompson tried separators in half 

 of a super with no separators in the other half of the same 

 super, and the result was always the same — no difference to 

 be seen. 



Introducing Just-Hatcht Queens. — A Stray Straw in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture says : 



" W. H. Pridgen succeeds in giving a just-hatcht queen 

 on the same day on which the old queen was removed. 

 Friend Pridgen, if you take a queen just hatcht — one that 

 has not been held in her cell — and put her in a hive where 

 there is a laying queen, I think j'ou will find that she is al- 

 ways kindly received without the removal of the old queen. 

 The trouble comes when she attains a little age, perhaps a 

 daj' or so old, when she begins to assert herself as a queen, 

 at which time the two will no longer be tolerated under the 

 same roof." [Correct, according to ray experience. — Ed.] 



Why One is Disappointed in Purcliasing Queens.— 



J. F. Mclntyre says in Gleanings in Bee-Culture that he has 

 bought queens from every breeder in this country who 

 claims to have anything superior, and has generally been 

 disappointed. As reasons for this disappointment, he gives 

 the following : 1. The claims may be exaggerated. 2. The 

 young queens are not as well bred as the mother, not reared 

 under as good conditions. 3. The young queens may not 

 be as well mated as the mother. 4. Queens are injured by 

 long confinement in the mails, especially when shipt in full 

 laying, 



Candy for Sliipping-Cages.— W. S. Pender writes in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture that one of two queens sent from 

 Medina to Australia came thru all right, and says : 



" The cages were in splendid condition on arrival. 

 They were very clean, free from any stains, and no loose 

 grains of sugar. About two-thirds of the candy was con- 

 sumed in each cage, and a part of the honey. You must 

 have some secret process to prepare candy of coarse sugar, 

 and yet be so soluble that the bees do not tear it out." 



To this the editor replies : " We have no secret process 

 of candy-making. What we use is nothing more nor less 

 than the Good (or Scholj) candy. We are careful to get 

 pure cane sugar, powdered — not sugar and starch, in a com- 

 bination known as confectioners'. This is what kills bees, 

 but is just the thing for frosting on cakes. There is an- 

 other important requisite — and that is, the art or knack of 

 mixing the honey and the sugar — just as there is a knack in 

 making bread." 



Superior Breeding=Queens.— The tide that has set in 

 for bees of good performance rather than of good looks 

 seems to suffer no diminution. J. F. Mclntyre reports an- 

 other fine queen in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. This is one 

 of the cases in which it makes a difference how many colo- 

 nies of bees a man keeps. If he keeps only two colonies, 

 and one of them does twice as well as the other, it may not 

 be a matter of much significance. But if, as in this case, 

 he keeps 600 colonies, and a single colony makes a record 

 away beyond the average, it is likely to be a matter of much 

 significance. Mr. Mclntyre says : 



CU ".Seven years ago I bought a queen from a man named 

 Wallace. I reared about 20 queens from this one to test the 

 stock. The next .season was a dry one, and most bees had 

 to be fed to keep them alive ; but several colonies out of the 

 20 filled their supers with honey. Next season, 1895, I bred 

 from the best of these ; and in 1896, which was another drj' 

 year, this strain again filled their supers when others were 

 starving. I have had many colonies of this strain which I 

 considered ideal bees, and think that they have been im- 

 proved by breeding from the very best each year. The 

 presentJIyear was a_ver)'^dry;one,'.but_I have one 'colonyj^of 



this strain that filled 2}i 10-frame Langstroth supers ; and 

 I wrote in my record-book, after the number of this hive, 

 that such bees would make a man rich. They are beautiful, 

 pure Italians, light 3-banded, queen large and j-ellow, and 

 very prolific. I have reared about 200 young queens from 

 her, and they are all like their mother. Her bees are 

 gentle. She was one year old last July, and has never 

 swarmed ; and this strain does not swarm half as much as 

 any other .strain in my apiary. It is rare for me to become 

 enthusiastic over a queen ; but when a colony shows a 

 markt superiority over 600 others in the same apiary, it is a 

 rare thing." 



Winter Temperature of tlie Cluster.— In the Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Review, Harry S. Howe gives a very interesting table 

 made by H. C. McLallen, while in Cornell University. Five 

 colonies were wintered outdoors, and two in cellar. In each 

 hive a thermometer bulb was in the cluster, and in part of 

 the outdoor hives a thermometer in the hive was out of the 

 cluster also. Readings were taken twice daily, and in the 

 table the average during a certain number of days is given. 

 It will be noticed that the temperature in the cluster was 

 higher in the outdoor colonies. But one will be puzzled to 

 find any fist rule as to variations. Sometimes the heat of 

 the cluster went with that outside the hive, and sometimes 

 it went in the opposite direction. The table is as follows : 



Averaye temperature in the open air 



Temperature in outdoor hives but not in cluster . 



Temperature of cluster iti outdoor hive No. 1 



Temperature of cluster in outdoor hive No. 2 



Temperature of cluster in outdoor hive No. 3 



Temperature of cluster in outdoor hive No. 4 



Temperature of cluster in outdoor hive No. 5 



Temperature of cellar 



Temperature of cluster in cellar hive No. 6 



Temperature of cluster in cellar hive No. 7 ...'... 



Refining Beeswax may be carried on to a considerable 

 extent by simply allowing as large a body as possible to 

 cool very slowly, a body of water being added if there is not 

 enough wax, and when the whole is cooled the lower part of 

 the cake can be scraped off and thrown awaj'. There is, 

 however, considerable wax left in this refuse, and those 

 who handle wax on a large scale cleanse it with acid. Altho 

 every one may not care to tise this method, one may still be 

 interested to know how it is done, and the following full de- 

 scription is given in Gleanings in Bee-Culture : 



" We have no secret process of refining, for our wax- 

 room is open to inspection to any bee-keeper. We simply 

 have a large wooden tank capable of holding about 10 bar- 

 rels. Into this is poured about a barrel and a half of water, 

 acidulated with about 2 percent of raw commercial sul- 

 phuric acid. The hogshead — for that in realitj' is what it is 

 — is then filled with commercial wax of all shades and 

 colors, and the whole is then treated to a jet of steam. 

 After it is thoroly melted the pipe is withdrawn, the tank is 

 covered, and allowed to stand over night. The next morn- 

 ing the wax is ready to draw oft' thru faucets located at dif- 

 ferent hights on the tanks. During the night the acid and 

 water, by reason of their greater specific gravit3', settle 

 down out of the wax, leaving it on top ; during the same 

 time the dirt now free from the wax settles into the water. 

 The wax is then drawn off into deep cans, and usually has 

 a bright yellow color, so totally unlike the product that 

 went into the hogshead that one could hardly realize the 

 two are one and the same. 



"Of course, it is impracticable for the average bee- 

 keeper to use so large a hogshead ; but he can use practi- 

 cally the same methods with an ordinary barrel, reducing 

 the quantity of acid and water, but, of cotxrse, keeping the 

 relative amount of acid the same. 



" The quantity of acid in any case will depend largely 



on the color of the wax before it goes into the refining vat. 



If the whole batch is almost black, then we would use about 



5 percent of acid to water. If some of it is black, some j-el- 



low, some brown, then we would use about the percent first 



named." 



.»-•-♦ 



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