Aug. 10, 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURJMAL 



569 



you can all detect, without chemical analysis, whether 

 comb foundation is pure or not, and you can test it with 

 your own beeswax, comparatively. The first test we have 

 is the HEAT TEST. It is the most delicate because you have 

 to get the exact heat at the exact spot. Foundation is a 

 little more brittle, a little more in pieces than solid bees- 

 wax. Therefore you will heat the foundation more readily 

 than beeswax. A lump of beeswax that is round or large 

 will not heat so readily through as sheet foundation full 

 of holes. Therefore you must expect your foundation 

 to melt a little more readily. Between 135 and 150 is the 

 temperature, but your thermometers may vary a little. 

 You take a piece of beeswax, tie it to the thermometer, 

 take it to the right spot, put it in a pint bottle, put the 

 stopper in it, put it on the stove, and see at what degree 

 that thin beeswax melts. Do the same with the sheet 

 foundation, and see whether it melts at the same or about 

 the same temperature. Another test is the saponification 

 TEST. That is the changing of beeswax into soap : it will 

 change to soap as grease will. It is no longer beeswax. 

 Take lye and heat it, and take beeswax and melt it. and 

 pour the two together and it will no longer be beeswax; 

 if it is paraffin it will be paraffin. The paraffin will 

 pour out just the same as before. The paraffin is a min- 

 eral substance which is not at all touched by lye, v.hile 

 beeswax is absolutely dissolved by lye. 



The third test is specific gravity. Beeswax is heavier 

 or lighter than other substances of the same kind. That 

 is another very fine test, because if there is a little bulb 

 of air in your specimen, whether beeswax or foundation, 

 you will change the specific gravity. It is very difficult to 

 make that test, but you can. A specimen that has a great 

 deal of paraffin of one kind will flow where beeswax 

 would go with the foundation. The way to do is this; 

 Take water and put pure beeswax into it. Pour in alcohol 

 until the beeswax goes to the bottom. The beeswax is 

 then heavier than the solution which you have of water 

 and alcohol. Then you are ready to test any samples 

 that may come to vou. In this particular it is the same 

 thing as before. If your foundation is full of holes, when 

 you put it under, the air will be in those and hold it up. 

 You have to be very particular to have the wax from your 

 foundation the same as your beeswax, if you want to make 

 a proper test. If you have a sample of paraffin it will 

 float, while the beeswax will go to the bottom. 



Mr. Dittmer — It seems to me that the statement that 

 Mr. Abbott has made, as to what Prof. Wiley said, puts 

 the comb-foundation manufacturers in the position of be- 

 ing guilty unless they are proved innocent. It seems to 

 me that is rather a poor predicament to find one's self in. 

 Personally, I am perfectly satisfied that neither the Da- 



dants nor the Roots use anything but what they know 

 to be pure beeswax. So far as I am concerned, I think 

 that my reputation with those who have used my founda- 

 tion will carry me through. I think that the foundation 

 manufacturers of this country have always had the repu- 

 tation of using nothing but what they honestly knew to be 

 pure beeswax; and as to taking the position of proving 

 ourselves innocent, it seems to me that is the wrong posi- 

 tion. We should be first proved guilty, and then give us a 

 chance of saying something. But this idea of considering 

 a man guilty until he proves himself innocent is wrong. 



Dr. Miller — In Europe there are perhaps some 17,000 

 or more of the Rietsche presses in use; a large number of 

 the bee-keepers making their own foundation. In this 

 country I think there are not nearly so many bee-keepers 

 making their own foundation as there were 25 years ago. 

 I think the reason that so many of those Rietsche presses 

 are used in Europe, and that the making of foundation 

 has been simmered down to a small number of manufac- 

 turers, is that in Europe, they cannot buy pure founda- 

 tion as we can here. I don't have any thought at all about 

 the quality of foundation when I buy it; I know it is pure 

 almost as absolutely as if I had given it all three of the 

 tests mentioned by Mr. Dadant. I think Mr. Dittmer is 

 entirely right in saying- every man should be supposed to 

 ■be innocent until proven guilty, and the burden of proof 

 should not lie upon the manufacturer to prove that he is 

 innocent. I think in the same way Wiley, if he has made 

 that mistake again, should be taught to believe that he 

 should not, after having made such a sad mistake before^ 

 that he should certainly not make the third mistake, or 

 the bee-keepers of the country will resent it. 



