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AMERICAN BEE lOURNAL 



Dec. 13 1900. 



Mr. Moore — I would like to hear from Mr. France ; he 

 has commonly zero temperature up there. 



Mr. France — I full)' agree with what Mr. Aikiu has 

 said ; much depends upon the location, and much depends 

 upon climatic conditions. In the central part of our State 

 (Wis.) last winter snow fell the forepart of November; that 

 snow was still on the ground March 6. But in that north- 

 ern country bees will winter successfully. Two years ago, 

 when the thermometer was from 20 to 30 degrees below zero 

 without a let up for a week, my bees were in chaff-packt 

 hives, but wintered all right outdoors ; a little more feed is 

 required. The subject of wintering must be considered ac- 

 cording to a man's surroundings. 



BEST SMOKER-FUEI,. 



"What material is best for use for smoker-fuel?" 



Mr. Aikin — I use rotten railroad ties. Nearly all the 

 railroad ties in our country are pine, and I want the mate- 

 rial so that it will burn freely, make a dense smoke without 

 too much heat, and too much of the — I am not scientific 

 enough to describe it — that pungent, sharp smoke. I often 

 use burlap, but I like the rotten wood the best of all. 



W. L- Coggshall — The best thing of all — everybody has 

 the best thing — is phosphate sacks, or burlap ; that is the 

 best thing we ever had. Leave them out in the weather 

 and let them rot partiallj-, and then get them thoroly dry ; 

 set a couple of nails in your work bench, about four per- 

 haps. It takes two to roll the burlap, a boy and a man : 

 take a rod out of the back end of the wagon-bos and roll 

 this burlap over and over until you have a roll of burlap of 

 the right size for your smoker ; have strings cut just about 

 long enough to go around that burlap, and tie it every four 

 inches ; pull out the rod when the roll is large enough. 

 Then take a common axe, cut up the rolls into pieces as 

 long as you want them for the smoker, say four inches. Be 

 careful not to roll too tight, for if you do you might have to 

 untie the string so the smoke would go thru. Put some 

 salt-peter in a pan, and add water enough to have it about 

 half an inch deep ; put in some blueing to color the water 

 nicely, dip the end of the pieces in this salt-peter water, and 

 put them out to dry. Light with a match, and it will go 

 like gunpowder. A bushel of this will last an apiary all 

 summer. It is one of the nicest things I ever used, I will 

 not except anything. Rotten wood and hard wood are too 

 heavy and hot. I have laid a smoker down in a wagon and 

 driven ten miles and had a good smoke then. 



Mr. Moore — I think shavings is one of the best. 



F. W. Hall— I would like to ask Mr. Coggshall if his 

 fuel will drip the inky substance from the smoker. We 

 have any amount of Cottonwood in ourcountry ; it gets so 

 rotten we can break it up with our fingers. Before it gets 

 so rotten I take a buck-saw and saw it into blocks, probably 

 two inches long, and split it up with a hatchet ; that makes 

 a good fuel that hasn't the inky substance in it. I have 

 had no trouble with it whatever. 



Mr. Coggshall — Wood has too much heat in it. This 

 doesn't have so much. One of the bunches of burlap will 

 last four or five hours of ordinary work. 



David Coggshall — That is the beauty of this sacking ; 

 if it is thoroly dried and laid outdoors, as my brother says, 

 you can work with it all day and not have any of the inky 

 substance on the sections. It doesn't create a sediment 

 (creosote) that drops out. It will burn all day long. There 

 isn't anything equal to it, in my estimation. 



W. L. Coggshall — There is no danger of fire ; no sparks 

 fly, but just remember to put the salt-peter on ; you don't 

 have to blow to get it started ; it will go oS quick. 



Dr. Mason — Do you light it before you put it in the 

 smoker ? 



Mr. Coggshall — Sure ; and turn the lighted end next to 

 the draft. 



Mr. Benton — Mr. Bingham has had lots of experience 

 in making bee-smokers : of course he wants those smokers 

 to have the best reception among bee-keepers, and he has 

 studied the question of fuel. In sending out directions he 

 advises sound hickorj' or hard maple, cut in lengths to suit 

 the smoker, and split fine. He says nothing about the man- 

 ner of lighting the smoker ; there would be a little difficulty, 

 perhaps, with sound wood. I have used a great variety of 

 fuel, and have never found anything better than solid hard 

 wood split in small pieces the size of the finger, the proper 

 length. 



CLARIFYING HONEY-VINEGAR. 



