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Cleaning a Quantity of Old and 

 ]?Ioldy Combs. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



Query 639.— What treatment would you 

 advise tor a lot of good wired combs in Lang- 

 Btroth frames, all of which contain more or 

 less honey, that have been exposed to the 

 changes of summer and winter for several 

 years, causing the honey to candy, sweat, 

 mold, etc., until the combs seem almost rot- 

 ten ? They are straight, wired worker-combs, 

 in a standard frame, and are very desirable, if 

 cleansed so that they might be stored. I have 

 several hundred of such frames, but have no 

 bees upon that size of frame.— Penn. 



Put bees upon them. — R. L. Taylor. 



If wanted for use, put bees on them. 

 If not, melt them into wax. — J. M. 

 Shuck. 



I think that I should melt them up. 

 Separate the honej% and feed it to the 

 bees, and make foundation of the wax. 

 — A. J. Cook. 



If the combs are not injured, allow 

 the bees to clean them ; but if they are 

 filled with webs, you had better melt 

 them up for wax. — J. P. H. Brown. 



I should melt them down, as I do 

 not think that it would pay to attempt 

 to save them as combs for future use. 

 —J. E. Pond. 



The only rational way to clean them 

 would be to give them -to colonies. 

 Can you not arrange them in supers 

 over some strong colonies ? — Dadant 



&S0N. 



A trial of a few combs in a colony 

 of bees in the spring will show if the 

 combs are still of value ; if not, I would 

 melt them up.— G. L. Tinker. 



If the combs are rotten, I would 

 make them into beeswax. If not, one 

 or more at a time may be given to 

 strong colonies to clean up. — A. B. 

 Mason. 



If the combs are really rotten, they 

 can only be melted out and thrown 

 away — burned. If they are worth 

 saving, cover them with bees, and let 

 the bees clean them up. — Mahala B. 

 Chaddock. 



Give them to the bees — not too many 

 at a time. If you do not intend to use 

 that size of frame, transfer them into 

 the frames that j'ou are using. — C. C. 

 Miller. 



Here, in the spring and summer, I 

 have put such combs into the hives of 

 strong colonies, and had them cleaned 

 and fixed by the bees. In j'our case, 

 I would put them in a kettle of boiling 

 water, and melt all out. — P. L. Vial- 



LON. 



I am afraid that I would not want 

 to give very much for combs, such as 

 you describe ! You are truly in a bad 



case, and the combs were not too 

 badly "rotted," I should proceed to 

 get some bees into Langstroth hives, 

 and then gradually give them the 

 combs. This is the only practical way. 

 Have you not a neighbor using this 

 kind of hive ? If so, pei'haps you could 

 get your combs run through his hives, 

 for a certain per cent, of them. — Will 

 M. Barnum. 



Select the poorest, and allow the 

 bees to take the honey out ; then melt 

 the combs into wax ; the better ones, 

 store in a dry place until you are ready 

 to put bees on them. — Mrs. L. Har- 

 rison. 



Shave off the caps and give the 

 combs to new swanns. If you had 

 bees on that kind of frame, the better 

 way would be to give a few at a time 

 in the centre of the brood-chamber of 

 prosperous colonies, using the combs 

 of brood removed to make new colo. 

 nies. — M. Mahin. 



Cut them out and put the old comb 

 in the sun wax-extractor, and the hot 

 summer sun will soon do the business. 

 You will save the frames, get a nice 

 lot of wax, and some poor honey, that 

 will do for feeding bees. — C. H. Dib- 



BERN. 



If I did not intend to use that size of 

 frame again, I would render them into 

 wax. Or they could be transferred to 

 frames of another size, and given to 

 populous colonies in warm weather. — 

 Edgene Secor. 



Put them one at a time in a good, 

 strong colony of bees, for them to fix 

 up. If these combs are so very val- 

 uable, what business have you to have 

 j'our bees upon some other size of 

 frame ? Until you want them to use 

 with the bees, j'ou would better leave 

 them as they are. — G. M. Doolittle. 



I would transfer the combs to the 

 size of frames I prefer, and give them 

 to swarms, or exchange them for 

 empty combs in the brood-nest of 

 strong colonies, in the early part of 

 the season, before the early honey 

 harvest begins. Wired combs can be 

 cut out and transferred like other 

 combs. — G. W. Demaree. 



I hardly know. I would let the bees 

 have access to them, and clean out the 

 honey ; and should they then appear 

 worthless, it would probably be as well 

 to cut out the combs and render them 

 into wax. Should you desire to use 

 the frames, wire them the long way, 

 with three strands of wire, and till 

 them with foundation. — J. M. Ham- 



BAUGH. 



Well, really, I do not know. I have 

 seen combs get into what seemed to 

 be a rotten condition. If I had it, I 

 should try the experiment of putting 



strong colonies — candied honey and 

 everything, and see what kind of a 

 job they would make of it. Try a few 

 in tliat way, and then you will know. — 

 James Heddon. 



Old combs, moldy and almost rot- 

 ten are surelj' almost useless, especially 

 as you " have no bees on that size of 

 frame." It would be better to melt 

 them up, sell the wax, and feed the 

 honey to the bees when necessary. — 

 The Editor. 



VEIOSmBEFEMSE, 



THE APPEAL 



Of the Arkadeipliia, Ark., Suit 

 Againtit Z. A. Clark. 



■ predicament." Now, if it were my I them right in among the bees — good. 



The following is the argument of the 

 Attorney of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Union, Judge S. W. Williams, of Little 

 Rock, Ark., in the above-mentioned 

 case, on an appeal to the Supreme 

 Court of Arkansas, in the case of the 

 City of Arkadelphia vs. Z. A. Clark : 



This case discloses a most flagrant 

 violation of the property rights of the 

 citizen. It seems that Clark, who 

 lived in the outskirts of Arkadelphia, 

 a village of some two thousand inhabi- 

 tants, scattered over territory enough 

 for one hundred thousand — a ruse in 

 urbe — had a few bees, as the record 

 shows (page 1), 85 stands. This gave 

 rise to a persecution unparalleled since 

 the days of the boot and the thumb 

 screw, to force Clark to give up his 

 property. 



Those running the city at the time, 

 not content to make a test case, and 

 have the question settled by this Court 

 — after passing this sweeping ordi- 

 nance, commenced a system of daily 

 arrests, trials without jury, judgments 

 and imprisonments resulting in ap- 

 peals ; and this is one of a numerous 

 spawn of cases from the same oppres- 

 sive hot-bed. 



At last Clark was compelled, at a • 

 great loss, to give up his propertj-, and 

 quit his business of bee-raising and 

 honey-production in Arkadelphia — a 

 principal source of his support — as an 

 alternative to indefinite imprisonment. 



When the case came to the Circuit 

 Court, one test case was tried, upon 

 motion to dismiss, and the Court be- 

 low held the ordinance void, because it 

 did more than regulate the keeping of 

 property — it forbitl the owning, or 

 keeping a valuable and useful property 

 in the town ; in effect holding that the 

 bee was per se, a nuisance. For if it 