Mr. Abbott — Of course, you are just taking this on 

 my say so, but I have the article and I suppose it is set up 

 in type now and will be in the Modern Farmer in the next 

 issue, and I cut it from the Rural New Yorker. This let- 

 ter is addressed to the editor of that paper, and signed by 

 Dr. Wiley. It seems the editor of the Rural New Yorker 

 asked for an article with regard to the matter of adul- 

 terated honey, and Dr. Wiley is endeavoring to set himself 

 right. It is in connection with the Ladies' Home Journal 

 statement, and there is a whole column in it and the arti- 

 cle closes up with the statement I refer to. Of course it 

 was news to me. I thought I had been handling tons 

 and tons of foundation that was pure, or, at least, I had 

 been telling my customers it was pure, and I was standing 

 behind it myself, and I had my reputation at stake and I 

 wanted you people to know it as soon as possible. I 

 thought I would send it to the American Bee Journal, but 

 we like to get "a scoop," and I thought I would copy it 

 first. 



r 



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(Dur '^zz^zzx^xwq, Sisters 



=«=^ 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Marketing Comb Honey— Getting 

 Bees Out of Supers 



I started with 2 colonies of bees one year 

 ago in nailed-up boxes. They stored a little 

 honey and sent out 2 swarms. But this 

 spring we sent for new hives and transferred 

 them, making 7 colonies out of the 4. They 

 are just doing fine; 6 have nearly filled the 

 first supers. We will put on the second supers 

 to-day. I am working for comb honey. 



Where is a good place to ship such honey, 

 and how should I prepare it for shipping? 

 There are a good many bees kept around here, 

 so our home market is more than supplied. 



What is the best way to get bees out of full 

 supers when taking them off the hive? 



I will write again when we take off the full 

 crop this fall. Mbs. Etta BrTLBR. 



Iowa Co., Iowa. 



Even if your home market is pretty well 

 supplied there is a always a chance for com- 

 petition, and if you put a superior article 

 attractively prepared before the people you 



may find a pretty good market for it at home, 

 after all. 



Still, if you wish to ship it, study the honey 

 quotations in the American Bee Journal, and 

 select from those nearest you. But remem- 

 ber there is a good deal of risk and trouble in 

 shipping, and you will do well to take a lower 

 price at home, making at least a difference of 

 3 cents a pound heiween home and distant 

 market. 



You can use the I'orter escape, in the even- 

 ing, placing the escape under the super you 

 wish to remove, and by morning most of the 

 bees will be down out of the super, which can 

 then be removed. Or, you can place the 

 supers in a room with screen-doors or win- 

 dows, allowing the bees to collect on the 

 screens, occasionally moving the screens to 

 let the bees out. 



At our house we like a quicker method, and 



use the Miller tent-escape. We smoke the 

 bees so they will run down soraewhat before 

 the supers are removed from the hive, then 

 remove the supers, piling them up 10 or 12 

 high. If the piles are not so high of course 

 the bees will come out quicker. Now we put 

 on a Miller lent-eeeape and let the bees come 

 out at their pleasure. 



That you may know how to make a Miller 

 tent-escape, the following is copied from Dr. 

 Miller's " Forty Years Among the Bees:'' 



robber-cloth. 



I take a piece of stout cotton cloth (sheet- 

 ing) large enough to cover a hive and hang 

 down 4 inches or more at both sides and at 

 each end. This must be weighted down at 

 the side with lath, and for this purpose I take 

 four pieces of lath about as long as the hive. I 

 lay down one piece of lath with another piece 

 on it, and one edge of the cloth between the 

 two pieces of lath. I then nail the two together 

 and clinch the nails. I use the other two pieces 

 of lath for the opposite edge of the cloth. 

 This makes a iiood robber-cloth just as it is, 

 but it is better to have the ends also weighted 

 down, especially on a windy day. For this 

 purpose I Djak.' a hem in each end, and put in 

 it shot, nails pebbles, or something of the 

 kind, stitchi.i^' across the hem here and there 

 so the weighiiug material will not all run to- 

 gether at uRu side or the other. 