" What is the best way to make honey-vinegar clear ?" 



Mr. Aikin — I suppose the intent of the questioner is not 



to make the vinegar water-white, but to get the impurities 



out of it so it is a free liquid, may have color, but free of 

 floating substance. I take this to be the intent of the 

 questioner. 



Dr. Mason — I askt that question, so I can give the in- 

 formation. My experience in making honey-vinegar is that 

 it frequently will not settle and become clear. There is a 

 species of cloudiness all thru it. I have had it in that 

 condition two years, and I want to know how to make it 

 settle or become clear. I have filtered it, have put it thru 

 sand, and I don't know what not to get it clear, but it won't 

 clear. I don't mean water-white ; it may be very dark- 

 colored vinegar and still be clear. 



Mr. Funk — Take the white of eggs and beat until they 

 froth ; then take out some of the vinegar and mix it with it, 

 and pour it into the bung-hole. Take a dozen eggs for your 

 barrel, and take something like a gallon, or half gallon, 

 and beat it up the way women beat eggs. Turn it into the 

 bung-hole and stir it up, and you will have it clear. If that 

 won't do it, I think a solution of isinglass would ; they use 

 that for clarifying wine. 



J. M. Rankin — I don't think there is any precipitate 

 that will not be taken out of a liquid by the use of chemist's 

 filter-paper. 



Pres. Root — Please explain what that chemist's filter- 

 paper is. 



Mr. Rankin — It is a paper that is prepared for this pur- 

 pose, and the chemists use it in laboratories for taking a 

 precipitate out of a liquid and making analyses. I don't 

 know the cost of it, but it doesn't cost very much. 



Dr. Mason — Where can we get it ? 



Mr. Rankin — Of druggists. 



[Dec. 1. — I have tried the filtering paper referred to by 

 Mr. Rankin, during this present week, and it does the work 

 satisfactorily. It will enable me to prepare several barrels 

 of vinegar for sale. — Secretary.] 



PROPOLIS AS A MARKETABLE ARTICLE. 



" Can bee-keepers collect propolis in sufficient quantity 

 to be profitable at SO cents per pound ?" 



Mr. Aikin — I don't know. 



Mr. Benton — I would say I think so. I have scraped 

 hives sometimes and then found at the expiration of another 

 week that fair-sized hives would produce it weighing surelj' 

 a quarter of a pound, or enough to make about a dol- 

 lar a month. I have collected 30 or 40 pounds this way with 

 a view of seeing what I could make for a varnish for bee- 

 hives ; it can be dissolved in wood alcohol and utilized in 

 that fashion. It seems to me there are a very great variety 

 of uses to which it can be put. In some of the old countries 

 poor people go about and collect propolis and make varnish 

 for furniture ; they give a small sum for the privilege of 

 taking old hives, that have been knockt apart and are to be 

 put together again and used, to get the privilege of cleaning 

 the inner surface. Those shavings are then treated with 

 wood alcohol, and the shavings thrown away. Of course, 

 labor is very cheap there. I would not suppose a man could 

 produce propolis as a business. I think SO cents a pound 

 would pay us to collect it as we go along. 



Pres. Root — I would state there is a limited market for 

 propolis here, and any one who has a quantity may dispose 

 of it if he desires. 



Mr. York — I would like to say further on this subject 

 that a gentleman from New York, who is interested in the 

 manufacture of oils and polishes, has stopt off here, and 

 has been talking to some of us about gathering propolis. 

 He can use perhaps a ton of it a year, and has made an 

 ofi^er of SO cents a pound. Mr. Benton is now showing the 

 bottom of his hand-satchel on which the gentleman put a 

 coating of this polish, and it is quite nice. It is good also 

 for polishing floors and harness ; it is water-proof. He 

 uses in it, I think, two pounds of the propolis to a gallon of 

 the polish, and he could afford to pay SO cents a pound for 

 the propolis. He wanted the question brought up to see 

 whether bee-keepers could supply it — see whether it was 

 worth while for them to save it. It is a very nice polish. 

 He put it on the shoes of a gentleman in the hall, as well as 

 on the bottom of Mr. Benton's satchel ; he says it will re- 

 tain its luster for three months. Of course, it won't on 

 j'our shoes when you wear them, but it will last about a 

 week on them. It might pay the bee-keepers to look into 

 this and see what they could do along the line of saving 

 propolis. It is a subject I think we should think about. 



At the suggestion of Pres. Root the convention ad- 

 journed to 1 o'clock p.m. 



Continued next week.) 



